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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (May 12, 2004)
Commentary Bigotry toward Jews in scripture is hurtful, outdated Observance of Easter Passion church services reminded me of the haunting music in the Greek Ortho dox Church into which I was baptized. A chance encounter in Eugene a decade ago with the man respon COMMENTARY sible, .*» __ translations in the Greek church reminded me that lyrics for some of the week's music are haunting in another way: the tragic prejudice they foster toward Jews. A priest of high rank in the Greek Archdiocese, the late Rev. Leonidas Contos, was chief translator of text from the original Greek into English. While a visiting celebrant at St. George Orthodox Church, he told me his main concern was revising transla tions of I loly Week services that de monize Jews as killers of Jesus. 1 le said they lead to "hatred of Jews among impressionable Christians, a behavior contrary to the teachings of Christ." A recent public discussion in Eu gene of the Mel Gibson film "The Pas sion of Christ" convinces me that we Christians still don't get it. Of five pan elists, two directly addressed the issue of the film building bigotry. They said they believe it does. There was waffling uncertainty in the views of three others: a Roman Catholic priest; a Baptist minister, and the head of the Islamic Cultural Cen ter. The Baptist minister said he does not think the film "in any way is anti Judaic." For me, he cast doubt on his credibility about the film when he said, "In all my years in the ministry, I've not been aware of anyone with anti-Jewish feeling." From the audi ence, a Greek Orthodox priest pointed out that "Christians, like Jews, were killed because of Christ in the early centuries." The evasiveness of three of the pan elists and the cleric in the audience left unaddressed the fundamental ques tion: Does the movie feed prejudice toward Jews? The Christian Church minister placed the issue squarely on the table at the outset when he said, 'The I Iolo caust of World War II could not have happened," had it not been for the way the church through the centuries has taught the passion story and the role in it of the Jewish people. l ie said impact of the movie, "while probably not intended, encourages anti-Ju daism." Prof. Jonathan Seidel was explicit: 'This film is sado-masochistic. It is a reflection of the bloody, pre-Vatican II passion play. Its violence is porno graphic. If one says this is based on the Gospel, then there has to be some thing wrong with the Gospel. The movie reverses 40 years of progress since Vatican II." Seidel remembered having to fight back as a child when "kids called me Christ-killer." Nikos Kazantzakis, who wrote, "I he Last Temptation of Christ," wrote about his childhood on the island of Crete: "Every year during I loly Week that leads into Easter, Jewish children had to be on their guard. They were my friends. But I think they under stood that other Cretan boys and 1 would have to hit them because of what Jews did to Christ." Panelists were asked: "Could heads of Christian sects meet today to agree on how to expurgate scripture of big otry?" Apparently, no way. Scripture, they agreed, is sacrosanct — too sensi tive for church leaders to ever risk con sider revising. As the discussion end ed, I wondered: What set of values results in our being concerned over hate crimes that harm Jews, while we protect 1,900-year old writings that persist in encouraging those crimes? George Beres, who lives in Eugene, is a former manager of the UO Speakers Bureau, has been a member of the Oregon Interreligious Committee for Peace in the Middle East. Columnist oversimplifies religion with presumptions t.nuck Mothower recently articu lated ("Forced religion," ODE, April 14) certain timeless verities includ ing a particular interpretation of the separation of church and state, and heavily rested this on his presumed and over-confident agnosticism. In doing so, he magically disabused all the religious plebeians of their silly beliefs within invoking any good ar gumentation. How should we understand the relationship between religion and society? Chuck has answers. The ap plication of the hard-learned ideal of church-state separation when in dividuals incarnate both is nuanced and complex; the realities of history are equally multifarious. While he may be right, his approach lacks in tellectual humility or realism regard ing the ambiguities of politics and history. Chuck continues by taking the com plex issue of God's existence and as suming that agnosticism is dearly true. 1 lis political argument rests heavily on this (not a good move). Religious belief is "absurd and foolish ... a rather poor attempt to explain where we came from presents the naturalist creed: "When we die, our bodies rot in the ground..." You can almost hear the chorus of fun damentalist (not all) naturalists chanti ng it together, like the Borg. The majority of thinkers throughout history have found theism to be satisfy ing and logically persuasive. While this and to com fort us when we cringe at He then doesn't establish its truth, Chuck's hand-waving is far from merited. The largest interest group in the American Philosophical Association is Christian. Many of the best minds in the world ac cept belief in God as rational (or sug gest that demanding this is epistemic imperialism). 1 don't suggest you can "prove" (another idea riddled with as sumptions) God's existence, but Chuck's dismissiveness is presumptu ous, not rational. Chuck suggests that religion is for people with weak moral consciences. Cute, but unrelatable to history or reali ty (King, Jesus, John Paul II, Wilber force). This isn't an argument; it's name calling. Even if it were true, it wouldn't bear on God's existence. This is also true of the comfort regarding mortality "ar gument" — God's nonexistence does n't follow. I'm also curious what metaphysic grounds Chuck's under standing of "the right thing to do." What Chuck fails to do is argue about the truth of the matter. Rather he shares his feelings about religion. No analysis of premises and conclusions — just banal rhetoric. 1 have not shown that he is wrong just that he failed to ar gue effectively. The article contained two para doxes. One, says "You idiots; you don't understand the ambiguities of this (I do — I am agnostic)" and then gives grossly oversimplified and unselfconscious metaphysical edicts. Secondly, he mocks "forced religion," then tries to create "other ness" by hand-waiving at the ab surdity of religious belief. I le's sim ply joined the unreflective forceful chorus. Chuck seems quite certain for someone who says, "I don't know, and you don't know either." (Chuck knows what I know?) Most thinkers understand that there are a variety of rationally justi fiable world views. There are bril liant and interesting arguments all sides of these matters, although Chuck failed to mention any of them. Resting his political philoso phy (which has merit) on such a dogmatic agnosticism certainly vio lates his own vision for the secular state he has imagined the founding fathers to have envisioned. While 1 cannot ask someone to lay aside bias, it is unhelpful to argue for a particular constitutional interpretation based on a metaphysical assumption that begs the question. Ron Davis is a graduate student studying educational leadership. Special Spring SAVINGS We accept UO purchase orders Pipeline X-Large 2-Item Pizza and 2 HUB 1 Soil Drinks ©'-1 [ FREE DELIVERY I" Eugene: 686-5808 Not valid with any other offer Expires 5/30/04 Eugene: 686-5808 Pizza Pipeline Large 1-Item Pizza and 2 WM Soft Drinks FREE DELIVERY Eugene: 686-5808 Not valid with any other offer Expires 5/30/04 EiiaiiiaisirciHraHiiiinHvirciviianiira □ nassiiQiitiQs Find fun stuff in the ODE Classifieds: Comics, your daily horoscope, and, of course, the crossword. Castle Megastore & Vivid M issTN udelu m.ver'sekuua! are proud to present the Hottest Latina Adult Superstar ever... 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