Ethics During and After the Holocaust: Duped by Morality: John K. Roth

Roth claims our own plans, dispositions, and actions as the biggest culprits to why we get deceived so often. Morality though is not something we usually think as being misleading, rather we believe that it leads us in the right direction all the time. The holocaust showed how much we had actually ben duped by morality.

There are three clear examples in the Israeli-Palestinian struggle.

1. "Never again!" is deceptively reassuring as it only shows a desire to prevent ones own destruction
2. "The killing will stop" shows that we only hope we value life enough killings will stop, not actual results
3. Retribution, it is mistaken as a form that will teach a lesson. Winning a fight does not mean peace, just the end of the current fight

Roth feels that Christians owe Jews a debt we can never repay, because Christians took part in isolating Jews over centuries, helping the holocaust to happen in the end. Roth believes that a two state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict would only bring a short term solution to the conflict, believe otherwise people would be duping themselves.


Discussion Questions/Comments

So is the PCUSA saying they want to support Palestinians financially? Or was the divestment creating more capital for...what?

So I was confused what the PCUSA story of divestment had to do with duped morality. I just saw that they changed their stance on the value of investing money into Israel. What morality were they duped by?



Key Terms/Definitions

Divestment: the action or process of selling off subsidiary business interests or investments