November 28, 2010 | 11:47 pm

Rabbi Shmuley, Jesus, and the New Testament

Posted by Mark Paredes

Follow me on

“The Mormons are our brothers, the Christians are our kin. So long as they support and defend the Jewish people through their current persecution, that will always be so, whatever their beliefs, and we owe them our gratitude.” – Rabbi Shmuley Boteach

“And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ [Messiah], the Son of the living God. And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-jona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven.” – Matthew 16:16-17

——-

Shmuley Boteach is the favorite rabbi of many a Mormon, and his goodwill towards the LDS community is warmly reciprocated. His collaboration with Mormons dates from his days as a Chabad shaliach at Oxford University, where he befriended Michael Benson, scion of a prominent LDS family and the current president of Southern Utah University. I became one of Rabbi Shmuley’s fans after reading his bestseller Kosher Sex, and I have always appreciated his passionate advocacy of a Jewish-Christian alliance for Israel.
   
It is therefore with some reluctance that I post this response to his recent essay, “Jewish Ingratitude to Christians.” After calling on Jews to show more gratitute towards Evangelical Christians for their steadfast support of Israel, the good rabbi shocks the Christian reader with the following exhortation: “It would behoove our Christian brothers and sisters to conclude that they have much more to learn about the authentic historical Jesus from Jews than any misguided attempts at converting them. Indeed, not only must these attempts be emphatically resisted by the Jewish community with overwhelming scholarship, but precisely the opposite is true. Christians must learn from the Jews to reject any deification of Jesus, which he, as a Pharisee, would have seen as the ultimate sacrilege and which is the subject of my upcoming book on the Jewish Jesus. They must follow Jesus as teacher and prophet rather than divinity. Every human being is a child of G-d, and not just Jesus, as the Bible makes clear in Deuteronomy.” If this is really the thesis of his upcoming book, I would advise him to change editors.

Let me be clear where Rabbi Shmuley and I differ. I certainly understand why Jews reject Christianity. Indeed, given the way in which Christianity was presented to Jews for many centuries (“Believe in our three-in-one God or go to hell – heck, we’ll even hasten the trip for you”), it’s a wonder that any of them converted voluntarily. Every Christian seeking to understand Judaism’s arguments against Jesus’ Messiahship should pick up David Klinghoffer’s insightful book “Why the Jews Rejected Jesus.” [Though it must be added that his arguments will hardly trouble Mormons, since it is impossible to remove Jesus from the Book of Mormon and other modern scriptures]. 

I also understand (and wholeheartedly support) efforts by Jews to resist efforts by Jews for Jesus and other Evangelical groups to target them for conversion to Christianity. I have attended Jews for Judaism events in the past, and believe that if a Jew is asked to choose between Judaism and Evangelicalism, he should always choose to remain Jewish. 

However, Rabbi Shmuley’s assertion that Jesus was a “Pharisee” who resisted any attempt to deify Him flatly contradicts the New Testament. It is one thing for a rabbi to say that he does not accept the New Testament Gospels as scripture; it is quite another to suggest that Christians do not understand their message. In the interest of space, I shall only quote from selected verses in the first Gospel, Matthew, in an effort to show why the rabbi’s argument is mere wishful thinking. 

In the third chapter of Matthew, Jesus is baptized, following which “the heavens were opened unto him,” the Spirit of God descended like a dove, and a voice from heaven declared “This is my beloved Son.” In the next chapter, the devil tempts Him to throw Himself from a pinnacle of the temple. Jesus’ response? “Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.” In the seventh chapter, Jesus clearly states His authority over entry to heaven:  “Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven…Many will say unto me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name?...And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you…” In the ninth chapter, Jesus declares His divine ability to forgive sins: “But that ye may know that the Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins, (then saith he to the sick of the palsy,) Arise, take up thy bed, and go unto thine house.”

