The Courage to Teach

Education undoubtedly played a crucial role in reinforcing the ideologies of the colonizers. It is my hope that the Christian church being the redeemed people of God, needs to learn from the mistakes of the past by cultivating different educational practices. Instead of deploying colonial mindset and practices in teaching, the church need to take back teaching as an instrument of hope. To be teachers of the church in the post-Holocaust and post-colonial era requires inner strength, global mind, and discerning heart. When a teacher enters a classroom, a fellowship hall, or a church basement, s/he no longer affords to behave like a dictator determining all by himself or herself about how information is going to flow.

The teaching of the Christian faith in our times demands courageous men and women to take risk. Maintaining the status quo turns a blind eye to the colonial assumptions of the past. I often hear sincere Christians that they admit the Christian past were problematic, such as the church's relationship with Jews and Judaism. Yet, far from taking that acknowledgement as an opportunity to learn anew, they point out our ancestors' behaviours and beliefs were not "really Christian" and those colonial practices could not stand up to the "spirit of the gospel." What they are saying is: What is problematic was the actions of Christian people, not Christianity. The underlying assumption is: Christianity, with its traditional doctrines are fine; Christian people just need to be more loving.

As much as I would like to agree with their assessments, I must point out the need to untangle the hegemony between belief and power; faith and culture. Of course, looking back from the vantage point of the 21st century North America, we pronounce with certainty that beliefs such as anti-Judaism, slavery, colonialism, racism, and male-chavinism are unchristian. But at different times, these were once the church's TRUE UNDERSTANDING of the gospel. Those practices were embedded deeply in what Christians at the time thought TRUE Christianity was about! If we have a chance to confront our ancestors face to face, there is little doubt that they would defend their understandings with all their hearts and souls thinking they were doing what God had demanded them to do; despite those beliefs were problematic in today's sentiments. We would be labelled as "non-Christians," "liberals," and may be even "anti-Christ" if we dare to raise the voice of protest.

The church needs to re-examine its beliefs and discuss what Christianity has become. The way for the contemporary church to KNOW a particular belief of practice that cannot stand up to the "spirit of the gospel" is having the courage to question, evaluate, revise, and even abandon it if necessary. Traditions are deeply treasured in Christianity; may be idolized. but traditions can be understood as the culminate experiences of the past hand down to us from previous generations. Let us be reminded that the church worships God, not the past saints' experiences. Tradition can be regarded as a "reservoir of experience" so that the church has resources to find its way in the maze. Traditions are not divine; anything less is guilty of idolatry, a violation of the First Commandment. How does the church know a particular experience does justice to the gospel? I like adult educator Stephen Brookfield's comment when he says, "Ten years of practice can be one year's worth of distorted experience repeated ten times." We need courageous thinkers and teachers who are able to help people weigh information critically. Just because something is traditional doesn't automatically mean it is holy and worth practicing.

The courage to teach is the courage to examine faith beliefs and practices. These are the heart of Jesus' prophetic ministry he introduced to us and embodied. After two thousand years of church history and the realization of many unChristian crimes committed by baptized Christians who professed faith in Jesus, the church could be said to have become wiser and mature when God's people are not afraid of self-examination.

Post-Holocaust Reflections for the Future of Asian Churches

On November 5, 2009, with the invitation of the Sarah and Chaim Neuberger Holocaust Education Center of Toronto, Canada, I gave a presentation at the Holocaust Education Week event. The Holocaust Education Center has done a fabulous job of organizing two weeks of educational activities as the Jewish community try to keep the memories alive as well as educating the public. I was honoured to be invited to give a presentation. As stated in their brochure, they expect 30,000 participants over the two weeks and there were about 170 educational and cultural programs. This is an annual event. Look for another one next year in November.

My presentation was hosted by the Taiwanese United Church (Newtonbrook United Church) in Toronto since my topic has something to do with Asian Christianity. I debunked the popular mindset among many Asian Christians that the Holocaust is mainly an European issue where Asian Christians do not need to talk about it. I encouraged participants to consider the political dimensions of the emergence of Christianity and provided some guidelines in understanding the polemics in the gospel accounts. I said the church needs courageous teachers.

In my presentation, I said to dialogue with Jews is not simply a matter of justice or correctness. It is essential for the integrity of Christianity to have keen understanding of Judaism because it is impossible to proclaim Christian faith without reference to Judaism. The question becomes: Which Judaism the church is making reference to? Is it the church's pre-Holocaust understanding or the post-Holocaust understanding?

