Anti semitism Anti-semitism is a complex subject with a long history but perhaps I can make a few simple observations. Christians and Jews. After the Roman emperor Constantine recognised Christianity as the state religion in the 4th century, anti-semitism became embedded in the church until the time of Oliver Cromwell – the Puritans knew their Bible. Anti semitism was based on the idea that the Jews killed Jesus Christ. Well lets take a look at that. The Roman governor condemned Jesus and Roman soldiers carrried out the execution. Jesus was a Jew. One of his many titles is King of the Jews ( he has never abdicated ). Johns Gospel is mistranslated since all references to the Jews should read the Judeans – anyway John was also a Jew. Finally, and this is the most important theological point, Jesus was sacrificed to save us, his death and resurrection being the will of God. So arguably, anti Semitism is a perverse mutation of being anti God. Part of being human is the tendency to evade responsibility. When something goes wrong, some one else is to blame; that seems to be the basis of modern politics and psychology. Historically, it is the fault of that lot over there – a minority – the Jews. As with any community there are good Jews and bad Jews. However if you look through the list of nobel prize winners and achievers in the arts, business, politics, you will see that Jews have made a contribution to the national good way out of proportion to their numbers. Finally, some people like to draw a distinction between Israel and Zionism, which they criticise freely, and anti Semitism. In practice this is a form of sophistry. If you tell a woman that her hair is nice but you dislike her dress - she will take the point – do you ?
Posted on: Mon, 19 Jan 2015 06:20:38 +0000
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