2 of 6

Are any Christians involved?

No, not officially. We made a decision at the outset to limit the organization to Jews. The organization is called Jews Against Anti-Christian Defamation, and we wanted it to be very clear that we're organizing as Jews to answer anti-Christian prejudice—not as Jews and Christians, not as Jews who are practicing Judaism and Jews who've converted to another religion, but as Jews.

We have been getting some help from Ted Baehr [of Movieguide]. About a year ago, Ted and I were together in Mexico City. We both spoke to the World Congress of Families. In passing, I said, "Ted, I think there's a need for an organization like this." Ted liked the idea and offered the support of his staff. Jews Against Anti-Christian Defamation at this point has very little funding. Everything is basically being done on a volunteer basis.

Did a particular event serve as a catalyst in bringing the group together?

Not one event, no—just the culmination of a lot of things: the attacks on evangelical Christians in the last election; the response to Mel Gibson's movie The Passion; the fact that there were a lot of people in the establishment, people like Frank Rich, who writes for The New York Times, people in Hollywood, who objected to an orthodox Catholic making a movie that glorified his faith. It seems so bizarre, given the attacks on Christians that constantly come out of Hollywood, to have people in the establishment objecting to Mel Gibson making a movie about the death of Christ.

So that was a part of it. A part of it was what went on in the last election. But it's been cumulative. These are things that go back years that just have … outraged our sense of justice. And of course things that are going on today, [such as] the conference they had in New York City called "Examining the Real Agenda of the Religious Far Right;" Al Gore's remarks [about "extremist organizations"] when he spoke to MoveOn.org; the senator from Colorado, Ken Salazar, calling Dr. [James] Dobson of Focus on the Family the "Antichrist."

[There is an] implication that it's all right for anyone to be involved in politics, except for conservative Christians. If environmentalists, feminists, or animal rights advocates do get-out-the-vote drives, registration drives, or political education, it's called democracy. When Christians do it, it's called theology. Suddenly, what's good for everyone else becomes sinister when conservative Christians do it.

What do you hope Jews Against Anti-Christian Defamation will accomplish?

I hope it will raise the level of awareness of what seem to be growing attacks on Christians in a country that was founded by Christians and the tenets of Christianity. We hope that if people look at the organization and listen to us and take what we say to heart, they'll understand what's going on. And again, it may be easier for people to listen to us because we're not Christians.

The real heroes of Nazi Germany were the Christians who spoke up against the persecution of Jews. When Jews objected to what was happening in the early years of the Third Reich, the response was, "Well, you're Jews. You're hypersensitive. You're blowing it out of proportion." When people like Dietrich Bonhoeffer stood up for the Jews, no one could accuse him of self-interest.

next page... |  2 of 6

share this page

June (Web-only) 2005, Vol. 49