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Rabbi’s Message, from January 2007 Bulletin: On December 8th, 2006, in the Tahoe Daily Tribune, there was a Minister’s Forum by Pastor Alan Morse of the First Baptist Church of South Lake Tahoe, which raised some Jewish eyebrows, to say the least. The title alone, “Born King of the Jews,” was enough to get many Jewish readers’ attention. A relatively standard, straight from the New Testament, depiction of the refusal of the Jews to accept Jesus as their king and messiah followed, and then a call to all people, Jews in particular, to do exactly that. This message, which says that the only valid path is a Christian path, is regular fare in the Minister’s Forum. The part that gave many of us pause, something I heard directly from a few people, was that there was a considerable preamble condemning the actions of Jews of the time of Jesus, and making no distinction between them and Jews of today. As an exercise in trying to figure out how to be responsible Jewish members and adults in a multi-cultural society, I decided to bring this article to the Bat & Bar Mitzvah class of TBY. I asked them how the message that they read in the Minister’s Forum made them feel, and what they hoped for instead of the feeling they got from this piece. They wrote some reactions that clearly articulated many of the thoughts that I had heard about this, and here are a few of them. William Fitch: “I may have interpreted what you wrote wrong, but to me you’re telling us Jews to be Christian. It is in the Bill of Rights that you can’t force us to be Christian.” Hannah Green: “I got mad because how you wrote this seems like you are making fun of the Jews, especially the line that says that if you are not Christian you are not honest. So it seems like Jews are not honest when most of them are. I don’t think what you wrote was fair.” Matt Ruben: “Your minister’s forum on December 8th made me feel very angry. I felt this way because you shouldn’t be telling people that if they are a good person they should be Christian.” Melo Taylor (a guest in the class): “I don’t believe that it is your job to try to push your religion on people in a public forum. I hope one day you can open your eyes and be educated to the fact that good and evil does not reside in religion, but in ignorance vs. education. Hopefully you can be more tolerant to other people’s views, opinions, and religions, and find the good in all people inside and outside of your religion.” Robert Williams: “If you ask me, there is a bit of wisdom, let me tell you, all people were created in the image of God, as it says in Genesis, Chapter 1, verse 27, so Christians are not better than everyone else.” At this point I was ready to go back to the Tahoe Daily Tribune with these words of wisdom, as well as the words of other Christian ministers from our community. I had quickly jumped to the conclusion that another Christian fundamentalist had it in for the Jews, and I was ready to rally all of our communal resources in response. A little bit of patience made a big difference. I had left a message for Pastor Morse, and later that week, he called me back. He assured me that he has nothing against Jewish people, and in fact has spent a lot of time writing in support of Jews and Israel in the past. When I asked him what he meant by those passages that many of us found hurtful, I learned that he had in no way attempted to paint Jews in a bad light, to depict us as the eternal other. He agreed with me that what he wrote had not been clear, and wished that he had had enough space to clarify further. I realized that my first impression of what he wrote did not get his whole message, and I agreed to hold off on publication of anything in the Tribune until I could craft something that allowed both of us to put forward words of clarification. And I hope to do just that. I found a lesson in all of this, and I hope all of you can see it too. Our initial reaction to a piece like this comes to a quick boiling point of outrage – here is another person preaching about how bad the Jews are, how we are the “other” to the in-group, the “us,” of Christianity. Look at the responses from our wise young people, and you can see how I felt as well. And yet, by engaging the writer directly, allowing myself to be open to his understanding of what he wrote, and not just how I saw it, a bridge emerged between him and me, and perhaps between our communities as well. While it seems that we as a minority must often accept hurtful words in a public forum, or stand up and protest, what I hope I have found may be a middle path – between anger and passivity, there lies engagement of the other, and therein perhaps hope for a better future. For it is only by working together, by taking the time to see each other’s perspectives, that we may approach a peaceful future of true and equal co-existence. May all of you have a wonderful January, and a new year of learning about new paths, and the time we may need to devote to unearthing them. |