{"id":85,"date":"2011-05-30T15:16:04","date_gmt":"2011-05-30T19:16:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/?p=85"},"modified":"2011-05-30T15:16:04","modified_gmt":"2011-05-30T19:16:04","slug":"anti-semitism-and-anti-christian-bigotry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/2011\/05\/anti-semitism-and-anti-christian-bigotry.html","title":{"rendered":"“Anti-Semitism” and Anti-Christian Bigotry"},"content":{"rendered":"

I recently received a very disturbing response to an article of mine.\u00a0 In \u201cThe Catholic Church and the Left,\u201d I had argued that in spite of its infiltration of the Church in which I have spent my life, the radically egalitarian notion of \u201cSocial Justice\u201d has no foundation in the Gospel of Christ.\u00a0 Unlike the contemporary leftist, the Christian most certainly does not <\/em>value equality as an end in itself, for there is nothing <\/em>in either his Sacred Scriptures\u2014the Old and New Testaments\u2014or his millennia-old tradition that warrants this.<\/p>\n

There is, <\/em>however, ample justification in these sources for his affirmation of charity.\u00a0 <\/em>That the Christian has an obligation to help the needy<\/em> no one would dare deny.\u00a0 Yet there is all of the difference in the world between, on the one hand, a believer\u2019s fulfilling his <\/em>obligation to help those of his acquaintances who happen to be worse off in whatever respects from himself and, on the other hand, a person\u2019s coercing <\/em>others via law in order to realize a distribution of material goods that more closely approximates his ideal of Equality.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In reply to this position, a Jewish reader charged me with \u201canti-Semitism\u201d and concluded his brilliant response by telling me to send his regards to my \u201cgood friend\u201d Mel Gibson.\u00a0 <\/em><\/p>\n

I suppose that, being a Jew, my interlocutor is capable of detecting \u201canti-Semitism\u201d even when it proves to be impenetrable to the naked eyes of non-Jews.\u00a0 Being a Christian, then, I am reduced to speculating<\/em> as to how he discovered these dark feelings lurking in the depths of my subconscious.\u00a0<\/p>\n

My guess is that it was my use of the term \u201cOld Testament\u201d\u2014\u201cthe <\/em>correct term is the Hebrew Bible,\u201d my reader insists\u2014that disclosed my \u201canti-Semitism.\u201d\u00a0 And perhaps my rejection of his account of the reason for the Jubilee recorded in the book of Leviticus <\/em>could have amplified it further.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s start with the last consideration first. The Jubilee was not designed to promote a condition of \u201cradical equality,\u201d as my critic asserts.\u00a0 It was designed to render life easier for those living under intolerable burdens.\u00a0 The idea behind it, in other words, was not to reduce the wealthiest to the level of the poorest or elevate the latter to the level of the former.\u00a0 The very suggestion that either Christianity or <\/em>the Judaism from which it grew require their adherents to labor toward insuring that all of the planet\u2019s human inhabitants should have comparable possessions\u2014i.e. radical material equality<\/em>\u2014is preposterous on its face.<\/p>\n

The other reason my critic deems me an \u201canti-Semite\u201d is dealt with even more easily than its partner.\u00a0 If <\/em>one is a Christian, then <\/em>the Bible does indeed consist of two \u201ctestaments,\u201d an old <\/em>and a new. <\/em>\u00a0If, <\/em>however, one is a Jew, then, obviously, there is no New Testament and, thus, no \u201cOld Testament.\u201d\u00a0 That is, this propriety of this term, \u201cOld Testament,\u201d like that of \u201cthe Hebrew Bible\u201d and, for that matter, every other term<\/em>, derives from its context.\u00a0 To imply otherwise is the height of arrogance, it is true, but it is no less the height of ignorance.<\/p>\n

Hopefully, this anti-\u201canti-Semite\u201d will forgive me for questioning his psychological assessment of a Gentile like myself, but the considerations that inform his verdict no more indict me for \u201canti-Semitism\u201d than Mel Gibson\u2019s depiction of the Passion of his Lord condemns him for the same. Yet maybe this is the point.<\/p>\n

Perhaps my Jewish detractor thinks that I am <\/em>guilty of \u201canti-Semitism\u201d for exactly <\/em>the kind of reason that Gibson is guilty of it. \u00a0<\/em>I take no satisfaction in having come to this conclusion, but the hysteria with which I am charged with \u201canti-Semitism,\u201d like that with which Gibson\u2019s production of The Passion of the Christ <\/em>was met, makes it all but impossible to circumvent: the \u201canti-Semite,\u201d according to the Jewish anti-\u201canti-Semite,\u201d is, simply, a Christian.\u00a0<\/p>\n

To put this another way, since those Jews most prone to hurling it around invariably aim exclusively <\/em>at Christians, the charge of \u201canti-Semitism\u201d is really nothing more or less than a smoke screen designed to achieve two objectives.\u00a0 First, because it has acquired in contemporary American society the power to wreck unimaginable havoc upon people\u2019s reputations and livelihoods, the term \u201canti-Semitism\u201d is wielded to intimidate and silence.\u00a0 Second, and less obviously, it conceals the anti-Christian <\/em>animus of those disposed to avail themselves of it.<\/p>\n

Gibson\u2019s Passion <\/em>is a faithful adaptation of the Biblical narrative of Jesus\u2019 death and resurrection.\u00a0 When I refer to \u201cthe Old Testament,\u201d I employ the same term of reference that has been used by Christians from the earliest Christian centuries until the present day.\u00a0 If we are \u201canti-Semites\u201d for these reasons, then the whole of Christianity, from the New Testament on, is inherently \u201canti-Semitic.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

