Blaming the Neo-Pagans

Many Christians incorrectly blame paganism for the Holocaust. Surprisingly, many pagans do, too. Why? Naturally the people who perpetrated the Holocaust, don't want to take responsibility for it, but why do pagans seem willing to accept that their religion is to blame [1] when it's simply not true.

During the height of Nazi power, less than two percent of Germany’s citizens claimed to be pagan. [2] If the Nazi regime had been pagan, no one would have dared to admit being Christian, just as no one dared to admit being atheist. Hitler never openly renounced his membership in the Catholic Church.

The two largest churches in Germany, Lutheran and Catholic, encouraged their members to protest against and stop the Nazi euthanasia program directed against “mental defectives.” That protest succeeded. However, neither church did anything to stop the deportation or murder of Jews.

Hitler Youth Insignia

"Fifty thousand Germans were involved in the Holocaust, and another fifty thousand were close enough to it to have known what was happening, and these people were overwhelmingly Christian. You can’t tell a secret to 100,000 people, and thus their willingness to kill Jews was based on the public Nazi ideology, the religious, creationist and Christian ideology presented in Mein Kampf.” [3]

The responsibility for the Holocaust lies with two thousand years of Christian theology that fuelled the Nazi regime. Why do pagans accept Christianity's attempt to shift the blame from Christianity to Paganism?

After the war, leaders in both the Catholic and Protestant Churches defended war criminals. The very few murderers who were executed had a minister or priest at their sides, helping them face their deaths with “dignity.” Germans viewed those executed as heroes and holy sacrifices. [4]

Nazi salute by Catholic priests

Most Christians ignore their religion’s role in the deaths of millions, including the six million Jews specifically targeted by the Christian Reich. (The number is actually much higher.) [5]

Not only do Christians ignore their theology's role in the Holocaust, but since World War II, many of them have appropriated the Jewish experience of the Holocaust. Catholics pretend that Edith Stein was imprisoned and killed for the Christianity she had adopted. The truth is that was sent to Auschwitz because she had been born Jewish. [6]

In our day, Protestant churches stage performances of The Sound of Music annually. It brainwashes children into believing that Christians were the victims rather than the perpetrators of the Shoah. It also promotes the myth that the evil of Jew-hatred has been defeated.

People never forgive those whom they have injured. So until Christians (and former Christians) acknowledge who perpetrated the Holocaust and work to understand why those people did it, they will continue the tradition of hating Jews, spreading lies about Jews, and ultimately, killing Jews.

The newest lies about Jews are different, but the hatred has its source in Christianity.  Today, most people do not believe that Jews desecrate the host. They do believe false accusations of Israelis committing genocide. (Check the population figures to dispel this absurd accusation.) Today, few people believe The Protocols of the Elders of Zion. They do repeat ridiculous claims Jews are colonial invaders of their own ancestral lands. (Look up 'colonialism' to dispel that one.)

Until people take the time to learn facts and overcome their often gleeful antisemitism, they are as Christian as those who perpetrated centuries of pogroms and the Holocaust.

Today, many people make an effort to understand and oppose other kinds of bigotry, but the hatred of Jews is still acceptable. It's so intrinsic to our culture that few people are able to recognize it, even when it's pointed out to them. But you owe it to yourself to learn. Why? Because there will be an attempted genocide against Jews in North America during my lifetime. [*] Do you wish to be complicit through ignorance?

*As of January 2020, there are worrying indications that my prediction might not be wrong.

People will still believe anything...

This is not verbatim, merely my recollection a variety of similar texts I read in a Medieval history course.

Near the cathedral, I heard a voice screaming for help and I ran towards it. When I got there, no one was in sight, but I saw drops of blood leading away from the church. I followed them to the Jewish neighborhood. 

As I got closer to one home, I heard the screams again. Looking in a window, I saw Jews gathered around a table. A wafer, the flesh of our god, lay on the table. A bearded man with a long, hooked nose was repeatedly stabbing the wafer with a knife. Each time the knife pierced its flesh, the wafer cried out. 

