Interfaith Reflections on Auschwitz - Birkenau
Earlier this month the Archbishop of Canterbury traveled with the Chief Rabbi to two of most notorious concentration camps of World War II. Both the Archbishop and the Chief Rabbi's reflections on that trip have been published on the Archbishop's website. Both call for a renewed recognition of the fundamental humanity of those with whom we disagree.
From the Archbishops speech:
"In a world where it's possible for people to take monstrosity for granted as normal, as ordinary; you and I have to decide to be human - to decide that we're not going to take inhumanity for granted. To decide to look at one another in a radically different way, to look at one another with gratitude, with a sense of mystery, with a sense of humility."
And from the Chief Rabbi:
Please friends I hope you will take away from today what I take away – an extraordinary signal of hope. This is the first time in Britain certainly that we have come together not one faith, but the leaders of all nine faiths in Britain; Jewish, Christian, Muslim, Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Zoroastrian and Bahá'í. Because the tragedy of Auschwitz transcends this people or that. It simply touches on what is human in all of us. Therefore may the fact that we have come together in this moment of grief remembered lead us to come together in the future for the sake of hope, friendship, tolerance and life. And may each of us ask just one question from today: "How, having seen what I have seen can I become in my life, an agent of hope".
Read them both in full here.
Personally speaking, having visited Bergen-Belsen, one of the lesser known death-by-work camps a mere 20km from my partner's village where the bulk of persons who died were political prisoners and gay men, I'm unimpressed with this sudden call for humanity by the archbishop.
I have not heard in the words of this archbishop, nor seen in his actions, a fundamental recognition of my humanity. On the contrary, at every point he is willing to turn on my humanity and the humanity of those like me for the sake of unity, and the way in which Lambeth and Bp. Robinson were handled this last summer is just the latest example. This is a man who was willing to use compromising words in the bombing of a gay bar in London, the "well, even the celibate gays are getting hurt" sort of language that implies that the others deserved it.
I sense no gratitude for my existence from this man. We're the problem. I do not look to Canterbury as a moral compass any longer. Archbishop Tutu is the huge rebuke to Archbishop Williams.
We forget that it isn't simply a matter of calling us to fundamental recognition of humanity, but that in the present moment we are often blind to the humanity of those most in need of our gratitude, and only in the mirror of history do we see in retrospect how we sullied fellow images of God.
Archbishop Tutu is a prophet for willingly standing up and naming my humanity at a time when this Communion on the whole will not.
Posted by *Christopher![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.episcopalcafe.com/lead/nav-commenters.gif)
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November 22, 2008 11:19 AM