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The Southern Israelite Page 5 Some Observations On Interchanges Of Jewish and Christian Sanctuaries so of a Christian Church by a >ngregation and of a syna- y a Christian Church is not • rience that is unique with us. r or c. nturies upon centuries such a , would have been impossible. It been within the last few 'bat there has come in our a spirit such that an inter- of this kind has been possible. 11 begin with the bold, unem- broidered statement that Christianity r approached the question of ? relationship to the Jew in a Chris- spirit. I believe that there is no hristian who can read the story Christian’s treatment of the .ithout a blush of shame for the an church. Our attitudes and onduct have been dominated by ion and prejudice; tradition i has misinterpreted the facts made us believe untrue things the past and prejudice which s those untrue concepts with intense feeling. us note first that the religion f the Hebrew people was shown to their sacred writings, the Old TV'tament was characterized by two t trends. One was embodied in ests, the other in the prophets. The religion of the priests was for mal. objective, external, ritualistic, ing the necessity of sacrificing, and ceremonies. It rested upon h r ty, upon liberalism It was ec- stical, static, conservative, religion of the prophets was e reverse. It was personal, it ritual. It rested upon experi- ic*\ not authority, upon ethical be am! not upon ritualistic cor- It found God not by blood e bulls and goats, but by the s of the broken and contrite It was spiritual, plastic, liberal, o; it looked toward the future not the past. It was the anti- of almost all that the priestly cult espoused. e two trends were not unique daism. They are simply the nee of two types of minds, the ative and progressive, and Ju dith its keen, spiritual in- v>ith its high moral monotheis ms, unparalleled in history, narked, as other religions, by these two trends. In a re caup and sr re a Ual pre- who trar com He rien and Jt esse this situation came Jesus with ious insight born of His own experience with God. Jesus up the spirit of the prophets th the flaming intensity of His ul sought to lead His people new* embodiment of the spirit- ence of their faith. Jesus did • k to break from Judaism. He father to help Judaism to free fitual essence from the husk useless externals. He was a su- religious personality for ‘he primitive, the external, the elements in religion were te] y sloughed off. He lived and ught the type of religious expe- 'yhich w’as both personally felt c-ially expressed. never broke with the spiritual of Judaism. He never hated W ritten for The Southern Israelite the Jew’s. He loved His people, and, as John put it, “having loved His own He loved them unto the end.” He taught love for one’s enemies. He lived that love as on the cross He prayed, “Father, forgive them.” Had the disciples of Jesus retained Jesus’ concept of religion, had they been true to their Master, had they retained His spirit of forgiveness, of charity, his daring freedom of thought, the difference during the last nineteen hundred years would be be yond imagination. But they did not. We discover them building up a new system just as iron-clad, just as ruth less, just as static, as that which He had deplored. And it was not long before this new Christian movement made a virtue out of hating the Jews. The whole race was held responsi ble and it was considered that loy alty to Jesus required enmity against the Hebrew people. They ignored the fact that Jesus was suckled at a Jew ish breast, that His training was that of a Hebrew lad, that it w’as the God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob to whom He prayed, that it was the in sight of the prophets which He inten sified. They forgot that it was to the syn agogue that He loved to go to wor ship. They forgot that the elements which actually led to the crucifixion were not the factors that were pe culiar to Jews, but marked their own lives as well. Jesus was crucified, not by factors that were distinctly Jewish, but be cause of elements political and re ligious which marked the life and at tributes of all people in all time. 4 * M i , rjj., v .Jk L , 4 'flPl, 'Mg' | ■» ■ JnM Hvvjk W7 / cm mm n ill j THE WAILING WALL Christendom today is not free from the very elements that led to the cru cifixion of Jesus. The whole struc ture of Christian persecution of Jews has been built on a foundation of error, of misinterpretation, of preju dice, and of enmity and distorted truth. Our responsibility as Christians in this situation today is to seek eagerly for the historical truth regarding the relationship of our religious move ments. We must abolish prejudice which is the feeling which intensifies our ignorance into a passion. We need also as Christians to evi dence a group penitence for the fail ure of our churches to reveal a Chris tian attitude. We must seek to appreciate the fine values which inhere in Judaism. We must demonstrate an attitude of good-will, brotherly interest and co operative endeavor. We must demon strate to the Jewish people as well as to the world that brotherly love, that passion for understanding, that desire to understand and help which will evidence the reality of our Chris tian discipleship. The long and terrible treatment of the Jews for a period of nineteen hun dred years has been unspeakable. Years of bloodshed and butchery— injustice and cruelty—falsehood and slander, prejudice and hate, social os tracism, cruel discrimination and un just laws. It is a terrible tale. So terrible that for myself, I cannot think of it without shame. And who ever is familiar with the history will blush with shame. We have been un der the tyranny of tradition and prejudice. Tradition has taught us hate and enmity. Let us look at Judaism in a liberal spirit—as has not been done in the past. The ancient Jews were di vided into two groups—the Priestly and the Prophetic. The Priestly group had to do with the ritual form-custom —outside dogma—the husks of relig ion—The Prophets were concerned with the inner life, the spiritual, the prophetic, the transcendental. The whole country was seething with revolt against Rome. Into this life came Jesus with the spiritual message of prophetic life. Jesus was not an inovator of spirit ual truth, he was an experiencer of it. Every message of His was the message of the prophets. His teach ings were taken from the Pentatuch. The story of the prodigal son, Hosea’s wife, the Lord’s Prayer all had their counterpart in the Old Testament and the Talmud. The contributions of Je sus were not only His teachings, but He contributed his life. He took the teachings of the prophets and car ried them on with his own life. His was not only a voice but an experi ence. Jesus never hated the Jews. He loved them. He was a Jew.