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IS CHRISTIANITY CUILTY ? By John Haynes Holmes Dr Jo' •• Haynes Holmes, Spiritual Lead- rf t f th Community Church, in Nenv York In.'^er to the Question “Why Are Jenus Prrsfcu Jf" is as Courageous as It is Revealing. Hut is a special cause of persecution ,%hirh - involved in the experience of the Jewish people. ITiere can be no j., u ht about the general cause of differ- rmr In the same way, can there be in , doubt a* to this special cause? What I havi in mind, as you must anticipate, . the guilt of the Jews, in the eyes of •he Christian world, in rejecting and tlaving Jesus. 'I'he phrase, “Christ-kill- has again and again lifted the , w0 rd ..f massacre against the helpless kindred of the Nazarene. Of course there is no truth in this in- iicttnent of Israel by Christendom, save the indictment has been deliberately forged against a whole people in the ntere-t of a hard-and-fast theology. What happened in Palestine is a per- frctly plain and also perfectly common place chapter of history. 'I'he story of Jesus is a story which has been written bv nearly all the great prophetic souls. Hius, a young radical appeared among the common people of his country. This radical, profoundly moved by the injus tices of the times, began to preach revolt and to organize agitation. It was not l"tig before he was arrested and placed ■»n trial for sedition. The Nazarene, in ther words, by the fire of hi* word and the courage of his example, made him- •elf dangerous to church and state, and oraightway was put to death by these two traditional instruments of tyranny and oppression. 'I'his drama is nothing orange. It has been enacted again and again in a hundred different times and place*. But when in any other case has it been made the occasion of persecution? Imagine our murdering Greeks today be- catoe Socrates was put to death in Athen*! Who thinks of torturing and na**acreing Italians because men of Ital ian breed and speech martyred the great Giordano Bruno? What would we think if a persecution was begun against Amer ican* because our fathers killed John Hrown, the one supreme martyr of Amer ican history? No persecution of this sort would ever have been visited upon the Jews, in the narr.e of Jesus or of any other prophet, had it not been for the theologizing of the Nazarenc’s story. Look at what has happened! Very early after the death J*'us, the Christian church trans- formed the story of his life into a sacred bain i of cosmic history. 'I'he church : out by stealing the Old Testa- mcnt making it a part of Christian scrip- tiire* an d rewriting or reinterpreting it II th interest of the Christian tradition. * f c itinued its work by approaching ' e 'u* of Nazareth, transforming him ,r ° n ’he son of Mary into the son of b d and making him the Saviour of h* 31 • nd. It then took the crucifixion and 31 d it over into the atonement as a 'acrifice for the human race. Last- 'eized upon the Jews and deliber- uade the whole race the villain of 'tnic play. Their first offense was 1 recognizing Jesus, one of their ror what he was; and their second was in destroying him and thus - their hands against Almighty God f Through the exigencies of a be theology of this type did the >ans lay on the Jews the vengeance c Most High, and appoint them- . agents of this vengeance upon ,he *rth. At the very start of Christianity, in other words, this new and wonderful re ligion was made synonymous with anti- Semitism. No words can exaggerate the tragedy of this historical accident, nor its significance in the annals of our west ern civilization. The logic of Orthodox Christianity is anti-Semitism. Just to the extent that Christians believe their own faith, they must hare and persecute Jews. Only to the extent that they reject or remain indifferent to their own dogmas, can they be friendly to Israel. Which means that Christianity, by which I mean the theology of the church and not the teachings of the great founder of the faith, is itself the special cause of Is rael’s agony! I count it something more than a coincidence that the one country in the world today where the Jew i* abso lutely free of the age-old burden of per secution and prejudice, is that one coun try where the Orthodox Christian Church has been wiped out by the fiat of gov ernment. I do not argue from this, even for the sake of my Jewish friend*, that Christianity should be destroyed. I do insist, however, that the Christian faith as embodied in the creeds and organized in the churches, must be cast aside a* a superstition, and the religion of Jesus restored to the simple love and brother hood of the gospel of the Jew of Galilee. Such are the two great and fundamen tal causes of the persecution of the Jew* There is the general cause inherent in that distinctive or “different” character which has made Israel through all the centuries a “people.” In addition, there is this special cause inherent in the theological doctrine of Christendom. To these must be added other causes, both general and special, which play their part, though they be less important, in this vast tragedy. Of these I have space to name but one. 1 refer to the fact that the Jews have always been, and still arc today, a weak people. In the ancient days, when they lived within the borders of their own country, they were one of the smallest and feeblest of the nations of the eastern world. Israel lay like a little village, *o to speak, on the great highway between Egypt to the west and Assyria and Baby lonia to the east. Over this great highway trampled the mighty legions of contend ing kingdoms. When Rome conquered the earth, Palestine was incorporated a* a mere corner of the Empire, and her population lost as a negligible unit in a vast congeries of peoples. After the dis persion, the Jews of course were nothing but an alien group of helpless men and women, living on sufferance in the far- flung lands to which in despair and agony they had fled. Even in our own time, they remain one of the weakest of all earth’s peoples—a mere sixteen millions among the nearly two thousand millions of earth's inhabitants. Always therefore, today as yesterday, they have been feeble, helpless, “easy marks” for the lust and hate of those who would injure and despoil them. V\ an- derers upon earth’s surface, they have no government to defend them, no flag to enshroud them, no land to which to flee. Even as citizens in their new-found coun tries, loyal citizens, who have unselfishly served the state in days of peace and heroically died for it in days of war, they may be cast out at any time, as in Germany at this hour, and find none on all this planet to give them aid or com fort. Invariably they have lived, and still live, as a minority group among peo- (PIease turn to page 34) E W S -x On this occasion of the New Year, the Jewish people of Atlanta and the South have the cordial good wishes of the At lanta Georgian and Sunday American. I hese newspapers have sought during the year just ending to give an impartial survey of the world and city news every day. It is the ambition of these news papers to continue this sound and effi cient enterprise during the days to come. Always tolerant of the views of all peoples, the Atlanta Georgian and Sun day American do not participate in any sectarian differences. Interested in no creed or politics except in the interest of the people and on the side of the truth — to the fullest extent that truth is recog nizable—these newspapers have but one ideal of iournalism, that of giving as cor rect news as is humanly possible and in the quickest time possible to you, its readers. -K This policy of serving the people of the city and section has brought us most gratifying results, and so, on this holiday occasion, the Atlanta Georgian and Sun day American extends to you the heart iest Good Wishes. THE ATLANTA GEORGIAN AND SUNDAY AMERICAN l Tb SOUTHERN ISRAELITE * 121]