Unification Church and antisemitism

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While many of the members of the Unification Church take a generally pro-Jewish, pro-Israel stance, the church has been a subject to criticism for alleged antisemitism because of its teachings concerning the Jews in the Old and New Testaments.

The main areas of dispute focus on:

In a 1976 statement published as a full-page advertisement in major newspapers, Sun Myung Moon said,

The Unification Movement categorically condemns anti-Semitism, the most hideous, abject and cruel form of hatred. We regard the murder of six million Jews in Europe the result of political short-sightedness and lack of moral responsibility on the part of Germany's political and religious leaders, and [others who] acted too late to block Hitler's ascent to power, postponed the action for his downfall, and did nothing to rescue the victims who were the captives of his satanic plans and designs.

Yet he has also made several statements that appear, to some people, to blame the Jews along with the Roman government. For example,

To recreate Israel, the church and the state must become one as Cain and Abel. Instead they became one with Rome and captured and killed Jesus. They united with Rome. Who are the Jewish members here, raise your hands! Jewish people, you have to repent. Jesus was the King of Israel. Through the principle of indemnity Hitler killed 6 million Jews. That is why. God could not prevent Satan from doing that because Israel killed the True Parents. Even now, you have to determine that you will repent and follow and become one with Christianity through Rev. Moon. [1] (speech to members, March 2, 2003)

Rabbi A. James Rudin has said that there is a pattern of "unrelieved hostility to the Jewish people" in Moon's Divine Principle, including stereotypes and notions of collective guilt long condemned by mainstream Christian denominations.

Some members of the Unification Church, including some important leaders, are ethnically Jewish. There are also Jewish people employed in church related organizations including the Washington Times and the Unification Theological Seminary.

Contents

[edit] Unificationist views

Members of the Unification Church consider the church to be both pro-Israel and pro-Jewish and disagree that the church's teachings should be regarded by anyone as antisemitic. Church leaders repeatedly asked for discussions with Jewish leaders who raised the charge of antisemitism in 1976, and after getting no response took out full-page newspaper ads to call attention to the church's pro-Jewish and pro-Israeli stance.

Sun Myung Moon has said:

  1. The Unification Movement categorically condemns anti-Semitism, the most hideous, abject and cruel form of hatred. We regard the murder of six million Jews in Europe the result of political short-sightedness and lack of moral responsibility on the part of Germany's political and religious leaders, and [others who] acted too late to block Hitler's ascent to power, postponed the action for his downfall, and did nothing to rescue the victims who were the captives of his satanic plans and designs.
  2. The Unification Movement recognizes the divine and natural right of the Jewish people to physical survival and preservation of its specific religious traditions.
  3. The Unification Movement regards the Land of Israel as a haven for the Holocaust survivors and sanctuary for all those individual Jews who are trying to escape physical persecution and religious, racial or national oppression.
  4. The Unification Movement [will work] for an acceptable accommodation between the Arabs and Jews, and to achieve a genuine and lasting peace in the Middle East, one of the most important corners of the world.
  5. The Unification Movement is grateful to God, to His true and righteous prophets and saints of our common spiritual tradition who prepared the foundations on which we stand and organize our struggle. We consider ourselves to be the younger brother of our Jewish... brethren, all of whom are children of our Heavenly Father. We regard it as our duty to respect and serve the elder sons of our Father, and it is our mission to serve Judaism ...
  6. The Unification Movement [is] guided by the concepts of Unity and Brotherhood expressed in the Divine Commandments, the foundations of our common spiritual heritage. [2]

[edit] Jewish views

The Unification Church is accused of traditional Christian forms of theological antisemitism.

[edit] Blame for the crucifixion

Some Jews feel that the church's views on Jewish responsibility for the crucifixion of Jesus are antisemitic. The head of the church, Sun Myung Moon, has called on Jewish people to repent for the crucifixion. The Anti-Defamation League, the leading organization in the United States concerned with antisemitism and other hate, has not made any complaint against this.

[edit] Blame for the Holocaust

Several authoritative statements by Moon about the Holocaust appear in Jewish eyes to place the blame for it mostly on the Jews themselves, as divine retribution for the crucifixion, which is another classic antisemitic idea.

[edit] The Rudin report

According to Jews and Judaism in Rev. Moon's Divine Principle, a report issued by the American Jewish Committee (AJC) in 1976, "every time Rev. Moon mentions Jews or Israelites he portrays them collectively as reprobate, with evil intentions."

The controversy raised by the AJC centers on passages found in Divine Principle, the church's theology textbook. Rabbi A. James Rudin, Assistant Director of the Interreligious Affairs Department of the American Jewish Committee, wrote:

  • An analysis of this document reveals an orientation of almost unrelieved hostility toward the Jewish people, exemplified in pejorative language, stereotyped imagery, and accusations of collective sin and guilt.
  • Whether he is discussing the "Israelites" of the Hebrew Bible or the "Jews" as referred to in writings of the New Testament period, Moon portrays their behavior as reprobate, their intentions as evil (often diabolical), and their religious mission as eclipsed.
  • There are over 36 specific references in Divine Principle to the Israelites of the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament); each one is pejorative. For example, the "faithlessness" of the Israelites is mentioned four times on a single page (p. 330). (source)

[edit] Passages in Moon's talks

In a sermon delivered on March 2, 2003, Moon said:

  • "To recreate Israel, the church and the state must become one as Cain and Abel. Instead they became one with Rome and captured and killed Jesus. They united with Rome. Who are the Jewish members here, raise your hands! Jewish people, you have to repent. Jesus was the King of Israel. Through the principle of indemnity Hitler killed 6 million Jews. That is why. God could not prevent Satan from doing that because Israel killed the True Parents. Even now, you have to determine that you will repent and follow and become one with Christianity through Rev. Moon."

In this passage, Moon clearly calls on Jews to repent and join his movement.

He also seems to assert that the Jews were responsible for the death of Jesus, and that this was the cause of the Holocaust. Blaming Jews for the death of Jesus, and asserting that the Holocaust was in some sense divine retribution, are classic antisemitic ideas.

Unificationists, however, maintain that it is not that simple: it was Roman soldiers who actually crucified Jesus, and the church condemns the Holocaust. This leaves a puzzle for theologians, having to do with the church's little-understood teaching of "indemnity" -- but clearly drawing a line of causation between the Jews' alleged guilt for killing Christ, and what the UC, to many, seems to view as a subsequent payback in the Nazi Holocaust.

General speculation of this "line of causation" assert that the Jews, since they were in a position with the ability to protect Jesus from being crucified by the Romans, had to pay "indemnity", not in the sense that Hitler would come along and cause the Holocaust, but that if something like the Holocaust were to happen God could not come to the rescue of the Jews but, rather, had to, in a sense, let it happen just as the Jews had let the crucifixion happen.

[edit] Controversy

Jewish people and Unificationists and their critics, including many Jews, disagree on two major points:

  1. Whether it is "antisemitic" to regard Jews, ancient or modern, as bearing any degree of responsibility for the crucifixion of Jesus
  2. Whether the church is "blaming" the Holocaust on Jews (i.e., whether the church considers it to be divine retribution)

[edit] See also

[edit] External links and references

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