'
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
Christian Thinking Still Needs Changes
By REV. FRANKLIN
LITTE LL
National Institute
on the Holocaust
r
PHILADELPHIA
Anyone committed to re-
conciliation between the
Jewish people and the
Christian churches must
bear a continuing series of
shocks at the repeated in-
sensitivity of church agen-
cies to the life-and-death
concerns of Jews.
Until Yom Hashoah be-
came a public observance,
the fraternal participation
of church people in the
',memorial services at which
living Jews memorialized
the Six Million was mini-
mal. I remember how, just a
few years ago, only a small
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handful of Christians would
turn out for synagogue serv-
ices at which Jewish
neighbors mourned their
losses.
And they were mourning
not just the loss of one out of
three Jews to the Nazi kil-
ling program in the heart of
Christendom: many of them
were mourning uncles and
aunts and grandparents,
brothers and sisters. Large
Christian churches in the
same city would not have a
single layman, let alone the
clergy, in attendance at the
Yom Hashoah memorial
services.
If I invite a neighbor, let
alone a "friend," to a service
in memory of those dearest
to me and he does not come,
I will remember his actions
and not his easy words. If he
still calls himself my friend,
he is a liar.
This year, 44 governors
joined the President of the
United States in Yom
Hashoah observances, and
through the media as well
as public services some mil-
lions of gentiles joined in
the commemorations. This
year the officer for Chris-
tian/ Jewish relations of the
National Council of
Churches, Ref. David
Simpson, sent out a call ac-
companied by liturgical
materials to all 33 denomi-
nations urging Christian
memorial services.
How many churchmen
followed through is not
clear. Simpson deserves our
praise and good will. But I
will remember the National
Council's waffling of the
issue of PLO terrorism and
murder — until that day
when there are actions
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demonstrating a genuine
repentance and conversion
among the church bureauc-
rats.
The question will con-
tinue to be asked: Why have
only the American Baptist
Churches — God bless
them! — among Protestant
denominations made Yom
Hashoah an official day of
remembrance in the church
calendar? And why have the
many denominational pub-
lishing houses so far failed
to provide sermon and Sun-
day school materials on the
Holocaust or, for that mat-
ter, even on the witness and
martyrdom of those Chris-
tians who stayed faithful
Christians during the sav-
age years of Hitler's em-
pire?
An unrepentant and un-
converted American Chris-
tendom, which has never
examined the complicity of
Christendom in the
Holocaust, still continues to
issue proclamations and
sponsor programs which are
a grievous offense to our
Jewish neighbors, and to
such Christians as have
made the painful pilgrim-
age into the post-Auschwitz
world. A growing number of
Christi-an colleges and
seminaries now offer
courses and programs that
indicate they are honestly
wrestling with the crisis of
faith.
The future belongs to
them, but every day there
are signs of the power of
entrenched and uncon-
quered evil.
Rightwing Protestants,
with their "electronic pul-
pits," daily call America to
return to the "good old days"
of "Christian America,"
without regard for the feel-
ings of their Jewish fellow-
citizens or even the feelings
of those fellow-Christians
who know enough Ameri-
can history to recall what
life was like for Christian
dissenters and Roman
Catholics in those "good old
days."
Self-styled
"liberal"
church agencies, sometimes
alone and sometimes in
"ecumenical" combination,
issue proclamations or take
actions which if taken seri-
ously by political
authorities would again put
Jewish survival to the ques-
tion. What else is the mean-
ing of the self-righteous and
rampant hostility to Israel?
What else is the indif-
ference to Holocaust
studies, and to drawing the
lessons of the Holocaust?
What else is the continuing
flirtation with the PLO and
other murderous bands of
anti-Semitic terrorists?
The Sojourner group of
Christian pacifists, the
American Friends Service
Committee and others sup-
posedly committed to the
Christian peace testimony
are in these days holding a
conference at Catholic Uni-
versity in Washington, D.C.
Called "Lagrange III," after
Lagrange I and II, it is like
them promoted, planned
and programmed to pro-
mote the interests of the
PLO.
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A few weeks ago a team
put together by the Seattle
Council of Churches and fi-
nanced and guided by the
PLO made a trip to the Mid-
dle East to confer with
Arafat and his felollow ter-
rorists.
This raises not only ques-
tions of Christian credibil-
ity: it raises also questions
of loyalty to the republican
principles of liberty and
self-government.
One of the Seattle team, a
Presbyterian synod execu-
tive, referred to Arafat as "a
leavening influence in that
country." Even so were the
Baader-Meinhof teams "a
leavening influence" in the
undermining of West Ger-
man democracy. Even so
was Adolf Hitler "a leaven-
ing influence" in the de-
struction of the Weimar Re-
public.
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