The Judensau

From Chapter 19 of Unity Through Repentance:

Years later, I would ask my teenage son John Patrick what, in the whole Wittenberg journey, was the most memorable to him.

“Richard Harvey’s talk about the Judensau,” he replied immediately.

Something was set in motion that day in 2016 that Richard spoke in Wittenberg. Where is it going? The Lord only knows.

Sr. Joela and the Marienschwestern had already sent a letter to the Lutheran leadership, urging the removal of the Judensau for the 500th anniversary. After Richard’s talk, a number German Lutherans were moved to send a letter of remorse and repentance to a key Jewish leader in Germany. Richard created a Change.org petition to remove the Judensau, and the signatures began to mount … 50 … 100 … 500 … 1,000 … 5,000 … eventually exceeding 10,000.

This caught the attention of the German media, who started publishing articles about the Wittenberg Judensau. And somehow our little initiative began to be known in Germany for its protest against the Judensau. From the beginning, our desire had been to bless the German Lutheran church in its official celebration. We in no way desired to oppose or appear in conflict.*

And suddenly we had become known as the Judensau initiative. This had the potential to place some of our German Lutheran pastor friends in conflict with their denominational leadership. I felt strongly the tension of honoring German Lutheran leadership while simultaneously recognizing that it was the Holy Spirit who had highlighted the sacrilege of the Judensau. We had to navigate these unexpected waters carefully through the end of the initiative. Did we navigate them well? Mostly, I hope – but it is hard to know.

The subsequent attention on the Judensau affected us in many ways. We had people ask us, “Can I come to your meeting if I don’t believe that the Judensau should be taken down?” Wouldn’t it be ironic if an initiative of reconciliation suddenly developed a litmus test of membership? We took pains to answer – “Of course, come!”

We also began to notice how much time the Judensau consumed in our leadership meetings. A simple agenda topic that touched on the Judensau would take on a life of its own, and before we knew it our meeting was coming to its end and we hadn’t talked about anything else. We began to understand that there was a spiritual dimension to the Judensau. Paul talks about “principalities and powers” – was there one of these somehow attached to the Judensau?

* For example, our prayer guides published dates of important official meetings and commemorations, inviting everyone involved in Wittenberg 2017 to support them in prayer.

And during our planning for the actual 500th anniversary, we had decided to not meet as a group on October 31, 2017, so as not to present the appearance of competing with the official ceremonies. Instead, a small group of us spent it interceding for the favor of God to be upon all the other activities. For this purpose, we quietly met in the Best Western rooms originally reserved in 2010.

Meeting Program with Links to Teachings