Genocides and Holocausts: Never again (COMMENTARY)

An Armenian woman lights a candle during a Mass marking the 100th anniversary of the mass killings of 1.5 million Armenians by Ottoman Turkish forces, in Jerusalem’s Old City April 24, 2015. Photo courtesy REUTERS/Amir Cohen.
*Eds: This photo can only be used with RNS-TRAUBE-COLUMN, transmitted April 24, 2015.

(RNS) One hundred years ago, in April 1915 as World War I raged across Europe, the government of the Ottoman Empire attacked its Armenian citizens. Over the next several years, it is estimated that as many as 1.5 million Armenians died. Able-bodied men were murdered or enslaved as forced labor in the army, and hundreds of thousands of women, children, the infirm and the elderly were marched into the Syrian desert to face death.

Supported by the Young Turks, an ultranationalist party that approved systematic deportation, abduction, torture, massacre and the expropriation of Armenian wealth, the German-allied Ottoman government used the excuse of war to initiate the forcible removal of Armenians from Armenia and Anatolia where they had lived for centuries.

The targeting and mass murder of Armenians has been termed a genocide.

Although racial, ethnic and religious wars have killed millions over the centuries, genocide is a unique byproduct of the 20th century. It requires both a rabid nationalism and the capacity of a central authority to organize and implement a sustained and systematic program of targeted mass destruction. Not until the 20th century had governments the necessary technologies, resources and means to ally their historical ethnic, religious or racist hatreds with radical nationalism to end the collective existence of a people.

The Armenian genocide was recognized and deplored around the world, even as modern Turkey resists the “genocide” label. American diplomats, Russians, Arabs and German officers stationed in Ottoman lands witnessed the slaughter and alerted the wider world. In May 1915, Great Britain, France and Russia vowed to hold the Turks personally responsible for their crimes. Relief efforts to save the “starving Armenians” were widespread.

Despite moral outrage, however, there were neither sanctions against the Ottoman Empire nor internationally orchestrated efforts to rescue hounded Armenians. Nor did the Armenians receive any reparations after the war, even though between 1920 and 1923, the Turks expelled or annihilated most of the remaining Armenian people.

It took another even more deadly genocide before the world’s moral outrage became international law. In 1948, after World War II, when the full horror of the Holocaust was laid bare and documented, the newly constituted United Nations adopted the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. It was part of a nascent body of international law resting on the United Nations Charter, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the two covenants — on civil and political rights and on social, economic and cultural rights.

The 1948 Convention defined genocide as a crime against humanity and established international sanctions against any nation that in peacetime or war engaged in genocidal violence. It was a victory for all humanity and worthy of celebration.

However, the Convention was a victory that came too late for the millions who died terrible deaths in death camps and random murder via inconceivably brutal and inhumane methods. It came too late for the millions who were starved, beaten and murdered by the Nazis during Hitler’s bloody regime.

The refrain of “never again” arising after World War II has, regrettably, not been employed everywhere. Murderous organized groups such as the Islamic State and Boko Haram engage in brutal mass killings, torture, beheadings and often unspeakable atrocities. Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, regularly calls for Israel’s annihilation, and Iran continues to arm terror groups committed to the destruction of the Jewish state.

It strains the conscience of our modern societies to realize that on April 24 — 100 years after the Ottoman government murdered 250 leading Armenian intellectuals — the threat of further genocide hangs heavy over our so-called “civilized world.”

As a Polish Jew who escaped Europe on the eve of World War II, most of my family to perish at the hands of the Nazis, I bear personal witness to the horrors of religious and ethnic hatred. I vow that each and every victim of genocide and terrorism who died will never be forgotten.

(Tad Taube is chairman of Taube Philanthropies, based in the San Francisco Bay Area, and Honorary Consul General of Poland in San Francisco.)

KRE/AMB END TAUBE

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What the Polish president could have said about his country’s Holocaust complicity (COMMENTARY)

FBI Director James B. Comey speaks during a news conference on the release of the 9/11 Review Commission report in Washington on March 25, 2015. Photo courtesy of REUTERS/Joshua Roberts
*Editors: This photo may only be used with RNS-SALKIN-COLUMN, originally transmitted on April 23, 2015. This image is available for Web and print publication. For questions, contact Sally Morrow.

(RNS) The director of the FBI stepped in it.

Or did he?

Last week, James B. Comey delivered a speech at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in which he said the murderers and accomplices of Germany, Poland and Hungary “convinced themselves it was the right thing to do, the thing they had to do. That’s what people do. And that should truly frighten us.”

The Polish government was not happy. President Bronislaw Komorowski castigated Comey for his “ignorance, lack of historical knowledge and possibly large personal aversion” toward Poles. And, as a gesture of goodwill, Comey has apologized.

