DailySusan Humor Blog

THE CANTOR AND THE KLANSMAN

But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you.
-- Matthew 5:44

A Jewish friend overheard people last week talking about ''The Passion of The Christ'' movie and how they should watch out for the ''Christ-killers'' among them and ''how evil the Jews are.''

His wife, a cashier, heard a torrent of anti-Semitic statements from people waiting in line.

Remember that scene in ''Shrek'' where the princess does a triple handspring, elaborate judo and split kicks bonking the bad guys? That's what I’d like to do to numbskulls who are anti-Semitic . . . and anti-Christian.

Don't they know the Bible says Jews are God's beloved, chosen people?

And Jesus went through torture and death out of love for Jews along with everybody else?

And the crucifixion by the Romans of Jesus Christ -- a Jew named ''Yeshua'' -- was the most anti-Semitic act in history? That He was among thousands of Jews the Romans crucified over politics?

And when YOU make anti-Semitic statements, YOU kill our Savior, all over again, because He commanded: ''Love one another.''

Duhhhhhhh.

Oyyyyyyy.

Anti-Semitism: you think of Russian pogroms, Nazi Holocaust, crimes in Europe and Malaysia, terrorism in Israel, horrid shortwave radio programs, and hate-mongering websites worldwide.

Now there are claims that ''The Passion'' movie is fomenting it right under our noses. Christians have an opportunity to serve Jesus by standing up against it.

How? Study the awesome book ''Not By the Sword: How a Cantor and His Family Transformed a Klansman,'' by Princeton University writing instructor Kathryn Watterson (Northeastern University Press, 2001), details on www.amazon.com

It happened a few miles from me. In Lincoln, Neb., a Jewish cantor, Michael Weisser, and his family moved into a new home in 1991. They got a phone call: ''You will be sorry you ever moved . . . Jew Boy.'' Two days later, a package was flung on their porch with a note, ''The KKK is watching you, scum.'' Inside were pictures of Hitler and caricatures of Jews and blacks.

Police told the Weissers the likely harasser was Larry Trapp, Grand Dragon of the Nebraska Ku Klux Klan.

Trapp had been suspected of terrorizing Jews, Vietnamese and African-Americans for some time. His apartment was crammed with Nazi paraphernalia, hate literature and reportedly enough weapons to blow up a small city.

What would you have done? Buy Dobermans? Set up traps? Get him thrown in jail?

Or do what Jesus would have done? That's what Cantor Weisser did.

Trapp was in a wheelchair because of health problems. One day Weisser called him and graciously offered to take him grocery shopping.

Friendship blossomed.

It turns out Trapp had been beaten and abused as a child; his father used racial epithets against Jews and African-Americans. Trapp's life had been painful, and now, diabetes was killing him. His legs were amputated; he was nearly blind.

Trapp didn't need victims. He needed love.

It came: his visiting nurse witnessed Christ to him . . . a Vietnamese Buddhist hospital volunteer befriended him . . . a black neighbor prayed daily for him.

The Weissers took the lead. One day Trapp asked them to help him throw away his hate propaganda . . . and to forgive him. Eventually, Trapp apologized to each of his hate-mail victims.

As Trapp's health worsened, the Weissers invited him to live with them. Mrs. Weisser quit her job to care for him. He died on Sept. 6, 1992 . . . after having converted to Judaism in the Weissers' synagogue, a building he once threatened to bomb.

A Lutheran minister and friend conducted his funeral service to a full house. Many openly cried.

They cried the same tears people are crying in movie theaters everywhere. Because the Grand Knight of the Nebraska KKK finally saw it, too:

Love. Unconditional, unrelenting, awesome, powerful, wonderful love.

Thank You, Yeshua Mashiach . . . the Anointed One . . . Who sees our tears and hears our cries, beyond the movies into real life . . . and always, always finds a way to bring us love.

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Prayer request: The Jews are the apple of Your eye, oh God; You love them greatly. We pray for this movie to inspire us to oppose hatred in all its forms, including anti-Semitism, and demonstrate the will and power of the living Messiah. (Zechariah 2:8)