Q&A with World Evangelical Alliance head Thomas Schirrmacher on the problem of offensive public sculptures and how Christians came to embrace evil conspiracy theories about the Jews.
A sculpture outside of a Wittenberg church where Martin Luther once preached shows three small people in pointy hats, meant to be Jews, sucking from the teats of a large female pig. A fourth figure stands behind the sow, lifting up the pig’s tail, and looking at its butt.
The obscene and bizarre image has been there since at least 1290. Luther commented approvingly on the Judensau, or “Jews’ sow,” in the 1500s. And since 2018, a German convert to Judaism has been fighting in court to have it removed.
The government installed a plaque in the 1980s, explaining that the sculpture and similar sculptures across Germany were part of the nation’s antisemitic history and meant to insult and alienate Jews.
Michael Düllmann, 79, does not think that’s enough.
“The ‘Jewish sow’ is a call for murder and not just an insult,” Düllmann told the German broadcaster ARD. He wants it moved to a museum.
On June 14, however, the German Federal Court of Justice decided that the sculpture can stay. According to the high court, the explanatory plaque creates enough contextualization to counteract the relief’s otherwise offensive characterization of Jews.
CT spoke with Thomas Schirrmacher, secretary general of the World Evangelical Alliance (WEA), about the court case, the controversy over the sculpture, and how German evangelicals are approaching the history of antisemitism.
What is your personal opinion on the sculpture?
Nowadays, I consider it impossible to leave them just as they are. My proposal is as follows: Place the originals in museums, with replicas somewhere in the church under glass, and ensure that in both places, they are accompanied by solid educational texts.
At the ...
from Christianity Today Magazine https://ift.tt/ehR4Jbd
No comments:
Post a Comment