I am upset and outraged, granted almost a week later, by a letter that appeared in the Arizona Republic from a professor - Gordon M. Weiner - over at ASU.
A response today to last week's letter is what drew my attention to the original hate message that went out to all Christians.
What am I speaking of you ask? Well, this! The letter to the editor is titled "Put Christ back into Christian homes."
Innocuous it may be at first glance, at least until you read the letter and understand what this guy is really saying.
He speaks of being an "8-year-old Jewish boy, cringing whenever I was wished Merry Christmas"
Oh really?
But then he gets into the meat of his message: I did not have the strength to respond that I was Jewish and did not celebrate the birth of a Christian messiah. Or that Jesus did not fulfill biblical prophecy and was not the messiah. Or that centuries before Jesus' birth, Mithras was born of a virgin, in a grotto, and was attended by shepherds. (my emphasis added)
Today's response, written by Gerald R. Kleinfeld who is described as a former professor of history at Arizona State University and who is also Jewish, drew my interest to go back and read the overlooked message from Weiner.
Kleinfeld writes: A former colleague in the history department at Arizona State University wrote a letter that seemed to criticize those who want to keep "Merry Christmas" from turning into "Happy Holidays." That was not his point.He calls them "Christianists," describing the Christian religion as being founded upon a pagan myth of Mithras. This is his real point.
I went back to Weiner's letter and discovered that he had, indeed, been drawing the same parallel that critics of Christianity have done for centuries...that Christianity evolved from the Roman pagan belief in Mithras (do your homework and look it up - it is akin to the latest attack on Christianity in the book "the DaVinci Code")
Weiner calls anyone that believes in Jesus Christ "Christianists" and Kleinfeld takes him to task on it.
Writes Kleinfeld: The letter is an intolerant attack on Christianity and Christians. Gordon Weiner, former director of Jewish Studies, would bristle if anyone took the word Jew and turned it into an epithet, as he does with the word Christian.
He wants Christians to confine their faith to homes and churches. When Jews were being persecuted in Spain, they were forced to practice their faith behind the locked doors of their homes. That is what he urges for Christians today.
It is a shame that we have to read such intolerance and ugliness. Thankfully, Weiner doesn't speak for all Jews.
We live in a society which uses federal tax dollars to fund museums that display a crucifix in a jar of urine, calling it art. Christianity is under assault all around us. Believing Jews like Weiner should recognize the assault on Christianity as an attack on all believers, and rise to its defense.
Thank you Professor Kleinfeld! You hit the proverbial nail on the head with your assessment of Weiner's smarmy hate message.
It is almost unbelievable that such an intolerant view can come from someone whose ancestors suffered intolerance and attacks, which he references, but it did.
Amazing that he can reference those injustices while at the same time calling for the same actions to be perpetrated against those that believe differently from him.
Want to know the most scary part of this whole scenario? This guy is teaching our young people. This guy is putting forth his intolerant ideas every day to a very vulnerable audience.
And we wonder why our young people today are sometimes so confused.
DR
