Remembering What?

 

On Sunday I will be speaking about the Shoah (or Holocaust).  This past Tuesday (April 21^st) was “Holocaust Remembrance Day.”  What I want to look at is “What is it we are trying to remember?”

 

It’s a more complex question that one might think.  For one thing, there’s the politics of it.  I hadn’t realized until earlier this year that there are in fact TWO Holocaust Remembrance Days.  In 1950, Israel established a Holocaust Remembrance Day, and that date quickly became accepted.  Until, that is, over forty years later, in 1996, when Germany decided to establish a date to remember the victims of National Socialism on January 27^th.  In 2001 Great Britain followed the German lead for a “Holocaust Remembrance” day on January 27th, marking the liberation of Auschwitz by the Allies.  In 2005, the United Nations followed the same lead.

 

The sub-text?  If we have to remember the Holocaust (remember, the first use of January 27^th came a full generation after the fact), at least let’s not use the date the Jews use!  So much for politics.

 

What is it we are trying to remember also brings us to the “Holocaust Deniers.”  They range from a reinstated Catholic Bishop (Richard Williamson) to the President of Iran (Mahmoud Ahmadinejad).  Those who don’t know their history may not know of the frenzy that took place at the end of World War II, as those involved with the “Holocaust” were engaged in a desperately urgent task of destroying their own records.  Fortunately for us and unfortunately for them, much of their horrific record still remains.  But that hasn’t stopped those who wish to deny it ever happened.  In the case of Bishop Williamson, he’s not out to deny that Hitler systematically murdered other people.  He just feels that as far as any Jewish catastrophe, well, the Jews just made the whole thing up.  Swell. 

 

Or is what we are trying to remember simply a numbers game?  Bishop Williamson notwithstanding, before Hitler there were roughly 18 million Jews on the planet (9 million living in Europe).  After Hitler there were 12 million Jews on the planet (3 million living in Europe.  One out of three Jews on earth had been murdered.  One of every three.  Two out of three in Europe. 

 

Out of the catastrophe (which is what Shoah means), came the words, “Never again.”  Is that what we want to remember?  And if so, what do we mean?

 

Never again might refer to the now forgotten fact that Judaism had taught pacifism for centuries.  The uprising in the Warsaw Ghetto, where the Jews fought back against being slaughtered, was in many ways a turning point.  Does never again mean, never take a blow without answering it?  More generally, does never again mean that Jews from now on must always “fight back.”

 

Or does never again refer to genocide in whatever cloak it may take.  If so, we’ve failed miserably.  From the killing fields of Cambodia to those of present day Darfur, the slaughtering continues.

 

Or does never again refer to the fact that Nazis were put on trial for their crimes.  And that at these trials their claim that they were “only following orders” was not considered a legitimate defense.  Does “never again” mean that never again will we allow a human being to commit an inhuman act just because that person was “following orders?”  If so, then again we have failed miserably.  I cringe at the torture demanded by the Bush Administration, and carried out by others and that the Obama Administration appears to be saying, “Well, they were only following orders.”

 

We well know that if Hitler had won World War II there would have been no trials at Nuremburg. 

 

President Obama said just a few days ago, “How do we assure that ‘Never again’ isn’t an empty slogan?  I believe we start by doing what we’re doing today: bearing witness.”

 

Holocaust Remembrance Day is indeed about bearing witness.  But I don’t think that’s enough.  I think the only way we assure that “Never again” isn’t an empty slogan is by acting on it.  Never again means never again.  Not even when you’re scared. 

 

Let us be clear.  The lies, the torture and the mayhem to our Constitution wrought by the Bush Administration is not the same as the absolute evil of the Hitler years.  But it was the beginning of a slippery slope. 

 

Lies.  Torture.  A shrug of the shoulders disregard for the rule of law.  That’s how it starts.  And if we don’t act, if we refuse to hold the perpetrators accountable, then we will continue down that slope.  Barack Obama will become the president who made an American Hitler possible. 

