THE DETROIT JEWISH CHRONICLE and THE LEGAL CHRONICLE

WHY BE TOLERANT?

An Address to the Providence, R. I., Seminar of the
National Conference of Jews and Christians.

It is not merely the only doctrine
one reads, for example, the recordr iwsition to injustice and oppres- .

of the prowess of Conrad of Mar- sion in all forms has been the im- which has insisted upon this point
with authoritativeness but it is also
bur g, thirteenth century extermin- portant content of literature, plat-
only such doctrine which has
By GEORGE N. SHUSTER
ator of heretics as well as confessor
-
phy , politics, and social think- been taken seriously by mankind.
Weekly,
Managing Editor, The Commonweal. Roman Catholic
of the great Saint Elizabeth, Queen oso
Fourth, let Protestant, Catholic,
New York City; Author of "The Germans."
of Thuringia, it is difficult to un- ink. But one again expediency is
and Jew appeal to the Chran
derstand how so much lofty spirit- uppermost in our minds.
tolerance
is
not
the
mere
dictate
,
The thought that religious for- ethic as the foundation upon which
The idea that one ought to re-
of au expediency which the word uality could have been combined
t i build present endeavors to allay
spect the religious convictions of
.
t ti
"toleration" expresses, it is horn of with so much harbarousnes in one bea ranee, mutual respect for the
others appears to be surprisingly
...
bunion
the gospel which Jesus Christ and the same human
Thomas Acquinas himself, the quest rights that inhere in conscience, is Job.
modern. Indeed, the distrust which
um . f ,ossitu y . it requires a real
preached to man. That gospel in-
many people feel when the matter
lion of whether the heretic ought a good thing because otherwise sacrifice of the JeW, but his leaders
culcated the doctrine of charity
is raised doubtless springs from the
to be tormented or even burned at there will be no peace, safety, and in other countries have resolutely
with so many words and deeds that
fact that they suspect it of being a
harmonious co-operation is the looked in this direction for an ans-
there can be no gainsaying the the stake was not hard to answer.
wer to their problem.
recent invention. The creeds of an.'
an affirmat i ve view
idea which torten leads people to
Savior's intention to impress upon Ile base d
Let us look at the situation in
Guilty were warlike and exclus-
him followers the truth that they squarely on texts of holy scripture take an interest in good will meet- the United States. Religion was
ive in the western and near-east-
would conquer the world only by and on logic. And so it went
ll y import ant to the British
v
i
ta
ings and movement. I to not re-
ern worlds; the gods of a given
For a
meekness, and mercy, and loving- throughout the centuries.
race or people were often mere ad-
pudiate the idea entirely. But let citonizers, and from the beginning
kindness; that their weapon over moment the luminous figure of
ditions to the lighting equipment.
us face the truth. Such questions their attitude toward it envisaged
the beast in the human soul would Francis of Assisi held the world
tild epics, even large parts of the
the problem of religious liberty.
always and only be the spell of in awe at the sight of Christ's own as this can never he settled on the Two
tendencies manifested them-
Old Testament, nil tell the same
their perfect readiness to die ra- wounds on the body of a man thi- basis of expediency. That is the
selves.
story of a deity whose supreme
But
ther than to take life, the spell of int.; and preaching charity.
lesson to be learned from history.'
First, there came a number of
function it was to destroy the ene-
their magnificent preference of after him the storms of vehem- It just simply isn't always expedi- great leaders, all of whom were
mies of his people. In the orient,
suffering to vengeance. once brat and thundered again, tak- ent, in either the political or the
that religious ire
particularly in India, the tendency
14 e"vi"ned
If we now go tin to examine the inc the lives of countless victims. religious
religious sense, to grant full Wier- ' 1"
could not justly appeal to
was to stratify the people into sev-
Protestants are perfectly familiar ty to dissenters. Perhapsit may
history
of
the
Christian
church,
it
violence against others. Of these
eral layers, the boundaries of which
must at first sight appear as if with the story of the Inquisition. at the moment be expedient to see I shall name just the three most
seem to have been fixed primarily
no other commandment had been Catholics remember full Well that whether Jews, Protestants and prominent: Roger Williams, Ce-
by differences in religious belief.
so grossly sinned against. When every monarch who gave his made Catholics living in a certain city oil Calvert, and William Penn.
In so far as our idea of religious
mde can settle the differences existing .
iance to the Reform
There is no denying, I think, that
a holocaust of papists, often between them. But there have been for all of them ethical principle
es
slaughtering the best um his sub- times when it was clearly not ex-
persecution in the name of
o
jects in a vain effort to demolish pedient to do so, and those times
Christ.
Rome. The Jew reads all history may come again. A man who had
Second, the struggle of religious
since Josephus's time by the light said to the Ku Klux Elan in In-
of conflagrations which consumed diana that it was inexpedience for I minorities for elbow-room grad-
forced governments to liberal-
his goods and sent his children into them to wage their tight during ually
1923 would have been talking ize their attitude toward establish-
exile.
' ed creeds. In Virginia the Bap-
I think our estimate of this his- through his hat.
free-
solid ethi- fists wrought manfully for free-
Yes, either there is a -
dom; in New York, the Catholic
torical background in which all of
cal verity, a fact grounded in re-
. effort was noticeably strong.
us share equally and vicariously by
Better than most—KNOX knows and appreciates
c-.
ligious morality itself, which sic-
It was the combination of these
reason of ancestors both persecut- totes mutual forbearance and re-
the staunch loyalty of its Jewish customers . . . In
ed and persecuting, needs to be spect, or our talk on the subject is two forces which evoked that ad.
this location, where so many of Detroit's Jewish
based on correct definitions of pretty idle. And there is such a dendum to the federal constitution

