The Grey Book: A collection of protests against anti-semitism and the persecution of Jews issued by non-Roman Catholic churches and church leaders during Hitlers rule — John Shaqi
The Grey Book: A collection of protests against anti-semitism and the persecution of Jews issued by non-Roman Catholic churches and church leaders during Hitlers ruleSnoek, Johan M.
Religion
The Grey Book: A collection of protests against anti-semitism and the persecution of Jews issued by non-Roman Catholic churches and church leaders during Hitlers rule
Snoek, Johan M.
Antisemitism; Christianity and other religions -- Judaism; Judaism -- Relations -- Christianity; Protestant churches -- Europe
Another typical example of this attitude is the proclamation of the Joint
Committee of the World Council of Churches and the International Missionary
Council, after its Consultation at the Ecumenical Institute, Bossey, Sept.
12-18, 1956. An attempt was made to elevate the missionary activities of the
Church, to seek the salvation of the Jews by the power of the spirit only:
"...Our hope for the Jews does not mean that we can calculate the time or
define the nature of the coming of Christ in his Kingdom... We may find a
further warning against too precise speculation with regard to the Second
Coming of Christ..." (Ch. III, par. c, d.). [41] In conclusion, however, the
Joint Committee could not help adding a declaration which for the Jew makes
any authentic dialogue meaningless if not impossible: "... The Jewish people
will not find their true destiny until they return and acknowledge Jesus as
Christ and Lord" (Cf. Chap. IV, 6) [42]. <XXIV>
C. The third group of questions that arise from reading the documents and
require careful study, deal with the actual situation as it existed during
the Nazi regime. Were the protests of the Church effective, in rescuing Jews
and then in strengthening the spirit of resistance, or even the religious
feelings among Christians? Were the protests raised at the right time and
under the proper circumstances, to mitigate the persecution or to postpone
the annihilation of the Jews? Was the protest the most useful means of
rescuing Jews, or would it have been more helpful for the Church to keep
quiet so that it could devote itself more to actual underground activities
- but, then, could the Church keep quiet? Was the Church, in its protest,
ready to endanger its members as well as their relatives for the sake of
an effective anti-Nazi struggle, or did the protest function as a Catharsis,
relieving the members of the Church from the burden of moral responsibility
towards the persecuted? Did the protests create a new, perhaps even a
revolutionary non-conformist stand of the Church over against political
power? How was the protest of the Church related to the concept of obedience
to the existing regime, as expressed in Paul's Letter to the Romans Ch. 13,
and in Luther's "Von weltlicher Obrigkeit wie weit man ihr Gehorsam schuldig
ist" 1523? Finally, what was the reaction of the Jews who were persecuted,
and especially of those Jews who lived in free countries and who might have
been expected to exert themselves to save their brethren? Did they endanger
their personal safety to rescue their fellow-Jews and display a deeper sense
of responsibility towards them than the Church?
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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