Mike Wallace and Reinhold Niebuhr: An interview reviewed

(Mike Wallace in 1957)

For Mike Wallace, religion might never have been a lukewarm topic.  Just the fact that his Russian Jewish family’s surname had been changed from “Wallik” to “Wallace,” and his birth name “Myron” had morphed into "Mike,” may speak volumes about a pressing need to assimilate into the majority culture.

Therefore, it may come as no surprise that when Wallace

interviewed Reinhold Niebuhr on April 27, 1958, he asked this question of the great Protestant theologian:  …Dr. Niebuhr, how do you account for Christian anti-Semitism in the United States?  Dr. Niebuhr replied:  I account for it, first, on the basis of a general human failing.  We misjudge anybody who’s different from us.  The Jews diverge from our type ethnically and religiously…

Perhaps not quite willing to accept that generic a response, Wallace pressed on:  Why does the Jewish stereotype unhappily survive?  Dr. Niebuhr’s reply to this, too, was quite simplistic:  Well, that’s a long story.   It came out of the Middle Ages and was transferred here, according to our American historians, through populism. 

The Jews were the money-lenders of the Middle Ages so there’s a stereotype of the slightly or more than slightly dishonest businessman.  This stereotype covers and obscures all the facts.

This latter explanation says nothing of the fact that Christian anti-Semitism has been around a lot longer than the past thousand years.  It also says nothing about outlandish stereotypes such as Jews with horns, Jews draining the blood of children, Jews responsible for all of a nation’s woes, etc.

To be fair to Dr. Niebuhr, it is impossible to explain centuries of Christian anti-Semitism within one or two

sound bites.  The interview ended on a philosophical note.  After all was said and said, Wallace concluded: 

Dr. Niebuhr would seem to be saying that if a nation would survive and remain free, its citizens must use religion as a source of self-criticism, not as a source of self-righteousness.

Resources

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_Wallace_(journalist)

http://being.publicradio.org/programs/niebuhr/wallace.shtml

Copyright April 10, 2012 by Linda Van Slyke   All Rights Reserved