"The Function of Prejudice" a paper read at the conference on Religious Education as a Key Factor in Shaping Human Relations, University of Chicago (1964-11-22)

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THE FlftlCTXOH OF PREJUDICE*
Of all human disputes, family quarrels are the worst, "Lilies that
fester smell far worse than weeds," and love that is turned to hate is far
worse than casual hostility and suspicion, When the Christians separated
out of the Jewish isopoliteia, the polemics between church fathers and
rabbis set a tone which has corrupted the relationship between the two
faiths to the present day. St, Cyprian's "Three Books of Testimonies
Against the Jews" may be taken as representative of an animosity cultivated
from the earliest times, passed from generation to generation, cemented by
the monstrous local excesses of the crusades, the decisions of the Fourth
Lateran Council, the pogroms of 19th century Russia, the murderous policies
of Hitler and his henchmen, the bombing of synagogues in Atlanta and elsewhere in the Deep South in America today. There is an emotional force here
which defies purely rational analysis, just as its purging requires more
than the preparation of decent and fair literature accenting mutuality in
human relations.
Cyprian (d, 258) announced the new dispensation and new law with
abrogation of the law of Moses and the old temple (frl5). The Man of
Righteousness had been put to death by the Jews (#14); they fastened Him
to the cross (#20). Now, their peoplehood had been cancelled: the destruction of Jerusalem was a judgment on the Jews (#6); the Gentiles rather
than the Jews should attain to the Kingdom (#23). He concluded that "by
this alone the Jews could obtain pardon of their sins, if they wash away
the blood of Christ slain in His baptism, and, passing over into the Church,
should obey His precepts." (#24),I The total rejection thus expressed was
institutionalized when Christianity became the sole official religion of the
Empire, and for nearly a millenium and a half the ghetto was a necessary
function of Christendom.
'When we consider the long record of structured prejudice, the marvel
is not that Anti-Jewish lessons are still found in texts for instruction
of the Christian young: the miracle is that, in the few decades of religious
liberty and equality before the law, we should have come as far as we have
in discharging prejudice and discovering mutualities. For the answer to
Jules Isaac's famous question - Is Christianity Necessarily Anti-Semitic? -
is "Yes," if by "Christianity" is meant, as Isaac did, "Christendom".^
Whenever and wherever it is assumed that the function of religion is to hold
a society together, and that the goals of a society can only be attained
through using religion to sanctify its values and baptize its high places
,fA paper by Dr. Franklin H. Littell, Professor at Chicago Theological Seminary,
at the conference on Religious Education as a Key Factor in Shaping Human
Relations, sponsored by the Religious Education Association of Metropolitan
Chicago and the Chicago Chapter of the American Jewish Committee; November
22-23, 1964 at the University of Chicago*