Should Memphis Christians ‘own’ Pittsburgh shooting?
Good morning from Memphis, where a court of appeals just lifted an injunction on the Shelby County Election Commission. But first...
Following the shooting at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh, the deadliest attack on Jews in U.S. history, people of faith in Memphis and elsewhere have joined together in denouncing anti-Semitism and condemning the act of terrorism.
But with anti-Semitic incidents on the rise, is it enough for Christians to merely disown the suspected terrorist? Jonathan Judaken, a professor of history at Rhodes College, argues in an op-ed for The CA that Christians should also “own the mainstreaming of hate speech that has led to murderous terrorism,” a reference to the election of Trump:
Christian evangelicals often preach Jesus’s message of love as the antidote to hate: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind .... And…You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”
Jesus’ message was very Jewish. It clearly instructs that in the face of every Other human -- Jew, Muslim, Black, immigrant, transsexual -- we must see the light of God and respond with compassion for their suffering.
But in this case where we have the post-Holocaust murder of Jews simply because they are Jews, perhaps we should take home other lessons. Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel taught us that the opposite of hate is not love, but indifference.
We are at a new precipice in American history. And I dare say as a Jew that some Christian soul-searching is called for today.
Judaken makes a good point, as he often does in his writings: Too many Christians are untouched with suffering — unlike Jesus, who wept at pain and endured it for others. And there’s no doubt President Trump is profiting politically from deepening the divisions in our country with cover from many (but not all) evangelical Christians.
But Christianity, like Islam or almost any other religion, shouldn’t be judged by its extremists. The religion — whatever religion it is — is just the excuse for violence. Something deeper and darker was at work in the heart of the suspect, Robert Bowers. Christians today do not shoulder collective guilt for Bowers’ actions or past violence any more than Muslims do for the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
That said, Christians and all people of faith should disown anti-Semitism — and all other attempts to diminish the value of people. To the extent that Christians have turned a blind eye to injustice or promoted hate, they should own their wrongdoing and the resulting chaos. Trump voters should “own” their role in the tribalism afflicting our country — but tribalism isn’t limited to one party or religion or political viewpoint.
Rather than pointing the finger at each other, we should point the finger at the person who committed the murders. Trump-voting Christians do not “own” Bowers’ decisions.
However, even if connecting Trump supporters to mass murder is a logical stretch, Judaken is exactly right about the dangers of hatred and indifference. We can hope, with Bruce VanWyngarden, editor of the Memphis Flyer, that Memphis — and its Christians — reject the kind of tribalism that puts people in “hate-boxes”:
After the attack on the Tree of Life, the Pittsburgh Muslim community immediately offered aid and comfort to their Jewish brothers and sisters. That is America at its best, and it’s who we can be if we resist seeing each other as “globalists” or “nationalists” or “bad hombres” or “Fake News” purveyors or “Pocahontas” or whatever other hateboxes the president seeks to put us into. I believe Americans are better than the president thinks we are. We just have to show it. Starting next week.
Ryan Poe writes The 9:01 column, a morning news briefing that runs weekdays at 9:01 a.m. Reach him at poe@commercialappeal.com and on Twitter @ryanpoe.