Christians could not have killed Jews and cannot hate Jews - not if they truly follow Christ's teachings - according to the CEO of Geneva Steel, who helped create the U.S. Holocaust Memorial.
"It goes against everything Christianity is. You cannot be a Christian and be anti-Semitic," said Joe Cannon, speaking at a luncheon Monday at the 25th Scholars Conference on the Holocaust at Brigham Young University. "You cannot believe these verses (in the Bible) and kill people."Cannon said much is misunderstood about the relationship between Jews and Christians, particularly when Jews are tagged "Christ-haters."
"Christ stood for loving all, and doing good. To believe Christians were or are supposed to persecute the Jewish people is to ignore God's covenantal relationship with them and set aside everything Christ and God stood for."
He said the Holocaust happened for reasons other than a conflict between Christian people and Jewish people. It had a great deal more to do with moving away from Christlike principles than with battling over the beliefs, he said.
"Man was looking in instead of up.
"It's because we've ignored fundamental teachings that virtually all people believe that bad things have happened," said Cannon, "and we'll continue to have lots and lots of bad things happen if we continue the move to secularism."
The conference theme, "Remembrance, Repentance, Reconciliation," is important in moving ahead, he said, and crucial to preventing more holocausts. Society must recognize that God gave humanity its life.
Cannon pointed out that while Mormons and Jews differ widely in views and belief, both religions have suffered systematic persecution from the governments that were supposed to provide protection.
Men stepped away from a belief in God, aroused old hatreds and ancient prejudices and "depended most of all on the indifference of bystanders" to achieve that persecution.
A machinery born of bad ideas moved forward at a time when people were more materialistic and less spiritual, had access to the technical and mechanical means of mass destruction and mobilized a huge bureaucracy to wreak havoc upon the Jews during Nazi occupation.
"It was more than just one crazy man," said Cannon.
"Think about the massive bureaucracy that had to exist. In Germany, bureaucracy is an art as it is in China."