American Christians Don't Threaten Jews

WSJ.com ^ | April 5, 2004 | ARYEH SPERO

[swilhelm73]

Record-breaking multitudes over a span of many weeks have now viewed Mel Gibson's "The Passion of the Christ" in every major and far-flung U.S. locale, and not one American synagogue has been torched or Jewish cemetery vandalized by the Christian faithful who have seen the movie. Having been forewarned that in medieval Europe, passion plays and Easter sermons roused the public to immediate pillaging of Jews and their property, Americans should be proud that the warnings by Jewish organizations such as the Anti-Defamation League of anti-Semitic outbreaks did not materialize here.

[RFEngineer]

TQ-

Thank you for passing along Easter wishes. In these times of hypersensitivity regarding religious slights, it's nice to see someone secure enough in their own belief to pass along genuine best wishes to someone of a different faith.

There is no accounting for those Christians who disparage Judaism using the distant context of the death of Christ, as if that somehow symoblizes their level of devotion.

You will never win these people over. You shouldn't lament their displeasure. They know not how securely cemented the Judeo-Christian ethic is in America today. Indeed, there are no greater mutual friends, in faith, country, and family, than the American Jew and the truly enlightened Conservative American Protestant.

May your family and friends be close to you this Passover.

RFE

[swilhelm73]

Well, if the total use you've heard is one FR poster...well...I wouldn't be too worried.

I've met many a Stalinist, Maoist, etc, on the internet who would just as soon put us up against the wall as look at anyone to the right of Marx. So that if you found one such person here, and I'll take your word for it, and that's all, then this isn't exactly a common sentiment.

That being said, the standard Christian interpretation is that we are *all* Christ-killers. You'll note the symbolism in The Passion, of Gibson's being the hand that hammers in the nail. Singling out the Jews nominally responsible is thereby both hypocritical - as we are all to blame as they - and a rejection of even the most basic understanding of Christianity.

From an areligious analysis, Christ was killed by *some* Jews and *some* Romans 2000 years ago. How that could logically be construed as to paint all Jews today, or Italians, as being responsible is beyond me. Slave reparations and racial quotas, not exactly conservative ideas, are based on just this sort of group guilt theory.

[TopQuark]

G-d bless your heart and your wisdom, RFEngineer, and thank you for your warm and kind words.

[TopQuark]

Well, if the total use you've heard is one FR poster...well...I wouldn't be too worried.

Well, from my post you could deduce that there was more than one. More importantly, it was the approving silence of the rest that was more worrisome.

[TopQuark]

Pew Research Center for the People & the Press
Survey Reports

Belief that Jews were Responsible for Christ's Death Increases
Prevalent Among Young People, Minorities and 'Passion of Christ' Viewers

Released: April 2, 2004

Summary of Findings

A growing minority of Americans believe that Jews were responsible for Christ's death. Roughly a quarter of the public (26%) now expresses that view. This represents a modest but statistically significant increase in the number holding this opinion when compared with a 1997 survey by ABC News which found 19% feeling this way. But a solid majority of Americans both then and now (60%) continue to say that Jews were not responsible for the death of Christ.

Nonetheless, the shift in opinion among young people and African Americans over that period has been striking. Currently, 34% of those below age 30 and 42% of blacks say they feel Jews were responsible for Christ's death, up substantially from 1997 (10% and 21%, respectively). By contrast, there has been far less movement among older Americans and among whites.

Despite the increasing belief among some groups that the Jews were responsible for Christ's death, other surveys have shown that only a tiny minority believes that Jews today should bear responsibility for what happened to Christ 2000 years ago. An ABC News/PrimeTime poll, released Feb. 15, found that just 8% think that "all Jews today" bear responsibility for the death of Jesus, compared with 80% who reject that view.

The increasing sense among some groups that Jews were responsible for Christ's death comes amid controversy over the Mel Gibson movie "The Passion of the Christ." A relatively large proportion of people who have seen the movie (36%) feel Jews were responsible for Christ's death. However, this is also the case among people who plan to see the movie (29%), suggesting people who are drawn to this movie may be predisposed to this opinion more than others. By comparison, just 17% of those who have no plans to see the movie believe that Jews were responsible for Christ's death.

About one-in-five Americans (19%) say they have already seen "The Passion of the Christ," while many more (49%) say they intend to see it; 30% say they do not plan to see the movie. There also has been considerable public attention to news coverage about the movie ­ 37% of Americans say they followed these reports very closely.

The Pew Research Center national survey of 1,703 Americans, conducted March 17-21, finds that, aside from attitudes regarding responsibility for Christ's death, opinion on other issues relating to Jesus Christ and the Bible have remained largely stable since the late 1990s. About nine-in-ten Americans (92%) believe that Jesus Christ died on the cross, and 83% believe that Christ rose from the dead. Both measures are virtually unchanged from the 1997 ABC News survey (91% and 84%, respectively).

As in previous surveys, the public remains divided over whether the Bible is actually the word of God and should be taken literally. Currently, four-in-ten Americans express that opinion, while about as many (42%) say the Bible is the word of God, but that not everything in it should be taken literally. Just 13% think the Bible is a book written by men and is not the word of God.

