This past week, our church loaded a bus like a can of sardines and headed off to Washington, D.C. Every few months or so we do this, taking several days to go to some distant locale to sight see and fellowship.
We have been to D.C. before, seen much of what there is to see and, for the most part, enjoyed all of it. I say "for the most part" because, truth be told, at least one part of it is not designed to be enjoyable. I would go so far as to say that, due to the subject matter, a roller coaster and water park within its confines would not make it enjoyable.
The Holocaust Museum.
It was Holocaust Remembrance Day when we went. It was very crowded and that, to me, is such a positive thing. Certain things should never be forgotten, especially something as significant as the loss of 6 million human lives.
In case you wonder where I stand, let me be clear: I am unabashedly a friend of the Jewish people. I am an alpha-male who grew up with a frail senior citizen lady named Corrie Ten Boom as one of my heroes. If you are anti-Semitic, I promise that you and I would not get along. At all.
Their history has been one of repeated attempts at extermination, from ancient Egypt under the pharaohs to Persia at the hands of wicked Haman, right up to the modern day and such enemies as Hitler and others. Are Jews perfect? No, certainly not. They are flawed, fallen, sinful human beings like all the rest of us. But, unlike the rest of us, they have throughout history been hated and hunted simply because of who they are.
The phrase "never again" is ubiquitous at the Holocaust Museum. And yet, one cannot help but wonder if this is a thin hope. As I posted a tweet about Holocaust Remembrance Day, I saw outright anti-Semitism everywhere. On the day when everyone should have been respectfully remembering the innocents, hatred was seething against their descendants.
It seems all too acceptable to utter hatred against these people, even to deny the reality of every atrocity they have ever suffered. Each week brings news accounts of anti-Semitism on college campuses, statistics indicate that attacks against Jews are on the rise around the world, and over and over I hear the elites of entertainment and politics saying things they should be ashamed of.
I am a Christian. I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and God the Son. It would seem logical that I would be antagonistic to the Jews, who do not believe as I believe. But you see, Jeremiah 31:3 tells me that God loves them with an everlasting love. The second chapter of Ephesians tells me that Christ has broken down the middle wall of partition between Jew and Gentile. If he loves them, I love them. Furthermore, the promise of Genesis 12:3 still stands.
Today it is not Nazis and gas chambers but certain Muslims and heinous attacks. It is not Hitler and his rousing speeches leading up to the Final Solution, but ayatollahs and imams giving blunt promises to wipe Israel from the face of the earth. The human source of the threat has changed, but it is just as real as ever.
And now, just as then, everyone must take a stand. Whether it be to challenge a college professor couching his hatred in pseudo-historic excuses or to boycott self-indulgent entertainment stars who have never bothered to truly study the issue yet foam at the mouth on the wrong side of it, it is time to speak up. Hitler used all of the propagandic power of media and academia to incredibly effective yet evil use. It worked because so few spoke up against it.
I am doing my part here. Anti-Semitism is wrong, wicked, evil. And yes, I expect I will get hate mail on the subject.
That is what the trash can is for.
Bo Wagner is pastor of the Cornerstone Baptist Church of Mooresboro, N.C., is the author of several books available at wordofhismouth.com. Contact him at at 2knowhim@cbc-web.org.