Let’s be clear here. Comey was not accusing the nation of Poland of being complicit in the Holocaust. For all intents and purposes Poland as a nation temporarily ceased to exist during World War II.

But Poles, Hungarians, Germans, Lithuanians, Ukrainians, Croats, Estonians, Dutch, Latvians — who can deny that so many of them were willing conspirators with the Nazis in the roundup of Jews and the wholesale destruction of European Jewish life?

Here is how  Komorowski could have responded:

“Poland suffered terribly during World War II. We were invaded by both the Soviet Union and Germany. The Nazis intended to turn our people into a permanent underclass of slaves. If you have read William Styron’s book ‘Sophie’s Choice,’ or if you have seen the movie, then you know that the Nazis kidnapped Polish children and raised them as their own. Auschwitz was a killing field for the Poles, no less than for the Jews.

“By the end of the war, Poland lost 45 percent of her physicians and dentists, 57 percent of her lawyers, more than 16 percent of her teachers, 40 percent of her professors, 30 percent of her technicians, and more than 18 percent of her clergy.

“Let me go further. In the early Middle Ages, Polish kings welcomed Jews who were fleeing the Crusades. The Jews settled there and created a Polish middle class, as well as a powerful religious culture.

“And, let us not forget: During the war, many Polish citizens saved Jews. According to Yad VaShem, Israel’s official memorial to the victims of the Holocaust, 6,532 Poles were righteous gentiles. This is not only more than any other country; it accounts for no less than 26 percent of the total number of 24,811 people who Yad VaShem has recognized for their moral heroism.

A group of Jews is taken prisoner during the Warsaw Ghetto uprising of April 1943. Religion News Service File Photo. This image is available for Web and print publication. For questions, contact Sally Morrow.

“But, this moment also demands our honesty. Yes, in our best historical moments, we welcomed Jews, and we saved Jews. As Jews would say, that has been our ‘good inclination.’

“But, our ‘evil inclination’ has also been present. Anti-Semitism is deeply imbedded in our history. Some of that hatred was based in religion; some of it in Polish nationalism; often, a combination of the two.

“And, if we are to remember Polish righteous, then we must remember those of our people who were far from righteous. In August 1945, there were pogroms against Jewish survivors in Krakow. In July 1946, there was the infamous pogrom in Kielce. Within two years of the end of the war, our citizens murdered at least 1,500 Jews.

“The blood of the Jewish people stained the soil of Poland, and that blood continues to scream at us. In 2012, the Anti-Defamation League carried out a survey of Polish attitudes toward the Jews. I am ashamed to report, 54 percent of Poles believe ‘Jews have too much power in the business world.’ Many Poles believe that there is a Jewish conspiracy to control international banking and the media.

“And many Poles still harbor traditional, Christian anti-Semitic stereotypes about the Jews, including some of the vilest stereotypes imaginable.

“So, yes — I was personally troubled by what Comey said about how Poles collaborated with the Nazis during the Holocaust. I was troubled because he was neither entirely right, nor was he entirely wrong.

“But, in another sense, we Poles should welcome Comey’s remarks, because they offer us the opportunity for sober reflection, and even repentance.

“To repent of our dark history means we can write a new story. That is precisely what is happening now. Jewish life in Poland is growing again — much of it, under the auspices of the World Union for Progressive Judaism.

“Consider the Museum of the History of Polish Jews in Warsaw. It is perhaps Poland’s greatest cultural achievement since the fall of communism.

“Not far from the smokestacks of Auschwitz, there is now a Jewish Community Center – a place of vibrant Jewish life, in the shadow of what had been Jewish death.

“Your words made us uncomfortable. May our discomfort be the gateway to repentance and renewal.”

(Rabbi Jeffrey K. Salkin is the spiritual leader of Temple Beth Am of Bayonne, N.J., and the author of numerous books on Jewish spirituality and ethics, published by Jewish Lights Publishing and Jewish Publication Society.)

YS/MG END SALKIN

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COMMENTARY: Why evangelicals’ love for Jews is a case of unrequited love

(RNS) According to a new survey, white evangelical Christians feel a lot of warmth toward Jews.

Michael Schulson is a freelance writer based in Durham, N.C. RNS photo courtesy Michael Schulson

As for Jews, they feel colder toward evangelical Christians than they do about any other religious group.

Cue the Taylor Swift ballads: We have here a serious case of unrequited love.

To gauge the interreligious emotions of the American public, the Pew Research Center asked thousands of Americans about their religious identification, and then asked them to rate other religious groups on “a feeling thermometer,” where a zero was “the coldest, most negative possible rating” and 100 was “the warmest, most positive” response.

With a wildly subjective metric and results that invite massive generalizations, the survey deserves a skeptical look.

