Showing posts with label civil rights movement. Show all posts
Showing posts with label civil rights movement. Show all posts

Tuesday 15 December 2015

25 Orthodox rabbis issued a statement on Christianity

The moral introspection generated by the Holocaust was further stimulated by the campaign of some Jewish intellectuals, notably Jules Isaac, who urged the Catholic Church to undo the “teaching of contempt” that had characterized its approach to Jews through the ages.
However, exclusive attention to this dimension obscures the larger forces transforming the moral and intellectual landscape of the 1960s. The egalitarian impulse that produced the civil rights movement in the United States and de-colonization worldwide did not sit well with traditions of religious exclusivism and triumphalism, let alone the condemnation of the other to discrimination and damnation.

There have been commemorations celebrating the 50th anniversary of the “Declaration on the Relation of the Church to non-Christian Religions” titled “Nostra Aetate,” whose fourth section deals with Judaism and marks a genuinely significant moment.

Jewish reactions were for the most part highly favourable, though various objections were raised that strike me as expressions of hypersensitivity. Thus, the document should have “condemned” anti-Semitism rather than merely “decrying” it; the final version should have retained the term “deicide” in characterizing the offence for which the Jews bear no guilt.

The declaration was seen as too little, too late, and the notion that Jews were being exonerated for crucifying Jesus was seen as at least marginally insulting. Thus, some Jews whose long-standing bill of particulars against the Church featured the guilt that it assigned to the Jewish people for the Crucifixion nonetheless dismissed the historic revocation of this theology as an event that should have no consequences for their own resentful stance.

To implement the new relationship, the Church established a Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews, which issued its first official document (“Guidelines and Suggestions for Implementing the Conciliar Declaration Nostra Aetate (No.4)”) in 1974. In 1985, it issued “Notes on the Correct Way to Present the Jews and Judaism in Preaching and Catechesis in the Roman Catholic Church.” And in 1998, it issued a document on the Holocaust titled “We Remember.” Despite occasional formulations that some Jews, rightly or wrongly, found inadequate or objectionable, these documents fleshed out “Nostra Aetate” in a direction that reflected advances achieved by ongoing dialogues and even dealt with some of the specific concerns that Jews had expressed regarding the original declaration.

In “Nostra Aetate” itself, and much more so in subsequent Church documents and papal utterances, the abiding value of Judaism has been affirmed and even emphasized. In theological language, the covenant between God and the original Israel remains in effect. What precisely that covenant is—the Abrahamic and/or the Mosaic—is not quite settled, and some Jews have virtually demanded that Christians declare that the Mosaic covenant remains in full force. I have argued that this demand is unwise. It raises intractable questions about the parameters of the Jewish need to observe that covenant and constitutes a telling example of the inappropriate dictation to others of what their own religion must teach.

> Please do read more about this subject:

Vatican II at 50; Assessing the impact of ‘Nostra Aetate’ on Jewish-Christian relations By David Berger

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Friday 16 July 2010

Martin Luther King's Dream Today

Dr. Alveda King, the niece of Martin Luther King jr., spoke on June 22nd 2010, at a meeting of the Working Group on Human Dignity, in the European Parliament in Brussels.
Please read her thoughts on the role of civil rights movements and the protection of life, which is a main topic of interest for her.

Martin Luther King's Dream Today - Thoughts by his Niece
Dr. Alveda King
“The message I share comes from my heart, from love of life and family, and from an inherited sense of duty to defend the most vulnerable in society.
My talk today and my work as a civil rights activist are based on three very simple truths –
* that every human being is worthy of respect by virtue of his being human;
* that at no time does anyone’s life become less human or more human;
* that each human life begins at its physical beginning
As a result of these three propositions, every single human being, born or unborn, has rights and those rights should be respected by society and protected under law.
Repentance is the first step in a soul being saved; it’s also the first step in a culture being changed. I know this because I have seen my culture, my America, change in my lifetime.
So much bloodshed and heartache happened because some people in the United States thought that African Americans were not worthy of respect. We were spat upon. We were clubbed and beaten. And we were lynched. We were killed because we were regarded as less than fully human. So it is with the lives of unborn babies – who are womb-lynched today.
But racism not only oppressed African Americans, it seared the consciences of the oppressors. People found that the fabrications of racists made their own lives more comfortable, more convenient, and they became invested in those falsehoods. They depended on those falsehoods. And so they believed, what they knew in their hearts to be untrue. So it is with the lies of abortionists today.
Today’s unborn are yesterday’s blacks – best kept out of sight and out of mind lest they remind us of the injustices we commit. The problem for abortionists and their supporters, though, is the same problem racists and segregationists faced: reality. Unborn babies won’t go away. So the work of the abortion industry has been to deny the humanity of those they exploit and discriminate against.
But what if, like the Texas abortion clinic director who recently quit her job when she saw the ultrasound image of the baby she was helping to abort, we can no longer rationalize away what we’ve been doing all these years? What if the truth becomes so clear and so compelling that society simply can’t go on being indifferent or complicit in the big lie? Well, that’s when we have to do what is against our nature – we have to humble ourselves, admit our wrongs and change our ways.
And that, in fact, is what my country did because of the civil rights movement. America changed because Americans were touched in their hearts – hearts that the Bible tells us are inscribed with God’s law. We can try to deny our consciences, indoctrinate or medicate our minds so that we can’t or won’t think, but a sense of right and wrong has been given to each and every one of us. It is that very moral awareness that changed America’s culture on racism.
I believe it is that same moral awareness that can change any culture on abortion. It won’t happen overnight. But it is already happening.
In our hearts, we know this. For too long, though, we have looked the other way. We have not wanted to get involved. We have convinced ourselves that people will never change when it comes to abortion. I’m here to tell you that this is not true. I have seen change, in myself, in others, and in my nation. What happened with slavery and racism is now happening with abortion. Those in power who can speak up for the persecuted must do so, we are our brothers’ keeper and what happens to him, happens to us.
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. wrote from a jail cell, “injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” Whether a child is aborted in Birmingham, Alabama or Birmingham, England, that abortion is an assault on what my Uncle Martin called the Beloved Community.
My Uncle Martin had a dream. He dreamt that we would live out that which is self-evident – that all men are created equal. He called on America to admit our wrongs and turn from them.
Today, I call on all of us, regardless of nationality, race or religion, to admit our wrongs and turn from them. I believe that the denial of the right to life is the greatest injustice we face in the world today. There is no compassion in killing. There is no justice in writing people out of the human race.
I only ask: How can such a dream live on - the dream of equality for all - if we kill our children? How can the dream live on if we deny others their basic human dignity and respect? How can the dream live on if we do not act on their behalf?”

- "Europe for Christ!"