If you’re worried about incipient anti semitism in the Catholic Church you’re not going to find it. There have always been and always will be Catholics who blame Jews for Christ’s death. They are a small minority and that percentage has decreased in the past 40 years. If you’re Jewish and think you have something to fear from conservative Catholicism you are ignorant of the facts.
If you’re worried about incipient anti semitism in the Catholic Church you’re not going to find it. There have always been and always will be Catholics who blame Jews for Christ’s death. They are a small minority and that percentage has decreased in the past 40 years. If you’re Jewish and think you have something to fear from conservative Catholicism you are ignorant of the facts.
The Jews handed Jesus over to Pilate. They refused his offer to release him. But all this was necessary to fulfill Jesus’ fate. So I don’t think Christians blame Jews for doing what was foreordained.
"Some" Jews handed Christ over to the Romans. Opinion-especially religious opinion and ritual- is so varied it is impossible to shoehorn it into a one size fits all acceptability for everyone. Popular argument about the existence of an historical Jesus is a good example. The point is, that like today with the sudden jump in tech and communication, there was a leap in consciousness that transformed civilization. Something happened, about which, we can draw any conclusion we wish, but the fact remains that, whatever it was, is so powerful it continues to inform the fact of Western Civilization and our lives today. This article, like most we discuss here, is an example, as with the Christ, of what happens when the living transformative powers of the human psyche (the Soul) find themselves in conflict with political power, ambition and gold. God is not dead. Nor are we. The fight and the disease, as accurately diagnosed by many, is the split in the human psyche created by the sterility of a scientific reason that would turn mankind into robots (AI) vs. the realtime connection and access to the living eternal and meaningful religious experience that actually evolves the definition of what the term human being means. The chasm is real. As is the Psyche.
The 20th Century produced the ideological utopianism (nazi/fascist/communist) that hurled millions into the death camp mass psychosis that unleashed the hubristic malignant narcissism of Hitler, Mao and Stalin. Like the corrupt Pharisees confronted by the newly emergent powerful dynamic of Jesus teachings, the DNC/CCP/EU Davos central banking hog boys find themselves standing in the light of a suddenly expanding world consciousness that clearly sees them for the grifters they are. Hence the LIE they represent, "canceled Priests", and the assault on free speech and the looted economies and destruction they leave wherever they go. And, that you are a deplorable "thing" unworthy of the freedom to which you aspire.
Do we as a people believe, that human beings -possess/are possessed by- an eternal Soul? That the dead who inhabit our common history, despite the times they lived in, and the flaws that possessed them, struggled toward the light and hoped for a better world? Do we believe our common myth, that "all men are created equal", and are "endowed by their CREATOR with certain unalienable rights"?
Light a candle. Sit quietly in the darkness. Talk to the Soul within you. Remember who you are.
Most do not blame the Jews today, but they definitely did blame them for centuries after Christ’s death. I didn’t realize how pervasive this belief was until I took a course in antisemitism, where I read a lot about the history of antisemitism. While this belief continued to be held over time, the Catholic Church was also doing things like condemning Galileo for saying the earth revolved around the sun instead of the other way around. There were a lot of insane things being believed that hurt a lot of people. Christians believed in witches and burned them alive, but they never believed Jews killed Christ? Think about that.
I find myself troubled by the "Jews handed over Jesus" line. Jews were equally Jesus's followers. Most of the people in Jerusalem at the time were Jews. The libel of an entire people for the act of a few has never sat well with me.
The gospels were written when Rome was still the ruling power of the world. Who would you rather piss off--the Romans, or a bunch of politically powerless Jews?
Would it be better if I had written, “People who were Jewish handed Jesus over?
See Matthew 26, Jesus before the Sanhedrin, and Matthew 27:20, “But the chief priests and elders persuaded the crowd to ask for Barabbas and to have Jesus executed.”
Does this indict all Jews forever? Of course not. The apostles were Jews, so was Paul.
Should all Catholic priests be indicted for the acts of a few bad ones?
No Christian I have ever known hold malice against Jews. Quite the opposite.
My sister had a Catholic friend who told her we were going to hell because we have a Jewish parent. And a Jewish friend of mine was bullied by some sort of Christian (as far as she could tell) who called her "Christ killer." I'm glad you haven't met any of the sort, but they are out there.
I have a Jewish friend who lived in Texas; growing up she was taunted for her background. A woman, approximately the same age, was bullied in NYC for being Jewish - stones were thrown at her.
I spent three years in seminary being steeped in our Judeo=Christian history and it was very clearly stated that the Romans killed not only Jesus - remember this was before Christianity claimed him - but also the many other "prophets" who roamed the Galilee in those days. It takes a lot of study, convesation, open mindedness and the desire to see things through the lenses of those who wrote and lived the Hebrew and Christian scriptures and not through 21st century eyes to understand what the stories told through thousands of years meant.to the original hearers. It is a fasinating study - the sadness is, we spend so much time arguing rather than understanding.
The Jewish leaders killed Jesus. The Romans killed Jesus. Jesus killed Jesus, in the sense that “No one takes my life from me….”
But above all, I killed Jesus.
I often think of Mel Gibson, who has at times lapsed into antisemitism (and repented), but insisted on filming his own hands pounding in the nails for “Passion of the Christ.”