How else can one interpret Mat. 11:27 (“All things are delivered unto me of my Father: and no man knoweth the Son, but the Father; neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him”) or Jesus’ bold declaration to the Pharisees that He was “greater than the temple” and “Lord even of the sabbath day?” As stated above, Jesus agreed with Peter’s acknowledgment of Him as the Messiah. Three verses later, He gives Peter the “keys of the kingdom of heaven.” Jesus goes on to declare in the nineteenth chapter that He will “sit in the throne of his glory,” then prophesies in the next one that He will rise on the third day from the dead. When Caiaphas, the chief priest, asks him whether he is the Christ (Messiah), the Son of God, Jesus answers: “Thou hast said,” then announces that He will soon be sitting on the right hand of power in the clouds of heaven. After hearing this, Caiaphas rends his clothes and accuses Him of blasphemy. In the clearest example of Jesus’ claim to Messiahship, Roman governor Pontius Pilate twice refers to Him as “Jesus which is called Christ” (Mat. 27:17, 22). In the final chapter of Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus is resurrected, says that all power is His in heaven and earth, and commands that henceforth people should be baptized in His name.

Anyone trying to make a serious argument that Jesus was a Pharisee has an impossible task – how to reconcile that assertion with Matthew chapters 12, 15, 16, and (especially) 23, inter alia. Good luck with that.

A while ago a friend invited me to join his Talmud study group led by a rabbi. I was excited to learn the truths of the oral Torah, and read “The Complete Idiot’s Guide to the Talmud” and Adin Steinsaltz’s “The Essential Talmud” in preparation for the first class. However, at the same time an Orthodox Israeli friend made me aware of rabbinic writings in the Talmud that condemn Jesus and are rarely mentioned in public by Jews (to his credit, Klinghoffer does discuss them in his book). I was so offended by those writings that I decided not to study the Talmud. If the rabbis could be so wrong about Jesus, I reasoned, I could not have faith in anything else written in the Talmud. In short, I realized that Jews and Christians have very different ideas about Jesus, and that they simply have to agree to disagree on His divinity and Messiahship.

I will gladly read anything Rabbi Shmuley writes on Jewish themes in the New Testament and/or Jewish religious practices at the time of Jesus. However, it is not clear to me why Christians should turn to him for a greater understanding of the “authentic historical Jesus.” The New Testament clearly and repeatedly states that Jesus was the Messiah and that He was (and is) divine. Christians believe this; Jews do not. However well-written Rabbi Shmuley’s upcoming book may be, it is unlikely to add to Christians’ understanding of the identity of their Savior.     
 
——-

I will be speaking at the Jewish Community Center in Salt Lake City on January 12, 2011. I will also be speaking with Rabbi Alan Cohen in Kansas City on January 16.

---

Mark Paredes has worked in Los Angeles for the Consulate General of Israel, American Jewish Congress and ZOA. You can contact Mark at deverareligione@yahoo.com and follow him on Twitter @jewsandmormons.

November 25, 2010 | 2:16 am

Giving Thanks

Posted by Mark Paredes

In this season of thanksgiving, I would like to express my thanks to the members of the Jewish community of Los Angeles for accepting me as an honorary member eight years ago. Their passion, dedication and warmth have inspired me, and they make me want to be both a better Mormon and a better person.

I’m grateful to the Jewish Journal and in particular to its managing editor, Rob Eshman, for taking a chance on this blog. Not every Jewish editor would consider hosting a column on LDS-Jewish relations, and I’m lucky to know one who does. Yasher koach, my friend.

I’m grateful to the Mormons and Jews who have supported this blog by e-mailing, calling, commenting, and forwarding posts to friends. Others have helped to organize LDS-Jewish events that have brought the two communities together in marvelous ways throughout the world. I am greatly in your debt. Thank you.

I’m grateful to Craig Nelson and Gaye Smith, publisher and former editor of the Latter-day Trumpet newspaper, for encouraging me to write a religion column (“De Vera Religione”) two years ago.  I often rely on the guidance they gave me on my columns as I write the posts for this blog, and I am pleased that Craig’s paper is now online for all the world to see.

