A malevolent tumor in the Christian body - Brief Article
National Catholic Reporter, ÝMay 11, 2001 Ýby A. James Rudin
Recent pop culture phenomena show harmful views

Two recent events, a comic strip that appeared on Easter Sunday and a Bible study class involving three New York Knicks, have shattered the sense of complacency that some people have about the current state of Christian-Jewish relations.

Popular culture, in this case a comic strip and the religious views of several professional athletes, frequently reveals far more about what people really believe than the learned theological discourses heard at academic conferences.

Johnny Hart began his widely read newspaper comic strip "B.C." in 1958. Today the strip runs in 1,300 publications. Hart had a religious conversion in 1987, and two years ago he began incorporating his evangelical Christian beliefs into his strip. In 1999 Hart told The Washington Post that only believers in Jesus will gain heaven after death.

Hart's Easter Sunday "B.C." strip was his self-proclaimed attempt to "pay tribute to both" Christians and Jews, but he completely failed in that effort. Instead, the Jewish community and many Christian leaders were outraged and angered by Hart's comic strip that featured the seven candles of a candelabrum or menorah, a sacred biblical symbol of Judaism. The menorah is snuffed out by the seven last words of Jesus, and once the flames are extinguished, the Jewish symbol is transformed into a cross. The final "B.C." panel shows the cross, a symbol of a triumphant Christianity, standing near an empty tomb that contains bread and wine, elements of the Christian Communion.

What clearly emerges in Hart's comic strip is the traditional theological view that Judaism, the old covenant, merely provided the setting for the new covenant that is Christianity, Judaism's rightful successor. While millions of Christians may share Hart's views, many prominent Christian scholars, including evangelicals, have sharply repudiated that position and reached an entirely different conclusion, and asserted that God's grace and love toward the Jewish people is eternal and irrevocable. Many newspapers did not print Hart's Easter message, including The Record of Hackensack, N.J. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and the Chicago Sun-Times have dropped "B.C.," and The Washington Post does not publish the strip on Sundays, when Hart's evangelical messages are likely to appear.

Hart dangerously crossed two significant "red lines" with his burnt-out menorah comic strip. Knowingly or not, he transmitted a profoundly negative and pathological view of Judaism, one that has frequently created the climate for verbal and physical abuse of Jews throughout the centuries. In addition, because "B.C." appears in the general press and not the Christian media, Hart took unfair advantage of his trust relationship with his readers. This is especially true for the many youngsters who are highly influenced by the values and ideas of a popular comic strip.

The Lutheran scholar Dr. Martin E. Marty wrote that Hart's comic strip filled him with "unambiguous distaste," asserting that Hart is either "insensitive to the delicacies in relating to two covenants, or he's naive."

A week after Hart's Easter comic appeared, Eric Konigsberg's story about the dysfunctional interpersonal nature of the Knicks team appeared in The New York Times Magazine. As part of his research, Konigsberg discovered a growing phenomenon among many professional athletes: an intense interest in religion, often evangelical Christianity.

As part of his research, Konigsberg sat in on a Bible study group with three Knicks players, Charlie Ward, Allan Houston and Kurt Thomas. Knick coach Jeff Van Gundy does not attend these activities, nor does the team sponsor the religion sessions. Sitting with players, the Jewish reporter was stunned to hear the harsh negative views of Jews and Judaism that erupted: "Jews are stubborn ... they persecuted Jesus ... they had his blood on their hands ... there are Christians getting persecuted by Jews every day ... [Jews] wanted Jesus dead ..."

Although the Knicks organization and the National Basketball Association publicly distanced themselves from such language, the ugly anti-Jewish language of the players reflects the worst of Christian theology vis-a-vis Jews and Judaism, including the infamous "Christ killer" charge that was repudiated at the Second Vatican Council as well as by other Christian bodies.

Yet that ugly canard remains embedded within many Christians, a malevolent tumor that has not been removed. However, that can only happen when the spiritual mentors of Ward, Houston, Thomas and Hart begin teaching their students, especially if they are millionaire sports icons, that such bitter anti-Jewish language and theological beliefs must be supplanted with a Christianity that does not malign an entire people or religion in order to validate its own existence.

Until and unless that happens, there will be more anti-Jewish "incidents" involving sports celebrities and widely read cartoonists.

Rabbi A. James Rudin is senior interreligious adviser of the American Jewish Committee.

COPYRIGHT 2001 National Catholic Reporter
COPYRIGHT 2001 Gale Group