On Sanctifying the Holocaust: An Anti-Theological Treatise

TWENTIETH ANNIVERSARY discipline; butit contains nothingwith whichto satisfy these desires. It pays lip service to "traditional values;' but the policies with which it is associated promise more change, more innovation, more growth, more technology, more weapons, and more addictive drugs. Instead ofconfronting the forces in modern life that make for disorder, it proposes merelyto make Americans feel good about themselves. Ostensibly rigorous and realistic, contemporary conservatism is an ideology ofdenial. Its slogan is the slogan ofAlfred E. Neumann : "What? Me, worry?" Its symbol is.a smile button: thatempty roundface devoidoffeatures except for two tiny eyes, eyes too small to see anything clearly, and a big smile: the smile ofsomeone who is determined to keep smilingthrough thick andthin. Conservatives stress the importance ofreligion, but their religion is the familiar American blend offlagwaving and personal morality. It centers on the trivial issues ofswearing, neatness, gambling, sportsmanship , sexual hygiene, and school prayers.Adherents of the new religious right correctly reject the separation ofpolitics and religion, butthey bring no spiritual insights to politics. They campaign for political reforms designed to discourage homosexuality and pornography , say, but they have nothingto tell us aboutthe connection between pornography and the larger consumerist structure of addiction-maintenance. Their ideaofthe proper relation between politics and religion is to invoke religious sanctions for specificpolitical positions, as when they declaim that budget deficits, progressive taxation, and the presence of women in the armed forces are "anti-biblical." As in their economic views, conservatives advance views of religion and ofthe political implications ofreligion that derive from the tradition ofliberal individualism. Liberalism, as a Lutheran critic ofthe religious right points out, "means straining scriptureto mandate specific positions on social justice issues ... bendingthe word ofGod to fit your political ideas." The religiosity ofthe American right is self-righteous and idolatrous. Itperceives no virtue in its opponents and magnifies its own. In the words ofa pamphlet published by the UnitedMethodist Church, "Tbe'New Religious Right' has ... madethe same mistake committed bythe social gospeler earlier in the century. They exaggerate the sins oftheir opponent and negate any original sin of their won. They have become victims ofwhat Reinhold Neibuhr called "easy conscience," or what the New Testament describes as the"self-righteousness of the Pharisees." The most offensive and dangerous form ofthis self-righteousness isthe attemptto invoke divine sanction for the national self-aggrandizement of the United States in its global struggle against "Godless communism," as ifAmerican imperialism were anyless godless than Soviet imperialism. In the words ofPaul Simmons, a professor at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, "Identifying the JudeoChristian posturewith American nationalismis to lose the transcendent and absolute nature ofthe Christian faith. For Christians and Jews, loyalty to God must transcend any earthly loyalties." 1987 IVOLU ME 2, NUMBER 1 On Sanctifyingthe Holocaust AnAnti-Theological Treatise withAdi Ophir A ELIGIOUS CONSCIOUSNESS builtaround he Holocaust may become the central aspectofa new religion, one which has at ts core a story of revelation that goes omething like this: "In the year five thousand seven hundred, since the creation ofthe world according to the Jewish calendar, in central Europe , Absolute Evil was revealed. TheAbsolute- that is, the Divine-is Evil. Everyacthas a part, to agreater orlesser extent, inthisAbsoluteEvil, everyactis an expression ofit. But until the emergence oftheAbsolute Evil no one believed that there was a hidden lawfulness controlling every appearance ofevil in our world. Until then, no onehad placedhis or her trust in the absolute , transcendent, one and only Evil, which is the groundofourlives and deaths, thelogicofom·finitude and suffering, the rock ofour destruction, and the promise ofour annihilation. The four commandments of the new religion (Exod. 20:3): Thou shalt have no otherholocaust before the Holocaust ofthe Jews ofEurope; Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image or any likeness; Thou shalt nottakethe name ofthe Holocaust in vain. "Thou shalt not take the name in vain:' How many outbursts ofrage did Menachem Begin earn when he dared to profane the name. How manywarnings have been uttered since then by researchers ofthe Holocaust , politicians, and educators, against that disreputable phenomenon, a transgression, no doubt, derogatingthe Holocaustby borrowing its name for calamities and disasters ofa lesser order ofatrocity, the earthly order. "Rememberthe day ofthe Holocaustto keep itholy in memory...