Organization: Queen's University at Kingston
Date: Fri, 20 Nov 1992 15:09:32 EST
From: andy <2893684@QUCDN.QueensU.CA>
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.christia
Subject: Christians and Jews

What follows is a column by Gerald Walton Paul, a Kingston, Ontario minister
with the United Church. It appears in today's edition of the Whig-Standard:

A Christian views the Jews by Gerald Walton Paul

Sick jokes about Jews often surfaced in Sudbury, where I grew up. Jews were
caricatured as greedy, crafty profiteers who would stoop to cheating and lying
to make a dollar. Walking along Elm Street I'd see signs on stores such as
Silverman's with the marketplace motto:"Buying more we buy for less, selling
more we sell for less." I'd hook up Jewish names like Goldstein and
Silverthorne to my stereotype of Jews as richer than kings, tighter than Scots
and shrewder than gypsy horse-traders.

In Sunday school, I learned that the ancient Hebrews had much to teach
Christians about true religion. My memory work included verses from the Old
Testament: the 23rd Psalm, the Ten Commandments and key passages from Isaiah,
Micab, Amos and Proverbs. I learned of Abraham sparing his son Isaac, of
Moses leading the chosen people out of Egypt, of the journey to the promised
land, of the new covenant and the promise of the coming Messiah.

In spite of being saturated with the Old Testament story, I didn't connect the
biblical Hebrews with Sudbury Jews. They were as far apart in my mind as were
good and bad, generous and greedy, saved and unsaved. My teachers raved about
the devotion and character of Hebrews. But they failed to convey to me that
Saul Silverman and Sam Axelrad were descendants of the ancient Hebrews and
practised their biblical faith in our town.

At 16, I joined the army as a boy soldier and was stationed in an old Toronto
house on Nassau near Spadina between College and Queen. Daily I'd walk past
stores manned by Jewish merchants. This atmosphere buttressed my prejudicial
image of the Jews as people whose religion was Mammon and who paid no
attention to the Christian admonition: The love of money is the root of all
evil.

Near my Toronto barracks was a Jewish social centre for members of the navy,
army and air force. Lonely one night, I wandered in. I was met by a matron
who welcomed me and led me to a table. She then introduced me to a hostess
about my age. "This is your friend for the evening. She will see that you enjoy
your visit. But you cannot take her home." Sitting together, surrounded by
other occupied tables, we talked easily and about many things including
loneliness in the big city. She told me about her faith and I told her about
mine. We danced, snacked, laughed and shared. I wanted to keep up the relation-
ship but she was not allowed to give me her address or phone number. I squeezed
her hand and looked into her eyes for a long time. Then reluctantly, with many
a backward glance, I left.

I never saw her again. though I returned to the Jewish Centre many times, and
scanned the tables for her face, she was not there. Her influence on me,
however, was immeasurable. Getting to know a Jew intensely for a single evening
changed my view of Jews for a lifetime. No longer did I think of ancient
Hebrews and modern Jews as two islands without a connecting ferry. I began to
see Jews as the carriers of the faith of Moses, as the people of God, as
singers of ancient psalms, as descendants of biblical prophets, priests and
kings. Instead of Judaism and Christianity being two solitudes, in my heart and
mind they became hyphenated forever.

With my new view of Jews, I entered Queen's Theological College prepared to
read the Old Testament not as a preparation for the real truth of the
New Testament, but as part and parcel of the revelation of the one true God.
When I read the "Servant" and the "Messiah" passages in the Hebrew Bible, I was
careful not to read into them the Christian story, I accepted them as profound
religious insights in their own right.
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I've come to treasure the faith of the Jews. I have no truck with bigoted
Christians who see the Jews as enemies of Jesus. Anger is my response to those
who say the Jews killed Christ. I insist that the Pharisees and Saducees were
as religious in a good sense as those of us who call ourselves Christians. I
reject any suggestion that the Jewish faith is inferior to the Christian faith.
No one but the all-knowing God has the right to make such a sweeping judgement.

Perhaps the most vile view of the Jews is held by groups like Jews for Jesus.
They attempt to convert faithful Jews to the Christian faith. In such antics I
perceive a display of peacock vanity impossible to beat. to treat a convenating
people of God as objects for conversion smacks more of blasphemy than reverance
In spit of the missionary passages in the Gospels, Jesus himself never looked
at a person as fodder for a divine harvesting machine.

The report of the Inter-Church Inter-Faith Committee of the United Church of
Canada (General Council, 1992) focuses on "whole world ecumenism." The new
stance calls on Christians to "repent of our arrogant superiority" and "live
in co-operation with the whole human family in the cause of justice, peace and
the integrity of creation." In practice, this means seeking solidarity with
the followers of Judaism rather than trying to convert them.

With the years, I have dropped all negative stereotypes, discouraged put-down
jokes adn dismissed suggestions that Judaism is inferior to Christianity.
Today, old soldier that I am, I look on Jews as equal partners in the mutual
search for ever-more authentic and appropriate ways to express our religious
faith in these turbulent times.