WHEN I was a child, I was taught that the Jews were an exceedingly
hard-hearted and cruel people, and that they were so destitute of the
finer feelings that they had a little while before that time crucified
the only perfect man who had appeared upon the earth; that this perfect
man was also perfect God, and that the Jews had really stained their
hands with the blood of the Infinite.
When I got somewhat older, I found that nearly all people had been
guilty of substantially the same crime--that is, that they had destroyed
the progressive and the thoughtful; that religionists had in all ages
been cruel; that the chief priests of all people had incited the mob, to
the end that heretics--that is to say, philosophers--that is to say, men
who knew that the chief priests were hypocrites--might be destroyed.
I also found that Christians had committed more of these crimes than all
other religionists put together.
I also became acquainted with a large number of Jewish people, and I
found them like other people, except that, as a rule, they were more
industrious, more temperate, had fewer vagrants among them, no beggars,
very few criminals; and in addition to all this, I found that they were
intelligent, kind to their wives and children, and that, as a rule, they
kept their contracts and paid their debts.
The prejudice was created almost entirely by religious, or rather
irreligious, instruction. All children in Christian countries are taught
that all the Jews are to be eternally damned who die in the faith
of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob; that it is not enough to believe in
the inspiration of the Old Testament--not enough to obey the Ten
Commandments--not enough to believe the miracles performed in the days
of the prophets, but that every Jew must accept the New Testament
and must be a believer in Christianity--that is to say, he must be
regenerated--or he will simply be eternal kindling wood.
The church has taught, and still teaches, that every Jew is an outcast;
that he is to-day busily fulfilling prophecy; that he is a wandering
witness in favor of "the glad tidings of great joy;" that Jehovah is
seeing to it that the Jews shall not exist as a nation--that they shall
have no abiding place, but that they shall remain scattered, to the end
that the inspiration of the Bible may be substantiated.
Dr. John Hall of this city, a few years ago, when the Jewish people were
being persecuted in Russia, took the ground that it was all fulfillment
of prophecy, and that whenever a Jewish maiden was stabbed to death, God
put a tongue in every wound for the purpose of declaring the truth of
the Old Testament.
Just as long as Christians take these positions, of course they will do
what they can to assist in the fulfillment of what they call prophecy,
and they will do their utmost to keep the Jewish people in a state
of exile, and then point to that fact as one of the corner-stones of
Christianity.
My opinion is that in the early days of Christianity all sensible Jews
were witnesses against the faith, and in this way excited the hostility
of the orthodox. Every sensible Jew knew that no miracles had been
performed in Jerusalem. They all knew that the sun had not been
darkened, that the graves had not given up their dead, that the veil
of the temple had not been rent in twain--and they told what they knew.
They were then denounced as the most infamous of human beings, and this
hatred has pursued them from that day to this.
There is no other chapter in history so infamous, so bloody, so cruel,
so relentless, as the chapter in which is told the manner in which
Christians--those who love their enemies--have treated the Jewish
people. This story is enough to bring the blush of shame to the cheek,
and the words of indignation to the lips of every honest man.
Nothing can be more unjust than to generalize about nationalities, and
to speak of a race as worthless or vicious, simply because you have met
an individual who treated you unjustly. There are good people and bad
people in all races, and the individual is not responsible for the
crimes of the nation, or the nation responsible for the actions of the
few. Good men and honest men are found in every faith, and they are not
honest or dishonest because they are Jews or Gentiles, but for entirely
different reasons.
Some of the best people I have ever known are Jews, and some of the
worst people I have known are Christians. The Christians were not bad
simply because they were Christians, neither were the Jews good because
they were Jews. A man is far above these badges of faith and race. Good
Jews are precisely the same as good Christians, and bad Christians are
wonderfully like bad Jews.
Personally, I have either no prejudices about religion, or I have equal
prejudice against all religions. The consequence is that I judge of
people not by their creeds, not by their rites, not by their mummeries,
but by their actions.
In the first place, at the bottom of this prejudice lies the coiled
serpent of superstition. In other words, it is a religious question.
It seems impossible for the people of one religion to like the people
believing in another religion. They have different gods, different
heavens, and a great variety of hells. For the followers of one god to
treat the followers of another god decently is a kind of treason. In
order to be really true to his god, each follower must not only hate all
other gods, but the followers of all other gods.
The Jewish people should outgrow their own superstitions. It is time
for them to throw away the idea of inspiration. The intelligent jew of
to-day knows that the Old Testament was written by barbarians., and he
knows that the rites and ceremonies are simply absurd. He knows that
no intelligent man should care anything about Abraham, Isaac and Jacob,
three dead barbarians. In other words, the Jewish people should leave
their superstition and rely on science and philosophy.
The Christian should do the same. He, by this time, should know that his
religion is a mistake, that his creed has no foundation in the eternal
verities. The Christian certainly should give up the hopeless task of
converting the Jewish people, and the Jews should give up the useless
task of converting the Christians. There is no propriety in swapping
superstitions--neither party can afford to give any boot.
When the Christian throws away his cruel and heartless superstitions,
and when the Jew throws away his, then they can meet as man to man.
In the meantime, the world will go on in its blundering way, and I shall
know and feel that everybody does as he must, and that the Christian,
to the extent that he is prejudiced, is prejudiced by reason of his
ignorance, and that consequently the great lever with which to raise all
mankind into the sunshine of philosophy, is intelligence.