Miller Center Getting the Story Straight: A Reverend’s Reflection on Antisemitism

Reverend Corey J. Sanderson recently participated in the Miller Center’s antisemitism training for Christian clergy, operated in coordination with the Newton Interfaith Leaders Association. Rabbi Or Rose invited Rev. Sanderson to share a reflection on this experience, published below:

Have you ever overheard a conversation in which someone speaking didn’t have their story straight? You realize they are missing some important details, valued perspectives, or essential understandings. You wonder, ‘Should I interrupt and say something, or should I mind my own business?’ Sometimes helping people get their story straight isn’t a big deal. Yet other times, this is vitally important, especially when the stakes are high.
When it comes to antisemitism, helping people get the story straight is essential work. This is why, when Rabbi Rose invited my colleague, The Rev. Cheryl Kerr, and me to help design and lead an antisemitism training for Christian churches, we both jumped at the chance. Cheryl and I know that a big part of our job as Christian clergy involves helping people get their story straight when it comes to matters of faith and culture.

Because Christianity en masse has historically been the primary cause and main driver of antisemitism, churches have a serious responsibility to confront this legacy within our faith tradition. Christianity is not intrinsically or inherently antisemitic, but we must confront the uncomfortable truth: Christianity bears a significant portion of the responsibility for the systemic persecution, exclusion, and dehumanization of Jewish people across centuries. Churches today must reckon honestly with this history, confess and own the misdeeds committed in the name of our faith, seek pardon and forgiveness, and work diligently to repair past harm and prevent ongoing injury. Those of us who regularly work in interfaith spaces know that before churches look outward toward reconciliation and dialogue, that we must first examine our own history and institutions. Meaningful interfaith work depends on that reckoning and cannot exist unless it grows from it.

Rabbi Rose began this series by expertly guiding us through the evolution of early anti-Judaism through the Enlightenment. We learned how this extended into more racially coded and radicalized expressions of antisemitism in our modern times. While much of this history was familiar to me, I appreciated the opportunity to examine those distinctions. Taking time to ground us in history was an essential starting point for our journey. This bedrock helped make the whole series so transformative.

The first session raised many important questions and discussion topics which were a good launchpad for our second gathering, where we delved deeper into these important issues. The participants, including several teens, needed space to ask questions, share their perspectives, and wrestle with hard truths together. This is where relational learning happens best: not in the receiving or imparting of information but in engaging with one another honestly and thoughtfully. We turned our attention inward and learned how Christians and churches can unknowingly promote and perpetuate antisemitism. We deconstructed familiar Bible passages, compared translations, and explored how certain approaches to scripture and styles of preaching can reinforce antisemitism. We looked beyond overt antisemitism to recognize the subtle ways it has become embedded in Christian teaching, practice, and language.

During session three, I spoke on the alarming escalation of White Christian Nationalism and its relation to antisemitism and Zionism. White Christian Nationalism seeks to fuse religious and national identities, promoting a vision of evangelical Protestant Christianity as foundational to and emblematic of American identity. White Christian Nationalism is a reactionary political ideology rooted in a conservative cultural framework, cloaked in Christian symbols and imagery. At its core, it is an effort to merge American identity with a more fundamentalist Christian worldview – one that often carries with it deeply problematic and harmful antisemitic theology.

There were so many important takeaways from this series. There is so much more that Christians can – and MUST! – do to stand against the scourge of antisemitism. Sadly, many clergy and churches are not yet equipped for this work. This series is helping to address that gap in the Boston area by giving participants the historical context, theological scholarship, and relational skills to meet institutional antisemitism more thoughtfully and effectively. We already have identified ways to strengthen and expand future iterations of this program and are eager to put them into action. This work is essential because genuine religious pluralism doesn’t just happen in a democratic society. It requires conscious commitment to building and protecting it. Despite all our differences, those of us in the Abrahamic family have a duty to support and protect one another.

Helping people get their story straight is so important these days, especially when it comes to antisemitism and all the ways it manifests. We cannot confront what we do not understand. But we cannot begin to understand what we do not acknowledge. We are deeply grateful for all the support, guidance, and partnerships that have made this important work possible and look forward to making real change in the world through education, humility, and most of all, faith.

Peace and Shalom,
The Rev. Corey J. Sanderson

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