Asians and Jews have close similarities when it comes to education and family values, strong work ethics, and social readiness to contribute to the common good. Jews and Asian Christians need to learn from each others and try to make this world a better place to live.

This is the website of the Holocaust Education Week.

http://www.holocausteducationweek.com/

"Asian Holocaust": A Misguided Term

Similar to the world "Holocaust," the phrase "Asian Holocaust" has gained public recognition in recent years, especially through the creation of the American Museum of Asian Holocaust located in Philadelphia, U.S.. This phrase usually refers to the genocides that occurred in Asia during the Second World War, notably the atrocities conducted by Japanese soldiers in China, commonly known as the Rape of Nanking, the bombing of Hiroshima by the United States, even the killing field of Cambodia. While the suffering of Asian people in these genocides is immensely painful and thus, should not be ignored, the analogy is misappropriated. There are characteristic differences in terms of motives and the reasons for the genocides.

Besides the anti-Jewish ideology toward Jews which I have argued in the previous postings, there is another key characteristic of the Holocaust -the nullification of Jews and therefore intended eradication of the Jewish race. Hitler's antisemitic policy was inspired by a hierarchy of race and blood where the Jewish people were at the lowest rank possible. The intention to wipe out a whole ethnic group is one of the reasons why the Holocaust is an unprecedented event in human history. These crucial factors, namely the delusional ideology about Jews with Christian anti-Judaism as seedbed and the intended wholesale eradication of Jews, are the benchmarks of the Holocaust. Based on these two key characteristics, to appropriate the Rape of Nanking or the bombing of Hiroshima as an equivalent to the Holocaust is inappropriate. The "Asian Holocaust" is a mistaken analogy, although this detracts nothing from the suffering of the Asian peoples. There is no evidence to suggest that the United States had a plan to eradicate the Japanese people completely or seeing Japanese as an evil race when the atomic bomb was dropped. Similar, even though the imperial Japanese soldiers committed atrocious crimes toward Chinese people during the Second World War, to argue the wholescale eradication of every Chinese person on earth as part of the ideology conviction of the imperial Japanese government has no basis in fact. Also lacking was the role of Christian theology (or any theology) in leading toward those genocides. All suffering is painful and unique. It is fruitless and insulting to describe the suffering of Asians or anyone in terms of the suffering of someone else, as if one's suffering has no merit to be voiced and expressed in its own term. In the words of the late professor Emil Fackenheim, "To link Auschwitz with Hiroshima is not to deepen or widen one's concern with humanity and its future. It is to evade the import of Auschwitz and Hiroshima alike."

Yet, the term "Asian Holocaust" take many Asian Christians' attention away from addressing the root cause of anti-Judaism by over-simplifying commonalities and ignoring crucial difference. This misguided analogy bears partially responsibility for the lack of interest of correcting the mistakes of the church among Asian Christians by unknowingly suggesting that Asian Christians should deal with "Asian Holocaust" and Jews with their own. This may be another reason why Asian Christians tend to believe that Asian Christians do not need to worry about the Holocaust. The result is that Asian Christians miss the opportunity to address the erroneous assumptions our Christian ancestors made; among some, naively believe that holding onto the "traditions" is equivalent to being faithful to God. Among the negative consequences, the assignment of Holocaust to the terrible events in the twentieth century Asia, is that it further isolates Asian Christians' participation in the post-Holocaust theological discourse.

Re-Thinking Christianity After the Holocaust

Auschwitz, a small Polish town located about halfway between Krakow and Katowice, Poland, can only be located on a detailed map. The primary reason why this small town deserves our attention is that the notorious Nazi extermination camp is near the town. Contemporary Auschwitz is becoming a kind of museum: clean, organized, and a tourist attraction. But it was once ugly and dreadful with some of the most cold-blooded activities humankind has ever conceived. During the Nazi regime, Auschwitz was one of several death camps where millions of people were executed. Among the dead were Communists, Poles, Roman Catholic priests and Protestant ministers, anti-Nazi-activists, homosexuals, Gypsies, Soviet citizens, and the handicapped. During the Nazi regime, six million Jews perished. I focus my studies on the suffering of Jews during this regime because they died for the simple fact that they were born Jewish or were of Jewish ancestry. Henry Friedländer writes, "The Nazi persecuted their political and ideological opponents - Marxists, liberals, or Churchmen - for what they believed, said or did; only Jews suffered for just existing."

