No anti-Semitic fallout from 'Passion' - made folks re-examine views, less willing to cast blame

SFgate ^ | 3/18/04 | Don Lattin

[Libloather]

Despite fears that it could promote anti-Semitism, the new film by Mel Gibson "The Passion of the Christ'' may have made Americans less likely to blame Jews for the death of Jesus, according to a new survey.

Among those interviewed for a new national poll who had seen or knew about the film, 83 percent said the movie and its surrounding controversy had no effect on the extent they believe contemporary Jews are responsible for the death of Jesus. Only 2 percent said the movie made them more likely to blame Jews, while 9 percent said the movie made them less likely to hold Jews responsible.

[Libloather]

How bout dat...

[Argus]

This can't be. Why, Bill Clinton distinctly remembers the KKK burning synagogues after free screenings of The Passion back in Arkansas when he was a boy.

[madprof98]

Jewish children, he said, have been called "Christ- killers'' on school campuses.

Yeah, in Germany . . . a long time ago. Meanwhile, while these lib groups try to pin a bad rap on faithful Christians, the more secularist minds over at A.N.S.W.E.R. are organizing mass rallies this coming Saturday to encourage Palestians to drive Israel into the sea. Will the American Dem-libs of Jewish descent take offense at this? More likely, they'll be cheering the effort on.

[montag813]

As a Jew I despise the fat scumbag named Abe Foxman, who has done more to divide Jews and Christians with his hate crime than any other single act in my memory...and all for his own enrichment (and that of his $6 million per year endowment). This Socialist slob does not represent American Jews, and is not even a religious Jew himself, but a mere JINO, as is Krauthammer and Safire, who have also disgraced themselves with their denouncements of the Gospel. Foxman's anti-Christian bigotry is despicable, and one hopes this will curtail his attempt to become some kind of Jewish Jesse Jackson. Real Jews respect the faith of our Christian friends, and deplore attempts to divide us. At a time when both of our faiths are under severe attack from the far Left and Islam, we must refuse to allow ourselves to become divided.

[per loin]

Abe Foxman and the ADL will certainly issue immediate and contrite apologies for the slurs they have cast at Gibson and at Christians in general?

[per loin]

As neither a Jew, Christian, nor Islamic, I agree with you both on the vileness of Foxman and the dangers from the left and from Islam.

[Libloather]

...a mere JINO...

That's a new one. My FR online education never really ends...

[Marc85902]

What If Jesus Had Come
To Other Times And Places?

Ever since the Mel Gibson blockbuster The Passion was first announced, there has been a great to-do about it being ’anti-Semitic’. Which is a crock. However, the stark fact is that Jesus was put to death after a verdict of guilty of the crime of blasphemy and sentence of death was handed down by a quorum of the supreme religious body in Israel at the time, the Sanhedrin.

Pilate rubber-stamped the verdict and sentence because he feared these religious zealots would start a riot, which would make the Emperor in Rome look upon him with acute disfavor. The actual execution was carried out by a detail of Roman legionaries, as is documented by the Bible.

Therefore, the responsibility for Jesus’ execution by crucifixion must be shared equally between Jews and Gentiles. So what if the Sanhedrin was Jewish? Mankind—Jew, Gentile, whatever—is the same depraved and evil scum we have always been since the Fall of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. Indeed, as one Bible scholar has said, if God does not judge the United States for it’s descent into spiritual wickedness, He will have to apologize to Sodom and Gomorrah.

Therefore, I wish to offer up a rather likely scenario about what would have happened had Jesus chosen other times and places to come to Earth.

Spain:
Fathers Loyola and Torquemada would have burned Him at the stake for heresy and blasphemy for proclaiming Himself to be the Son of God, forgiving sins, and other assorted reasons.

England:
Oliver Cromwell would have hanged or burned Him at the stake on heresy and blasphemy charges as well. And He would have suffered a similar fate at the hands of the king—before and after Cromwell’s time.

The United States:
Had He appeared here in pre-Revolutionary War America, I am confident the ‘good’ and ‘godly’ Puritans would have hanged Him or burned Him at the stake. Cotton and Increase Mather would have promptly declared Him guilty of blasphemy and sentenced Him to death. And so would any other judge at the time. Recall how the courts conducted themselves at places such as Salem, Massachusetts?

If Jesus had appeared in the USA during 1950, Senator Joseph McCarthy would have hauled Him before his committee and accused Him of being a notorious Communist for advocating such radical notions as selling all you have and giving your money to the poor.

J. Edgar Hoover would have tapped every telephone in the country and sent his agents on black-bag job break-ins to try and find out what He was up to; and when those didn’t work, he’d have paid Judas Iscariot considerably more than thirty pieces of silver to set Him up for a COINTELPRO sting operation.

Had He appeared in the USA in 1993, I have little doubt that the ATF and the FBI under command of Janet Reno would have killed Him—either with a hail of bullets or by fire—we all remember how Waco turned out, don’t we? If that’s how threatened Reno and Co. felt by the existence of a false ‘messiah’, just imagine how far up the wall she and her jackbooted stormtrooper thugs have gone when dealing with the real McCoy. I can just hear the justifications now…

“He was the leader of a heavily-armed cult! He told his followers to sell their clothes to buy paramilitary assault weapons!” (Luke 22:36)

“He was undoubtedly a child molester! He told his followers to ‘suffer the little children to come unto Me.’ And we had intelligence that he was slapping the babies! We had to attack!” (“Spare the rod and spoil the child.”)

“The only way we could save the children was to burn down the buildings with them in it!” (Remember that old ‘Nam-era saying—“The only way we could save the village was to destroy it.”?)

http://lizmichael.com/renocami.gif



No; the death of Jesus at the hands of venal men concerned more for their own power, prestige, prerogatives and perquisites than anything else—including such trivialities as truth and justice—cannot be blamed on just one ethnic group or sect; we must all bear equal responsibility for putting Him to death.

And why did He come, knowing full well such would be His fate—no matter what era and locale He would come to? Because He loved us. All of us. Jew, Gentile, Greek, whatever and whoever. How can that be anti-anything?

The End

[Wonder Warthog]

"Abe Foxman and the ADL will certainly issue immediate and contrite apologies for the slurs they have cast at Gibson and at Christians in general?"

SUUUURRREEEE they will!!!!! And all of Satan's imps and devils will be building snowmen and having snowball fights when that happens.

[missyme]

Amen to that!!! your so right on! May we have Peace on Earth and May G-d Bless Israel and our American Soldiers that are fighting for America including (Foxman) so we might live in a free Judeo Christian Society.

[pbear8]

Fathers Loyola and Torquemada would have burned Him at the stake...

According to my Jesuit professor, Ignatius Loyola had to leave Spain so the Inquisition wouldn't come after him.

[conservativecorner]

I'm not surprised by America's reaction to the movie. We are a melting-pot nation. I worry about Europe, and it has nothing to do with the movie. Anti-semitism has been on the rise for a while, and I don't think it's gonna get better. You see they already have a rich history of picking on the Jews, and making them scapegoats for every ill. By the way, I'm Christan and I support Israel 110%!!

[Fiddlstix]

[pgkdan]

Jewish children, he said, have been called "Christ- killers'' on school campuses.

I'd bet a months pay that that never happened. Not in this country and not this year. I say it's a damnable lie.

[pgkdan]

At a time when both of our faiths are under severe attack from the far Left and Islam, we must refuse to allow ourselves to become divided.

This Catholic says Amen!