Ted, wonderful commentary by a Jew regarding "Passion":
www2.ocregister.com
'Passion' and the blood libel
The key issue here is whether many still believe Jews are 'Christ killers'
By Hyatt Seligman
Orange resident
The controversy over Mel Gibson's movie, "The Passion of The Christ," is important. Not because of the minor issue, whether or not the movie is anti-Semitic, but rather because of the larger issue, whether a significant number of people are susceptible to believing the old blood libel that "the Jews" are "Christ killers."
Every Jewish parent confronts this issue, usually at the start of the school year when their child reports that some new classmate has claimed that "we killed" Jesus. Here is how I have responded.
First, if someone must be blamed, blame the Romans. Only they had the power to execute. Only they crucified people, especially Jews at that time. So no matter what the subjugated Jews might want, the only want that finally counted was the Roman ruler's. Pilate's "washing of the hands" for the killing that he ordered was the "Original Spin."
Second, Jesus was a Jew. His supporters were Jews. His detractors were Jews. His killers were pagan Romans. No Jew today can be held responsible for an ancient, internal family squabble since the Jews took both sides and, even then, someone outside their family actually did the killing. The guilt, if any, is on no one or on all mankind.
Third, any Christians who "blame" the Jews are unfaithful to both Jesus' words and his essence. His words on the Cross were, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." If his mission was to die for man's sins, if he was the Son of God, if it was his conscious choice to sacrifice himself for all of mankind, then his crucifixion was preordained. No human being, Jew or Roman, could interfere with such divine will.
Fourth, the differences between Jews and Christians are tiny compared to our larger similarities. Our shared tenets for moral living are almost identical. We both acknowledge that the world still needs saving. Jews wait for a "First Coming" of the Messiah or, in the alternative, a Messianic Era. Christians wait for the "Second Coming." Who cares about this distinction? We're both still waiting.
Fifth, the fact that Christians believe differently than we Jews do, or proclaim their faith publicly, does not diminish our Judaism as long as we are free to do the same. Our common bond is our ability to practice our related but different faiths. Our common enemy is religious intolerance. For example, just as it is wrong for Christians to call us "killers," it is equally wrong for us Jews to assume Christians are anti-Semites simply because they have faith in their own Scriptures.
Almost 40 years ago, the Catholic Church made it perfectly clear that it did not blame the Jews for Jesus' crucifixion. Similarly, most Christians and evangelicals do not label Jews as "killers" anymore because to do so diminishes their fundamental belief, that Jesus sacrificed his life to atone for man's sins.
I tell my children we Jews have little to fear from observant Christians. The sad truth is the most likely Western anti-Semites of today are nonbelievers found among university leftists and secular Europeans. Ironically this faithless intelligentsia all too often apologizes for, excuses and seeks to appease the neo-Nazi, "religious," Islamo-fascist terrorists who have slaughtered thousands of innocents around the world, from New York City to Turkey, from Tel Aviv to Kenya, and from Bali to Morocco. Instead, they reflexively scapegoat the Jews, Israel and America for "killing" world peace. Their bigotry obscures the obvious, that the war against terror is a war for religious tolerance, for modernity, for pluralism, for the best of Western civilization.
I pray for the day when we all understand, whether Jew, Christian or Muslim, whether Buddhist, Hindu, Sikh, or even atheist, that we are all servants of the One searching for the meaning and passion of our separate but intertwined faiths and lives. If that is the ultimate and universal message of "The Passion," then that day will come sooner, not later. |