What Adolf Hitler did was to add genocide to an already flourishing anti-Jewish (Christian) ideology. The Holocaust may be unprecedented and unthinkable in its time, but the religious foundation for such a horror did not develop overnight. Instead, it was the scaffolding of the centuries of anti-Jewish Christian teaching that gradually permeate the Christian mind.

For example, early Christian theologian Justin Martyr (ca. 100-160 C.E.) in his lengthy Dialogue with Trypho the Jew, asserted that the Mosaic Law was no longer valid. Justin argued that the law was given only because of Jews' hardness of heart and its purpose was to keep Jewish sinfulness in check. He says, "The Law giver is present, yet you do not see Him; to the poor the Gospel is preached, the blind see, yet you do not understand." Ignatius joins the chorus, "It is absurd to speak of Jesus Christ with the tongue and to cherish in the mind a Judaism which has now come to an end." Another theologian Chrysostrom says, "Here [in the synagogogue] the slayers of Christ gather together, here the cross is driven out, here God is blasphemed, here the Father is ignored, here the Son is outraged, here the grace of the Spirit is rejected. Does not greater harm come from this place since the Jews themselves are demons?"

Early Christian theologians employed the same rhetorical-polemic skills the ancient Jewish prophets used yet not as members of the Jewish faith but as Gentile Christians condemning Judaism as an inferior religion. In their theologizing, early Christian theologians imposed collective guilt upon Jewish people for the death of Jesus; they also charged that Jews were no longer God's beloved children. The "anti-Jewish virus" is so embedded in Christianity that it is almost impossible not to denigrate Judaism while articulating Christian identity. Let's face it: Repentance cannot be completed without reconstruction.

If contemporary Christians are courageous enough to rest their faith on the ministry of Jesus, the church's understanding of the early form of Jesus' message must be thoroughly Jewish, or within the confine of Jewish thought of the time. Jesus must be understood as a Jewish itinerant teacher; his ministry, parables, and teachings were drawn essesntially within the Jewish frame of mind and he conducted his ministry with imperial Roman ideology and political colonization as the backdrop. A credible post-Holocaust Christian theology must place Jesus' ministry within formative Judaism, not external to it. To do so, a serious rethinking of Christianity from its roots is no longer an option. In addition, the church's task is more than removing anti-Judaism. The church needs actions and re-educate its people; above all, the church needs to redefine Christianity. The removal of anti-Judaism makes traditional Christian beliefs impossible to sustain. The theological task is comparable to removing a significant bad strand in a piece of fabric. After the removal, the fabric will not stay the same. If anti-Judaism is undesirable and in fact theologically erroneous, Christian theology regarding its origin, understanding of Jesus, salvation, liturgy, church and so on cannot be unchanged. Business cannot be as usual if the church is genuine in saying: "Never again."

After the Holocaust: The Courage to Teach Asian Christians

The need to reexamine the Christian relationship between Christians and Jews has been largely triggered by the soul-troubling reality of the Holocaust. Since Jewish-Christian dialogue is being carried out most vigorously in the West, it is relatively easy for Asian Christians to bypass its significance and dismiss it as another Western issue. In my very first posting, I already said that by professing faith in Jesus Christ, Asian Christians share the scandals and glories of the Christian movement, both past and present. Let me say more about the challenges to teach as a result.

Asian Christians can claim physical non-involvement during the Holocaust; however, as part of the Christian family, they were there figuratively speaking. Speaking as an Asian Lutheran, I inherit the whole legacy of Lutheranism, including Luther's anti-Jewish treaties. Because I am willing to stand alongside German Lutherans, I am 'naturalized' as a member of the 'guilty tradition' of Luther. Yet, I rejoice greatly with the Lutheran church when the church denounces Luther's anti-Jewish writing. If I am not part of the family, I have no reason to celebrate. To free Asian Christians from the legacy of anti-Judaism, they must be willing to cast themselves as members of this problematic tradition and in turn, confront the tradition. They must be willing to search deep in understanding how the legacy of anti-Judaism operates in their theology, system of belief, and teaching. Asian churches will fall short in freeing Asian Christians from the mistakes of the past when they do not perceive anti-Judaism as part of the Asian Christian tradition. The pitfall for Asian churches is to free Asian people from sin and guilt at the expense of other people's suffering, that is, Jews and Judaism.

