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ADL Letter to Garry Trudeau

Anti-Defamation League


Garry Trudeau
Doonesbury.com
 
     June 1, 2009

Dear Mr. Trudeau:

 

We agree with the numerous people who are contacting us that Sunday's Doonesbury misquotes the Bible, maligns Judaism, and promotes a Christian heresy, all within eight panels. It reinforces age-old stereotypes about Judaism that have been the cause of much suffering and pain over the centuries, and which have been rejected by a variety of Christian denominations over the last decades. 

 

Jesus' concern in the Gospels is with money-changers, not money-lenders. The money-changers converted the coins of the Roman Empire into the currency accepted by the Jerusalem Temple, as money-changers today convert dollars into Euros. To speak of money-lenders harkens back the stereotype of Shylock, when Jews were forced by Christians to engage in usury.

 

Christian teaching is clear: the God of the Old Testament is the same God as the God of the New Testament. Doonesbury's Reverend Sloan is guilty of promoting anti-Jewish stereotypes and biblical illiteracy. He owes both Jews and Christians an apology.


  Sincerely,

The Anti-Defamation League



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In the News:
Jewish Group Demands Apology from Doonesbury's Trudeau (Newsday)

Anti-Defamation League Accuses Garry Trudeau of 'Maligning Judaism' (Editor & Publisher)

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