Josh Stanton: Our community in New York is reaching out to our Jewish brothers and sisters to express our care, our solidarity. The Jewish people have been persecuted and hunted down more than any other people in history. In the past, Christian support for Israel has had a lot of baggage, sometimes connected to specific eschatology or theological presuppositions. I have a moral obligation to stand against racism, bigotry, hatred, and violence in any form. Our community is deeply strategizing how we develop a more holistic, transcendent outreach to our Jewish brothers and sisters that’s not encumbered by some of the baggage of the past in Christian circles but far less evangelical circles.
For two millennia there’s been a teaching of contempt, meaning that Jews are supposed to suffer in exile forever because they refuse to accept Jesus as the Messiah. As a result, many Christians theologically struggle with the idea that Jews have returned in large numbers to their ancestral homelands. Christians need to grapple with that theological issue at this moment in order to be good friends and allies of the Jewish people. Many are doing that. It takes time and intention.
For Americans who don’t know the difference, it’s easy to paint with a single brush a highly diverse people that has been shaped by every culture that has hosted them, usually for the good. It would be nice if people listen to Jews as they describe themselves, rather than telling Jews who they are or who they are supposed to be. When we’re told who we’re supposed to be, it reduces our humanity. It turns us into the types of people you can hate. When you strip our humanity from us, it’s easy to hate an idea of who we are.
It takes two or three lines of security to bring your kids to Hebrew school. You tell your five-year-old child that in order to practice Judaism, you have to be wanded twice and go through a mantrap at your synagogue door. When I go to Episcopalian churches, I walk right in the front door. No one’s there, no guard, no locked doors. It is a different reality for Christians right now than for Jews. Unfortunately, the murders have taught us that security is absolutely essential for our physical well-being. What it does to us emotionally, day in and day out, being reminded of the fact that there are a lot of people out there who wish us harm, it’s excruciatingly painful.
Stearns: It all starts with one friendship. What is a concrete message to Christians everywhere? Reach out to your Jewish friends. Say, “Hey, I care about you. Can we get coffee?” It’s amazing what can come out of one simple conversation over coffee.
The first time I felt okay after the extraordinarily painful attacks of October 7 was in the presence of Christians, because it was the first time I felt held emotionally and realized that I was not alone, that Jews were not alone.