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Christianity and of human nature.

Man is at the same time pitifully

verity, such a fact. It came into which in a measure safeguards the
the world with Christ. From see- individual's freedom to worship

oral points of view, it constitutes God as he sees fit. One by . one
the
.
weak and unbelievably strong. The, the ethical essence of his teach-, states followed suit, abolishing it-
And if further proof by strict ions of long standing until at
great ethical verities abide, as ings.
Plato saw, above and beyond us in needed it is this: from the begin- present very few discriminatory

imperishable reality and splendor.

ning of the Christian church to the statutes exist and these are not en-

death of Saint Bernard, the neer-
whelming weight of opinion among, forced. To all intents and par-
race entertains of them is never the doctors is that dissenters must poSeS the , government of the United
I complete or convincing. It is as if Ite won a ver with arguments, and States is, from one end to the
• nt A I
we were looking at a mountain not with force. And since that ' other, a tolerant governnu
range on the horizon, over which time, many of the hest men in all guarantees respect for religious
groups have not failed to recognize principle
' there floats a constant cloud. Again
and preach the some truth.
This achievement was great, in-
and again this cloud lifts in part,
And so I propose for your con-
deed. It caused Goethe in his time
ailing us to catch sight of a
' enabling
ideration the following conclus-
to make the as tonished comment
glittering peak, but never allow- i ons from hi story:
First, let us agree that the past that New York was setting an ex•
to see the range as a whole,

But the vision which the human

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13540 LINWOOD—AT DAVISON

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"ROMANCE OF A PEOPLE"

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We art happy to express, here, our appreciation of
t he good-will of Detroit's Jewish community . . .
our hope for its continuance.

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FORD SALES & SERVICE

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points no accusing
finger in that
is' ample to all the world, since in it
groups
equal
not leveled at all
some thirty odd religious sects were
jesty. So also it is with human
comprehension of the ( hristian measure.
peacefully side by side. Nev-
Second, religions persecution and living
ethic. During many centuries, men
were especially mindful of what toleration can both he justified ertheless, we know only too well

in its order and symmetry and ma-

had teen said regarding the holi- satisfactorily on the basis of ex-, that this settlement of the pro,.

ness of faith. It seemed to them pediency. In other words, it may lam is in many ways really a mir-

that whatever endangered that be just as expedient to persecute as

and stamped out like a plague. And
in SO doing they were, of course,

logically right, but they ignored
t he fact that even higher than the
faith had been placed the rule

which alone could defend and ex-

emplify it—charity unlimited, all-
understanding, evergiving. Doubt-

less that rule is hard—the hardest
mankind was (Wee asked to follow.

But if it were a thousand times

' harder than it is, the fact that it
exists would not be changed.
Still more important is the eir-

simsowsimok

cumstance that during the cen-,

turies in question humanity was,

Our Congratualtions

to

"THE ROMANCE OF A PEOPLE"

1 Flint Paint and Varnish Company

Manufacturers of

Paint

-

Glass

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age. However much lip-service w a s

faith—whether it were an hereti- it is to promote good will.
love and the en
Third, the Christian ethic de- dune to brotherly
cal teacher, a prophet of new lid-
was mantis that we to not persecute.' I Turn to page 241
believer
in
what
ings, or a
termed paganism—must he opposed

a thinking of religion in terms of

III

sag Serving Detroit's
Jewish Community

For Fifteen Years

And happy to be able to reach so many
of our friends on this occasion—with an
assurance of continued, undiminished effort
,0 deserve and keep your patronage.

expediency. It Was believed that

a the unity and power of a nation
3 or people depended primarily upon
sameness of religion conviction;

and whatever endangered that con-

viction was opposed, on the prin-
city
ciple that the safety of the

_ or the state demanded punitive ac-
t- . thin. Today the matter is often I
' reversed. Fur a century the worldl

.1; has been concerned primarily withi
425 DETROIT ST., FLINT, MICH.
ttattra tmatatiamststataatmts4i the elhiealvalue of Pity. The op-
F.45101 IttglalttlathallallaglialatalltattalltatartatItteh ...,attm , ttatittist ,

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