The changing nature of antisemetic focus

[Az]

For centuries the Jews have been the focus of hatred and destruction from varying forces. Originally they were just one of the numerous oppressed religions in the Roman empire. But with the fall of Rome and the Rise of Christianity they took on a special focus of hatred from this new force. The claims were made that they killed Jesus and were involved in trying to overturn Christianity. But this is not the reason for the focus.

It is that the Jews survived that brings the hatred. Dogmatic religions vie for territory. When any two dogmatic faiths enter the same territory they struggle for control. Depending on how much stronger one is compare to the other it may use all manner of tactic to over come the smaller faith. History shows that Christianity encountered numerous religions and demolished them on a regular basis. Our calendars and holidays echo their lost beliefs.

But the Jews survived this. The Jewish faith is the only large religion that survived living within a Christian dominated society during the Dark Ages. It is natural to expect these forces to clash. It is astounding that the Jews survived. It may be that the Christian belief that the Jews needed to survive for their prophecies to be made true had some part in their survival. But it did not stop the natural process of oppression and attempts to convert them.

The Passion play has historically been associated with uprisings of antisemetic behaviour. But in reality what it really gives rise to is an inflaming of passion against any that oppose or reject the belief in Jesus. The Jews have historically been the most visible target of this reaction and thus are pegged as the persecuted ones.

Our modern age has held down the oppressive nature of fundimentalist Christianity. The adoption of humanist ideals within most factions of the Christian faith has allowed them to live in a diverse society. But there are fundimentalist factions that still seek to drive out any that do not share their faith.

The tolerance enforced by a secular society has lead to the growth of a multitude of positions that do not agree with the fundimentalist beliefs of the religious right. Thus the new focus of hate inflamed by the Passion is not just the Jews. Instead it becomes any that deny the pain and suffering of Jesus.

It is true when Mel says he holds no particular hatred for Jews. His hatered is not so focused. There is a world of beliefs available now arrayed against Christianity. There is no need to focus on just the Jews. The battle lines are drawn along the fault between those that accept the absolute truth of the bible and those that seek the path of tolerance and uncertainty of a diverse human society.

[packerssuck]

1. Wow, very nice.

It's nice how fundamentalist Christians ignore the wholesale slaughter of Jews during the times of Christ. It's amazing to me how insensitive these passion fans are towards the large majority Jews who are insulted by this movie. Gibson doesn't even try to explain the differences between the beliefs of jews and christians.

[Solon]

2. Its the ones in power that oppress

Christianity is the justification. Most fundimentalists are being duped into an anti-democracy movement that will seek to oppress and persecute all who threaten their power base. Whether it is the Atheists, Liberal or Moderate Christians, Pagans, Heathens, Jews, Muslims, or even Buddhists. Their goal is to suppress the influence of all of these religions, for they sincerely believe they are derived from Satan and will gleefully crush them under their boots, in the name of Christ.

[xchrom]

3. not so duped

i think many, many ordinary people get feelings of power when attempting to disenfranchise and control others.
i have no romantic or special feeling about mr and mrs joe six pack the world over. they deserve no more respect than that which they earn. the conservative christians in this country declared themselves to be my enemy years ago -- and i agree with them.

[Name removed]

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[finn]

5. fundie christians use fundie jews like sharon

i get a kick out of that how the fundie jews are being supported by the fundie christians , so they can cause wwIII faster and bring christ return faster Than the fundie christians can watch christ kill all the jew, muslims and other religions for not being of the right faith. I say we shipthem all fundie freaks off to that part of the world and let them kill off each other and remove the and people from the ratshit eating fundies.

[Muddleoftheroad]

7. Ah, religious or ethnic cleansing

How enlightened of you. How progressive.

[thingfish]

10. It would solve a lot of problems...

...don't you think?

I mean, maybe with a little luck, the next Holocaust can be the LAST Holocaust!

(sarcasm alert)

[MikeGalos]

11. Sharon isn't even particularly religious

forget about his being in any way, shape or form a fundamentalist.

You may not like Sharon's policies (and I don't either, for the most part) but don't make assumptions such as assuming that anyone whose views you dislike also holds every other view you dislike. Instead, educate yourself from independant sources so you can make intellegent statements both about your friends and those you oppose.

BTW: There really isn't such a thing as Fundamentalism in Judaism if you want to be accurate. While there are Orthodox that try to observe the 613 laws, there isn't a branch or sect or subsect that accepts literal wording with no room for interpretation - that would actually be against those same Jewish laws and against thousands of years of tradition. Well, unless you consider Christianity to be a branch of Judaism...

[MikeGalos]

8. Close but it's more subtle than that

among "True Belivers" of the Dark Ages (and quite a few today) the assumption that everything their religious structure said was true was so ingrained that they couldn't even concieve of somebody honestly disagreeing. Their internal assumption was not that Jews didn't belive that Jesus was divine. Their assumption was that it was a given that Jesus was divine and therefore Jews were actively rejecting the indisputable because they were dedicated to evil.

[SpaceCatMeetsMars]

9. The Passion Play

My mother told me a story about the Catholic church that she went to with my Dad back when they first got married in the late 1940s. She said that the top mafia guys were the ones that got up and read The Passion Play every Easter in this church. I always thought it was a strange, but interesting story. But now, in the context you put this in, I think maybe those guys could relate to the play the same way that they did in the Middle Ages and the way Gibson is presenting it now - an us against them story.