Posted on 03/06/2004 8:17:26 AM PST by Joblie
MEL GIBSON says that his film, The Passion of the Christ, is a faithful representation of the biblical story of Jesus' trial and execution. He also says the movie isn't anti-Semitic. He cannot be right on both counts.
The New Testament is, among other things, an anti-Semitic tract. It is the source of the anti-Semitism which has characterised Christianity for two millennia.
If the film isn't anti-Semitic, it's out of line with the Gospel. In face of complaints from US Jewish leaders, Gibson removed from the film's sub-titles - although not from the Aramaic sound-track - the response of the Jews to Pilate's hand-washing disavowal of blame for sending Jesus to be crucified: "His blood be upon us and our children."
But why? The quote is there in Matthew 27:25. Its meaning is clear and has been fulfilled in unspeakable ways down the ages.
Luke 23:28-29 gives the same point a more vicious twist, depicting Jesus telling weeping women he encounters on the Way of the Cross: "Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not for me but for yourselves and your children. For behold, the days are coming when they will say, 'Blessed are the barren and the wombs that never bore, and the breasts that never gave suck!'"
Better for Jews that they'd never been born, then.
There's been no shortage of Christians ever since to ram this murderous message home to Jewish neighbours.
John's Gospel (8:44) has Jesus telling the Jews they are descended neither from God nor from Abraham but are children of the Devil.
The early Fathers of the Church took inspiration from the Bible as they preached hatred of the Jews.
In the works of Tertullian, Justin, John Chrysostom, etc., Jews are relentlessly libelled... the obscene Jew, the Satanic Jew, the murderer-of-God Jew, the whoremonger Jew, etc.
And so it continued. Pope after Pope, Council after Council, confirmed and codified the subhuman status of the Jews.
Every century is pock-marked by examples. (Council of Toledo, 694: Jews living in Spain declared slaves, possessions confiscated, all children removed from them at seven and prepared for marriage to Christians.)
Hitler didn't suck the idea of Jews wearing yellow badges out of his thumb. He took it from the Fourth Lateran Council of 1215.
The Nazi persecution can be seen as a practical expression of traditional Christian attitudes to Jews.
"From the beginning until the end of Hitler's rule, the bishops never tired of admonishing the faithful to accept his government," Guenter Lewy recalled in "The Catholic Church and Nazi Germany."
Individual Catholic clerics who opposed the Nazis' anti-Semitism were a tiny minority, totally unrepresentative.
Catholic apologists concede now that the Vatican and the German bishops should have given stronger, more courageous leadership.
But this is dodging the issue. One of the reasons they didn't is that, by and large, they agreed with the Nazis.
From its beginning, Protestantism was as bad. The editor of the Nazi hate-sheet "Der Sturmer," Julius Streich, cited Martin Luther, reasonably, in a plea of justification at Nuremberg.
In his disgusting treatise "On the Jews and their Lies" in 1543, Luther had called for the fire-bombing of synagogues, the demolition of Jewish homes, the silencing of rabbis, the banning of Jews from public places, the confiscation of Jewish property and the enslavement of "all strong young Jews and Jewesses."
Christian hymns provided the theme music for the Holocaust.
Even after the gates were flung open on the horrors of Auschwitz, Christian teachers, in Ireland as elsewhere, continued to instruct infants that the scattering of the Jews and the persecutions they endured were punishment for the killing of the Christ.
Argument over Gibson's blockbuster gore-fest diverts attention from what's important.
If the film fuels anti-Semitism, it's to be condemned, irrespective of its merits as a movie.
But let's not allow a satisfying controversy obscure the fact that the founding text of Christianity is bloodily sodden with hatred of Jews.
What % of Americans hold to political and economic stereotypes about Christians?
Israel's little support in the world today comes from Christians.
Responsibility is individual. The Roman church and its successors in the mainline Protestant community engaged in many actions that fly in the face of the Christian message of the New Testiment. We might have been equally guilty if we had been there but we were not--and today, the clear message from the Christian community to the Jews is one of love and support at every level.
I read something the other day (I can't remember the poster) who said the attitude from so many Jewish critics is indicative of centuries of oppression which has become almost a collective paranoia, akin to many blacks who think everything is based on racism.
There might be some truth in this, because I am sure people like Krauthammer grew up hearing tales about how things degenerated in Germany, with relatives who ignored it until it was too late for them to escape. I think many Jews are thinking that this might be similar, and they don't want to take the chance on not stopping it. They are wrong, but it is understandable.
However, as we move further along from the opening of this movie and nothing changes, perhaps their attitudes will soften.
Writers like this guy, however, are simply anti-Christian because it threatens them with the thought that there is a God who requires them to make a choice, and what they would choose does not please God. It is sad and somewhat scary.
If I were counseling Jewish people about this movie, I would suggest that they have some faith in Americans and how we will behave. I don't know the answer about foreign showings. Countries that have a history of pogroms don't need much of an excuse.
First you guys say, "Well there's there is no anitsemitism in America." Ever heard of skinheads. Ever heard of the KKK? Ever heard of the Nation of Islam? When it is proved that there is and it is growing you say, "Well those antisemites not Christains." Then when it is proved some are you say, "Well they are not REAL Christians because no real Christian is capable of it."
Accept it!! Antisemitism exists in America and Christians are capable of it.
IMO, all of it.
However, no denomination that I know of promotes anti-Semitism, and fringe groups who do are not accepted by the majority of Christians. While Christianity has many episodes for which it should be ahamed, I would remind you that the Jews of Jesus time also treated poorly non-Jews and Samaritans. No religion can claim perfection in the behavior of all of its adherents.
Christians are just fine!! There are 1,927,953,000 Christians in this world. There are only 13 million Jews. Thirteen million is a pittance! They feel threatend. They ARE threatend. Can you understand that?
OK, so define "Christian"
That might not be a bad thing, considering that the minute you came out of them you started cutting each other's throats.
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