The Historical Roots of the Anti-Israel Positions of Liberal Protestant Churches

The Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs ^ | 1 June 2007 | Hans Jansen

[Vlad0]

• The verbal attacks and boycott calls by a variety of Western Protestant, mainly liberal, denominations, as well as the World Council of Churches, have raised new interest in the origins of Christian anti-Semitism and in particular its Protestant version.

• Among the Protestants’ founding fathers, Martin Luther was particularly anti-Semitic. His writings were precursors of twentieth-century National Socialist texts. Adolf Hitler, Joseph Goebbels, and Julius Streicher gladly quoted from Luther’s works, even if he never recommended the physical destruction of the Jews. Luther did, however, advise burning synagogues in honor of God and Christianity, confiscating Jewish books, and expelling Jews from Christian countries. In 1985 the World Federation of Lutheran Churches distanced itself from these statements of Luther.

• Other sixteenth-century Protestant reformers such as John Calvin, Ulrich Zwingli, and Philipp Melanchton also considered Judaism archaic but were against drawing operational conclusions from this. Another reformer, Martin Butzer, took a more favorable position toward the Jews.

• In the current anti-Israel positions of liberal Western churches nontheological influences are probably more important. Blaming Jews is for many of them a question of their own spiritual welfare and of avoiding a look in the mirror.

• Churches have taught antipathy to Jews for two thousand years. It is mistaken to think this can be overturned in a few decades. The new expressions of Christian hatred toward Israel reflect deep psychological processes.

“For several decades there has been in many Jewish circles the impression that Christian anti-Semitism was declining and would fade away in the course of a generation or two. This perception stemmed mainly from the major post-Holocaust policy change by the Roman Catholic Church in its attitude toward the Jews.

“The last three years have seen attacks and boycott calls against Israel by several Western Protestant denominations and the World Council of Churches. These aggressions raise new interest in the origins of Christian anti-Semitism and in particular its Protestant version. This requires reexploring the positions toward the Jews of major sixteenth-century Protestant Reformers such as Martin Luther and John Calvin.”

[Vlad0]

This article is from 2007, but is obviously timely given what is going on in the nation's universities.

Full article at link

[Angelino97]

Churches and synagogues have taught antipathy to Jews toward each other for two thousand years.

[JesusIsLord]

The Talmud(s) are replete with teaching hatred toward Christ and treating 'goyim' with utter contempt. We shouldn't be surprised when orthodox Jews spit on Christians in Israel. Orthodox Jews are modern day Pharisees.

Hatred toward Jews because they are Jews is as bad as Jews hating Christians because they are Christian. Spare me the selective outrage!

[doc maverick]

True followers of Jesus are not anti-Israel and love the Jews just as Jesus always loved the Jews. Many of today’s mainline churches are not really followers of Jesus and have gone astray. I am a Christian, but I no longer go to the Lutheran Church. It has changed.

[Altura Ct.]

As if many Jews don’t harbor anti-Christian views. Jews are neither innocents nor altruistic.

[BillyBoy]

>> Hatred toward Jews because they are Jews is as bad as Jews hating Christians because they are Christian. Spare me the selective outrage <<

Excellent point. It's like the double standard when they constantly whine about how "church leaders in Italy did not "speak out" against the Holocaust and condemn Hitler at the time he was in power. They want to "investigate" why that is, to see if we "covered up" anything.

Going by that standard, I have to wonder why leading Jewish Rabbis in the Roman Empire did not "speak out" against Christians being throw to the lions and loudly demand Nero and the rest of the Roman Emperors stop doing it.

What's that, you say? Doing so wouldn't have stopped any Christians from being executed, but it WOULD have caused the Roman Empire to promptly retaliate against the Jewish synagogues, close them down, expel their rabbis, and persecute THEM for questioning the regime?

Gosh, I still wonder why church leaders did not "speak out" against Hitler! It's a mystery!

[hinckley buzzard]

My impression, someone correct me if i’m wrong, is that the major dynamic of new christian antisemitism is that it is being driven by secularized pseudo-christian liberal and leftwing organizations like TEC and ELCA and UCC, christians in name only. To try to tie today’s politicized anti-Jewish ideology to historical antecedents is, I believe, barking up the wrong tree. I can understand why Jewish commentators might take this approach, but I think they are missing the boat if they do.

[Vlad0]

The tone of the author isn't "selective outrage", it's merely academic recounting.

The article (did you even read it?) is very specific about what some pretty key founders of Protestantism (Martin Luther) had to say about the Jews. It's pretty harsh.

I'm not an expert on the Talmud, I read a book of short excerpts from it. Perhaps there is some anti-Christian sentament in it, but the core of the Talmud was written in Babylon in the period around 200 B.C. There wasn't a big Christian population there, so I don't know if what you are saying is correct. Also given the overwhelming size of the Talmud and the number of authors it contains (hundreds) I'm not sure even if you can find an isolated quote it's comprable in importance to (for instance) Martin Luther's ranting about the Jews at length, and writing an entire treatese on them (which was published and widely read in the period). After all millions and millions of Americans self-describe as "Lutherans".

Also, the very worst sort of disreputable anti-Semites often make up lying quotes and attribute them to Jewish sources. This is the sort of "every day meme warfare" that one sees on Twitter (X) and Gab. (The famous quote attributed to Voltaire, but actually written by a 20th century White Supremacist is the signature example) A complete unabridged set of the Babylonian Talmud. (There is also the Jerusalem Talmud, which is not pictured).

