c. 1999 Religion News Service

(Rabbi Rudin is the national interreligious affairs director of the American Jewish Committee.)

UNDATED _ I grew up in Virginia in a large, friendly sea of Southern Baptists. In my hometown, many of my teachers and classmates were Baptists, and I can truly say without a shred of sarcasm or irony that”some of my best friends are Southern Baptists.” I admire the historic Southern Baptist commitment to the vital principle of church-state separation in America, a position stemming from the Church of England’s persecution of Baptists three centuries ago in Britain. That persecution was etched into the memories of Baptists like Roger Williams who settled in the English colonies.

In the 18th century, John Leland, a Baptist minister, along with Thomas Jefferson and George Mason, advocated freedom of conscience and religious liberty in Virginia. Those ideals shaped the Constitution’s First Amendment guaranteeing Americans the right to exercise their faith, while also ensuring no religion shall become”established.”The three Southern Baptists who were elected president since 1948 (Harry Truman, Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton) were all champions of church-state separation.

But in recent years I have had serious problems with many Southern Baptist leaders.

In 1980, the Rev. Bailey Smith, then the SBC president, addressed religious conservatives in Dallas, including presidential candidate Ronald Reagan. At that meeting Smith declared:”God Almighty does not hear the prayer of a Jew.”I was one of many Jews who publicly criticized Smith for his remarks. Many Baptists also disagreed with Smith and pointed out it was arrogant and theologically impossible to know what God”hears”and does not hear. Smith later apologized for his remarks, but his spiritual salvo aimed at the Jewish people was not forgotten.

Smith’s speech 19 years ago took place as the conservative wing of the SBC was gaining control over the denomination’s offices and seminaries. By 1996 that control was complete when SBC delegates at their annual meeting in Dallas adopted a resolution calling for increased efforts to convert Jews to Christianity.

Once again I sharply condemned the SBC action, charging that”targeting”or singling out Jews, even for religious purposes, is totally unacceptable after the physical”targeting”of Jews during the Holocaust. Many Christians, including moderate Southern Baptists, criticized the resolution, declaring their faith commitment does not require the conversion of the Jews and the disappearance of Judaism.

But Southern Baptist leaders are at it again.

This year, just a few days before Rosh Hashana, the Jewish New Year, the SBC International Mission Board in Richmond, Va., issued a prayer guide urging Baptists to pray for the conversion of Jews:”On Rosh Hashana, when observant Jews around the world begin 10 days of seeking God, Southern Baptists will be praying they find his Son.”Baptists were asked”to pray for Jewish individuals you know by name … pray that they will find … the Messiah (Jesus).” Thanks to the First Amendment, the SBC International Mission Board has the right to publish such guides, and, of course, the Jewish community has the right to criticize such insulting efforts to undermine its ancient faith.

The guide is particularly offensive coming as it did during Judaism’s most sacred days. In addition, the guide’s authors broke three of the Ten Commandments found in the Hebrew Bible _ not bad for a small document.

It is a Commandment to honor, not attack, one’s parents, and a systemic effort to convert Jews profoundly dishonors Christianity’s parent faith by attempting to destroy Judaism.

It is a Commandment not to steal. Although the SBC’s flawed effort is destined to fail, nonetheless it is a repulsive attempt to steal Judaism. Throughout a long, lachrymose history, Jewish land and property were frequently expropriated by hostile governments and ecclesiastical authorities. Now Southern Baptists are attempting to expropriate Judaism itself.

It is a Commandment not to covet. Judaism is a fully viable faith bringing spiritual strength and sustenance to millions of people. I have seen firsthand that Christianity does the same for its adherents, including Southern Baptists. Why the need for spiritual competition and religious envy? Why the need to destroy one religion’s validity to enhance another?

Jews are weary and wary of the Christian”love”that has been hurled at them for nearly 2,000 years. We Jews know from bitter experience precisely what that”love”really means: the abandonment of the eternal covenant of faith that we made long ago at Mount Sinai, and that is something we will not do.

DEA END RUDIN