Letter bears false witness
by Bruce Leichty, Clovis, Calif.
Bonnie Bergey bears false witness against the organization I founded, Good Information Advocates, when she charges (July 3) that publishing GIA’s ad for an alternative San José event was an act of “pandering to racists and anti-Semites.”
GIA states on its Web site, www.goodinformation.org, that it is neither “racist or antiracist.”
Cultural conditioning prevents many Americans from talking honestly about racial (root-based) differences and from distinguishing between anti-Semitism and a Christ-inspired critique of Talmudic religion and the influence of Judaic elites. Jesus himself challenged “the traditions of the elders” and called his Pharisee adversaries “white-washed tombs” and a “brood of vipers.”
Esteeming righteousness more than race, GIA critiques all claims of ethnic supremacy—claims not unknown to Mennonites, who have, sadly, often thrown out the baby with the bath water as they replace truth with tolerance and trendiness.
When Bergey writes that “some of the meeting’s participants have associated with racist organizations,” she neglects to acknowledge the civil liberties dimensions of GIA’s outreach efforts, and she may also be forgetting that Jesus himself was condemned for associating with sinners and tax collectors. Far from being called names, GIA ought to be embraced by all Mennonites who believe that nonconformity, truth telling and dialogue are superior to extremist violence.
Associated Issue: And on earth peace
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