If you’re worried about incipient anti semitism in the Catholic Church you’re not going to find it. There have always been and always will be Catholics who blame Jews for Christ’s death. They are a small minority and that percentage has decreased in the past 40 years. If you’re Jewish and think you have something to fear from conservative Catholicism you are ignorant of the facts.
The Jews handed Jesus over to Pilate. They refused his offer to release him. But all this was necessary to fulfill Jesus’ fate. So I don’t think Christians blame Jews for doing what was foreordained.
"Some" Jews handed Christ over to the Romans. Opinion-especially religious opinion and ritual- is so varied it is impossible to shoehorn it into a one size fits all acceptability for everyone. Popular argument about the existence of an historical Jesus is a good example. The point is, that like today with the sudden jump in tech and communication, there was a leap in consciousness that transformed civilization. Something happened, about which, we can draw any conclusion we wish, but the fact remains that, whatever it was, is so powerful it continues to inform the fact of Western Civilization and our lives today. This article, like most we discuss here, is an example, as with the Christ, of what happens when the living transformative powers of the human psyche (the Soul) find themselves in conflict with political power, ambition and gold. God is not dead. Nor are we. The fight and the disease, as accurately diagnosed by many, is the split in the human psyche created by the sterility of a scientific reason that would turn mankind into robots (AI) vs. the realtime connection and access to the living eternal and meaningful religious experience that actually evolves the definition of what the term human being means. The chasm is real. As is the Psyche.
The 20th Century produced the ideological utopianism (nazi/fascist/communist) that hurled millions into the death camp mass psychosis that unleashed the hubristic malignant narcissism of Hitler, Mao and Stalin. Like the corrupt Pharisees confronted by the newly emergent powerful dynamic of Jesus teachings, the DNC/CCP/EU Davos central banking hog boys find themselves standing in the light of a suddenly expanding world consciousness that clearly sees them for the grifters they are. Hence the LIE they represent, "canceled Priests", and the assault on free speech and the looted economies and destruction they leave wherever they go. And, that you are a deplorable "thing" unworthy of the freedom to which you aspire.
Do we as a people believe, that human beings -possess/are possessed by- an eternal Soul? That the dead who inhabit our common history, despite the times they lived in, and the flaws that possessed them, struggled toward the light and hoped for a better world? Do we believe our common myth, that "all men are created equal", and are "endowed by their CREATOR with certain unalienable rights"?
Light a candle. Sit quietly in the darkness. Talk to the Soul within you. Remember who you are.
Most do not blame the Jews today, but they definitely did blame them for centuries after Christ’s death. I didn’t realize how pervasive this belief was until I took a course in antisemitism, where I read a lot about the history of antisemitism. While this belief continued to be held over time, the Catholic Church was also doing things like condemning Galileo for saying the earth revolved around the sun instead of the other way around. There were a lot of insane things being believed that hurt a lot of people. Christians believed in witches and burned them alive, but they never believed Jews killed Christ? Think about that.
I find myself troubled by the "Jews handed over Jesus" line. Jews were equally Jesus's followers. Most of the people in Jerusalem at the time were Jews. The libel of an entire people for the act of a few has never sat well with me.
Lest we forget, the first Pope (Peter) was a Jew
The gospels were written when Rome was still the ruling power of the world. Who would you rather piss off--the Romans, or a bunch of politically powerless Jews?
Would it be better if I had written, “People who were Jewish handed Jesus over?
See Matthew 26, Jesus before the Sanhedrin, and Matthew 27:20, “But the chief priests and elders persuaded the crowd to ask for Barabbas and to have Jesus executed.”
Does this indict all Jews forever? Of course not. The apostles were Jews, so was Paul.
Should all Catholic priests be indicted for the acts of a few bad ones?
No Christian I have ever known hold malice against Jews. Quite the opposite.
My sister had a Catholic friend who told her we were going to hell because we have a Jewish parent. And a Jewish friend of mine was bullied by some sort of Christian (as far as she could tell) who called her "Christ killer." I'm glad you haven't met any of the sort, but they are out there.
I have a Jewish friend who lived in Texas; growing up she was taunted for her background. A woman, approximately the same age, was bullied in NYC for being Jewish - stones were thrown at her.
I spent three years in seminary being steeped in our Judeo=Christian history and it was very clearly stated that the Romans killed not only Jesus - remember this was before Christianity claimed him - but also the many other "prophets" who roamed the Galilee in those days. It takes a lot of study, convesation, open mindedness and the desire to see things through the lenses of those who wrote and lived the Hebrew and Christian scriptures and not through 21st century eyes to understand what the stories told through thousands of years meant.to the original hearers. It is a fasinating study - the sadness is, we spend so much time arguing rather than understanding.
I hope you didn't take it as an accusation. I respect you, your comments and your faith immensely.
The Jewish leaders killed Jesus. The Romans killed Jesus. Jesus killed Jesus, in the sense that “No one takes my life from me….”
But above all, I killed Jesus.
I often think of Mel Gibson, who has at times lapsed into antisemitism (and repented), but insisted on filming his own hands pounding in the nails for “Passion of the Christ.”
Their is no place for me to blame the Jews.