This tale would might be laughable, except for the fact that hundreds of Jews were killed because people believed this falsehood.  

It is one thing to confront historical narratives that led to tragic consequences for certain groups. But we forget how deeply people believed that absurd accusation. We don't recognize that many of today's false charges are just as ridiculous and just as false. Today's new false charges include the buzzwords of this era, thrown about without with no consideration given to their possible accuracy or inaccuracy.

Without understanding history or the present day, how can we make the world better and achieve what we all want: a society that is free, tolerant, inclusive and compassionate.

Wikipedia's description of this image: "a 15th-century German woodcut of the host desecration by the Jews of Passau, 1477. The hosts are stolen and sold to the Jewish community, who pierce them in a ritual. When guards come to question the Jews, they (the Jews) attempt to burn the Hosts, but are unsuccessful, as the Hosts transform into an infant carried by angels. The Jews, now proven guilty, are arrested, beheaded, and tortured with hot pincers, the entire community is driven out with their feet bound and held to the fire, and the Christian who sold the hosts to the Jews is punished. At the end the Christians kneel and pray."

A Black South African on Israel and Apartheid

I recently received this comment on another blog, after someone read a post of mine:

This blog post you link to is just a tirade that says if you stand in solidarity with Palestinians you are an anti-Semite. Because you say so. There is no real explanation, just that opposing the systems of occupation and apartheid somehow equates opposing the Jewish people. Is this the best you can do to justify the horrible acts of a capitalist racist state?

There's no way to communicate with someone who wants to believe things that aren't true.

However, since he brought it up, I thought I'd share this video. Kenneth Meshoe, a South African politician, argues that the allegation that Israel is an apartheid state "is so inaccurate it betrays the memory of those who suffered through a real apartheid."

See all posts labeled 'Lies About Israel'

or follow RM Bellerose for Truth About Israel 

We're Just Not That Into You

My local library has acquired and prominently displayed a book called, “Why the Jews Rejected Jesus.” The title made no sense to me. It took me several moments to realize why. The title assumes, first of all, that there is a profound connection between Christianity and Judaism and, secondly, that Christianity is true and Judaism is not. Neither assumption is part of my world view.

I always considered Christianity a unique and valid religion. Unfortunately many Christians feel their religion can only be validated when Jews convert to it. From its start, Christianity has been obsessed with Jews. We will never see a book called, “Why the Gaijin Reject Amaterasu” because Shinto does not need outside validation.

Jesus had Jewish followers both during and for a short time after his life. Later, followers of that movement created a distinct religion that included worshiping a god they called Jesus.

Jews don’t reject a historical person named Jesus or a god named Jesus. We simply don't care. Christianity is one religion. Judaism is another.

Another thought-provoking title on the same shelf is “Rabbi Jesus.” (If you enter the title on Amazon.com, you’ll find that several books share this phrase.)

Despite their obsession with Jews, for almost two thousand years, Christians insisted that Jesus was not Jewish. But now, they say Jesus was Jewish.

For two thousand years, Christianity excoriated rabbis. But now, they say Jesus was a rabbi.

Christians do not see the absurdity of calling their god Rabbi Jesus. Consider this question: if Rabbi Jesus were alive today, would he go to a Christian church to worship himself or would he go to a synagogue to worship god? Either he’s god or he’s not—why are they vacillating?

Why have many Christians decided to assert that the figure they call god was both Jewish and a rabbi? Why has there been a “jewification” of the Christian god?

And when did this phenomenon begin? Was it after the Holocaust when some people realized that the anti-Jewish teachings of Christianity had been the cause of the Holocaust? Or did it begin after the re-establishment of the state of Israel?

Until 1948, Christian asserted that the exile of Jews was proof of Jesus’s divinity. The end of that exile must have been a conundrum for them. We didn’t convert and yet our exile ended. How could that have happened if Christianity is the "fulfillment" of Judaism, the replacement for Judaism?

Christians have always seemed to need Judaism even as they denigrated it. Today, some Christians go so far as to call themselves Messianic Jews. They pretend to be Jewish and even pepper their conversations with incorrectly pronounced Yiddish words. (Jesus never spoke Yiddish and neither do they.) These so-called Jews are laying claim to a heritage that isn’t theirs.