Finally, I am grateful for Jewish leaders like the prominent Orthodox Talmudist who sent us a moving thank-you letter following his trip to Salt Lake City. He reminded us all why this work is so important. Here is a poignant excerpt:

“I want you to know I’m almost 75 years old. And for half a century I’ve been involved in all kinds of interfaith programs. And most of the time they are superficial. Everybody smiles and everybody else says absolutely nothing of content and importance. You sort of congratulate yourself for doing the right thing and extending yourself. And that’s really it. This was a totally distinct and unique experience for me, in every sense of the word. And I want you to know that there was a feeling of honest brotherhood in all of these gatherings that I have never experienced before at any of these functions. There was a real spiritual connection that we felt. I know I felt it very, very strongly. I’ve been trying to analyze it, and the only conclusion I can come to is that there is a Jewish-Mormon connection. It is very real and very honest. It’s that commonality of shared values and ideals; I think it’s also a commonality of shared histories of persecution. But whatever it is, it was a feeling of such intimacy that I had, that we all had, and it’s almost indescribable. It is a religious experience, to put it accurately. It was something unlike any sentiment I have had in half a century of this sort of work. The other meetings were in many ways not dishonest, but superficial. This was real, this was honest, this was God. And that my friends is what I wanted to share with you.”

Happy Thanksgiving to all.

1 Comments — Leave your comment

November 23, 2010 | 1:03 am

Love Thy Non-Mormon Neighbor

Posted by Mark Paredes

“The great religious leaders of the world such as Mohammed, Confucius, and the Reformers, as well as philosophers including Socrates, Plato, and others, received a portion of God’s light. Moral truths were given to them by God to enlighten whole nations and to bring a higher level of understanding to individuals. The Hebrew prophets prepared the way for the coming of Jesus Christ, the promised Messiah, who should provide salvation for all mankind who believe in the gospel. Consistent with these truths, we believe that God has given and will give to all peoples sufficient knowledge to help them on their way to eternal salvation, either in this life or in the life to come.” – Statement of the First Presidency Regarding God’s Love For All Mankind (1978)
——-
Among other things Mormons have to be grateful for this week is a recently-published religious study by Jewish and Mormon professors that depicts Mormons as they largely view themselves: extraordinarily friendly towards others and accepting of their beliefs.  American Grace:  How Religion Divides and Unites Us is a fascinating sociological study of religion conducted by scholars Robert D. Putnam (Jewish, Harvard) and David E. Campbell (Mormon, Notre Dame). I attended Prof. Putnam’s entertaining presentation of his findings in downtown Los Angeles, where he revealed that more Americans believe in heaven than in life after death (!) and that most contemporary Americans tailor their religion to fit their politics (!!).  However, the “bloggernacle” is understandably abuzz over the book’s findings that Mormons are among those most friendly to members of other faiths and are the most convinced of any group that people outside their faith – including non-Christians – can go to heaven. 

The first conclusion is somewhat ironic, given that Mormons are listed in the study as being among the least popular religious groups in the country, along with Buddhists and Muslims (Jews are the most popular). Nevertheless, it is to our credit that we generally do our best to follow the admonition of our leaders to reach out in a spirit of friendship to our non-Mormon friends and neighbours. As stated above, the LDS Church’s top three leaders declared several decades ago that religious traditions around the world have been given a portion of God’s light and truth, and are therefore deserving of respect. Consequently, there is a de facto ban on explicit condemnation of another church or faith in LDS worship services. It is always inappropriate to bash another religion in a Mormon chapel, and very few attempt to do so.

I will always remember the Reform rabbi who began his lecture on Judaism to a room full of young Mormon missionaries by expressing his shock at having just found out that Mormons don’t believe that Jews are going to hell. Whenever Jews ask me about the differences between Mormons and other Christians, I always begin by reiterating our belief that heaven will be full of people who were not Mormons – or Christians—during their time on earth. While we are more likely than most other faiths to declare that ours is the only one that is entirely “true,” we don’t interpret that to mean that others are going to be automatically condemned for not accepting our beliefs. While our prophets have consistently opposed certain practices (e.g., sexual immorality, including pornography), the study seems to show that Mormons really do hate the sin and love the sinner. Condemning sin is in a prophet’s job description: if people always love what you say, you must be doing something wrong (for examples, please see the entire Hebrew Bible).  However, prophets are also called to proclaim the universal brotherhood and sisterhood of men and women. If Profs. Putnam and Campbell are to be believed, most Mormons have definitely internalized that message. 

