Dr. Herring Explains Council’s Attitude Toward Budapest Missionary Congress

(Communication to the Editor)

Sir:

Following is the cablegram recently sent to Dr. John R. Mott, Chairman of the World Missionary Congress at Budapest:

“In line with our recent conference we sincerely hope you will recommend that the Congress issue a call to Christians everywhere to purge the world of the curse of anti-Semitism and to accord to the Jews that highly respected place in the brotherhood of peoples which they richly deserve on the basis of their sacred literature and history, and which is their inalienable right. We further hope that the Congress will express disapproval of any enterprise that utilizes or implies patronage, majority pressure or disrespect for a brother’s faith.”

The bearing of this cablegram on the missionary activity known as Hebrew-Christian Missions is obvious.

I wish to call your readers particular attention to the closing line, “We further hope that the Congress will express disapproval of any enterprise that utilizes or implies patronage, majority pressure, or disrespect for a brother’s faith.” Your readers will observe that there are three things against which we are protesting, namely, patronage, majority pressure, and disrespect for a brother’s faith. These three things constitute our objection to many traditional efforts to press Christianity upon Jews.

The recent story in the “Jewish Daily Bulletin” may perhaps need a word of clarification. The “Bulletin” story is correct in stating that several American Protestant delegates are attending the Budapest Congress. They are doing so in a semi-official capacity. as members of the Home Missions Council, a National Protestant missionary organization. The Home Missions Council is not the sponsor of the Budapest Congress, but has aided the Congress to the extent of helping the said Congress to secure a few American delegates. Initiation of the Congress was from abroad. Also, it ought to be said that there is no responsibility, either direct or indirect, resting upon the Committee on Goodwill Between Jews and Christians or the Federal Council, for the Budapest Congress. The Committee on Goodwill is cooperating with Jewish organizations on a strictly non-proselytizing basis, and has observed both the letter and spirit of the agreement, with scrupulous care. The reason for the discussion that has taken place thus far lies in the fact that the General Committee of the Federal Council, of which the Committee on Goodwill Between Jews and Christians is a part, expects in the near future to establish organic connection with the General Missions Group. It is therefore obvious that neither the Committee on Goodwill, nor the Federal Council itself has had any connection, however remote, with the Budapest Congress. The Jews of America are doubtless conscious that the historic belief that Christians are called upon to try to spread their gospel, is an obligation upon the conscience of Orthodox Christendom. I assume there is no quarrel with those who are sincere and earnest expositors of their faith, provided they are fair, and take no kind of an advantage over those whom they hope to persuade. As I understand Jewish-Christian relations, criticism has been chiefly levelled against the attitudes and methods which are the subjects of our protest in the above cablegram.

The cooperative committees of the Federal Council and of National Jewish organizations have, because of the facts of history, agreed to abide by a mutually respecting program, in which no attempt whatsoever, be it ever so fair, should be made to persuade members of an opposite group to change their faith.

I wish particularly to make it clear that there is not one of us engaged in this work who can tolerate for a moment the accusation that we are trying to develop goodwill as a smokescreen to conceal a deeper motive. We feel profoundly and earnestly that these slender beginnings of a cooperative and fraternal relationship, are in an exact sense, unique and sacred. We trust that they may not be marred by any act that betrays a trust or by any suspicion that may arise from a hasty judgment of the program. The best guarantee of the fairness of the program lies in the fact that it is in every sense mutually planned, directed and expanded according to the best judgment of a joint National Board of Jews and Christians.

Respectfully yours, JOHN W. HERRING,

Secretary, Committee on Goodwill Between Jews and Christians of Federal Council of Churches of Christ in America.

New York. Apr. 16, 1927.