A Brief History of Christian AntiSemitism
A Brief History of Christian Anti-Semitism For sixteen hundred years, the Jewish people have been persecuted and murdered by people who worship a Jewish man as their savior: the Christians. Why did Christian anti-Semitism, a seemingly illogical belief given that Jesus himself was a Jew, develop? How did it evolve, and why has it persisted for centuries? In the Biblical gospels, despite three of the four being ostensibly written by Jews, enemies of Jesus are referred to as "the Jews." Early Christians found themselves in a quandary. The savior they worship, himself a Jew, purportedly was killed by Jews. Since at least the fourth century, some groups of Christians have actively practiced anti-Semitism, taking revenge on Jewish people for "murdering" the God of Christianity. Christians have called Jews devils, demons and antichrists. Persecution by church officials, both Catholic and Protestant, was consistent and deadly for over a thousand years. Hundreds of thousands, possibly millions of Jews, were massacred by so-called Christians centuries before the Holocaust. Emperor Constantine the Great converted to Christianity in 312 A.D. Attributing his military successes to God, he issued
By the middle of the twelfth century, rumors and superstitions emerged accusing Jews of ritual murder, usually the murder of Christian children in alleged mock re-enactments of the crucifixion. It was believed that Jews needed innocent Christian blood for use in Satanic/Jewish rituals. For centuries, the unexplained murder of any Christian child could set off waves of rioting and persecution. One priest, Peter of Cluny, wrote, "God does not want them to be destroyed, but like Cain, who murdered his brother, they are to continue to exist under great suffering and in great shame so that life may be more bitter for them than death." (9) Christian Identity doesn't have a single, "charismatic" leader. Almost everyone in the movement, including its "pastors," comes from a traditional Christian background. (31) Hundreds of small Identity churches have popped up all over the United States. The Southern Poverty Law Center, a civil rights group which keeps track of such things, reports that Identity churches are in thirty-three states as well as Canada, England, South Africa and Australia. (32) Identity claims 30,000 hardcore believers and possibly has 400,000 sympathizers. (33) It reaches millions across North America through the Internet and shortwave radio.
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Poland Jews, Christian Identity, Explaining Identity, Jews Lies, Roman Empire's, Quoted Poliakov, Unfortunately Christian, Middle East, Jerusalem July, Norwich Accusers, christian identity, christian anti-semitism, ritual murder, ibid pp, hal lindsey, quoted poliakov, identity churches, unfortunately christian anti-semitism, unfortunately christian, press 1994, press 1996, world war ii, christian identity movement,
Approximate Word count = 2789
Approximate Pages = 11 (250 words per page double spaced)
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