——-     

I will be speaking at the Jewish Community Center in Salt Lake City on January 12. I will also be speaking with Rabbi Alan Cohen in Kansas City on January 16.
     

0 Comments — Leave your comment

November 18, 2010 | 1:47 am

Moses in the Promised Land

Posted by Mark Paredes

I decided years ago that I would use local Jewish institutions to stimulate my intellect and LDS temples and chapels to nourish my spirit. When I attend Jewish events in Los Angeles, I am always amazed at the intellect, energy and passion on display in this most dynamic of communities. There is always someone willing to pitch an idea, and I am usually willing to listen. Often my main motivation for attending a given Jewish event is to see which new ideas, proposals, and ventures are being touted by my friends and contacts. I went to the StandWithUs conference at Temple Beth Am last weekend fully expecting to hear a few novel pitches, and I did not leave disappointed.

The most original (and promising) idea addressed a subject that is very close to my heart. At lunch a Jewish liaison to the Evangelical community and I were joined by Moti Gur, an LA-based financial advisor and prominent Israel activist. After lamenting the lack of Jewish education among young and unaffiliated Jews, Moti shared with us his solution: the Moses Project, which envisions the erection of a 40- to 60-story monument of Moses holding the two tablets. The “Moses Monument and World Center for Jewish Leadership” in Israel would also feature a “Museum of the Miraculous” to acknowledge Jewish contributions to the world, beginning with the ethical monotheism of Abraham [Latter-day Saints believe that Adam and Eve were the first ethical monotheists, but I digress]. Moti and his partner Dr. Donald Salem (a Brentwood dentist) have set up a website that accepts contributions and are actively pitching the idea to Jews, Christians, and anyone else who will listen. If I had the money, I’d fund the whole thing.

People who want to know why Jews have remained in the Holy Land for millennia should look to Moses, through whom God revealed laws that forged a united, holy people and commanded them to build an ark to house His presence.  In the same way that the Statue of Liberty serves as a national symbol of an important American value, a massive Moses in the Land of Israel would silently proclaim to one and all just why there are a Jewish people and an Israel today. What visitor to the country wouldn’t want to be photographed with Moses? If ever there were a project in Israel that could unite Christians and Jews, this is it. I have no doubt that Mormon tourists would visit the statue, which for them would also commemorate the revelation of both orders of God’s priesthood (like many Jews, we believe that the second set of tablets differed from the first) and the modern-day gathering of Israel, which we believe Moses facilitated. 
 
Like any religion-themed project in Israel, there will be many hurdles to overcome – not least, the Orthodox objection to statues that could be perceived as idols. However, it is my fervent hope that somehow this project will get off the ground – at least 40 stories, anyway. Moti and Don have no idea that I’m writing this essay, and I am not affiliated with the Moses Project in any way. That said, my readers will readily understand why I applauded while reading this statement on the project’s website: “It is evident that a need for renewed, informed, educated and motivated Jewish leadership is essential for leading the Jewish people down a path that insures their continuity, and preserves their heritage and culture.” I’m sure that Moses would agree. L’shana haba’ah b’Yerushalayim.

——-

I will be speaking at the Jewish Community Center in Salt Lake City on January 12. I will also be speaking with Rabbi Alan Cohen in Kansas City on January 16.

1 Comments — Leave your comment

November 15, 2010 | 1:12 pm

A Utah General for Israel

Posted by Mark Paredes

“As goes America, so goes Israel. [Israel] is our sister democracy in a sea of totalitarianism. It is surrounded by people who want to throw them off the face of the earth.” – Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff
——-
It should not surprise regular readers of this blog that the popular Attorney General of Utah – currently serving an unprecedented third term – is also a prominent supporter of Jews and Israel. In fact, the Hon. Mark Shurtleff has stated that Israel is the only country besides the United States where he feels at home (a sentiment shared by many Mormons I know). Few politicians at the state level are as actively involved in promoting U.S. ties to Israel, and Mr. Shurtleff’s efforts have the added bonus of cementing Mormon-Jewish ties.

