Official Doctrine that Should be Declared a Heresy: Anti-Semitism in Christianity

Historical research has laid many demons in Christianity, and it is time Christianity finally and officially recognized that these demons have indeed been snuffed out. Flat out, the first matter that needs recognition: the Romans arrested, tried, tortured and put to death Jesus of Nazareth. There has never been a Jewish law nor a Jewish judicial body that orders the death of a fellow Jew because they are teaching things which fall outside the orthodox faith. The Romans, however, were quite prepared to do whatever was necessary to eliminate anyone who opposed their sociopolitical order in whatever province they controlled. The Romans carried out ethnic cleansing in many of its provinces over the history of its Empire, and even sought out and executed religious leaders who opposed their authority, such as the druids in Britain. Jesus was one of many Jewish spiritual leaders that they crucified over their long period of occupation of Judaea. Also, far from being a "reluctant" and "sympathetic" governor-prefect, Pontius Pilate had a reputation for being corrupt and amoral even among Romans. And there was never any such historical thing as a "Passover Pardon" for a convicted felon bound for execution for whom the crowds of Jerusalem could vote to obtain the prefect's award of mercy. Then there is Judas. If there is any truth to the Betrayal of Judas, then we are looking at a possible member of a radical political sect, known as the "Sicarii" (meaning, "dagger men") , and of which Judas' sobriquet, "Iscariot", seems to be a cognate. Judas could have been a violent revolutionary who was disappointed that Jesus did not seek to mount anything more than a peaceful revolution, and a highly spiritual one at that. So let's get this straight, even if there was an historical Judas, he was just an individual, and far from representing the whole Jewish people, he likely belonged to an extremist sect of which most Jews wanted no part. So, we are talking about one individual here, and as anyone with any common sense knows, there are good, bad and indifferent people ostensibly belonging to every religion, culture, "race", and nation in the world that exists and ever existed. As to why the Jews "rejected" Jesus as the Messiah, well I have shown in an earlier posting how Jesus did not fit the traditional definitions of a Messiah, and I have also shown that despite that, many Jews did embrace Jesus' teachings, and they became the first Christians. Those Jews who remained (and do remain) Jews are following the substance of Jesus' teachings, even though they don't believe Jesus was the son of God, because Jesus was teaching the traditional precepts of compassion and inclusiveness that were already for hundreds of years before him an integral part of Judaism. While it upsets some Christians that Jews do not believe that Jesus "died for their sins", we should not wonder that they should choose not to believe this. Christian doctrine teaches the ludicrous notion that everyone who ever lived and died before Jesus' crucifixion, no matter how virtuously they lived, is damned. Why would a just God ever construct such an inane cosmological scenario? Okay, the Christians invented the notion of Jesus going down to Hell between his death and resurrections to "harrow up" the virtuous souls who acclaimed his Messiahship, including Moses and all the other great Hebrew prophets. But what about the millions of others who remain nameless but must have been bright lights in this world when they lived? And how insulting that people like Moses and Jeremiah and Amos and Habakkuk would have been suffering in Hell for all those generations until Jesus came along! Additionally, a progressive minister once told me that scholars should do a new translation of the Bible wherein every time Jesus' enemies are labeled "the Jews", it should be rendered "the authorities", as this would be more historically accurate. Of course, that minister is right, because Jesus' followers were themselves Jews, and his enemies were only certain members of the Sanhedrin who thought his liberalizing teachings threatened orthodox tradition. Yet even within this very limited cross-section of the Jewish population (i.e., the small number who were members of this religious council), Jesus had sympathizers among them also! Does anyone remember Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea?! So, Christians, take a fair and honest look at the teachings of religious authority and compare them not only to the compassionate teachings of Jesus and inconsistencies in the scripture and between scripture and history, but also use your good common sense! Jesus was a Jew, and if we hadn't done such terrible things in his name against the Jews all these centuries, he would probably be an honored prophet and teacher in the Jewish tradition just like Rabbi Hillel and Nachmanides. Jews are not "second class" anything in the Judaeo-Christian Tradition. They are the equals of Christians, and indeed every Christian owes a huge debt to them not only for Jesus himself but for the Hebrew Scriptures that preceded him. So I give my thanks to every person of Jewish faith, past, present and future. AMEN.