by Courtney Dabney
McMillen's passion for teaching both Christians and Jews how to better understand and appreciate one another's faith was born out of friendship. In the early part of the "90s, one of her Israeli friends challenged her with a direct question, "Why do Christians hate Jews?"
It was a question that shocked her because she certainly did not hate Jewish people, and in fact would consider herself a third generation Zionist. "My Mennonite grandfather explained to us as children that if another Holocaust should ever occur, we should be willing to risk our own lives for the Jews. He taught us that if it was that important to God, it should be that important to us." She took the question posed by her close friend to heart and began doing research on the subject in an effort to show her love and respect.
Her exploration turned up some interesting facts. For instance, a lot of Anti-Semitic rhetoric was brought into the Christian church by none other than Martin Luther, who is also known as the Father of the Reformation. Although Luther was a brilliant scholar and the courageous leader of the Protestant faith, in his latter years his tone began to change regarding the Jews. In the three years preceding his death, he began to rant with hostility about them in his writings. It was such an odd shift from what Luther had previously taught that McMillen thinks he must have been suffering from some form of dementia in his old age. Some of these Anti-Semitic sentiments actually became the platform for the Nazi party in Germany, which ultimately led to the killing of millions of Jews during the Holocaust.
It took McMillen four years to create her first course called Anti-Semitism and the Church. Her personal study of the Jewish faith developed into an interfaith program of reconciliation and education. She has developed other courses like: Judaism 101; The Jews in Their Land: 169 BCE to 1917 CE; Jewish Holidays and Their Significance in Christianity; Hebraic Footprints in the New Testament; The Jewish People in the First Century and Jewish Women in Greco-Roman Judea. McMillen is a wealth of knowledge on these subjects and a frequent guest teacher at many churches in the area.
Her true acceptance into the local Jewish community came after she was asked to chair the Anne Frank in the World: 1929-1945 exhibit in 1997. She was instrumental in raising $100,000 to bring the event to Fort Worth. McMillen made many Jewish friends through that connection, and she was asked to chair the event again when in it returned in 2002, helping to raise funds so that more than 20,000 school children could be exposed to this sad chapter of our recent history.
The Jewish population in Fort Worth knows McMillen and trusts her. They love her because she takes great care not to offend them but honestly wants to understand them. She says, "The picture many Jews have of Christians is that they don't trust us, because many of them have family members who suffered and died during the Holocaust, and so few Christians did anything to stop it." McMillen's desire is to educate the members of both faiths to better understand and appreciate each other. She wants to teach Christians "who they came from and what their roots are – what they owe the Jewish people." Likewise, she wants to show Jews that not all Christians oppose them and that many love and respect them.
She has been leading interfaith trips to Israel for the past 11 years now through her organization Yad B"Yad (Hebrew for Hand in Hand). The participants visit holy sites for both Christians and Jews, and explore their shared and unique histories and traditions along the way. The whole idea is to build a bridge between them and allow those on the tours to see what they have in common. "It is such an emotional thing with me. Every time I get off the plane in Tel Aviv, I want to kiss the ground. I never get tired of going to Israel."