According to his press office, the attorney general developed an interest in the Middle East while studying political science and international relations at the BYU Jerusalem Center. He also played in the “West Bank Palestinian National Basketball League” and met his future wife at the center. He wrote his senior thesis on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Once in office, Shurtleff began reaching out to Israel in a big way. In 2003 he organized a mission to Israel with four other state attorneys general. In 2005, he returned to Israel to seek support for the creation of American chapters of the 40-year-old America-Israel Friendship League (AIFL), on whose Board of Directors he proudly serves. The following year the attorney general set up an AIFL chapter in Salt Lake City and spent time in Israel to compare notes with his Israeli counterparts on the war against terror.

At a recent meeting of the pro-Jewish LDS group B’nai Shalom, Shurtleff referred to Ariel Sharon as a personal hero and a warrior. He said that he once asked Sharon if he could share with him why a Mormon boy from Utah loved Israel so much, then recited from memory the moving poem “Never Shall I Forget” by Elie Wiesel. The Holocaust-themed poem had touched Shurtleff deeply during his visit to the Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C.

The attorney general’s dedication to Israel’s cause can best be summed up by former Utah Jewish Federation official Arthur Warsoff: “In an effort to be informed, many of us diligently read newspapers and listen to the news. However, in the case of Attorney General Mark Shurtleff, that was not enough. We are very fortunate to have such a strong supporter of Israel in our community.” Needless to say, we are also very fortunate to have him in the Mormon community.

——-

I will be speaking to Mormons and Jews at the Jewish Community Center in Salt Lake City on January 12. I will also be making a joint presentation with Rabbi Alan Cohen in Kansas City on January 16. 

1 Comments — Leave your comment

November 11, 2010 | 11:48 pm

Glenn Beck and the Jews: He Doesn’t Get It

Posted by Mark Paredes

“And George Soros used to go around with this anti-Semite and deliver papers to the Jews and confiscate their property and then ship them off … Here’s a Jewish boy helping send the Jews to the death camps. And I am certainly not saying that George Soros enjoyed that, even had a choice. I mean, he’s 14 years old. He was surviving. So I’m not making a judgment. That’s between him and God. As a 14-year-old boy, I don’t know what you would do.”

George Soros is—many people would call him an anti-Semite. I will not. I don’t know enough about all of his positions on Jews… He’s also an atheist.”
– TV and radio host Glenn Beck

Glenn Beck’s description of George Soros’ actions during the Holocaust is completely inappropriate, offensive and over the top.  For a political commentator or entertainer to have the audacity to say – inaccurately – that there’s a Jewish boy sending Jews to death camps, as part of a broader assault on Mr. Soros, that’s horrific. – ADL statement
——-
I don’t know how well Glenn Beck knows the organized Jewish community, but he definitely has a Jewish problem. This week he gratuitously slandered a prominent Jewish philanthropist in probably the worst way that you can slander a Holocaust survivor, and many Jewish leaders are justifiably outraged. The ADL and the American Gathering of Holocaust Survivors and their Descendants have denounced Beck’s comments, which are presented in a negative light in every Jewish news source that has run the story. As a Mormon who has worked for years to promote LDS-Jewish relations worldwide, I have a few words of advice for my coreligionist.

First of all, know your limits vis-à-vis Jews. It’s almost always a bad idea for a Gentile to call a Jew an anti-Semite. You can criticize Soros’s politics and organizations all you want, but lay off the references to his ethnicity. Believe me, every Jewish reader sees through your “they-say-he’s-an-anti-Semite-but-I’m-not-sure” nonsense. If I were to write something like “They say Glenn still drinks and does drugs and may even beat his wife, but I don’t know enough about his home life to judge,” I don’t think too many of your fans would give me a pass. By the way, many Jews are atheists, and their unbelief doesn’t affect their membership in the tribe.

It’s an even worse idea to invoke the Holocaust inappropriately, which you continue to do (and have apologized for doing in the past). Accusing a Jewish Holocaust survivor of having been a teenage Nazi is simply inexcusable. To make matters even worse, your facts are wrong in this case. According to Ron Kampeas of the JTA (who has slightly more credibility on Jewish reporting than you), a young Soros on one occasion accompanied his non-Jewish protector (a necessity in a country where 2/3 of Jews were killed) when the Nazis ordered the man to inventory the estate of a Hungarian Jew who had fled. On another occasion, the local Jewish council ordered Soros to deliver letters to local Jewish lawyers. Soros’ father immediately realized that the letters were meant to inform them of their deportation, and he told his son to warn the targets to flee. He also ended the boy’s work with the council. No reasonable person could possibly think that the young Soros’s actions rose to the level of “helping send the Jews to the death camps.” This outrageous accusation clearly violates LDS moral teaching, which prohibits lying and slandering others. You should be ashamed of yourself.
   
