Declaration of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America to the Jewish Community
(April 18, 1994)
The Church Council of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America on April 18, 1994, adopted the following document as a statement on Lutheran-Jewish relations:
In the long history of Christianity there exists no
more tragic development than the treatment accorded the Jewish people
on the part of Christian believers. Very few Christian communities of
faith were able to escape the contagion of anti-Judaism and its modern
successor, anti-Semitism. Lutherans
belonging to the Lutheran World Federation and the Evangelical Lutheran
Church in America feel a special burden in this regard because of certain
elements in the legacy of the reformer Martin
Luther and the catastrophes, including the Holocaust of the twentieth century, suffered by Jews in places where the Lutheran
churches were strongly represented.
The Lutheran communion of faith is linked
by name and heritage to the memory of Martin
Luther, teacher and reformer. Honoring his
name in our own, we recall his bold stand
for truth, his earthy and sublime words of
wisdom, and above all his witness to God's
saving Word. Luther proclaimed a gospel for
people as we really are, bidding us to trust
a grace sufficient to reach our deepest shames
and address the most tragic truths.
In the spirit of that truth-telling, we who bear his
name and heritage must with pain acknowledge also Luther's anti-Judaic
diatribes and the violent recommendations of his later writings against
the Jews. As did many of Luther's own companions in the sixteenth century,
we reject this violent invective, and yet more do we express our deep
and abiding sorrow over its tragic effects on subsequent generations.
In concert with the Lutheran World Federation, we particularly deplore
the appropriation of Luther's words by modern anti-Semites for the teaching
of hatred toward Judaism or toward
the Jewish people in our day.
Grieving the complicity of our own tradition within
this history of hatred, moreover, we express our urgent desire to live
out our faith in Jesus Christ with love and respect for the Jewish people. We recognize in anti-Semitism
a contradiction and an affront to the Gospel, a violation of our hope
and calling, and we pledge this church to oppose the deadly working
of such bigotry, both within our own circles and in the society around
us. Finally, we pray for the continued blessing of the Blessed One upon
the increasing cooperation and understanding between Lutheran Christians
and the Jewish community.
Sources: Evangelical
Lutheran Church in America |