A ‘non-religious’ view of Dietrich Bonhoeffer -- #12

“ . . . anti-Semitic of some stripe”?

Thorough-Going Nazi -10 -7 -6 -5 -4 -3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 10 Resistance/Conspiracy

DISPOSITION –10: No personal association with Jews. Ideologically driven to the point of calculated violence against Jews. Harsh verbal abuse. Ready to risk personal loss to reinforce security/control.

DISPOSITION –7: No personal association with Jews. Hostile to the point of being incited to violence against Jews. Taunting verbal abuse. Ready to risk personal loss to reinforce security/control.

DISPOSITION –4: Minimized personal association with Jews. Approved segregation and restriction on civil rights of Jews. Nervous verbal abuse. Approved actions that reinforced security/control.

DISPOSITION –1: Isolated personal association with Jews. Not seriously hostile toward Jews. Preferred segregation. Playful verbal abuse. Quiet about actions that reinforced security/control.

DISPOSITION 0: Naïve personal association with Jews.

DISPOSITION +1: Occasional personal association with Jews. Not openly opposed to segregation of and restriction on civil rights of Jews. Perhaps objected in private to abuse. Avoided personal loss/risk.

DISPOSITION +4: Sustained personal association with Jews. Supported desegregation of Jews. Opposed restricting civil rights of Jews. Cautiously outspoken in private to abuse. Easily intimidated.

DISPOSITION +7: Valued personal association with Jews. Supported integration of Jews. Responsive to institutional (collective) ‘evil’ re abuse. Willing to risk personal loss/risk.

DISPOSITION +10: Solidarity with abused Jews. Resistance/conspiracy (covert or overt) against institutional (collective) ‘evil’. Ready to risk personal loss/risk.


I understand Dietrich Bonhoeffer to have considered the ‘German Churches/Christians’ to have been spread across the ‘-7 to +1’ range of dispositions and the ‘Confessing Churches/Christians’ to have been spread across the ‘-3 to +5’ range of dispositions. He and the Bonhoeffer family were among those with the ‘10’ disposition.

Personal experience/reflections/observations re anti-Semitism:

• Among my close circle of childhood friends was the son of the Jewish family who owned the sporting good store on the town square (i.e., a schoolmate and fellow football player in my hometown of Mayfield, KY).
  
  
• I recall little or no discussion of anti-Semitism – either in antiquity or in the modern era – during my childhood. In discussions or presentations re Christianity, the ‘religious’ discourse in which I was raised disenfranchised the Jewish community (e.g., references to ‘the Old Testament’ rather than ‘Jewish/Hebrew scripture’, to Jews as ‘them’, to “they rejected/killed Christ”, . . .) and left anti-Semitic attitudes/comments unaddressed/unchallenged.
  
  
• My sensitivity and appreciation for Jewish history/experience deepened/broadened when the methodology for my study of history became increasingly careful/critical in a scholarly way during my final two undergraduate years at Murray State University and matured further during my doctoral work. My ongoing study of Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s life/thought since 1976 has ‘kept open the Jewish question’ (adapting one of his phrases). My special friendship since 1985 with Sheldon Korones, MD (whose grandparents emigrated a century ago to New York City’s Lower East Side from Czarist Russia) remains a centering/defining/pivotal gift/experience for me.
  
  
• The ‘Pharisees’ are presented in reductionist and biased ways in the Synoptic Gospels, as are ‘the Jews’ in the Gospel of John and in the Acts of the Apostles. Note how such writings (which as canonical are considered authoritative within the ‘religious’ sphere), if considered uncritically and without attention to the wider historical context/resources, lead either to anti-Semitic attitudes and behavior or permit such to develop/occur unchecked.
  
  
• Are there any individuals/groups for whom it is justified to isolate, segregate, attack, eliminate? Answering this question ‘No’ (which I do) is one of many reasons I became estranged from the ‘religious’ upbringing of my youth. Note that to answer this question within the ‘religious’ sphere a decision has to be made re the nature and use of Jewish and Christian scripture. In other words re anti-Semitism -- if one takes a ‘flat’ view of Jewish and Christian scripture, these biases will not be seriously questioned. If one takes a more critical/modern view of Jewish and Christian scripture, such biases are more likely to be questioned.
  
  
• I align myself with efforts (1) to protect and assure every individual’s/group’s freedom of speech, but (2) to restrict, discipline, and prohibit discriminatory behavior (including verbal abuse and exploitation as well as violence) in the public/common domain. This alignment implies confidence in the outcome of open and free thought (which in turn implies cultivation of a thirst to be fully informed and a resolve to learn the art of critical thinking). This view permits and supports legislative/judicial decisions to restrain ‘fundamentalist’-rooted discourse and behavior in the public/common domain.