Finally, traveling to Israel and making occasional pro-Israel remarks, while welcome, won’t protect you from Jewish outrage when you cross red lines. You simply don’t have enough bona fides in the Jewish community to get away with Holocaust exploitation and ad hominem attacks on prominent Jews. Your remarks were universally condemned in the Jewish press, and there is every reason to expect that your future statements on Jewish issues will receive heightened scrutiny (as they should). Everyone in the Jewish community knows that Soros is a completely secular Jew who does not identify himself closely with Israel or with most Jewish causes. However, he is still a Jew and a Holocaust survivor, and deserves better than to be labeled a former Nazi by a non-Jewish pundit who has never lived abroad, has never lived in a country that has been invaded, has never been the target of a genocidal campaign, and has minimal contact with the organized Jewish community. You can make all of the pro-Israel statements you like, but Jews also pay attention to how you treat individual Jews.

——-

The Jewish leaders’ reactions say to me that they’re not convinced that Beck really loves Jews, which should be a cause of great concern to him if he cares at all how he is perceived by the Jewish community. I think Jews have reason to be skeptical of Beck, and I hope they keep his feet to the fire. In the spirit of Glenn, let’s just say that while some people might say he’s an anti-Semite, I’m not saying that. I’m just saying that sometimes he acts like one.   

——-

I will be speaking to Mormons and Jews at the Jewish Community Center in Salt Lake City on January 12. I will also be making a joint presentation with Rabbi Alan Cohen in Kansas City on January 16.

106 Comments — Leave your comment

November 8, 2010 | 12:33 am

Auschwitz, God, and Piotr

Posted by Mark Paredes

Dr. Piotr Cywiński is a mensch. The Catholic intellectual who heads the Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum in Poland spoke at the LA Holocaust Museum last week, and it’s a shame that only 20 souls showed up to hear his insightful remarks. We all enjoyed hearing about the South Korean visitor who said he had come to Auschwitz in order to understand Europe, and nodded knowingly when Piotr described his encounter with an angry Israeli man who demanded to know why there was no monument to Treblinka (another extermination camp) at Auschwitz. After all, the man said, Auschwitz has become the symbol of the entire Holocaust death machine, and there should be an acknowledgement of the victims of other camps as well. As enlightening as I found these anecdotes, I was especially moved by Piotr’s acknowledgment that on a basic level he is failing as a manager. In order to manage something, you first have to understand it. And there is no way that he can begin to understand the camps that he oversees. His candor was disarming.

I can easily recall both the sick feeling in my stomach and the numbness in my brain last fall as my Auschwitz guide’s dispassionate monotone identified the places where the unfortunate victims were gassed, shot, experimented on, beaten, and starved to death. I realized on that day that the brain needs to comprehend the images that it is processing. If you see a picture of murderers being hanged for their crimes, your mind can understand on a basic level why it is seeing people hanging from ropes. However, if you see a picture of people being hanged because of their last names, your brain experiences a serious disconnect as it struggles to explain the inexplicable. Needless to say, September 8, 2009 was a very frustrating day for me.

Thankfully, as a Mormon I did not have to deal with one of the questions that haunt thoughtful Jewish visitors to the camps as they struggle to contemplate the enormity of the crimes committed there: Since God creates everything, including evil, is He somehow ultimately responsible for the gas chambers? God’s creation of evil is certainly suggested by scriptural verses like Isaiah 45:7 (“I make peace, and create evil: I the Lord do all these things”), Deuteronomy 30:15 (“I have set before thee this day life and good, and death and evil”), and Amos 3:6 (“Shall there be evil in a city, and the Lord hath not done it?”). However, LDS teaching on this point is succinctly stated in the Book of Mormon (“Whatsoever is good cometh from God, and whatsoever is evil cometh from the devil”). Three years ago a member of the LDS Church’s First Presidency (the top three leaders) published an article in the Church’s official magazine that stated: “I feel impressed to sound a warning voice against the devil and his angels—the source and mainspring of all evil.” Since Mormons don’t believe that God created evil, we don’t believe that He can be held accountable in any way for the evil that men do. We do believe in an evil Satan, however, and recognize that choosing between good and evil is necessary for spiritual growth in this life.

