Baptist Leader Says Anti-semitism is Contrary to Gospel of Christianity

A Baptist theologian said here last night that “Christian responsibility for anti-Semitism and the participation by Christians in the persecution of Jews” were contrary “to the love of Christ and the gospel of a loving God.” Dr. A. Jase Jones, area missionary director for the Southern Baptist Home Mission Board in Kansas City, Mo., spoke at the opening session of an interfaith dialogue at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. The gathering is sponsored jointly by the Home Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention and the Interreligious Affairs department of the American Jewish Committee.

Dr. Jones’ paper on “Images of the Jew in Southern Baptist Literature” followed a presentation by Prof. Leonard Dinnerstein, of Fairleigh Dickinson and Columbia universities on “Jewish History in the Southern United States.” Dr. Dinnerstein said that Jews in the South have always prospered but socially they have never been fully accepted and in times of crisis “frequently became the butt of prejudices and scorn.” He attributed their situation in part to Southern religious teachings and stated that Southern Jews today live in fear of anti-Semitism. “They are continually looking over their shoulders to see what their Gentile neighbors are doing, and are constantly anxious lest some Jew might offend members of the dominant group,” Dr. Dinnerstein said.

Dr. Jones acknowledged that some Baptist writers “make statements that are examples of those attitudes and expressions which can be considered anti-Semitic or as contributing to the creation and continuation of anti-Semitic attitudes and emotions.” He stressed, however, that in recent years Baptist articles and books have sought to counter the thrust of anti-Semitism “by creating a correct understanding of the Jew and an appreciation of him.” Quoting from E. Luther Copeland’s “Christianity and World Religions,” Dr. Jones stated, “The Christian’s primary responsibility is to love the Jew.” In quotations from other works, the Baptist leader noted that “Jews are no more guilty of Jesus’ death than non-Jews” and added, “the so-called Christians who have participated in the persecution of Jews did not represent the spirit of Jesus or his teachings.”

Dr. Dinnerstein said “at present the Jews are a dying breed in the South. Outside of Florida, not only has the ratio of Jews to the rest of the population been declining in every Southern state since 1937, but in six of them…the total number of Jews is lower than it had been in1927.”