Still, the discrepancy in the Jewish-evangelical relationship is too large to dismiss. White evangelicals gave Jews a full 69 percent of emotional warmth (very high, by the survey’s standards), while Jewish respondents gave evangelical Christians a frosty 34 percent — one of the lowest ratings in the entire Pew data set.

Jews rated Catholics pretty favorably, so we can’t explain this result as a response to Christianity as a whole.

Heavy-handed efforts to convert Jews — such as the Southern Baptist Convention’s 1996 resolution on Jewish evangelism — have not endeared certain evangelical denominations to their Jewish neighbors. And some Jews may struggle to forget anti-Semitic comments made in the past by evangelical leaders, including Billy Graham.

But the real issue here is not that evangelicals don’t love Jews enough. It’s that certain evangelical communities sometimes love Jews way, way too much — or, more accurately, love an image of what they believe Jews to be.

Seeking a return to pre-Christian roots, churches hold Passover seders and blow shofars during services. Evangelical support for Israel is legendary. Liberty University, the evangelical school in Lynchburg, Va., even has a Judaic studies program that, as its director told the Liberty student newspaper, “tries to communicate to the Liberty community that we as Christians owe a debt of gratitude to the Jewish people.”

An employee of a Jewish federation recently told me about the letters, overflowing with praise for the Jewish people, accompanied by donations that occasionally arrive from eager Protestants.

There’s a term for this flavor of affection: philo-Semitism, or the love of Jewishness and Jewish culture. For some, this kind of love may represent an unmitigated good — especially in contrast to the anti-Semitism that has haunted so much of Jewish history.

More often than not, though, evangelical upwelling of philo-Semitism seems to have little to do with actual Jewish people, and more to do with Jewishness as an abstract theological concept.

A lot of evangelical support for Israel, for example, grows out of certain strains of dispensationalist theology, in which the Jews’ return to Israel is seen as a prerequisite for the Second Coming.

Meanwhile, in a 2004 address, televangelist Pat Robertson didn’t even try to hide the degree to which his understanding of Jewish history served his own theological ends: “You are the living witnesses that the promises of the Sovereign Lord are true,” he told an Israeli audience, after suggesting that the last 2,500 years of Jewish survival served as “primary evidence” for the existence of God.

Elsewhere, in an essay at the orthodox Christian magazine First Things, Joe Carter examined “our philo-Semitism” and concluded “we evangelicals have a special affection for our Jewish neighbor” in part “because we know that God had a special affection for them too.” The sentiment, while kind, should be familiar: Jews are likable because of their role in Christian theology.

When evangelicals speak about Jews this way, they shouldn’t be surprised if their love goes unrequited. At its core, philo-Semitism has much in common with anti-Semitism. Both approaches view Jewishness as an abstract monolith, and both endow Jews with particular historical roles — roles, it seems, that are rarely of the Jews’ own choosing.

For centuries, the powers that be defined Jewish people in terms of New Testament themes and archetypes. The modern world has offered remarkable opportunities for Jews themselves to figure out what, exactly, Jewish peoplehood might look like.

As a young Jew, I can’t help but see expressions of evangelical philo-Semitism as an attempt to keep Jewishness in its New Testament box, and to continue the old fallacy of conflating the Jewish people (of Bible fame) with living Jewish people — a diverse bunch of folks, muddling along, who have not always benefited from being evaluated in light of ancient Scriptures.

Fortunately, for those evangelicals who find themselves prey to an unreciprocated philo-Semitism, the annals of unrequited love may hold some useful advice: In relationships, you really can’t start out trying to change someone. And if you genuinely want things to work, you have to court an actual person, not just a projection of whoever you wish them to be.

(Michael Schulson is a freelance writer in Durham, N.C. He writes about religion, science, and culture.)

YS/AMB END SCHULSON

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COMMENTARY: Cuts to food stamps flout the gospel message

(RNS) In his first Advent address, Pope Francis directed Christians to be guided by the “Magnificat,” Mary’s song of praise for the coming Christ child. She proclaims that God has “lifted up the lowly and filled the hungry with good things” (Luke 1:52-53). This past Tuesday, Pope Francis heeded his own exhortation by releasing a video message calling for an end to hunger as part of a worldwide “wave of prayer.”

Hundreds of Christian organizations across the globe participated in the “wave of prayer,” which was organized by Caritas International, a confederation of Catholic charities in the Vatican.

“We are in front of a global scandal of around 1 billion people who still suffer from hunger today,” Pope Francis said in his message. “We cannot look the other way.” The wave began at noon on the Pacific island of Samoa and proceeded west with people of faith from each subsequent time zone participating at noon their time.

Participation in this global prayer wave spread well beyond the Catholic world. It drew support from across the ideological and theological spectrum. Young evangelicals prayed with Episcopal grandmothers. Protestants prayed with Roman Catholics.