Our heritage includes these words: “I believe with complete faith in the coming of the Messiah, and even though he tarry, I will wait for him.”

If you believe Jesus was the messiah or that events such as the Holocaust or other atrocities could occur during the messianic age, then you are most certainly not a Jew. You are what Irving Greenberg amusingly called a “premature messianist.”

Christianity is one religion. Judaism is another. Christianity should not need Jewish validation.

If you are concerned because the Jewish people have not converted to Christianity, study Judaism to understand why. But you don’t have to. We’re not out to convert you.

Massacre of the Jews of Metz during the First Crusade,
by Auguste Migette

So You Think That You’re Not Antisemitic

Part I: Anti-semitism-lite. (Scholars call it “normal anti-semitism.” Normal.)

Here are just a few examples.

• One man told me that "the Jews" were the source of his former sexism.
• A complete stranger told me to be more spiritual—Christianity had taught him that Jews only engage in ossified ritual.
• One co-worker thought it was funny to strut around speaking fake German and to shout “Heil Hitler.”
• My boss showed me her prayer book. “Since my prayer book is in Hebrew and English, you should worship Jesus.”
• A friend urged me to read an "important" book. It focuses on how the "Rothschild Zionists" are controlling human behavior from a secret base on the moon.
• One blogger dismissed my fears of anti-semitism because only black people and the very poor are suffering today.
  

Jews do face racism and bigotry, but not “just like” everyone else. Can you compare the oppression and murder of Native Americans to the oppression and murder of African Americans? Can you see a future in which there will be no hatred of Christians in Central Africa, Armenians in Turkey, Yazidis in the Middle East, or minorities in Eastern Europe? I cannot see a future in which anti-semitism won’t continue to infect every mind.

You may be unable to see that anti-semitism is all around you, but pay attention to how you feel; do you enjoy hating Jews?

You can find the full calorie version of anti-semitism in Europe today. Do you know many Jews have been attacked or murdered in France during the last twelve months? Do you care? On the sole occasion that international media covered an attack in France, the reporter stated that since Muslims can eat kosher food, too, the murder of four Jews in a kosher market was not an expression of anti-semitism. (More about that term, in a future post.)

Jews are leaving France, many to live in the south of Israel, which is regularly targeted by rockets from Gaza. Why might they be moving? Perhaps because “normal” anti-semitism in France is once again growing deadly. In the United States, people want to believe that Jews are safe here. Mostly, they are the same people who say that African Americans should be grateful for all they have.

The politically correct way to be loudly anti-semitic today is to “criticize” Israel. Martin Luther King, Jr. said, “When people criticize Zionism, they mean Jews; you're talking anti-semitism.” Don't respect that statement simply because MLK, Jr. said it; think about it. If you are willing to accept lies about Israel, is it any different than accepting lies about Jews?

Defamation campaigns on college campuses in the United States have been threatening Jewish students for decades. In the summer of 2003, walking around the UC Berkeley campus carrying a Hebrew textbook was terrifying!

I can't blame people for believing what the media tells them, or fails to tell them, until I discover (once again) that they will cover their ears and howl when I ask them to recognize when "information" is false.

If you are willing to make the smallest effort, you can learn factual history—and yes, it does include events like the deportation from Lydda, but Israeli children know about Lydda while most Americans would be stunned if they read just one page of Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee.

If you feel you can't trust anything Jews say, read what others have to say about the Palestinian narrative. You can learn about Pallywood here.

One blogger posted about a fictional massacre of Palestinians by Israelis. Apparently, someone set him straight, because the next day he posted that the massacre hadn’t happened. One truthful post, but he did not did not seem to regret spreading a lie and hasn't bothered to locate more reliable sources of information. Since everyone else lies about Jews and Israel, why shouldn’t he? (Since then, he has deleted both posts.)

Some people pretend to care about Palestinians. Do they also care about other people who are suffering great atrocities? All over the world. Today.

