On a recent Shabbat morning, I stood at the pulpit and reviewed with my congregants the vast theological chasms that separate Judaism from Christianity.
My decision to perform this exercise was neither accidental nor arbitrary. I was reacting to an unsettling experience of the previous week.
Each year for the past several years, my local congressman, Rep. Steve Rothman (D-N.J.), has invited me to attend the National Congressional Prayer Breakfast in Washington. For the first time, this year my schedule was clear, and I accepted.
Just to be safe, I made a few calls to the National Prayer Breakfast Office to ascertain the interdenominational character of the event and received clear assurances. I had attended such events in Washington before and had always felt perfectly comfortable.
As soon as I arrived at the Washington Hilton Hotel on the afternoon before the Feb. 3 breakfast, however, I knew something was wrong.
Thousands of people milled about, yet each one reminded me of John Boy of “The Waltons.” Everyone I met was unfailingly friendly and polite, but I was clearly out of place.
I went to register and discovered that this year’s breakfast was part of a two-day “leadership conference” in which I had been enrolled without my knowledge. Meetings were in session in rooms off the main lobby, yet I was unable to discern from any posted material what “leadership” this conference was about.
At the registration booth, I was handed a packet of printed information. You can imagine my consternation when in my hotel room I began to read a passage with the headline “Jesus Transcends All.”
It said: “Jesus Christ transcends all religions! Judaism — Islam — Buddhism — Hinduism … He is greater than all these — including Christianity.
“Jesus transcends religion because he is the incarnation of all that is true, good, loving, gentle, tender, thoughtful, caring, courteous and selfless.
“Jesus does not want you to become a Christian. He wants you to become a new creation! There is a great difference between the two.”
Stunned, I debated whether I should attend the breakfast the next morning. I decided it would be impolite to Rothman not to show up, and I wanted to see what this was all about.
The next morning, I and 4,000 others found seats in two large ballrooms, and the breakfast began. Punctuated by selections of gospel singing, speaker after speaker rose, each invoking the “spirit of Jesus.”
The only two exceptions were Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), who without comment read two sections from Jewish literature, and President Bush, who thankfully spoke in more generic theological terms.
The climax for me came when Sen. Norm Coleman (R-Minn.) referred in glowing terms to the prayer meetings regularly held on Capitol Hill as “held in the ‘spirit of Jesus,’ and I attend as a Jew.”
The message seemed clear: “This is a Christian country, and if you really want to be part, all you have to do is embrace ‘the spirit of Jesus.’”
Rothman, who is Jewish, informed me that he had wanted me to come to see how bad things really are. I wish he had warned me.
Most shattering was the seductive nature of it all. You could easily find yourself thinking, “Why not? Why can’t we really be the same? Why not embrace the spirit of Jesus and then be Jewish, Buddhist or Muslim?”
I left that room aware as never before of a frightening threat confronting us today as American Jews. Clearly there are people, many in high places, who through a mixture of ignorance and intent are bent upon convincing us that Christian belief is not antithetical to our Jewish tradition.
All this leaves us in a complicated place. The president, senators and congressmen who participated in the prayer breakfast are considered friends of Israel and the Jewish community. We have forged alliances that on many levels must be maintained and strengthened.
At the same time, however, we ignore the danger represented by the prayer breakfast at our own peril. Clearly, we must respond.
I will write to the legislators involved in this event and let them know how profoundly troubled I was by its Evangelical overtones. I will write to Coleman and inform him why this rabbi is aghast when a Jewish senator publicly proclaims fealty to the spirit of Jesus.
More important, we need to arm ourselves for the future by teaching the theological differences that exist between Judaism and Christianity.
For centuries we have maintained our tradition and beliefs in the face of great enmity. I shudder as I wonder whether we will have the strength and wisdom to maintain those beliefs in the face of the seductive friendship and warmth of a national prayer breakfast.
Rabbi Shmuel Goldin is spiritual leader of Congregation Ahavath Torah in Englewood, N.J. This article was originally published in the New York Jewish Week.
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