Poway shooting, and the ongoing problem of Christian anti-Semites

It's Thursday, and I've been thinking all week about the shooting down in Poway at the Chabad synagogue. You know, it's only the fact that the gun jammed that kept it from being a blood bath. This happened only an hour from where I live. It's only months since the horror at the synagogue in Pittsburgh. I don't think of myself as a victim. I think of myself as safe. But this really drives home to me that my sense of safety is an illusion.

One of the things I have to consider is that the young man who sought, by his own words, to "kill all the Jews," was a Presbyterian. Indeed, he is the son of a devout church elder. He states in his manifesto that he did not learn his white nationalism from his family, but his writing appeals over and again to his Christian faith.

Before I say anything further, let me acknowledge that the Christian churches have, since the Holocaust, done an about face in terms of the Jews. Many of them (not Reform churches) have disavowed Replacement Theology, and I don't know of any (outside of the heretical white nationalist churches) that espouse the "Jews are cursed" theology anymore. None approve of the bullying of Jews in any way, much less the killing of Jews or vandalizing of our properties. Indeed, I watched Lutherans cry at a reading of Luther's "On the Jews and their Lies" during an interfaith gathering. Let me say how much I appreciate growing up in this different age of the Church.

The following article is a great one, because it touches on how the shooter's Presbyterian pastor, whose church specifically stands against bigotry, is trying to come to terms with the fact that a parishioner went so far afield. This pastor is bravely asking the question, can the church be so easily expunged of guilt? His honest answer is that unless a church directly and consistently teaches against anti-Semitism, the answer is no. Why? Because there are ambiguities in the Scriptures that can directly lead to anti-Semitism. https://www.washingtonpost.com/reli...s-evangelical-pastors/?utm_term=.c6a13e27e264

What was most unnerving for this pastor was how the shooter talked about salvation. He had the Reformed Calvinist rhetoric down pat. It was obvious from a Presbyterian standpoint that he fully understood salvation, that it was a gift from God, not anything he could do for himself. He seemed to be, for all practical purposes, a genuine Christian, albeit mixed up and sinful.

The pastor went on twitter and opened up a dialogue with other evangelicals that really had things buzzing. Some were angry with him for casting any blame upon the church, for example. But what he basically did (before twitter edited out the conversation) was to post those verses in the Bible which anti-Semites use to justify their hatred.

While I haven't read the twitter discussion, I can guess which verses they probably were. Most probably came from the Gospel of John, where it's "The Jews' this and "The Jews" that. However, it is in Matthew 27 that the worst of the worst is written. Here we have Pilate stating that Jesus is innocent, yet the people still want Jesus crucified. In verse 25 the crowd calls to Pilate, "All the people answered, "His blood is on us and on our children!" This is the verse which is interpreted to mean that the Jewish people are cursed. And quite honestly, I don't see how it can be read any other way. I think the anti-Semites have a point. Could it be that the Christian Bible IS anti-Semitic?

That is a question that can be debated. What can't be debated is that it certainly CAN be read that way, and that it HAS been read that way, and that people to this day DO STILL read it that way. Hence, the pastor's idea that anti-Semitism must necessarily be actively taught against, or the church will be responsible for those who read the Bible on their own and take it the "wrong way."

The pastor is grappling with the fact that to be fair, if we are going to say that Islam is responsible for Islamic extremists, then we have to say that Christianity is responsible for Christian extremists.

I for one, admire him for his honestly. It is refreshing. It is powerful. It is the sort of thing that will end up accomplishing something.

@IndigoChild5559 You know, like any tragedy the shooting has galvanized people of faith in coming together. Now, like in my other thread I've really questioned the integrity of this current administration's category fallacy with respect to domestic far-right terrorism. The very problem that many of us are unwilling to face in this country and I'll continue to say it, and I'll say it here is that white nationalism is a serious problem.