If you have read even a fraction of this, I salute you!

[af_vet_1981]

… but the core of the Talmud was written in Babylon in the period around 200 B.C. There wasn't a big Christian population there, so I don't know if what you are saying is correct.

Point, Set, Match and yet those who hate the Jews in their hearts are mortally wounded in their souls and imagine they are pleasing God by doing so.

They will continue to condemn themselves with their poison until there is no remedy.

[bankwalker]

There weren’t any Christians anywhere in 200 BC.

[JesusIsLord]

... yet those who hate the Jews in their hearts are mortally wounded in their souls and imagine they are pleasing God by doing so.

Can you say Jews who hate Christians and disparage goyim as Jews who are mortally wounded in their souls and who ignorantly believe they are pleasing God?

[Sam Gamgee]

I believe it is no accident that left leaning “Christian” thinkers and publication are also anti-semitic.

[Sam Gamgee]

Yes there is also Sojourners and Christianity Today. Anything anti-american or anti-Israeli is driven by them.

[af_vet_1981]

Ah but the one who claims Jesus is Lord has the greater sin if he claims to be in the light but hates his brethren while the brethren who are blinded may fall under Father, forgive them;for they know not what they do.

[JesusIsLord]

Ah but the one who claims Jesus is Lord has the greater sin if he claims to be in the light but hates his brethren while the brethren who are blinded may fall under Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.

Jesus is Lord and you are a liar! Matthew 7:1-3

[af_vet_1981]

1 John 2:

1. My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous:
2. And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for
3. And hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his commandments.
4. He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.
5. But whoso keepeth his word, in him verily is the love of God perfected: hereby know we that we are in him.
6. He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked.
7. Brethren, I write no new commandment unto you, but an old commandment which ye had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word which ye have heard from the beginning.
8. Again, a new commandment I write unto you, which thing is true in him and in you: because the darkness is past, and the true light now shineth.
9. He that saith he is in the light, and hateth his brother, is in darkness even until now.
10. He that loveth his brother abideth in the light, and there is none occasion of stumbling in him.
11. But he that hateth his brother is in darkness, and walketh in darkness, and knoweth not whither he goeth, because that darkness hath blinded his eyes.

[af_vet_1981]

1 John 2:

1. My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous:
2. And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.
3. And hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his commandments.
4. He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.
5. But whoso keepeth his word, in him verily is the love of God perfected: hereby know we that we are in him.
6. He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked.
7. Brethren, I write no new commandment unto you, but an old commandment which ye had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word which ye have heard from the beginning.
8. Again, a new commandment I write unto you, which thing is true in him and in you: because the darkness is past, and the true light now shineth.
9. He that saith he is in the light, and hateth his brother, is in darkness even until now.
10. He that loveth his brother abideth in the light, and there is none occasion of stumbling in him.
11. But he that hateth his brother is in darkness, and walketh in darkness, and knoweth not whither he goeth, because that darkness hath blinded his eyes.

[Angelino97]

Going by that standard, I have to wonder why leading Jewish Rabbis in the Roman Empire did not "speak out" against Christians being throw to the lions and loudly demand Nero and the rest of the Roman Emperors stop doing it.

Doing so wouldn't have stopped any Christians from being executed, but it WOULD have caused the Roman Empire to promptly retaliate against the Jewish synagogues, close them down, expel their rabbis, and persecute THEM for questioning the regime?

Jewish leaders weren't just silent.

According to the Acts of the Apostles, the rabbis and Jewish priests were trying to stir up Roman anger at Christians, goading the Romans into executing Paul, back when the Romans didn't care about Christians.

You should instead ask why many Jewish leaders in the West sent donations to the Bolsheviks all through the 1920s and into the 1930s.

Yes, even Orthodox synagogues in the West collected donations for the Bolsheviks.

Well, we know why. Jews considered the Tsar their greatest enemy, and believed the Bolsheviks would usher in a new age of universal brotherhood.

But just as any institution in the West -- Ford, IBM, etc. -- is made to apologize and donate to Jewish causes for having supported or done business with Germany during the 1930s, there are plenty of Jewish organizations that should publicly apologize and pay reparations to the victims of the Ukrainian genocide.

[Angelino97]

the core of the Talmud was written in Babylon in the period around 200 B.C. There wasn't a big Christian population there, so I don't know if what you are saying is

According to the Jewish scholar, Peter Schafer, that's precisely why the Jews in Babylon felt comfortable writing against Christ. They knew about the Christian controversy occurring in the West -- it was a big deal throughout the ancient world -- but being far removed from potential Christian retaliation, they felt safe in writing what they really felt.

[irishjuggler]

“Martin Luther was particularly anti-Semitic. His writings were precursors of twentieth-century National Socialist texts...”

Luther is an interesting case. In his early writings, he was actually quite philo-semitic. He had this very unrealistic expectation, though, that once his de-Romanized version of Christianity was presented to Jews, they’d eagerly convert en masse. He was bitterly disappointed when they didn’t follow through... hence the virulent anti-semitism of the later writings. In hindsight, you think, how could he have possibly thought that, well, they’ve held out for what, 1500 years, but *he* was the guy to convince them? Very hubristic little friar, that ML.