[net.religion] Anti-semitism in the Protestant tradition

cs193bah@unm-la.UUCP (02/27/85)

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The following excerpts are taken from the book _Protestantism_ by
M.E. Marty, a Professor of Modern Church History and an Associate 
Dean of the Divinity School at the University of Chicago.

I thought that this might explain many of the statements made against
the Jewish people in this newsgroup by a few intolerant people.
Note that Prof. Marty does not accuse individual Protestants of
discrimination, but does point out the historical and theological
bases underlying the Protestant Churches' treatment of the Jewish people.

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"...the Protestants...sometimes intensified medieval Christian views of
the Jews.  They perpetuated stereotypes about ugly racial features; the
Jews were miserly, greedy userers, and cheating merchants.  Protestants
supported these views with...the New Testament record:  these were the
Christ-killers.  They had shouted down god's curses upon themselves
and their descendants, the contemporary Jews.  The Gospels said so.

"Protestantism both politically and theologically was overwelmingly
anti-semitic at worst and casually condescending in some rare,
exceptional better moments.

"Probably never since the beginnings has there been such virulent
theological anti-semitism as there was in the later writings of
Martin Luther.  Even in the Nazi period German anti-semites were
still reproducing Luther's violent and often scatological writings
against Jews....[Luther] issued a stream of writings whose tone was,
to put it simply, murderous.  Apologists have tried to explain it
away as being theological, not personal...whatever the rationalizations,
the writings did reveal an almost pathological hatred of nonconverting
Jews."

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Note that Prof. Marty is a Lutheran.
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bill peter
cmcl2!lanl!wkp