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Bigotry toward Jews in scripture is hurtful, outdated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.
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