Confession to Complicity: The Persistent Antisemitism in Mainline Christian Denominations

In 1947, the ship, Exodus, became a powerful symbol of Jews fleeing a hostile Europe in search of safety, freedom and self-determination in their ancestral homeland. They encountered an equally hostile Middle East in pre-state Israel as their ship was forced to return to Europe.

The following series of posts will explore how the historical antisemitism faced by Jews within Christian contexts has evolved, transformed, and reemerged as a new form of Christian antisemitism, masked as acceptable new narratives about Jews and Israel. Hopefully, this exploration will provoke serious reflection among mainline Christians about our success and failures in honoring our connection to a living Judaism and our Christian identity.

The Holocaust is a scarlet letter of shame on Western consciousness. “Guilty” —was the verdict rendered on a Christian world that had long demonized Jews. Repentance brought a moral imperative to correct these errors, to seek the truth, and to turn “never again” into a reality. Theological change followed, leading to new relationships and dialogue between Christians and Jews.

Unfortunately, a shocking inversion has emerged: this very guilt has morphed into new and justified anti-Jewish sentiment among mainline Christian denominations. This is not directed against the Old Jew within the old context of the remorseful Christian West; it’s directed against the New Jew—or Israel—within the new context of the Arab Muslim Middle East.

This new environment reveals the tiny State of Israel bounded on all sides by Arab countries that include Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, and Egypt. Although not officially hostile, these countries often provide launching zones for proven terrorist groups like Hezbollah and Hamas—organizations dedicated to the extermination of Israel—proxies supported and armed by Iran. 

Israel, the restored Jewish homeland, came into being after the Holocaust in 1948—independent of and well before—Christian repentance for the world-changing event.

Jewish survivors of the concentration camps sought their indigenous, ancestral homeland for refuge, safety, and self-determination; today, they continue to defend their existence against unrelenting attacks as in the case of the October 7^th, 2023, Massacre.

Tragically, the centuries-old Christian prejudice against “the Jew” has transferred to the Middle East and taken on the same pattern that Raul Hilberg captured in his book, The Destruction of the European Jews. He articulated the three steps that end in Jewish demise: from discrimination (Nuremberg laws) to isolation (Ghettos), to annihilation (Auschwitz).

“You cannot live among us as Jews.  

You cannot live among us.  

You cannot live!”  

Besides reiterating the foundation for the Holocaust, this quote encapsulates the continuing pattern of antisemitism in the Middle East that now morphs into “anti-Zionism,” reflecting the same underlying phenomena. The Jew does not belong, is not welcomed, and faces genocidal intent alive in the hearts of their gentile enemies.

Note: Consider the Hamas Charter. Hamas, as the ruling government in Gaza, states clearly that the goal of Hamas is to exterminate the Jews and destroy Israel.

The critical question before us is this: Why have mainline Christian denominations embraced destructive beliefs about the state of Israel, adopting Palestinian propaganda that characterizes Israel as settler-colonial, apartheid, unjust, and genocidal? It simply doesn’t add up.

Will it take the demise of the State of Israel to compel mainline Christians to reevaluate their acceptance of false and destructive narratives promoting anti-Israel sentiments?

Follow along for more on these issues in Confession to Complicity:

The Persistent Antisemitism in Mainline Christian Denominations

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