I need a question re-answered

[Sub-Zero]

This is not to spark any flame wars, but I am still puzzled on the history between Christians of all denominations and the Jews. I asked about this before.

I have been learning more about Judaism as time goes on. The book by Rabbi Dalin about Pius XII was interesting to see the Church defending the Jews in history. I get claims from people saying the Catholic Church started Anti-Semitism.

I have seen that the Jews have been through much suffering in Europe throughout history.

I have read about both Catholics and Protestants in Europe using them as scapegoats as well as doing terrible things to them like pogroms, forced conversions, blood libels, calling them Christ-killers and expelling them from their countries.

I know humanity is not perfect, but why have Christians done this to them? Did they forget Jesus was Jewish himself? They gave us a religion.

It just bugs me why Christians did not stand up aganist this and protect them.

Anyone?

 

[Karin]

Can you give specific instances that you are refering to…

Also please note that Jews do not hold the title of most picked on…ALL religions at some point & time have been persecuted or picked on by others…not that it is right!

 

[Sub-Zero]

I know Christians, Buddhists, etc have been persucted… I didn’t mean to say the Jews were the only ones. I just don’t understand why the Christians would do it to the people who gave them their faith.

Some examples I can think of are their expulsions from Spain and England.

 

[Aureole]

This may seem like a cheap answer, but because we’re all sinners. Christ’s teaching is hard and we are hard of heart. Pride is a great sin and Christians are very susceptible to it, moreso than any other religion I would think.

 

[Contarini]

I know Christians, Buddhists, etc have been persucted… I didn’t mean to say the Jews were the only ones. I just don’t understand why the Christians would do it to the people who gave them their faith.

Some examples I can think of are their expulsions from Spain and England.

Actually, the close ties between Christianity and Judaism provide the explanation for this history:

1. There’s a sense in which the continued existence of Jews who don’t believe in Jesus is an embarrassment for Christianity. Augustine turned this around, arguing that God preserved Jews to be a witness of the historicity of the Biblical narrative, and this helped influence the Church to protect Jews (in large part from the effects of its own rhetoric) throughout the Middle Ages. But still, it couldn’t help but be frustrating for Christians to walk through the street and see that the one non-Christian group in town was the one group that had the biggest reason to believe in Jesus, if Christianity were true.
   Tom Paine turned this argument to good effect, pointing out that it’s rather odd to point for confirmation of your religion to the one group in the world who most steadfastly say it isn’t true. (The correct way to respond to this, I think, is to talk about the surprising grace of God and the way insiders become outsiders and vice versa–and then to apply this to oneself instead of the Jews or any “outside” group, which completely misses the point.)
2. The most obvious reason was the belief that the Jews killed Jesus. Good Friday was a day of terror for Jews for centuries. It was maddening for Christians to be mourning the death of Jesus and then see the people who (in their belief) were responsible going about their business as if nothing had happened.
3. Finally, in the later Middle Ages Christians came to see Jews as analogous to heretics rather than to other non-Christian groups. Heretics were always treated worse than non-Christians, so the linking of Jews with heretics (Jews were never simply defined as heretics, fortunately for them) worsened their lot. One reason for this shift was Christian study of the Talmud, which led to the discovery that Jews were not just stuck in a “time warp” but had developed their own “heretical” version of the common Biblical tradition.

Edwin