Catholics, Baptists, Jews, and our City of Charlotte

On the Shabbat evening prior to the death of Pope John Paul II, my husband
Chip and I were eating Shabbat dinner when he asked me, “Do you think the news stations will show up at Beth El tonight?” “

Of course not,” I responded, certain that there were more than enough Catholic churches in town to keep the media busy. Yet, as is often the case, Chip was right, and I was wrong. WSOC showed up during services and stayed afterwards, eager to hear about the Jewish community’s perspective on the Pope’s declining health and impending death.

The broader community of Charlotte clearly cares about its interfaith relationships, just as we do. As a Temple, we have a unique relationship with so many of our neighbors, especially with St. Mathew Catholic Church and Myers Park Baptist Church. On that Friday night before the Pope’s death, we included him in our mi shebeirach – our prayers for healing. As a congregation, we stand in support of our Catholic brothers and sisters who are now mourning the death of their great leader. Pope John Paul II was indeed good to the Jews: he established diplomatic relations between the Vatican and the State of Israel, acknowledged the atrocities of the Holocaust, and called for a reconciliation between Catholics and Jews. He was the first Pope to visit a synagogue and the first to visit the land of Israel. He even prayed at the Wailing Wall, leaving a prayer.

As another symbol of our strong interfaith relationships, this month we will be engaging in our Myers Park Baptist Church/Temple Beth El Dialogue – an annual tradition that goes back more than a decade. On the evening of May 10th, we will gather at Myers Park Baptist Church to share in a potluck dinner and discussion. Together we will explore the prophets of our faith. Together we will hear what the prophets would have to say about our city of Charlotte with respect to economic and educational issues. And together we will study specific texts from Isaiah that Christians claim predict the coming of Jesus and that Jews view very differently.

Author Elie Weisel teaches, “A prophet is someone who sees people as they are and as they ought to be. A prophet is forever awake, forever alert; he is never indifferent, least of all to injustice.” As two communities, we will hear the words of the prophets and imagine the ways in which they would want us to create change here in Charlotte.