How Prejudice Is Taught

Some Protestant Sunday schools, as recently as five years ago, were still teaching that the Catholics were "papists" and "enemies of the Gospel," and that the Jews had suffered through history under a curse because their ancestors had murdered Jesus. Most of such obvious examples of church baiting have now been blue-penciled away, often because they were singled out and criticized by Dr. Bernhard Olson, a Methodist who teaches at Union Theological Seminary. In a new book, Faith and Prejudice (Yale; $7.50), Olson shows how religious-text writers have often carried teaching beyond the statement of the essential doctrines into the terrain of slurs that offend other faiths.

Olson's book is an analysis of religious lessons that have been used by four representative Protestant* groups: the Unitarians and Universalists, the United Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A., the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, and the fundamentalist churches that sub scribe to the materials issued by the independent Scripture Press. Olson makes clear that all four church groups are officially and staunchly opposed to anti-Semitism and anti-Catholicism, and that most religious texts do provide a healthy antidote to prejudice. Nonetheless, he argues, there still exist lessons that can subtly evoke unfavorable attitudes to other faiths in pupils' minds. Olson blames textbook writers and editors who rely on outdated history, interpret their church's theology too narrowly, and who seem to lack "an awareness of their responsibilities" as teachers to present a fair picture of what other people believe.

Against Catholics. "The scars left by the Reformation struggle are still evident in the treatment Protestants give Roman Catholic attitudes and behavior toward them not only in the past but in the present," Olson observes. Although properly noting that many Catholics are opposed to religious persecution, one Presbyterian text warned: "The Roman Catholic Church has never formally disavowed the principle behind the Inquisition." Another read: "Personal relationships with clerical and lay Catholics can be cordial and cooperative, but ecclesiastical relationships are almost impossible."

One fundamentalist lesson said: "In the early centuries, under pagan persecution, thousands of Christians were put to death, and a thousand years later, during the popish persecutions, millions perished." A Missouri Synod text argued that "a Christian should not vote for persons whose religion makes them dangerous to the welfare of the state. Roman Catholics are pledged to further the interests of the Pope above all other interests." Against Jews. Judaism does not show up in Protestant religious texts as an ecclesiastical enemy, but a prejudice against living Jews may subtly be evoked by stories of the Crucifixion. "The Gospels illustrate how bitterly Jesus was hated by the Jews," read one conservative scripture commentary. "The Pharisees called Him Beelzebub, a revolting title, which they applied to Satan. Similarly, the Jews and other enemies of the church have called the Christians all kinds of bad names." Olson's analysis of this argument: "Here the writer uses the responses of a small group of Pharisees to Jesus in a particular moment in history to project a series of generalizations 1) from a few to all Pharisees, 2) from all Pharisees to all Jews in the time of Jesus, and 3) from all ist century Jews to Jews of any time or place."

Olson argues that it is impossible to present the doctrine of any one church--even of the syncretist, brotherhood-minded Unitarians--without a certain "partisanship or particularism." But he believes that the manner of representation is all-important, and that a "realistic handling" of the theological issues that divide the churches need not make out other faiths to be enemies or "oppressors."

Fortunately, religious-text editors agree. Since he completed the research for Faith and Prejudice, Olson has helped 20 Protestant churches revaluate Sunday school curricula. When he presented his criticisms to the Missouri Synod, one of the church's editors told him: "You've done us a great service." Missouri Synod lesson references to Jews are now being eliminated or softened, and a note newly attached to one text about the trial of Jesus warns: "Teachers must be careful not to give the impression that the Jewish people are under a curse to this day because some Jews 2,000 years ago brought about the Crucifixion of the Son of God."

* Similar "self-examinations" of Catholic and Jewish teaching materials, inspired (as was the Protestant analysis) by the American Jewish Committee, are under way at the Jesuits' St. Louis University and at the Dropsie College for Hebrew and Cognate Learning.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.