To serve Baal or Hashem?

Letters

Editor: Your publisher and co-owner Cynthia Ramsay is correct in saying that the Unitarian church is not anti-Semitic. ("Cries of anti-Semitism," Bulletin, Dec. 14) Prof. Rene Goldman is off the mark in stating that the Unitarian church has destroyed decades of goodwill that bound that church to the Jewish community. ("Astonished by Kudos," Bulletin, Dec. 7) However, I think that Ms. Ramsay is being naive in believing that the Unitarians have hired her to sing in their choir solely because of her beautiful voice.

I know from personal experience that the Unitarians love Jews, and they especially love liberal, universalist Jews. I did my graduate studies at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis. I declined to take classes or write exams on Saturdays and Jewish holidays. One of my professors suggested that I study theology rather than do scientific research. Even some of my fellow Jewish students thought that I was being too religious. But one of my professors who was a Unitarian was very supportive. However, he also invited the Jewish students to attend services at his Unitarian church. He could not understand why I refused, since he seemed to think that Unitarian beliefs were very close to Jewish beliefs. I told him that, over the centuries, Jews rarely attended Christian services unless they were forced to do so under threat of death.

The Unitarians practise a form of Christianity that denies the doctrine of trinity, but maintain the idea of the undivided unity of God. This is closer to the Jewish and Muslim concept, rather than that of mainstream Christianity. The Unitarians have no official statement of faith and do not require their ministers or members to subscribe to any particular religious belief. Because of this, the Unitarians reasoned that, since liberal or Reform Judaism in America held similar ideas, the latter would join them in a unified religious body. This nearly happened except for the creation of the state of Israel. On the whole, Reform Judaism abandoned its anti-Zionist stance and began to reintroduce some Hebrew into their services. Thus, the Unitarians are not anti-Semitic or anti-Jewish, but they're definitely hostile to the idea of a Jewish state.

Ms. Ramsay is also naive in suggesting that there is no connection between the Unitarian church and the so-called Jews for a Just Peace. Prominent members of this group are also prime movers in the Vancouver Peretz Centre for Secular Jewish Culture. The Peretz Centre is a reincarnation of the Jewish communist movement in Vancouver. Because of their universalistic ideas, the Jewish communists and their present-day successors are totally against the concept of a Jewish state. Because members of Jews for a Just Peace are very supportive of attempts to delegitimize the state of Israel, the Vancouver Unitarians are happy to provide space to them and have done so on a number of occasions. Various pastors of the Unitarian church in Vancouver have always been critical of the state of Israel. Thus, it is difficult to accept Prof. Goldman's statement that the Unitarian church has destroyed decades of goodwill by its recent actions.

Jews have to remember that the Unitarians are liberal members of the Christian religion. About a century ago, there was a story told about a Jewish woman who was critically ill. She was told by her doctor that she had to eat pig's meat in order to get well. She asked her Orthodox rabbi and he told her that most religious precepts could be put aside in order to save a life. The woman then asked the rabbi to have the pig slaughtered by a kosher ritual slaughterer and to have the carcass examined for any imperfections. An imperfection was found and the rabbi was asked to examine the part. The rabbi kept examining the part and was unable to make a decision. But, no matter how much he looked at it, the animal is still a pig.

There is something not kosher for a Jew to be singing in a church choir at a church service, even for money. Elijah the prophet said it best when he told the Jews on Mount Carmel not to vacillate between two religious beliefs. You must decide whether you wish to serve Baal or wish to serve Hashem.

Dr. Moishe Golubchuk
Vancouver

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