 

I don’t want that to be his legacy.  And I don’t want that written on the tombstone of our democracy.

 

Never again must mean never again.  Even if it’s “inconvenient.”

 

What do I want to remember?  I want to remember how easy it is to turn the “other” into something less than human.  It’s what we did to Africans when it was acceptable to enslave them.  It’s what we did to Japanese Americans when it was acceptable to intern them.  It’s what the world did to the Jews when it was acceptable to turn a blind eye to Hitler’s slaughter of them.  It is what we did to Muslims after 2001, when it was acceptable to incarcerate them without trial, and to torture them.

 

It is easier to remember “us” and much more difficult to remember “them.”  Never again means understanding that all of humanity must be “us.”  Never again, to me, means no more “other.”  As long as there is “us” and “other” “Never again” will indeed be only an empty slogan.

Tax Protests and Class Warfare

 

So, the other day there was a heavily promoted if not particularly heavily attended national “tea party” to protest taxes.  If I were more politically motivated here, I’d perhaps point out that everyone making less that ¼ of a million got their taxes reduced.  But the truth of it is that higher taxes wasn’t what this “tea party” was about.

 

Yes, there were some who were protesting that Obama was and is leading alternately either into Socialism or Fascism.  I won’t try to reconcile those two absurd statements because that really wasn’t what these small numbers of Fox News followers were about either.

 

It was about class warfare.  And what still surprises me after all these years is the success those on the right have with actively pursuing class warfare and rarely getting called on it; while the few who do call them on it are immediately themselves tarred with the class warfare accusation.  To engage in class warfare is fine.  To call what is happening class warfare is to engage in class warfare.  George Orwell would be proud.

 

Taxes.  What’s the purpose?  Roads.  Defense.  Law enforcement.  Firefighters.  But that’s not what’s being protested.  What is bothersome is that some taxes are going to help … “them.”

 

In Galatians we are called to bear one another’s burdens.  The Talmud instructs us that we are responsible for one another.  But in the U.S. it’s “I want mine, and if you can’t get yours, then tough.”

 

Some people are trying to “reason” this out.  They say, why didn’t the right-wing protest when Bush was doing running up the deficit?  Why are people so opposed to “deficit spending” now when they weren’t before?  They call it irrational.  But it isn’t irrational.  It’s logical.  Unfortunate and small-minded, but logical.

 

President Bush was spending his deficit dollars on killing.  That is an “acceptable” way to go into debt.  President Obama seeks to spend many of his deficit dollars on helping the poor and the sick.  That is not an “acceptable” way to go into debt.  That’s the real bottom line.

 

A few weeks ago I preached a sermon on love, contrasting what our religions teach with the world we actually live in and asked the Tina Turner question: “What’s love got to do with it?”  And the answer, all too often, is “Not much.”

 

Confucius taught that accumulation of wealth is the way to scatter the people, and scattering wealth among the people is the way to build community.

 

Jesus once taught that it was easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the Kingdom of God.   What is fascinating is that we are often alleged to be a “Christian” nation by the very people Jesus was talking about.

 

Maybe all the great religious and spiritual leaders were “socialists.”  Maybe that’s the answer.  Or maybe it’s simpler than that.  Maybe we really are our brother’s and sister’s keeper.  And maybe our taxes should reflect that.

Celebrating Freedom

 

Last Wednesday night, I held a Passover Seder in my home.  The newest friend there had been coming for about fifteen years.  The oldest friends there had been coming for about thirty-eight years.  Of all the holidays on the Jewish calendar, Passover is my favorite.  I’ll have the joy of leading an Interfaith Passover Seder tomorrow (Saturday, April 11^th). 

 

Passover is filled with ritual: ritual prayers and ritual foods.  And since 1982, when my mother died and I inherited some beautiful plates from her, I’ve been able to follow the ritual that asks that plates be set aside to be used only once a year.  Passover is special.  It is religion, it is history, and it is culture, all rolled into one. 