In Washington, members of Congress from both parties held a noon prayer service with Circle of Protection, a group of 65 heads of denominations, relief and development agencies, and other Christian organizations.

Pope Francis’ call for prayer to end hunger could not have come at a more important time. While the world is near cutting hunger in the developing world in half by 2015, one in eight people all over the world still suffer from chronic hunger.

Video courtesy Caritas Internationalis via YouTube

In our country, however, you do not see this global exodus from hunger. Rather, it is growing. Today, 17 million children will go hungry because their parents can’t afford to feed them one or more days each month. Nearly a million veterans who sacrificed so much in service to our country depend on food stamps so they can eat. Remarkably, at a time when one in four Americans say they have struggled to put food on the table, Congress has chosen to slash one of the most effective anti-hunger programs in the country, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, known as SNAP or food stamps.

Congress’ recent cuts to SNAP will eliminate 10 million meals per day that American families and veterans have been depending on. Nearly 5 million of those meals would have gone to children — the equivalent of eliminating daily meals for every child in South Carolina, Iowa, Minnesota, Colorado, Oregon, and Mississippi.

These recent cuts to SNAP eliminate more meals than what Catholic Charities, churches, food pantries, and all other charities combined are able to provide with our already stretched resources. Churches and food pantries would need to more than double what they raise to fill the gap left by Congress’ cuts to SNAP. And now Congress is considering additional cuts that would be four to five times as large!

Such actions should be anathema to all Americans, and especially to Christians. Seeking to balance budgets on the backs of hungry children and veterans does not represent American values. It clearly doesn’t heed the gospel call to lift up the lowly and feed the hungry.

The Rev. David Beckmann is president of Bread for the World and a World Food Prize laureate. Photo courtesy Bread for the World This image is available for Web publication. For questions, contact Sally Morrow.

It’s time for a new direction. That is why Christians are coming together, not just to pray but also to witness to our leaders that we expect more from them. We believe our capacity to achieve is greater than the obstacles that are before us. Caring for the hungry in our midst is not an unattainable dream; it is the least we are called to do.

 (The Rev. Larry Snyder is president of Catholic Charities USA. The Rev. David Beckmann is president of Bread for the World and a World Food Prize laureate. )

YS/AMB END BECKMANN

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COMMENTARY: Islamist suppression could reach U.S. shores

(RNS) Egypt now teeters on the edge of an abyss. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), who was in Cairo last week at President Obama’s request to mediate between the military-backed interim government and supporters of ousted President Mohammed Morsi, told CBS News: “Oh my God, I didn’t know it was this bad. These folks are just days or weeks away from all-out bloodshed.”

The widely anticipated military crackdown against pro-Morsi demonstrators began yesterday, so we’d better brace for the blow-back.

The rising specter of repression in Egypt is difficult to watch for two reasons. First, it confirms that the counterrevolution is successfully restoring the deep state — the vast security apparatus upon which military autocracy in Egypt has been based since Gamal Abdel Nasser’s rule in the 1950s, effectively extinguishing any hope of transition to democracy. Second, the violent crackdown evokes bad memories of earlier efforts by Egypt’s military strongmen to crush their Islamist opposition.

In regular 20-year cycles, starting with Nasser in the 1950s, the Egyptian military regime has launched brutal campaigns of repression against its Islamist opponents. Although each of those previous suppression efforts succeeded in eliminating the immediate challenge to military rule, they never addressed the root causes of the problem.

Because Egypt has served as the global epicenter of political Islam for close to a century now, what happens there has enormous repercussions worldwide, especially for the United States.

The repression of the late 1950s led to the radical theories of Sayyid Qutb, which still inspire Islamist extremists from Aceh in Indonesia to Timbuktu in Mali. The campaign of the 1970s prompted only increasingly fanatical and violent expressions of Islamist extremism, culminating in the assassination of Anwar Sadat in 1981.

The 1990s campaign of repression by Egyptian security services convinced Islamist extremists such as Ayman al-Zawahiri, the Egyptian-born leader of al Qaeda, that to succeed in Egypt they must first strike “the far enemy,” the United States, upon whose support, they reasoned, the Egyptian military autocracy relied.

History suggests that when Egypt’s military suppresses its Islamist opponents, it has serious repercussions for the United States.

And on Sept. 11, 2001, it was an Egyptian, Mohamed Atta, who flew American Airlines Flight 11 into the North Tower of the World Trade Center, signaling the start of the 9/11 attacks.

Already last week, 19 U.S. embassies and consulates were shuttered as Zawahiri sought to underscore his argument to mainline Islamist sentiment around the world that the overthrow of Morsi demonstrates the futility of democracy with a spectacular new terrorist attack.