A solid majority of white and black evangelical Protestants believe that the Bible is literally the world of God (70% and 71%, respectively). Only about a quarter of white non-evangelical Protestants (24%) and white Catholics (25%) share this belief.


Seeing the 'Passion'

There are only modest age differences among those who have seen "The Passion of the Christ," although fewer people age 65 and older (who typically attend movies at lower rates than younger people) report seeing the movie.

More African-Americans than whites report seeing the movie (30% of blacks vs. 18% of whites). Among whites, more than twice as many evangelical Protestants than non-evangelicals say they have seen "The Passion of the Christ" (25% vs. 11%). One-in-five white Catholics say they have seen the movie.


Young People and the 'Passion'

Generally, there is a correlation between seeing the movie, and expressing an intention to see it, with holding the view that Jews were responsible for Christ's death. This is especially the case among younger people. Of those age 18-34 who have seen the movie, 42% believe Jews were responsible for Christ's death. Similarly, 36% of those age 35-59 who have seen "The Passion of the Christ" express that view. Still, majorities in both of these age groups ­ whether they have seen the movie or not ­ say they do not feel that Jews were responsible for Christ's death.

Older Americans (those age 60 and older) who have seen the movie are no more likely than others in that age group to say the Jews were responsible for Christ's death. Just 19% of those age 60 and older who have seen "The Passion of the Christ" say they feel that Jews were responsible for Christ's death.

[TopQuark]

I posted #25 not in relation to the movie --- which was the thrust of the survey --- I don't care about that small increase. But the number of more than a quarter of those surveyed is an answer to your question.

[Polybius]

A few days ago, I posted, in bold letters a note "to all Christian friends..." pointing to Presidio9's posts and saying that this may be an example of why Jews are apprehensive. Not a single response criticising the bigot --- to the point that he followed up mocking me: "I am still waiting... everyone agrees with me."...... Well, I did receive one response. It said that Presidio9 is corect, the Jews are all responsible.

Well, to be fair, Top Quark, sometimes posts go unnoticed on FR. Did you ping anybody?

Last weekend, I made some contributions to that topic on Post 22 , Post 23 and Post 28 of another thread.

[montag813]

I've never quite understood why Jews don't "get" this either.

I'm a Jew, and I certainly "get" it, and revere and don't patronize the faith of my Christian friends. At Passover on Monday, "The Passion" was much discussed, but I did not hear a single relative echo the views of that fat pig Abe Foxman. And several of them are fairly Liberal. Most who had seen the film were very moved by it, none thought it was anti-Semetic. The only question was the level of "violence", but the consensus seemed to be that it made the message more powerful, not less.

Thumbs up from the East Coast Jews. So who exactly does the bigoted Foxman represent? Seems like himself alone.

[swilhelm73]

Reading through the segment you posted, it sounds like, not surprisingly, anti-semitism in America is mostly black anti-semitism, from the likes of Jackson, Sharpton, and yes, Farrakhan, and there followers and fellow travellers. Not exactly the FR audience...

As for no one responding to your posting, I didn't see it. No response in an internet discussion shouldn't be counted as support for one side or the other honestly there are too many variables to do so.

How about this...find an article that you think deals intelligently with Jewish/Christian relations in general or among conservatives. Post it around 6-9 PM EST. See the responses you get then.

[swilhelm73]

Oh, and one additional point.

The survey you posted mentions that such and such "say they feel Jews were responsible for Christ's death" repeatedly.

If this is the way the questions asked were worded, it is rather shoddy work.

One could believe that some Jews were responsible, that the Jewish leadership of the time was responsible, that all of mankind - including Jews - were responsible, or that all Jews for all time are responsible and answer yes to that question. Only the last, to my mind, could be characterized as anti-semitic or blaming Judaism as a whole.

The intention of the question is obvious to us both...but surveyors should not be in the habit of making such assumptions if they expect to garned accurate results.

[moneyrunner]

Thanks for your reply.

The question I was asking was somewhat different than the one you answered and it was this: it is frequently asserted (as it was on the radio program I heard) that young Jewish children are commonly called "Christ killers" by their Christian peers.

I always let that pass. Now, since I have never in my life heard anyone use that phrase in my presence (except as an accusation regarding the evil that lurks in the hearts of Christians) while I have heard pretty much every other racial, ethnic and religious slur, I now challenge this assertion.

I am sure that there are people out there who have that opinion. There are people who will swear they have been abducted by aliens. But to claim that this Christ killer slur is a common experience of every Jewish schoolboy is something that I now question.

This Christian thanks you for your support. What has been your experience? Were you called a Christ killer as a child?

[TopQuark]

But to claim that this Christ killer slur is a common experience of every Jewish schoolboy is something that I now question.

I am completely with you on this: I am Jewish, I raised a Jewish daughter in a small town in Midwest --- and never once did she hear this accusation. It may have been more popular up until WWII but definitely not much since then. As I wrote earlier, it is not really an American experience: in this country, mobs never burned Jewish houses on the way from Easter Mass as they sometimes did in Europe. I wish people like Foxman remembered that.