Indeed, God is separated from evil and error to such an extent in the LDS belief system that our modern prophets teach that Pharaoh hardened his own heart against Moses (Exodus 7:3; 9:12), thus bringing the plagues upon his people. [In the standard biblical text, it is God who hardens Pharaoh’s heart, then punishes him]. We are also taught that “it repented Noah,” not God, that He had made man (Genesis 6:6). In our theology God doesn’t make mistakes, and He doesn’t inspire people to do evil.

Not long ago a well-known Evangelical pastor made this deeply disturbing statement about the Holocaust: “Those [European Jews] who came founded Israel; those who did not went through the hell of the Holocaust. Then God sent a hunter. Hitler was a hunter. I didn’t write it, Jeremiah wrote it [16:16]. It was the truth and it is the truth. Why did it [the Holocaust] happen? Because God said my top priority for the Jewish people is to get them to come back to the land of Israel.” Interestingly enough, this theory of Hitler-as-hunter has also been advanced by some Jewish thinkers in an effort to explain the destruction of a third of the world’s Jews. That does not make the theory any less obscene.

It is to hell, not heaven, that we must look for Hitler’s inspiration. From ancient times Satan has targeted the House of Israel for destruction, and I firmly believe that he wanted to prevent the prophesied establishment of Israel and the latter-day gathering of the Jewish people by exterminating the Jews of Europe. However, the devil cannot see into the future, and unwittingly helped to create that which he had hoped to destroy.  The horrors of the Holocaust led to mass emigration of European Jews to Palestine, and the State of Israel arose from the ashes of Auschwitz. There is no question in my mind that contemporary Jews continue to live in Satan’s crosshairs. One way in which we can honor the victims of the Holocaust is to identify and fight against anti-Semitic people and groups who target Jews today.
           
The question that no one can answer, of course, is why an omniscient, omnipotent God permits such atrocities to happen. If I could condense the Hebrew Bible to one verse, it would be Isaiah 55:8 (“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord”). I have no idea why our Father would allow His children to be thrown into gas chambers, and I’m sure that I will not know until I’ve left this life. I was deeply affected by my tour at Auschwitz, which brought me face to face with evil on a scale I had never imagined possible. The faces of the condemned will continue to haunt me for quite some time, and I will always remember the awful feeling of abandonment – a spiritual black hole – that I experienced while standing in the gas chamber. The only silver lining to the visit came while standing in front of the camp’s crematorium, where I received an unmistakable spiritual witness that the victims are in a much better place and are at peace. It’s also comforting to know that their graveyard is being cared for by someone as dedicated and compassionate as Dr. Cywiński. Hashem yikom damam (may God avenge their blood).   

——-

I will be speaking to Jews and Mormons at the Jewish Community Center in Salt Lake City on January 12, 2011. I will also be speaking in Kansas City, MO on January 16, 2011. More details will be forthcoming.

   

2 Comments — Leave your comment

November 4, 2010 | 12:29 am

ADL and LDS

Posted by Mark Paredes

“We support our friends in Utah who have been impacted by these disturbing incidents.” – ADL Central Pacific Regional Director Daniel S. Sandman, responding to arson attacks on two LDS chapels in Salt Lake City last month
——-
News that the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) has once again expressed support for the LDS community brought back some very pleasant memories. In 2007, a “Christian” ministry distributed 18,000 DVDs of an anti-Mormon film to LDS homes throughout the state. The only non-LDS group to denounce the bigots was the ADL, and they didn’t mince words. Bill Straus, the Arizona Regional Director, stated: “This is the same kind of plain, old-fashioned Mormon-bashing that Jim Robertson and his group have been spewing for over a quarter of a century … It was wrong then, and it’s wrong now.” The ADL’s Regional Board Chair, David Bodney, hastened to add, “Hate directed at any of us is hate directed at all of us.  From whomever that hate comes, and to whomever it’s directed, ADL takes it very seriously and will continue to speak out against it.” When I called the ADL’s Phoenix office to thank them for their support, one of their leaders made an interesting observation: “They can’t fool me, Mark. I know that the anti-Mormons of today were in many cases the anti-Semites of yesterday.” In many cases he’s right.

