How churches and Christians can combat the rising tide of anti-Semitism
October 9, 2022 | New York
Christians in the United States are being urged to use their influence to combat anti-Semitism amid a staggering rise in hate crimes and other incidents targeting Jewish Americans in recent years.
As a leading Jewish civil rights organization reports that 2021 saw violence against Jews reach record levels, followers of Christ have a role to play in fostering acceptance for their Jewish neighbors and pushing back against anti-Semitic conspiracy theories within their spheres of influence, Christian scholars say.
“I think through genuine conversation, we begin to reflect on how our own churches or communities expressed anti-Semitism, either consciously or unconsciously, wittingly or unwittingly,” Christian theologian Rev. Lee B. Spitzer, an affiliate professor of church history at Northern Seminary in Illinois, told The Christian Post.
Spitzer, who retired in 2019 as the general secretary of the American Baptist Churches USA, says that many Christians incorrectly conclude that anti-Semitism is a byproduct of Bible-based Christianity or that it’s not something that is the Church’s responsibility to combat. But he encourages Christians to check their own actions and words they may not know are harmful to the Jewish community…. (Excerpt from The Christian Post)