I recognize that most people\u2014and no one more so than the anti-\u201canti-Semite\u201d\u2014is willing to think through the irony of a Christian being accused of \u201canti-Semitism,\u201d but ironic it is, for as a friend mine once told his Jewish girlfriend\u2019s family, \u201cYou may be Jews but I\u2019m a Super <\/em>Jew!\u201d\u00a0 Or, as I told my Jewish critic, it makes as much sense to accuse a Christian of being hostile toward Jews as it makes sense to accuse, say, Louis Farrakhan of being hostile toward blacks.\u00a0 If Louis Farrakhan or his disciples in The Nation of Islam really were hostile toward blacks, they would not conceive God as a black man<\/em>.\u00a0 Similarly, since it is Christians, and Christians alone, who identify the God of all creation as a Jewish<\/em> man<\/em>\u2014since it is Christians alone who worship <\/em>a Jew\u2014it is ludicrous to characterize them as hostile to Jews.<\/p>\n

Not only aren\u2019t Christians hostile toward Jews; they really can\u2019t even be said to oppose<\/em> Judaism.\u00a0 By their lights, Christians are Jews, \u201cperfected\u201d or, as my friend said, \u201csuper\u201d Jews, if you will, but Jews all the same.\u00a0 Christians don\u2019t engage in the same rituals that many Jews do, but that is only because they believe that the advent of Christ rendered them obsolete.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In stark contrast, Jews do <\/em>oppose or reject Christianity.\u00a0 Now, this in itself is fine, but the Jewish anti-\u201canti-Semite\u201d rejects Christianity not just because he views it as a corruption of his religion, not just because he regards it as false, but because he regards it as a threat.\u00a0 He regarded it as a threat when Christianity first began to achieve a distinctive identity as a Jewish sect during the first century\u2014this is what lead him to wage a campaign to stamp out \u201cthe cult\u201d of Christ by the most brutal of means before it would grow\u2014and he apparently continues to view it as a threat to be neutralized.<\/p>\n

What I wish for readers, both Jews and, especially, Christians, to recognize, is that in his quest to marginalize and, eventually, relegate Christianity to the dustbin of history, today\u2019s anti-Christian bigot has set aside the violence and torture of his ancestors in favor of the pejorative \u201canti-Semitism.\u201d<\/p>\n

And what\u2019s sad is that this one little phrase has the potential to do more damage than all of the weaponry of yesteryear.\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Jack Kerwick, Ph.D.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I recently received a very disturbing response to an article of mine.\u00a0 In \u201cThe Catholic Church and the Left,\u201d I had argued that in spite of its infiltration of the Church in which I have spent my life, the radically egalitarian notion of \u201cSocial Justice\u201d has no foundation in the Gospel of Christ.\u00a0 Unlike the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":399,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-85","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n"Anti-Semitism" and Anti-Christian Bigotry<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, nofollow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\""Anti-Semitism" and Anti-Christian Bigotry\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I recently received a very disturbing response to an article of mine.\u00a0 In \u201cThe Catholic Church and the Left,\u201d I had argued that in spite of its infiltration of the Church in which I have spent my life, the radically egalitarian notion of \u201cSocial Justice\u201d has no foundation in the Gospel of Christ.\u00a0 Unlike the…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/2011\/05\/anti-semitism-and-anti-christian-bigotry.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"At the Intersection of Faith and Culture\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-05-30T19:16:04+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jack Kerwick\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"\"Anti-Semitism\" and Anti-Christian Bigotry","robots":{"index":"noindex","follow":"nofollow"},"og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"\"Anti-Semitism\" and Anti-Christian Bigotry","og_description":"I recently received a very disturbing response to an article of mine.\u00a0 In \u201cThe Catholic Church and the Left,\u201d I had argued that in spite of its infiltration of the Church in which I have spent my life, the radically egalitarian notion of \u201cSocial Justice\u201d has no foundation in the Gospel of Christ.\u00a0 Unlike the…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/2011\/05\/anti-semitism-and-anti-christian-bigotry.html","og_site_name":"At the Intersection of Faith and Culture","article_published_time":"2011-05-30T19:16:04+00:00","author":"Jack Kerwick","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/2011\/05\/anti-semitism-and-anti-christian-bigotry.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/2011\/05\/anti-semitism-and-anti-christian-bigotry.html","name":"\"Anti-Semitism\" and Anti-Christian Bigotry","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/#website"},"datePublished":"2011-05-30T19:16:04+00:00","dateModified":"2011-05-30T19:16:04+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/#\/schema\/person\/6832222998cc14717ded1849531201c5"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/2011\/05\/anti-semitism-and-anti-christian-bigotry.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/2011\/05\/anti-semitism-and-anti-christian-bigotry.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/2011\/05\/anti-semitism-and-anti-christian-bigotry.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"“Anti-Semitism” and Anti-Christian Bigotry"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/","name":"At the Intersection of Faith and Culture","description":"Beliefnet Voices - Jack Kerwick","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/#\/schema\/person\/6832222998cc14717ded1849531201c5","name":"Jack Kerwick","description":"I have a Ph.D. in philosophy from Temple University, a master's degree in philosophy from Baylor University, and a bachelor's degree in philosophy and religious studies from Wingate University. I teach philosophy at several colleges in the New Jersey and Pennsylvania areas.","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.jackkerwick.com"],"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/author\/jkerwick"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/399"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=85"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":91,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85\/revisions\/91"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=85"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=85"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=85"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}