My Response to commenter Marcos Berenstein

Submitted by Scott Harlow (United States), Feb 28, 2005 at 19:42

My Dearest Friend, Mr. Berenstein,

It seems you may have difficulty understanding the written word. I'll try again and this time I'll type a little more slowly. I appreciate the history lesson. However, I have re-read my 2/25 note and am quite satisfied with what I have written. I asked you to focus your energy on today's threats, agreed that there have been evil Christians that killed Jews in the past, and pointed out an article for you to read showing that Christians have struggled with how to treat the story of Jesus' death (something you called blood libel). I am happy for you that you get along with your neighbors.

I never once asked you to apologize for being a victim. I don't care one way or another if you appease me. I don't know you. I don't know what kind of reciprocity you want from Christians. Here's a start. If, my dear friend, I could go back in time and change the behavior of all Christians who killed Jews, I certainly would do it. It was wrong to kill Jew then, and it is wrong to kill Jews now. I cannot undo it. I wish the world would have awoken from its slumber before so many Jews and Poles had been killed in death camps. Further, I can neither undo the genocide of 1.5 million Armenian Christians prior to WWII nor can I undo the encouragement Hitler drew from this genocide as the world stood by and offered virtually no help.

My point was that there is absolutely nothing anybody alive today can do to undo what has happened in the past. There is no excuse for synagogues being torched, cemetaries being desecrated, the existence of the KKK or white supremacists. And there is no reason why Christians should quietly accept that it is merely "artistic license" when some artists defile Christian symbols in their works. It is hate, pure and simple. A person's standing as a victim gives him no moral license to attack another's faith.

I support Israel, the Jewish people, and the Jewish religion. I do not wish to see Jews converted to some other religion, either in America or elsewhere. Do we have any common ground we can share here, or must you argue with someone who by and large subscribes to many of the same viewpoints as you?
Have a great life, Sir!

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