With the United States serving as the main supplier of the Egyptian military, it should not surprise Americans that we are held responsible for what the Egyptian military does. Our government’s official silence on whether or not Morsi was overthrown by an obvious military coup is not helpful because it conveys hypocrisy and complicity.

We need to be absolutely clear with Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Sissi that, contrary to the conventional wisdom in Cairo, brutal suppression of the Islamist opposition does not work in the long term — it only breeds increasingly violent extremism.

What does work is inclusive democracy. Nothing was more effective in undermining the credibility and attraction of Islamism in Egypt than the pathetic failed experiment with actual Muslim Brotherhood rule.

There can be little doubt that U.S.-Egyptian relations will be rocky in the near future no matter what we do, but if we don’t stand decisively for democracy now, the long-term horizon will be even worse. We must be firm with the generals who are busy re-establishing their control that the only effective antidote to Islamism is democracy and a sustained effort to address the real grievances that give rise to the Islamist opposition in the first place.

This will be a hard sell, but history shows that when the generals in Cairo decide repression in is the only solution to their Islamist problem, the rest of us should brace for the global blowback.

(Christopher S. Taylor is professor of Middle East Studies and comparative religion at Drew University where he directs the Center on Religion, Culture & Conflict. He wrote this article for The Star-Ledger of New Jersey.)

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COMMENTARY: Honest questions about the Argentine pope

(RNS) Even as a non-Catholic, I was filled with hope when an Argentine cardinal said to be passionate about serving the poor stepped onto the balcony overlooking St. Peter’s Square as Pope Francis.

By taking the name of a church reformer, the former Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio promised a better day for an ossified institution whose people beg for hope while hierarchs defend medieval power and pomp.

Pope Francis waves from the pope-mobile during his inauguration Mass at St. Peter’s Square on Tuesday (March 19) at the Vatican. RNS photo by Andrea Sabbadini Download this photo. For questions, contact Sally Morrow.

In greeting the crowd, the new pope showed a common touch that could repurpose a global movement from being lost in scandal and self-serving.

By standing in silence and bowing his head for the crowd’s blessing, Francis showed a humility that could inspire believers grown weary of Roman arrogance.

In ways that world leaders rarely manage, Francis conveyed sincerity and commitment to a singular vision of servanthood. Whether that vision survives remains to be seen. But for now he read the moment: a vast constituency eager for something deeper than palace intrigue, something closer to Jesus than elaborate processions of old men wearing costly garments.

Perhaps he will read the rest of the moment: Women eager for the place that Jesus conferred on them but early male church leaders took away. Young people eager for faith in action, not encyclicals issued from above. Dark-skinned people eager for recognition. Homosexuals eager for a place at the table without having to seek ordination first.

To be sure, Francis will meet a firestorm of resistance at every level. The Roman Curia has faced down reformists before. But if Francis can continue as he began, there is hope.

That hope matters to all Christians. Each of our denominations and institutions struggles against the same demons: Mammon offering wealth as the ultimate measure of life, power seeking allies at the expense of fighting oppression and injustice, and hucksters promising magic. It’s the temptation of Jesus all over again. It always is.

But first things first. Just days after being elected pontiff, Francis is discovering what other leaders discover: Their past eventually catches up with them. In his case, it’s scrutiny for his possible role in Argentina’s “Dirty War” of the 1970s, when some church leaders curried favor with the military dictatorship by looking the other way when people were tortured and “disappeared.”

The church hierarchy calls it “defamation” to raise such questions. But as any penitent knows, a desire to move forward must be accompanied by candor about the past.

It’s the same issue we all face when we want to move forward. Reconciliation, restoration and renewal must begin in the swamp of needing to start over, not the gossamer of lofty hopes.

The first test of Francis’ reign, therefore, might not be his steel in reforming the Curia, but his candor about his own experience in Argentina.

This is especially critical for religious leaders. Religion tends to make compromises in order to preserve itself. The Jewish hierarchy chose Rome’s imperial favor over God’s promise of a Messiah. The early church sought the emperor’s favor and then allied itself with monarchs and dictators.

German churches remained largely silent during Hitler’s rise. Dutch Reformed leaders provided theological cover for apartheid in South Africa. White religious leaders in the South supported slavery and then segregation. Even today, churches invite bigots into their pulpits and call it patriotism.

To move toward God’s Easter Day, we must first acknowledge the darker days when we turned against God and each other.

(Tom Ehrich is a writer, church consultant and Episcopal priest based in New York. He is the author of “Just Wondering, Jesus” and founder of the Church Wellness Project. His website is www.morningwalkmedia.com. Follow Tom on Twitter @tomehrich.)

