As I pointed out previously, if I accepted this argument, (which I don't), it only defends the church from the witchmania charges. It does not defend the church from jew-murdering charges, since the church relied on the doctrine of salvation and specific NT sources, such as Matthew 27:25, to enflame its parishoners into wholesale murder of their local jewish populations. And it was not "some renegade clerics" who where responsible for this. Calling the church "political" and trying to pretend that the persecution of the jews somehow goes against the grain for "true" christians is a laughable claim, on the historical record. The church fomented jewish hatred from the pulpit, in obedience to Papal Encyclicals, whose rhetorical basis was the Doctrine of Salvation, and numerous anti-jewish phrases in the NT, most especially Matthew 27:25. No matter how you try to twist around like a jesuit to try to see it otherwise, jewish hatred by christians was fueled persistently from fundamental christian doctrine and text--that's why it had the legs to persist for 1400 years, through myriad of "political" fashions.
Given the lack of jew-killing (at least on any scale of historical notice) in America, I would have to disagree with the "it's not political"/"it has survived many political fashions" bit.
I think it has almost everything to do with a people who were/are hell-bent on being the "pure race".
As racist as it sounds (and being of the same blood myself, I feel I can say this): The Aryan people have a history (breeding, if you will) for subjegation of other people. One would note that the Greeks and Romans did not do as say, the Germanic tribes did.
This pride of "purity" was passed down, and a fear of outsiders was established. Not saying they were the only ones capable of such actions... but it is interesting to see historically how the Normans (set in their ways so much, they would print a Cross AND Mjolnir at the same time) reacted to Christianity as opposed to the Greeks.
Id' say, more than anything, it's this tribal tension, coupled with bad times, that makes people do bad things. Not the Church (though the Church is made up of people, who also share those times).
Again, you didn't see such things occur in the USA, excepting people who took the OT at more value than the NT. Ignorance.