I had the honor of representing the ADL for several years as a member of its Pacific Southwest Region’s speakers bureau. I got to speak to Hadassah ladies, havurot, and a few synagogues about the wonderful work the ADL was doing to promote understanding and tolerance. The powers that be must have noticed my enthusiasm and passion for the cause, since they went on to add another Mormon speaker (JD Payne) to the bureau.

My most memorable ADL speaking assignment was at Bakersfield College, where a special public meeting for students had been called to address an unfortunate incident. A Latino student who was opposed to Israel’s treatment of Palestinians had defaced the Israeli flag and worn it as a shirt to class. A Jewish student immediately took exception to his attire, and the administration had requested that an ADL speaker come to campus. I shall never forget the charged atmosphere in the auditorium as a Mormon explained to non-Jewish students the historical significance of the Star of David and why its mutilation would be extremely offensive to Jews. To his credit, the offender stood up, apologized to the Jewish student, and promised to be more sensitive in the future.

They say that a friend in need is a friend indeed. Although the ADL strongly supports state-sanctioned gay marriage and opposed Proposition 8 in California, its leaders – to their everlasting credit – issued the following statement after witnessing attacks on Mormon temples, white powder sent in envelopes to LDS buildings, and harassment of Mormons statewide by pro-gay marriage extremists: ““Although we strongly opposed Proposition 8, its passage does not justify the defacement and destruction of property. We urge Californians to channel their frustration and disappointment in productive and responsible ways to work towards full equality for all Americans. To place anyone in fear of threat to their houses of worship or their personal security because they have expressed deeply held religious views is contrary to everything this nation represents. Our Constitution’s First Amendment protects freedom of speech, freedom of assembly and freedom of religion for all of us.” This cannot have been an easy statement for them to make, and I love them all the more for it. 

A pair of overzealous missionaries caused me great embarrassment in front of an ADL group several years ago. Amanda Susskind, the organization’s dynamic Regional Director in Los Angeles, rounded up her staff one day and asked me to give them a tour of the LDS Temple grounds. Unwisely, I had agreed in advance to allow the Director of the Visitors Center to start off the tour in a small auditorium. I had explained to him that there was to be no proselytizing, no movies shown, etc. He was simply to greet them and explain a little about the center and the temple. Well, as soon as everyone was seated the director enthusiastically told the Joseph Smith story, held up a Book of Mormon and invited someone in the group to accept it as a gift before we proceeded on the tour. I was mortified. Amanda was kind enough to accept the book, which she handed to me as we left the center. We were then greeted by a cheerful missionary from Chile, who led us to a plaque commemorating the family. I explained to her rapidly in Spanish that this was a Jewish group and that they just wanted the basics. She nodded, then asked a woman in our group to read the inscription on the plaque, which contained a reference to Jesus as the Christ. The woman diplomatically omitted these words during her reading, and at this point I took control of the tour. To this day I regret that the ADL leaders were made to feel uncomfortable by the missionaries, albeit unintentionally; as a result, whenever I bring Jewish groups to Temple Hill, I conduct the tours myself.

I am very pleased that ADL National Director Abe Foxman met with LDS Church leaders in Utah earlier this year, and I hope that LDS-ADL relations will continue to evolve. We don’t need to agree with the ADL on every issue to know that it has proved to be an organization exhibiting great integrity and decency. Yasher koach, my friends.

——-

I will be speaking to Jews and Mormons at the Jewish Community Center in Salt Lake City on January 12, 2011. More details will be forthcoming.

——- 

If you’d like to follow my blog on Twitter, the blog posts are retweeted to jewsandmormons.     

3 Comments — Leave your comment