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COMMENTARY: My top 10 picks for 2012

(RNS) Here are my picks for the top 10 religion stories of 2012:

1. Islam dominated the year, with power struggles between Islamists and secularists in Egypt and Turkey and the brutal Syrian civil war with Bashar Assad killing thousands of his own people. An obscure anti-Muslim video produced in California triggered riots throughout the world. In November, Hamas, cited by the U.S. government as a terrorist organization, and Israel engaged in armed conflict until a cease-fire was declared. Christian minorities in Muslim societies suffered in 2012, especially the ancient Coptic Christian community in Egypt.

2. The “religious right” and Christian leaders Franklin Graham, Richard Land and Ralph Reed were losers when President Obama was re-elected, and three states legalized same-sex marriage and a fourth rejected a gay marriage ban. The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops publicly opposed the federal contraceptive mandate, but Obama narrowly won the Catholic vote. He lost the Protestants by 15 points, but his biggest supporters — by a 70-point margin — were the “nones” who profess no religion. For the first time in history, no white Protestant was on either party ticket.

3. Mainline Protestant churches continued to lose members, and the number of Americans identifying as Christians also declined. The big gainers were the “nones” — now about one in five Americans.

4. The Anglican Communion’s new leader, former oil executive Justin Welby, succeeds Rowan Williams as the archbishop of Canterbury. Both men favor women as bishops, but the Church of England’s General Synod rejected the idea. Interestingly, the presiding bishop of the U.S. branch of Anglicanism, the Episcopal Church’s Katharine Jefferts Schori, is a woman.

5. The Catholic Church’s continuing sex abuse scandal was highlighted by the criminal conviction of Bishop Robert W. Finn of Kansas City, Mo., who was found guilty of not reporting one of his priests who had taken hundreds of pornographic pictures of minors. Finn faced one year in jail and a $1,000 fine, but he was sentenced instead to two years of court-supervised probation, a first for an American bishop. A high church official in Philadelphia was also convicted for shuffling known abusive priests around his archdiocese.

6. For nearly a decade, the Presbyterian Church (USA) has debated whether to divest its investments from companies doing business in Israel. The proposal was defeated at the denomination’s General Assembly in Pittsburgh. Similar efforts by several other Protestant church bodies also failed.

Christian-Jewish relations suffered a setback in October when 15 church officials, mostly Protestants, issued a letter urging the U.S. to reconsider aid to Israel because of the Jewish state’s alleged “human rights violations” and “breaches of international law.” Jewish leaders criticized the letter, calling it one-sided and an example of a myopic “double standard” toward Israel, and withdrew from interfaith talks.

7. Anti-Semitism remains a pathological force in Europe and the Middle East. A recent soccer match in Rome turned ugly when fans began yelling anti-Jewish slogans at a visiting British team. Ten fans were injured by an Italian gang wielding baseball bats, knives and broken bottles. Officials were investigating whether anti-Semitism was behind what appeared to be an organized attack.

In Hungary, some right-wing politicians want to “screen” and register Jewish citizens in government because they are all considered “security risks.” More than 10,000 Hungarians in Budapest rallied against rising anti-Semitism. Many political, literary and academic European elites supported boycotts and sanctions directed against Israel.

8. Pope Benedict XVI, 85, was the subject of speculation about his increasing frailty and fatigue and whether he might be the first pontiff in 700 years to retire. There was also conjecture about his possible successor. However, during 2012 Benedict published a new book on Jesus and began to post messages on Twitter.

9. ??The year saw the proliferation of “couch churches” or “sofa synagogues,” decentralized gatherings of Jews and Christians who study, pray and share meals in a nonstructured form without benefit of clergy or the need to attend services in “big box” sanctuaries.

10. Notable deaths included the 26 innocent children and teachers at an elementary school in Newtown, Conn.; Unification Church founder Sun Myung Moon; former Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir; and on a personal note, Lawrence Guyot, with whom I marched during a 1964 voting rights drive in Hattiesburg, Miss.

Rabbi Rudin, the American Jewish Committee’s senior interreligious adviser, is the author of the recently published “Cushing, Spellman, O’Connor: The Surprising Story of How Three American Cardinals Transformed Catholic-Jewish Relations.” RNS photo courtesy Rabbi Rudin

KRE/AMB END RUDIN

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GUEST COMMENTARY: Changing the Mormon conversation on homosexuality - Articles

(RNS) There is a groundbreaking new publication that has the ability to save lives. Its subject matter is far too important to be ignored or taken lightly, especially when we regularly read about lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) young people and adults who leave the Mormon Church, not to mention the senseless loss of many to suicide.

“Supportive Families, Healthy Children: Helping Latter-Day Saint Families with Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Children,” co-authored by Caitlin Ryan, director of the Family Acceptance Project and Bob Rees, Ph.D, a former Mormon bishop, may well be the tool that gives Mormon families what they need to accept their LGBT children.