 

The history is remarkable.  Passover has been celebrated, unbroken, for some three thousand years.  Through good times and bad.  Every year.  Even during the hell of Hitler’s Europe, when Jews were locked in concentration camps, waiting to be starved, gassed or shot, Passover was special.  Jews would hoard their bits of bread or whatever else they had to “eat” for days before Passover so that they could truly celebrate with a “feast.” 

 

The culture is remarkable.  It is constantly brought home to me when I meet other Jews and we talk about “their” Passover as opposed to “mine.”  The foods will be different.  Almost every family has a special Passover dish that is theirs.  And while the framework for the Passover service, the Seder, is the same, how that framework is fleshed out is very much a cultural matter.  And the songs will differ dramatically!

 

And the religious setting is remarkable.  The evil of slavery is remembered.  The need for the soul to be free is remembered.  And it is made sacred.  Freedom is sacred.  Justice is sacred.

 

I still recall the first Seder I led at the Interfaith Church.  During the service, one of my fellow ministers spoke of her background (Christian and Native American).  She spoke of the Europeans coming to the “New World” for religious freedom, only to deny the religious freedom of the people who already lived here.  Freedom is precious.  Everyone’s freedom is precious. 

 

Part of the Passover ritual from my cultural tradition reads: “If one be slave, then none of us is truly free.”  And there are many forms of slavery.  We are all aware of physical slavery: the evil that flourished when the United States was born and over which our horrific Civil War was fought.  But there is also slavery of the heart, and of the mind.  Passover celebrates, at least as I view it, not only freedom from physical slavery but also mental slavery.  The freedom to think.  The freedom to worship as we are called to worship.  The freedom to be different.  These are all freedoms to be guarded, and treasured, and remembered.

 

May we break the shackles that bind our hands, our minds and our hearts.  May we all truly be free.

One Wedding and a Thought

 

I went to a friend’s wedding today.  High School sweethearts who had gone different directions and then twenty years later getting together.  A lovely ceremony and a wonderful, affirming way to spend a Friday afternoon. 

 

Another aspect of the wedding were the religious undertones.  Some friends and family were very much believers in Jesus.  Others very much not.  The flautist was Native American.  And as I listened to the minister who was very careful to dance around the question of religion, but who spoke very naturally about the sacred, and then to one of the children who invoked the name of Jesus … I wondered.

 

It was a happy occasion.  And everyone there was glad for the bride and groom.  Yet I wondered what might have been the discussions if things had turned towards religion.

 

I’ve just finished a “readable” draft of the book on Interfaith that really is, thus far at least, the culmination of my life’s work.  The book, at its essence, is how hard it has been for us truly to respect religious paths not our own, and why this has been so, and why it must change.

 

It is so simple and yet so fundamentally difficult.  “Why can’t we all just get along?” is a question that many have asked.  But far fewer have acknowledged that “getting along” is hard work!  If we are strong willed, it’s SO much easier just to bring people along with us.  And if we’re not so strong willed, it’s SO much easier to follow along. 

 

But neither bringing along nor following along are the same as getting along.  Getting along actually requires thought and intention.  And it requires one more thing … effort.

 

I certainly can’t speak for others, but I know for myself that truly getting along did not come naturally.  It took many years.  And it still requires daily intention.  And I can still make a mess of it from time to time.

 

One of my pet peeves about our educational system is that we are taught how to argue, so rarely how to discuss.  And ladies and gentlemen there IS a difference!  But I digress.

 

I saw the children from both first marriages at the wedding, and hoped they would truly get along.  And as I watched both the new husband and wife and their children all before us, the friends and family who had gathered, I uttered a silent but heart-felt prayer for them all.

 

There will be new generations.  And with each new generation the torch is passed.  It is my hope and prayer that one day we shall not pass a toxic torch to the next generation.  Love is indeed possible.  I witnessed love this afternoon.