do you know why you don't hear ME condemning the statement? because I DON"T KNOW ANYONE THAT BELIEVES THAT THE JEWS SHOULD BE BLAMED FOR KILLING JESUS. honestly. i grew up in a largely catholic community attended catholic schools, as do my children today, and NO ONE BELIEVES that. our belief, and that of the Church is that Christ died for all of us. so you are asking me to condemn something that is too ridiculous to even contemplate.
i had this discussion, with respect to anti-semitism and this movie with a good friend and Jewish colleague yesterday. and i think he thinks the same way. one thing you need to understand is that people are coming at this from different directions. i understand that Jews are going to see all of this differently than i, because we all see things through the prism of our own experience. i ask you not to judge me, or other Christians, for not making this statement you seek from us. NOT because we don't believe it, but because in our realm of experience it doesn't seem NECESSARY. do you understand what i am trying to say?
And how significant are they when enemies have to scrape the walls to find them? Is it not self-evident to you the people you are refering to are such a vanishingly small minority that you insult the majority of us by giving credence to such punctilious nonsense?
this doesn't square with the rest of your post (which i agree with btw).
Best comment in this thread, so far as I'm concerned.
Anyone who claims to be a Christian and doesn't know that he/she is as guilty of the death of Christ as anyone else needs to study the inspired word and pray for a better understanding of it.
Can't agree with you there. IMO, some Christians today fault them for attacking and bashing Christians. Hollywood and the media have been bashing the basic tenets of the Ten Commandments and demonizing nuns and priest at every turn. With partial birth abortion, condoms, same sex marriage its gotten quite sickening. The 'Passion...' is clearing the air and 'checking' the NYT, Disney etc.
First, I must recognize the fact that Jews were killed by the Nazis simply because of their religion. Since that time, you can’t hardly find a case anywhere in the world where Jews were selectively killed because of their religion.
Second, there is Palestinian Moslem Arab hostility to ISRAEL, the Jewish state. This hostility has created cycle of violence and terrorism that has both political and religious roots. During the past fifty years, the Christians were solidly behind the Jewish state and the Jewish people with moral, financial, diplomatic, and military supports. For a Jew to be so arrogant to blame the Christian people for anti-Semitism in today’s world, it is simply the heights of hysteria and irresponsibility.
Third, Moslems throughout their history have targeted and killed Christians, simply for religion reason. Historically, there were cases where Christians under the crusaders leadership counter-attacked the Moslems, but that was several hundred years ago. However, in recent history (past fifty years) there has never been Christians killing Moslems or Jews, just for their religion. Granted, there was hostility in Bosnia, and Kosovo between Moslems, and Christians, but the Christians of the West sided with the Moslems.
Now back to the paranoia of some of the Jewish people regarding the Passion of the Christ; the label of anti-Semitism is dispensed so freely and undeservingly to otherwise good Christian people, who for some reason or another "some" Jewish fanatics don't like their attitude. If you can reflect on how many times you have heard the label of anti-Semitism thrown against some American or European people, and show me the number of Jews killed by these Christian people. The facts are ZERO killing. If Pat Buchanan criticized Israel policies, he is labeled Anti-Semitic. Pat, or Mel Gibson, or even Mel Gibson's father, as far as I know did not kill one single Jew, and fully supports Israel rights.
In today paper: 48 Christian people were killed in Nigeria as they ran to seek refuge in their church by militant Moslems. In the past ten years there was, and still is a systematic holocaust of Christians by Moslems in the Sudan. Millions have been killed. Millions! How do we compare the systematic killing of Christians by the fanatic Moslems throughout the world, with killing of Jews anywhere around the world – recently? I have to submit that the cases where Jews are killed because they are Jews are practically non-existing any more, while the cases of Christians slaughtering are going on every day; hundreds in some countries, thousands in other countries, and MILLIONS in the Sudan.
Christians and Jews should thank God for having the commonsense to live peacefully together. Jews must abandon the hysteria of Anti-Semitism, and work together with the Christians to highlight the agony of the Christian minorities throughout the world under the barbaric Moslem oppressions. Christians and Jews are the target of Moslem terrorism, and should never lose focus.