I am a physician and have provided clinical care to patients for 30 years. I am also a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and I love my religion. I recently was called to serve my third term as a bishop, and I have concluded that the way members of this church treat LGBT people, in many cases, is not in keeping with what I feel is the doctrine of Jesus Christ. This must change.

My wonderful ward (local congregation) in San Francisco is very diverse and may have the distinction of having more gay Mormon members than any other on the planet. Though I am straight, I have family members who are gay and who have patiently helped open the eyes of my understanding. It's clear to me that their only “choice” related to their sexual orientation is to be honest about who they are -- sons and daughters of God who are gay.

Mitch Mayne, my executive secretary (or top aide), is a wonderful member who is openly gay.  His recounting of the bullying he had to endure as a youngster has moved me more than anything in my memory.

Working as a bishop in the Bay Ward, I have heard firsthand the stories of members who are gay and felt their pain as I work to bring them back into activity in the church. The emotional pain and isolation of LGBT members rejected by parents, friends and loved ones after coming out is more severe than any other I have yet experienced, and it motivates me to continue in the work I am doing.

As a physician, I have learned the importance of evidence-based practice, and the critical role of science in informing our understanding about human development, interaction and care. There is an urgent need to provide evidence-based guidance for both Mormon families with LGBT children and more generally for our congregations.

These new educational materials from the Family Acceptance Project are aimed to help Mormon families and our church family support LGBT youth and adults, to reduce serious risk for suicide and HIV, to foster wellness and keep our families together. Readers need to take the time to carefully study these well-researched documents and consider their application in their lives.

We often use the term "closeted" when we talk about same-gender attraction. Because of the very real fear of bullying and prejudices, this concealing of identities and inclinations continues today -- especially among those who belong to our church.  Good, solid epidemiology makes the math quite simple: Multiply your total church membership by 4 percent and you will have the number of gay members in your ward.

It's clear to me that within the "culture" of our religion, widespread bullying is still occurring -- and this extends across all age ranges. It's often done without malicious intent, but none the less, it inflicts serious and unnecessary emotional wounds.

One of my family members who still has a strong and abiding testimony has not attended church in several years. "If they knew who I was, they would not want me there," he's told me. Unfortunately, that is a reality. This ought not to be. Is this what Jesus would do if he were a member of your ward?

As Elder Jeffrey Holland, a member of the LDS church's Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, has said, "Some members exclude from their circle of fellowship those who are different. When our actions or words discourage someone from taking full advantage of church membership, we fail them -- and the Lord."

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Donald C. Fletcher, MD - Bishop - Bay Ward, San Francisco Stake. Credit: RNS photo courtesy of Renna Communications

With humble hearts, we all need to look inward to see if there are prejudices the Savior would have us cast off. Unconsciously, we, too, may be guilty of bullying.

(Dr. Donald C. Fletcher is a Mormon bishop in San Francisco for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.)

KRE/AMB END FLETCHER

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COMMENTARY: Ain’t no mountain high enough - Articles

(RNS) On Sunday morning our gospel choir sang an extraordinary song by Kurt Carr called "For Every Mountain."

When I watched a video of Carr's own choir performance, I felt too white and too stiff. But when I took my place in the bass section, stereotypes faded away. I knew that every one of us --  myself included -- had known trials and had to climb mountains of daunting height.

Every one of us had to trust in God's grace and mercy, in a strength and determination that were beyond ours. If we have known blessings, we didn't earn them. God loved us before we knew we needed loving.

I didn't know my part of the song as well as I would like. But I knew my history. I knew that when a Spirit-filled alto began to weep, she was weeping for all of us. When our soprano soloist soared higher and higher, she was carrying all our praises.

When I gave my best, it was my best, not a comparison with anyone else, just my best for the God who has "seen me through."

Shortly after we sang, more than 40 people from Park Avenue Christian Church took their places in the massive 2012 Pride March down Fifth Avenue. Again, stereotypes faded away. People weren't wondering who was gay and who was straight. They saw hands joined in a cry for freedom, justice, dignity and respect.

This march, like its counterparts in other cities, wasn't about sex, but about people with lives and loves, trials and triumphs -- in short, people whom God has chosen to love.

Seems to me that the horrendous ugliness of this year's political campaigns is a last-ditch effort to install hatred on the throne. The strategy: defend the negative stereotypes, defend the bad theology, defend the religious leaders who ought to know better and defend intolerance as a national cause -- all of it egged on by wealthy bigots whose goal, inevitably, is gaining more wealth.

I say it's last-ditch because times are changing. Younger citizens are emerging for whom homophobia is a bizarre perversion of reality. People are seeing beyond Fox News hysteria.

