Commentary points out the oikophobia - fear of one's neighbor - that informs a column written by Rabbi Joshua Hammerman in The Jewish Week:
Rabbi Joshua Hammerman’s Tim Tebow is making the rounds today–and not in a good way. The disturbing article, a vicious diatribe against American Christians, has offended not only its Christian targets but also American Jews who have worked hard to produce the gains in Jewish-Christian relations that such attacks threaten to undermine. Here is the most offensive paragraph (which the editors, since this post went up, finally deleted, though the rest of the offensive column remains):
If Tebow wins the Super Bowl, against all odds, it will buoy his faithful, and emboldened faithful can do insane things, like burning mosques, bashing gays and indiscriminately banishing immigrants. While America has become more inclusive since Jerry Falwell’s first political forays, a Tebow triumph could set those efforts back considerably.
Hammerman, a member of J Street’s Rabbinic Cabinet, says he is rooting against Tebow as a New England Patriots fan and as a concerned citizen. He gives the impression he believes that fervently hoping for the public failure of an athlete is appropriate if that athlete is overtly Christian. (While there is nothing wrong with being a Patriots fan, Hammerman does call head coach Bill Belichick a “moral exemplar,” which is a bit much considering Belichick was caught cheating to win games and carried on an affair with a married woman, resulting in the couple’s divorce just after his own. One wonders about Hammerman’s moral judgment.)
But more importantly, Hammerman surely knows that what he writes here is plainspoken bigotry, an affront to a nation of civilized people, insulting to Christians for all the obvious reasons, and is a chillul Hashem as well–a blight on Judaism’s reputation and one of Judaism’s most serious sins.
After given in to his inner oikophobe, and reaping the pushback, Rabbi Hammerman offered this lame apology:
“I have spent my entire career engaged in dialogue with people of all faiths while speaking out passionately against intolerance and extremism. I have the deepest respect for those who are committed to their faith, including Mr. Tebow. I realize the way in which I attempted to make my points was clumsy and inappropriate, calling to mind the kind of intolerance and extremism my article was intended to disparage. I sincerely apologize to Mr. Tebow, his family, the Broncos and Patriots and all those whom I may have offended.”
Mmm...okay...but what about all those "Christians" who Rabbi Hammerman described as just waiting for a catharsis to release their barely restrained desire to re-enact the Kristalnacht?
James Taranto writes:
So the offense was not against Tebow or his family, much less the Broncos and Patriots. Hammerman made a bigoted statement about Christians, or at least an ill-defined subset of Christians--a statement that belies his claim to "have the deepest respect for those who are committed to their faith." Although he apologizes to "all those whom I may have offended," he gives no indication of understanding why his statement was offensive.Too true.
Posts