Some people pretend to care about peace. Do they take time to learn about facts that might allow them to comprehend or to help solve the situation? Do they protest wars in other regions? Or do they just rant and rave about "the Jews?"

Some people, whose ancestors really did steal native lands, seem to feel superior when they accuse Israelis of stealing land and deny that Israelis have a right to live in their homes. Should I explain about Jewish presence in the land for thousands of years or how Zionists went to great lengths to purchase land? Should I tell you the percentage of Israeli citizens who are Arab or how many Arabs are members of the Israeli parliament? Should I point out that there has been no genocide of Arabs? No! You can look it up. But most likely, you'll just say that I'm lying, because well, you can't trust a Jew.

While some claim that people in Gaza are starving, luxury hotels are built and Hamas fires rockets at Israel. Like the PLO before it, Hamas fires rockets from homes and mosques and hospitals, endangering its civilians.

Israel, worried about world opinion, rarely responds to "minor" attacks. When Israel does respond, the IDF drops flyers, warning civilians that there will be an attack. Hamas, of course, does not let civilians leave; dead civilians are a good PR opportunity. See this article about human shields, and this one about media coverage. And also this one about outright lies.

When people in Gaza are killed, the world screams about Jewish crimes, but the world does not care when Jewish or Arab Israelis are threatened or killed. (Yes, there are Arab Israelis. Many.)

Some people insist that Israel should not “retaliate,” i.e., defend its people. When asked about Hitler, Gandhi said that the Jews should let themselves be killed. That is still the "spiritual" person’s answer: let your people die.

How would you like to be told that? Let your people die.


Upcoming posts: 

• Why former Christians have a special hatred of Jews 
• Pallywood and fauxtography 
• James Carroll 
• How Germans responded after the Shoah
• Pretending to be Jewish 

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Addemdum: October 2015 HlMG Assessment of the 2014 Gaza Conflict 
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Click on the link below to see all posts labeled 'Lies About Israel'

or follow RM Bellerose for Truth About Israel 

Immaculate Conception and Anti-Semitism

It seems that many people, even some scholars, do not know what the term "Immaculate Conception" means. It does not refer to Mary's supposed virginity.

You may think this is an odd pet peeve for a Jew to have, but stay with me.

The Christian belief that Mary was still a virgin when she gave birth to Jesus is called virgin birth.  Immaculate conception is an entirely different concept, one that is a necessary result of another Christian belief: original sin.

Early Christian theologians invented the doctrine of Original Sin and based it on a Jewish story to explain why it was necessary to worship Jesus rather than practice Judaism, a temptation apparently still faced by some Christians in the early Church. The doctrine asserted that, before Jesus, no one was "saved."

Christians invented the idea that the disobedience of Adam and Eve had caused all successive generations to be born with an ailment called Original Sin. They claimed that worshiping Jesus was necessary for one to be worthy of heaven. According to them, the Hebrew prophets, patriarchs, and matriarchs were dwelling in hell. Only people living after Jesus could have this original sin washed away. It required baptism... by a Christian priest, of course.

This new idea, Original Sin, created a problem in the minds of some Christians. Since Mary must necessarily have been infected with Original Sin, how could she have given birth to the son of god?

Christian theologians solved this problem with another new idea called Immaculate Conception. When Mary was conceived, god made sure she didn't catch the disease from her parents. Why god couldn't have done this for all people remains unexplained.

All these ideas were sufficiently convoluted to prevent most theologians from asserting their absolute truth. It wasn't until the middle of the nineteenth century, when the near-divinity of Mary was widely accepted by Catholics, that a papal bull commanded "all the faithful" to believe that Mary was conceived "without the stain of Original Sin."

So, the term Immaculate Conception does not refer Mary's chastity. It is the end result of one more idea that was invented to invalidate Judaism.

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As an aside, I must admit that I rather like statues of Mary and appreciate the inclusion of feminine imagery in religion.

So for a more complete and more sympathetic explanation of the concepts of "virgin birth" and "immaculate conception," as well as an appreciation of the divine feminine in Christianity, I'd like to point you to this article.