Whether the greedy can seize the throne in time to do one more looting of the nation remains to be seen. Hatred and bigotry might prevail in November and then do the damage to freedom, rights and justice that they fully intend to do.

But I sense the days of this darkness are numbered. Even conservative religionists realize they can't build a godly enterprise on bigotry and greed. Hating gays just isn't a cause that inspires. The good hearts and good souls that occupy most pews in America won't follow discredited Catholic hierarchs or venomous hard-core preachers down the path to demagoguery. New York's Cardinal Timothy Dolan might be scoring points with a medieval pope by his alarmist screeds, but the immigrants who keep his church afloat have other concerns.

Do "sunny days" lie ahead? Not likely. But as culture wars are set aside, maybe we will have the energy and heart to tackle real issues, like unemployment, massive greed, religious extremism and a dangerous world.

From a faith perspective, this will happen because God simply isn't into hatred. God is love, and that love doesn't follow the dictates of human fears. God is about mercy, justice, forgiveness and oneness. In the end, so must creation follow God's lead.

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Tom Ehrich is an Episcopal priest, author and former Wall Street Journal reporter living in Winston-Salem, N.C. Credit: RNS photo
(Tom Ehrich is a writer, church consultant and Episcopal priest based in New York. He is the author of "Just Wondering, Jesus" and founder of the Church Wellness Project. His website is www.morningwalkmedia.com. Follow Tom on Twitter @tomehrich.)

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COMMENTARY: Grandiose claims about God poison the common good - Articles

NORTHAMPTON, Mass. (RNS) Poor memory? Hard to say. I'm just glad I don't remember details of my college road trips to Northampton and my .000 batting average with Smith College women.

That means I can approach stopping by this charming college town as a pleasant diversion with my wife after a family lunch in nearby Worcester. I can escape shadows of feeling lost among the hyper-sophisticated Smithies. Some history deserves to be forgotten.

Moreover, what merits remembering requires reflection and fresh engagement, not just a sense of cyclical dread.

The ugly political morass of 2012 isn't just Reaganism redux: It's not just another variation on the "trickle-down" delusion – make the rich rich enough and they will discover how to share – and the economic and political destruction that flowed from chasing that fantasy. Nor is it another dabbling in McCarthyism's politics of fear and scapegoating.

No, today has its own lessons.

The relentless drive of wealth to grab more wealth – as if a searing near-depression conferred no need for new ideas or community-minded gumption – bespeaks a collapse of leadership and social ethics. JPMorgan Chase's immediate return to its former high-risk ways, accompanied by whining for government favors, signals a larger collapse of accountability and consequences.

When the greedy buy politicians and promote delusional fiscal and economic policies – social welfare for the wealthy, for example – it isn't history repeating itself. It's a future being foreclosed by people who simply don't care what damage they cause.

When advertisers lie about competitors, it isn't a 1950s Madison Avenue game on instant replay. It's falsehood replacing ideas and honesty as political capital.

When people make grandiose claims about "God's will" and "American values" and demonize others who hold different views, we haven't just channeled a tragic yesterday and its wars and pogroms. We have poisoned the well of community on which our nation depends today and made a mockery of God and faith.

Those who make political attack ads grounded in distortion and fear aren't just clever tricksters from Nixonian paranoia. They are evil promoters of intolerance,  propagandists for an America that cannot survive its worst instincts.

We need to study today's public square, not just compare it to former eras. There is a sickness at work today that has its own reality: an unconcern for consequences and a scorn for others that seem disturbingly fresh. The quest for power -- bankrolled by an obsession with wealth -- has gone beyond the quaint aristocratic pretensions of the Gilded Age, the tragicomic swagger of robber barons pretending to be philanthropists.

We are seeing a vacancy of soul, a victory of narcissism, an enshrining of personality disorder as normal rough-and-tumble. In that mindset, nothing outside oneself stands for anything. No other views or needs have value. In that view, I define reality, and I am entitled to buy a weapon or a congressman to impose my reality on others.

It's also a victory for helplessness and passivity. In that mindset, if my life has pain, someone else must have caused it, and they need to be punished. I myself am helpless to chart a fresh course. This opens the door to demagogues who promise to do the naming of enemies and the punishing, in exchange for loss of freedom.

We can't just see yesterday in today and relax into a soothing chorus of, “Oh well. We survived that nonsense, we can survive today's.” No nation is that strong. We must study today and resist its deliberate march toward demagoguery.

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Tom Ehrich is an Episcopal priest, author and former Wall Street Journal reporter living in Winston-Salem, N.C. RNS photo
(Tom Ehrich is a writer, church consultant and Episcopal priest based in New York. He is the author of "Just Wondering, Jesus" and founder of the Church Wellness Project. His website is www.morningwalkmedia.com. Follow Tom on Twitter @tomehrich.)

KRE/AMB END EHRICH

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