wfn.org | Lutheran-Jewish Panel Welcomes 'Dabru Emet'

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ELCA NEWS SERVICE

November 16, 2000

LUTHERAN-JEWISH PANEL WELCOMES 'DABRU EMET'
00-282-FI

     CHICAGO (ELCA) -- In September, a group of Jewish scholars
issued "Dabru Emet: A Jewish Statement on Christians and
Christianity" in a full-page ad in the New York Times and the
Baltimore Sun.  A panel on Lutheran-Jewish relations has said the
statement "moves Jewish-Christian dialogue to new levels, as together
we seek to understand how the God of history is working in our time."
     "Our two communities share the hope and confidence that God
will bring all creation to redemption," said the consultative panel
on Lutheran-Jewish relations of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in
America (ELCA) Department for Ecumenical Affairs.
     "Dabru Emet" -- which means "to speak the truth" -- was signed
by more than 200 Jewish scholars from Canada, England, Israel and the
United States.  The statement notes a change in Christian views
toward Judaism since the Holocaust of World War II.
     "We believe it is time for Jews to learn about the efforts of
Christians to honor Judaism," said Dabru Emet.  "We believe it is
time for Jews to reflect on what Judaism may now say about
Christianity.  As a first step, we offer eight brief statements about
how Jews and Christians may relate to one another."
 + Jews and Christians worship the same God.
 + Jews and Christians seek authority from the same book -- the Bible
(what Jews call "Tanakh" and Christians call the "Old Testament").
 + Christians can respect the claim of the Jewish people upon the
land of Israel.
 + Jews and Christians accept the moral principles of Torah.
 + Nazism was not a Christian phenomenon.
 + The humanly irreconcilable difference between Jews and Christians
will not be settled until God redeems the entire world as promised in
Scripture.
 + A new relationship between Jews and Christians will not weaken
Jewish practice.
 + Jews and Christians must work together for justice and peace.
     The Lutheran-Jewish panel thanked those who authored and signed
Dabru Emet.  "We are grateful for the steps you now have taken, and
we pledge our own continued work in this direction.  We pray that God
will continue to bless this new stage of our common journey toward
mutual respect and understanding," said the panel.
     "We thank you for taking this bold step.  We appreciate the
extensive work that went into the creation of this statement, and
cherish its scope and eloquence.
     "We are among those who have grieved the distance between our
communities, and have tried to do our part in moving our church to
repudiate the anti-Jewish statements of Martin Luther, to express our
regret and repentance for the part these played in the history of
persecution that followed, and to pledge our efforts for new and
better days in Christian-Jewish relations," said the Lutheran-Jewish
panel.
     In 1994, the ELCA issued a declaration to the Jewish community
repudiating Luther's anti-Jewish writings and expressing the ELCA's
"urgent desire to live out our faith in Jesus Christ with love and
respect for the Jewish people."  The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod
and the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) have made similar
declarations.  The LWF is a global communion of 131 member churches
in 72 countries representing 59.5 million of the world's 63 million
Lutherans.  The ELCA is a member of the LWF.
     "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," said the ELCA
declaration.  "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."
     The declaration added that Lutherans "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."
     As a follow-up to the 1994 declaration, in 1998 the ELCA
adopted "Guidelines for Lutheran-Jewish Relations," which offer
suggestions for fostering Lutheran-Jewish dialogue and cooperation.
The suggestions include visits to one another's houses of worship and
prayer in interfaith settings.
-- -- --
     "Dabru Emet," a list of its signers and other related details
are available at http://www.icjs.org/ -- the Web site of the
Institute for Christian and Jewish Studies.  ELCA documents are
linked to http://www.elca.org/ea/lujwrsce.html on the Web.

For information contact:
John Brooks, Director (773) 380-2958 or NEWS@ELCA.ORG
http://listserv.elca.org/archives/elcanews.html