It will continue to become a serious problem until enough bloodshed has been spilled and people will set aside their own biases and address the issue. USA Today's article which fact checks the nature of white nationalism quotes something from the Southern Poverty Law Center:

• The Southern Poverty Law Center reports a dramatic increase in the number of white nationalist groups in the U.S., from 100 chapters in 2017 to 148 in 2018.
• The Anti-Defamation League reports a 182 percent increase in incidents of the distribution of white supremacist propaganda, and an increase in the number of rallies and demonstrations by white supremacy groups, from 76 in 2017 to 91 in 2018.
• A study by the Center for Strategic and International Studies found the number of terrorist attacks by far-right perpetrators quadrupled in the U.S. between 2016 and 2017, and that far-right attacks in Europe rose 43 percent over the same period. Among those incidents, CSIS states, the rise of attacks by white supremacists and anti-government extremists is “of particular concern.”

Source:Fact check: The truth about white nationalism

The problem is we are not going to address the elephant in the room, and until we address it, and until so-called pastors both black and white can pull check to their congregates, and their pulpits and actually address bigotry and racism in their churches and in society these things will continue to happen.

One of my fundamental problems with any scripture is that the the text can be interpreted to justify almost any action and belief. This was classically illustrated by Abraham Lincoln who noted that the South used the Bible to justify slavery while the North used the Bible to denounce slavery.

We see in the OP that this is as true today as it was back then. And if the scripture does not provide justification, simple hatred suffices. Thus we have Buddhist attacking Muslims, Hindus and Muslims hating each other, Christians hating Jews and Muslims and Muslims hating all other religions.

The answer is not a quote/exegesis war but has to come from a growing sense that our common humanity is what counts.

I think anyone that blames Christianity for white supremacy is just espousing their own racist views.

Christianity doesn't have a race/ethnicity attached to it. FFS its namesake is based on a Jew! (Jesus was a Jew for those that don't know). So if you don't like the Jews then you're not Christian because Christ was Jewish by birth!

Christianity doesn't belong to white folk. It doesn't belong to brown folk.

It belongs to anyone of any ethnicity that accepts Jesus in their heart.

Epic Beard Man said:

@IndigoChild5559 You know, like any tragedy the shooting has galvanized people of faith in coming together. Now, like in my other thread I've really questioned the integrity of this current administration's category fallacy with respect to domestic far-right terrorism. The very problem that many of us are unwilling to face in this country and I'll continue to say it, and I'll say it here is that white nationalism is a serious problem.

It will continue to become a serious problem until enough bloodshed has been spilled and people will set aside their own biases and address the issue. USA Today's article which fact checks the nature of white nationalism quotes something from the Southern Poverty Law Center:

• The Southern Poverty Law Center reports a dramatic increase in the number of white nationalist groups in the U.S., from 100 chapters in 2017 to 148 in 2018.
• The Anti-Defamation League reports a 182 percent increase in incidents of the distribution of white supremacist propaganda, and an increase in the number of rallies and demonstrations by white supremacy groups, from 76 in 2017 to 91 in 2018.
• A study by the Center for Strategic and International Studies found the number of terrorist attacks by far-right perpetrators quadrupled in the U.S. between 2016 and 2017, and that far-right attacks in Europe rose 43 percent over the same period. Among those incidents, CSIS states, the rise of attacks by white supremacists and anti-government extremists is “of particular concern.”

Source:Fact check: The truth about white nationalism

The problem is we are not going to address the elephant in the room, and until we address it, and until so-called pastors both black and white can pull check to their congregates, and their pulpits and actually address bigotry and racism in their churches and in society these things will continue to happen.

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Hello friend. BTW I love your epic beard.

I appreciated your statistics.

I didn't mention it, but the pastor of the Presbyterian church is black. I think that being the member of a racial minority made him more sensitive than others pastors to issues of social justice, and how the church can turn a blind eye. I hope I will hear more about this guys in the year to come.