zionism_unsettled_scan

I
Discussion of
the fate of
Palestinians
was taboo--a
divisive hazard
to be strenuously
avoided for risk
of derailing
these interfaith
dialogues.
Krister Stendhahl
Niebuhr's argument relied on the Israel-centric
narrative of Israel's founding in which Palestinians
are expunged from the story. Niebuhr embraced
many of the popular Zionist myths that surrounded
the creation of Israel, such as "making the desert
bloom" and praising the vision of Thea dar Herzl
and Chaim Weitzmann without challenging their
hardline goals. He adds that Israel became a melting
pot for jews, without mention of the resulting Palestinian
loss of land and livelihood. Nor does Niebuhr
express regret that half the population was driven
into refugee status following Israel's creation. He
ends the argument with the questionable mantra
that the United States has an obligation to support
Israel because "Israel is the only democracy in the
Middle East. "7
How ironic that Niebuhr, the exponent of a
school of Christian social ethics named "Christian
Realism," and the author of the famous aphorism,
"Man's capacity for justice makes democracy
possible, but man's inclination to injustice makes
democracy necessary/'s would demonstrate moral
blindness to the fact that the establishment of a
"Jewish democracy"in Palestine was preconditioned
on the exclusion of the native Palestinians. Niebuhr
remains perhaps the most influential mainline
American Protestant theologian of the 20th century,
and his legacy continues in the 21st.
After the turbulent but decisive decade of the
1940s there was a gradual shift in the Protestant
churches toward increased support for Israel. The
primal)' Protestant .organization was the American
Christian Palestine Committee (ACPC), which
received major financial support from jewish Zionist
organizations. One of its functions was to monitor
and challenge any journal article or church statement
that was sympathetic to the Palestinians.
An additional development that advanced the
pro-Israel bias in Protestantism was the increased interest
in Christian-jewish dialogue and a multiplicity
of jewish and Christian organizations that emerged
to facilitate it. The National Conference of Christians
and jews played an important role for many decades,
as did the B'nai B'rith-Anti-Defamation League
(ADL), and eventually most major Zionist organizations.
Dialogue programs seemed to be a significant
instrument to promote healing as Christians
grappled with the anti-Semitism that had plagued
the Church for centuries culminating in the Nazi
Holocaust. Discussion of the fate of Palestinians was
taboo-a divisive hazard to be strenuously avoided
for risk of derailing these interfaith dialogues.
Jewish-Christian dialogue would continue for
decades following the rules of the Ecumenical
Deal: Christian silence on Israel as expiation for
guilt incurred during centuries of anti-Semitism. It
was Jewish theologian Marc Ellis who named this
price-tag rule for Christians over 25 years ago. When
15 Protestant and Roman Catholic leaders broke
these rules for the first time on September 15, 2012,
by writing a letter to Congress asking for sanctions
against Israel, Ellis celebrated byannouncing,"The
interfaith ecumenical deal is dead./I He continued,
Strange, looking on the internet for commentary
on the Church leaders'letter, one site had
the letter opposite a quotation from the Holocaust
survivor, Elie Wiesel: "Neutrality helps the
oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages
the tormentor, never the tormented."lt seems
that the Church leaders have finally learned'
the central lesson of Christian complicity in the
Holocaust. It was taught to them by jews in the
personal witness of Elie WieseL The lesson: The
ultimate sin is silence in the face of injustice. 9
KRISTER STENDAHL
One of the influential biblical theologians of the
1950s-.1990s was the Swedish NewTestament
scholar and Harvard Divinity School professor,
Krister Stendahl. AJ3 a Swedish teenager in the late
1930s, Stendahl sought relief for an arthritic spine at
a German spa. There he met Swedish missionaries
who told him about Nazi persecution of jews and
rescue operations. These experiences were to have a
life-long impact on him.
Stendahl earned his doctorate from Uppsala
University in Sweden and wrote his dissertation on
the newly discovered Dead Sea Scrolls. In 1954 he
began a long and illustrious ecclesiastical and academic
career, first at Harvard Divinity School where
he gained recognition for his scholarly writings on
Pauline theology.
One of Stendahl's radical claims was his argument
that Paul's letter to the Romans was not
primarily a discussion of "justification by faith,"
which had been the traditional interpretation since
St. Augustine and was reinforced by both Martin Luther
and john Calvin. Instead, Stendahl asserted that
Paul's thesis in Romans was a discussion of God's
mysterious plan for the jews, an argument he found
especially in Romans 9-11. Stendahl claimed that
Paul's argument demonstrates that God desires harmonious
coexistence between Judaism and Christianity,
thus paving the way for deeper and more
open relationships between Christians and Jews.
Christians should no longer follow Paul's example of
attempting to convert Jews, nor should they practice
any form of anti-Semitism or claim superiority with
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ZIONISM UNSETTLED