Our keynote speakers were Dr. Richard Mouw, president of Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, and Rabbi Elliott Dorff, rector at the American Jewish University in Los Angeles.While here, Dr. Mouw also spoke at Holy Apostles Church, and Rabbi Dorff spoke at Temple Shalom, both in Colorado Springs.
Dr. Mouw was recently featured on Krista Tippett’s NPR show “Being.” To hear this superb interview that touches on many themes that relate to the mission of the CCJD, go to http://being.publicradio.org/programs/2010/restoring-civility/
During our dialogue dinner, we celebrated fifteen years since our inception in 1995. We look to a bright future of continued ministry and ever-expanding opportunities.
Tag Archives: CCJD
Fall Board Meeting
CCJD boards gathered for our Fall Board Meeting. We affirmed Rev. Brady Boyd, Senior Minister of New Life Church, as a new member of our Board of Directors. New Life was one of the original founders of CCJD, and it is good to once again have representation from that church on our board. We also created in our organizational structure a category of Young Leadership Associates who are being trained to join the Senior Board of Directors/Advisors. Some young people already played important roles in the planning our annual dinner, and we acknowledge that this step is vital to our continued growth as an organization.
Congratulations to The Catholic Diocese of Colorado Springs
CCJD presented to The Catholic Diocese of Colorado Springs a plaque bearing the following message:
The Center for Christian-Jewish Dialogue
is pleased to congratulate The Catholic Diocese of Colorado Springs
and its Bishops The Most Revered Michael J. Sheridan and The Most Reverend
Richard C. Hanifen Emeritus on the occasion of its Silver Anniversary and
wishes all of the diocesan clergy and laity many more years of growth, service
and success Rabbi Dr. Howard Abel Hirsch, Founding President.
Fourth Biennial Conference of Jesuits and Jews at Fordham University in New York City
On July 25-29, Dr. Hirsch lectured about the origins, development and work of the CCJD at the Fourth Biennial Conference of Jesuits and Jews at Fordham University in New York City. Dr. Hirsch writes, “After showing the DVD, I was inundated with questions about what we do and how we do it. I also read lengthy passages of the latest edition of my ‘Passover Celebration for Christians’ and lively discussion followed.” Dr. Hirsch has now been invited to join the group.
CCJD Boards’ Statement on the World Crisis
The mission of The Center for Christian–Jewish Dialogue is to affirm what Christians and Jews hold in common, engage in conversation, promote understanding, and encourage mutual respect for each other’s faith, culture and history. We are deeply committed to interfaith dialogue.
Because of this commitment, we are dismayed at the dramatic increase in anger, hatred and violence in our culture. We are deeply saddened by the polarization that contributes to danger and insecurity in our world. Anti-Semitism has grown rapidly, as have distorted expressions of hatred for classical Christianity.
We encourage a return to the biblical vision of shalom¾God’s gift of peace, harmony and wholeness, and the abandonment of fear and irrational hatred. As Christians and Jews, we are dedicated to positive relationships between persons of our own and different religious traditions. We are dedicated to reconciliation and historical accuracy.
Albert Einstein once said that while “a human being is part of the whole¾a part of the universe limited in time and space, he experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separated from the rest, a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness.” Delusion imprisons us. We become restricted to our personal desires and to affection for the few people closest to us who always agree with us.
We call on all persons in our community and beyond to refuse to relate to one another through the broken lenses of violence, trauma and anti-Semitism. We invite and support a posture of peace and understanding, an attitude of openness, a strengthening of cultural resilience, and a rejection of destruction, whether physical or religious.
The Boards of Directors and Advisors
The Center for Christian–Jewish Dialogue
Colorado Springs, Colorado
Film Review: “The Passion of the Christ”
Film Review: “The Passion of the Christ”
Special to the Denver Post, April 2004
By Howard Abel Hirsch
“The Passion” is a violent and graphic film that is frequently awesome and inspiring. Mel Gibson’s film,
however, neither accurately reproduces the passion stories recorded in the gospels nor does it reflect the best current scholarship. Gibson glosses over the historical problems which confront any serious student of the
gospels and gives no evidence of ever having read the work of John Meier, Raymond Brown or E.P. Sanders, the preeminent Jesus scholars of our time. There are literally dozens if not hundreds of discrepancies between the film and the canonical gospel accounts of the last hours of Jesus’ life. By his own admission, Gibson has relied on the mystic visions of a nineteenth century nun, Anne Catherine Emmerich, who has embellished the story with innumerable painful details that have no parallel in the gospels, which are, by comparison, models of restraint.
I dislike cinematic portrayals of biblical stories. In “The Ten Commandments,” Cecil B. DeMille cavalierly rewrote the book of Exodus because he obviously felt that the original wasn’t good enough. Mel Gibson is the latest exponent of this old Hollywood tradition. What he has given us is an “interpretation” of Jesus’ passion, a “passion play” rather than a gospel account of the last hours of Jesus’ life.
First century Jerusalem was subjugated by a brutal Roman military occupation and was jammed with Passover pilgrims. A charismatic religious leader who attracted crowds, threatened the Temple establishment and spoke incessantly about a new “kingdom” made some Temple leaders and Pontius Pilate jittery and fearful of revolt. There could be only one possible answer to the problem: eliminate the popular street preacher whom the Palm Sunday Jewish crowd clearly adored. Since the Romans were massacring Christians at the time when the gospels were written, there was a natural reluctance to antagonize Rome. Exonerate Pontius Pilate, a cruel political hack if ever one lived, portray him as a sensitive man of conscience, blame the Jews instead and inaugurate nineteen centuries of Jewish martyrdom. Gibson’s film never adequately addresses these issues.
Gibson has repeatedly emphasized that “The Passion” is not an anti-Semitic film. I accept that judgment. Anti-Semites hardly need pretexts for their irrational hatred. If one is not predisposed to hate Jews, “The Passion” will not incite such hatred. By the same token, even though Jewish sensitivity to the crucifixion is understandable in the light of subsequent history, the time has come for Jewish leaders and organizations to stop telling Christians how to interpret their sacred history and experience. Gibson has the right to tell the story as he feels it.
As we approach Passover and Easter, “The Passion” places the need for intensive Christian-Jewish dialogue at the forefront of our interfaith agenda. We all have a moral obligation to understand what went wrong in Christian-Jewish relations and we need to build upon the impressive advances that have been made during the past forty years. I left the theater literally overwhelmed by the brutality and sadistic bloodletting. But I was equally determined to refocus on love and reconciliation, which, after all, was what Jesus’ passion was all about.
