# Posted 12:31 AM by Ariel David Adesnik  

THE PROTESTANTS AND THE DEVIL'S ADVOCATE: I have continued to receive many, many thoughtful responses to my comments on the Jewish-Christian relationship. (MP has also responded via blog.) One important thread of the conversation concerns how Protestants might respond to my comments differently than Catholics. DK writes that

Most progressive Christians would NOT reinterpret the Gospels to mitigate anti-Semitism. In fact, most of the "progressive" Christians I know would
explicitly say that yes, some parts of the Gospels are openly anti-Semitic, and other parts of the Bible are pro-slavery or anti-women or anti-gay. The prevailing progressive argument is that those parts reflect not the word of God, but the human prejudices of the writers, and that our new historical understanding of the Bible should lead us to reject entirely prejudiced-sounding passages that conflict with the divine command to love your neighbor. The usual argument is that the original oral or written Jesus stories contained nothing anti-Semitic (and were told by people who would self-identify as Jewish followers of Jesus), but statements blaming the Jews were added many years later, after violence had broken out between Christians and Jews who had previously shared the same synogogues and gatherings. So progressives would recommend excision over reinterpretation here.

I'm down with that. My only concern is that the percentage of Christians willing to embrace excision is not that high. (Although MF indicates that it may work out for the Orthodox.) Anyhow, DK adds that

Furthermore, many Protestants would disagree entirely with your comment that the Gospel's "[place] collective blame on the Jewish people for the death of Christ ... [as] an integral aspect of [their] theological agenda."

The problem with this statement are the words "blame" and "collective blame." It is pretty clear to me (and a longstanding Protestant dogma) that both of these concepts are alien to the Gospels and their agenda...Regarding collective blame, at least since the time of Martin Luther Protestants both progressive and non- have seen the Gosepls as entirely about individual guilt and redemption, and not in the least about collective guilt. This is even true in the most extreme theologies of original sin -- in Jonathan Edward's "Sinners in the hands of an Angry God" sermon, you aren't hanging by a thread for the sins of Adam, but for your own personal, specific sins flowing from your personal depravity, laziness, and wickedness.

IMHO, this does not absolve the Gospels of the charge of anti-Semitism, as Martin Luther himself was very non-progressive and very anti-Semitic. He was prejudiced, but he would have rejected any notion of collective guilt.

That also sounds about right, even though I hardly know enough about Protestantism to say so decisively. At the same time, I have vague recollections of Jews being called 'Christ-killers' even by American Protestants. Was I just not paying attention to who was accusing me of killing their Savior? Or has theological consistency sometimes been subordinated to the politics of anti-Semitism? I really don't know. Moving on, DC says

You wrote:

"Yet the message of the text seems clear: that only those Jews who abandon their own religion and become followers of Christ can overcome the burden of guilt that the Jewish people took upon itself by sentencing Him to death."

The problem with your sentence is that it doesn't require the term "Jew." That's the message of the Gospels for everybody. We all must overcome our guilt at having killed Him and become followers in order to find redemption and grace. There's no "special" burden on the "Jewish people" to overcome something extra.

I?ve been a practicing Episcopalian for 34 years and I've never once taken the view that the Jews in particular have anything special for which to atone. I have also never once heard that view espoused by any clergy or lay members of any congregation to which I have belonged. I can?t even remember any discussion of ?the Jewish people.? Church discussion centers on "mankind" as a whole. The central message has always been that humanity killed Christ. If you really think of, it was Judas who killed Christ and he was a disciple!

This point again leads me to turn inward and ask if the perils of persecution have prevented Jews from learning enough about Christianity to help overcome the divide. I hope that DC's perspective has gained widespread acceptance among Protestants. Yet when confronted with an unfortunate cultural artifact such as The Passion, my instincts take over and sometimes all I can hear is "Christ-killer." (0) opinions -- Add your opinion