Dear Editor:
RE: Anti-Semitism common, Oct. 27.
While I agree with Barbara Cooper that we need to stop hating one another, I have to correct some of her statements.
Should a person study the Bible carefully they will soon understand that it was written by eyewitnesses to the events described. All of the Bible was in existence by the time Jerusalem was destroyed by the Romans in 70 A.D.
The Catholic school teachings she writes about are true from the Bible. Unfortunately important facts are left out. The beginning of Christianity would today be described as a schism in the Jewish nation/religion at the time.
All of Jesus’ followers at the beginning were Jews, as were the leaders (except Pilate) who put Jesus to death. All Jesus’ disciples were Jews when the events of the gospels happened. Most of the New Testament accounts of Jesus’ life were written by Jews (the book of Luke is by a Greek doctor writing down the accounts of eyewitnesses).
All of these events were predicted in the Old Testament and had to happen as part of God’s plan of salvation for all people since all people have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.
No one may discriminate against Jews because of the part a particular generation of them played in salvation since we all are sinners. Rather Catholic schools need to emphasize God’s love, which he shows by putting in place a plan of salvation for all people.
We can and should hate some cultural practices that various people have, which tend to manifest in religion and types of government. This can be seen in the worldwide protests around the death of Mahsa Amini over forcing women to wear headscarves and world governments’ actions to not buy items made by slave labour in China.
This is the correct way to show anger over a bad practice; state your case openly with good reasoning, not for example with under -darkness property damage or anonymous social media posts.
And everyone should do a regular and thorough self search to root out all evil ideas we might harbour, including racism.
Jane Vandervliet,
Erin