Honor others, even in times of interreligious unrest

It's always great to hear from a Presbyterian, telling us the state of Catholic-Jewish relations.
Also, what serious dialogue should we be engaging in with our Jewish brothers that we aren't now initiating. I didn't realize we were currently at odds. All of my Jewish friends think this is an unparallelled time of cooperation and respect between our faiths.

Thanks Bill, I have wondered if we are, actually, designed for peace. Clearly, there is plenty of evidence that we are not. I have considered that this may come from a survival tribal instinct. It also may come from a need to get tensions out of our own bodies and then creating an enemy to do just that. Unfortuantly there are many - religious leaders amoung them - who are more than willing to tap into this need/instinct and exploit it. Usually this is done under the banner of righteousness and, once again, hate passes for holiness. And all too often this can be seen in the way so many respond to one another in too many of the posts here at NCR.

I believe that Christ had a different way and it is that way I will strive to follow.

Thanks Mr. Tammeus for your insight and focus on the subjects you bring up. Always very informative, enlightning and inspiring

I must admit I almost didn't read Bill's column this week. I like to think our relations with our Jewish sisters & brothers had improved - as believe they have. But he's right. We are not that far away froma time in which they were mean & brutal. We must keep reminding ourselves lest we allow ourselves to go b ack there. So thanks for the rude awakening.

"That's why the more religious people become, so often the meaner they become. There is no war like a religious war. There is no fight like a church fight or an interreligious fight."

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A sad truth, but confirmed by my own experience. And I'm lucky to live in a very tolerant town, where the Jewish and the Muslim leaders are the best friends, and have an open dialogue with the bishop. But, at another level, the hability to understand the other is not common among church-goers, on the contrary. Most of my friends are agnostics...

"Religious warfare, of course, occurs not just between people of different faiths but among people of the same faith."

Hence, the following question must be asked:
http://www.npr.org/2011/11/21/142470957/would-the-world-be-better-off-wi...

Sadly, we Protestants have hurled quite a few firebombs in our day at Roman Catholics and Jews, based so often on misinformation and simple prejudice. By the same token, it is alarming to encounter in recent years the animosity spread by Catholic apologists with an anti-Protestant bent. The striking contrast is that ecumenical (Protestant-Catholic-Orthodox) and interreligious (Jewish-Christian-Muslim) dialog has taken us to unprecedented levels of mutual understanding and some remarkable breakthroughs. For the divided churches, this has included both Faith and Order issues as well as matters related to their Life and Work. In fact, some high-ranking Roman Catholics have led the way in calling ecumenism a "conversion of heart and mind" for all parties involved, and "the church's irreversable commitment."
In the face of this commitment, there is a very vocal sector of the Catholic community who obviously reject the commitment to ecumenism, putting in its place a "come home to Rome" apologetic. So much of what is written about Protestants by these folks (some of whom are former--mostly evangelical--Protestants themselves) is inflammatory, spiteful, polarizing, and every bit as inaccurate and based on prejudice as the rubbish put forth by American Protestants who feared the loss of cultural hegemony in earnest as Irish Catholics began arriving on these shores in the 19th century. It's as if 50 years of dialog never happened.
On a more mundane level, is it really appropriate for a thoughtful Catholic to parade about in a tee shirt on offer from a certain Catholic gift company that proclaims "Jesus founded MY church, who founded yours??" followed by a list of the Protestant Reformers?
Generous and balanced thinking seems to be loosing. Fundamentalisms of all sorts, Catholic and otherwise, are regnant.
One step forward, two steps back.

Speaking as an Orthodox Jew, I can agree with much of this article. However, I would caution everyone on the idea of negating "myopic survival instincts". A small minority need not, should not, and cannot be asked, to commit suicide to the greater good, as seen by others, not so inclined to include the minority in that so-called good. That is what every oppressive empire, Christianity, Islam, Nazism and Communism has historically asked of the Jews as a people, faith and nation.

Now that the process of redemption (granted by G-d and beginning to fulfil prophecy, as exhibited by events since 1948, for the Jewish people) has begun to manifest itself, our minority continues to struggle against enormous forces (scores of Christian nations, dozens of Muslim nations, billions of Muslims, and a not too small group of Christians who would like to pursuade us to convert) that wish us ill. Giving up our survival instinct is uncalled for and unrealistic if justice and truth are to mean anything. Fear of the "other" is not based in some mindless belief - but in an all too true set of circumstances, unconnected to any particular religious belief of the minority.

As for the idea that Christianity has completed its rappraochment with Judaism, I would ask the following. While many, if not most churches, have made statements of repentence towards the Jewish religion, what have they actually done for the Jewish people in practice? Why is the approach to Jews considered benign, when easily made statements of repentence (since there are no consequences)can be substituted for concrete action that would help the Jewish people? I am not speaking of individual, well meaning righteous Christians who might help a neighbor. I know there are a few evangelical movements that provide support to rescue Jews from the exile, returning them to Israel, for providing ambulances to Jewish communities in Israel to deal with the effects of Muslim terrorism. I read of a single group of about 30 Catholics donating blood in Jerusalem to help Jews hurt in Arab terror attacks.

But, the vast bulk of the Protestant and Catholic world seems inactive in meeting the basic human requirements of the Jewish people, at least when under attack even today. Quite the contrary, we see calls to the Jewish people to give things us, open ourselves up while rockets fall daily on innocent civilians, to compromise with age old ideologies that seek our destruction. This kind of dissonance offsets so many gains the Jewish-Christian dialogue likes to claim. That organized Christianity cannot name the evil that fires such rockets, demands dihimmis status and destroys Jewish holy places speaks volumes about what more needs to be done. Jews living safely in America do not disassociate ourselves from the growing attacks on Jews in Europe, Latin America, and of course against the collective Jewish body in Israel.

So, yes, celebrate the purging of some churches of their past antisemitism, but be introspective about what remains - an unrealistic double standard of sacrificing a minority (the Jews, again?) against superior numbers and forces.

Sister Rose Thering worked at Seton Hall University, NJ. A documentary was made of her life, "Sister Rose's Passion"& won an award. I invited Jewish neighbors to see it here and they were astonished they had never heard of her. The Holy Family were Jewish and the Apostles, so why are we discriminating against them? She combed the Vatican archives for evidence of contempt of Jews. A bishop warned her not to air dirty laundry and St. Rose found plenty! She changed the church! Why hasn't the whole church heard of her? The prayers for "perfidious Jews" were deleted. (I hope they haven't been reinstated!)
She co-founded the Christian-Judeo Institute at Seton Hall & there is a yearly celebration of her work there. My library has a copy of "St. Rose's Passion"--ask your library to get it to hear the gallant story of her life. Even infirm, using oxygen, she returned to Seton Hall to speak. My neighbors and I all wished to audit classes there, but we are too infirm to drive that far at night. Monseignor Ostreicher co-founded the Institute.