Secondly, some Asian Christians considered their primary task is to address the genocides occurring exclusively in Asia and/or in Asian communities. While I believe that all genocide are important materials for theological and ethical reflection, I as an Asian Christian cannot ignore the Holocaust because of the Christians connection to the genocide. The significance of this particular genocide for Christians is two thousand years of teaching of Christian anti-Judaism. The Holocaust brings problematic Christian theology and assumptions to the surface, and it forces all Christians, regardless of race and culture, to reexamine their belief. Just because Asian Christians in Asia and around the world were not physically involved in the anti-Jewish campaign of the early and mediaeval church, it does not mean that Asian Christians have purged anti-Jewish teaching and mindset from their theology and teaching. If Christianity characterized by the love, mercy and forgiveness of Jesus can contribute to horrific incident such as Auschwitz and Birkenau, there is no guarantee that contemporary Asian Christians will not cause other forms of oppression. What I am calling for on the part of Asian Christians, particularly in North America, is a serious reexamination of the relationship with Judaism after the Holocaust. How Asian Christians will relate to their closest siblings and how they will read and reread the pages of the Bible in the 21st century with new eyes is in part a signal of their willingness to confront the legacy of anti-Judaism that has been so deeply rooted in the Christian heritage.

The Gospel Has No Need of Anti-Judaism

"I am not interested in Jewish-Christian relations." Really! How can that be? You call yourself a Christian and you believe in Jesus who was a Jew. You read the Bible that was mostly written with Jewish customs, cultures, languages and the worldview of the Ancient Near East. You may not be interested in attending a Jewish-Christian dialogue group; but by definition, as a Christian, that is, a Christ-follower, you participate in "Jewish-Christian relations" the rest of your life! How you read, interpret, and understand Judaism as you read the pages of the Bible; and what lenses you bring as you learn to deepen your faith in Jesus is the very foundation of Christian life.

A Catholic Bishop in Canada once said, "I don't believe that I am better than Jews socially; but religiously, I have to say that I am better than them." This song of religiously better than Jews and Judaism has been sung throughout the Christian history; and most importantly, it has been identified as the foundational building block of how Christian self-identity has been promoted.

In my previous postings, I kept using the term "anti-Judaism." Anti-Judaism refers to theological attitudes, arguments, and polemics that say Christianity has replaced Judaism as God's children and achieved special status as a way to promote the Christian teaching of superiority. Centuries of negative appraisal of Judaism and defamatory preaching such as the PASCHAL HOMILY of Melito of Sardis who first gave us the idea of deicide taught Christians to think of their Jewish neighbours as Christ killers, sinful, and even demonic. Anti-Judaism is a dangerous theological attitude that fuelled the development of modern antisemitism, to which Nazis added a deadly component.

Christian who with their utmost sincerity claim they are not antisemites but yet can turn around and make anti-Jewish theological claims. It is a problematic but habitual way of promoting Christian identity that the post-Holocaust Christians cannot condone.

Instead, Christians need to take a hard look at the usage of polemics in the gospel accounts. Polemics are common literary tactics in sacred scriptures of ancient religious communities. It ranges from subtle to overtly bitter. Polemics directly targeted religious group that were closely related to each others. Closer the family ties, the greater the denunciations. As siblings derived their identities from the same religious resources, ancient people used polemics to belittle mercilessly other members of the same tradition regarding their distinctive views. The gospel account contain numerous such polemics; it was the rhetorical tool of the time serving as boundary markers. Also, it was the result of the intense rivalry relationship among siblings, a family feud.

Unlike Jesus and his Jewish followers, the early Christian church in the later centuries with its membership comprised primarily of non-Jews. The in-house polemics became a rich resource for non-Jewish Christians to charge Judaism and Jews as inferior. These Christians and theologians have already forgotten the intra-family politics of the previous centuries as well as the political contexts of the writings. But think: Even Matthew the gospel writer who used polemics and spoke harshly against the Pharisees, other Jewish leaders, and other Jewish sects, he also spoke passionately how Jewish life could be better off with faith in Jesus in the age of ancient Roman imperialism. As a Jew himself, it would be unimaginable for Matthew to believe that the Jewish way of life, including tis religious traditions, values and visions would be nullified because of Jesus.

The ancient gospel writers employed polemics when they told the story of Jesus. The Christ-followers in the later centuries used what was said concerning Jews in the pages of the gospel accounts to develop the tradition of anti-Judaism. Today, the gospel of Jesus needs to be told with none of the above. This is one of the sacred tasks of Christian teaching.