Sorry but I disagree with you over the use of ‘scribes and pharisees.’ Most historians agree with me. The New Testament is chock full of antisemitism, and the antisemitism therein has been used against Jews for centuries. I can prove it: “His blood be upon us and on our children” (Matthew 27:24-25) is probably the most egregious example. What a horrible thing to claim somebody said. It proves what horrible people the gospel-writers wanted readers to believe Jews to be. I’ve known some pretty nasty Jews but it’s hard to imagine any of them saying such a thing, even as criminal and despicable a Jew as Bernie Madoff or the neo-con Jews.

But I understand very few Christians are aware of or care about the history of the Church’s relationship with the Jews through the centuries. History itself has always been a boring topic for the majority of people; most people take history only because it was required of them in school.

As for your remark: “…Gosh I hate Jews,” check out Sasha Baron Cohen’s episode of “Ali G.” He performs for people in a bar in Tucson, AZ and gets them to sing along with him when he sang this snappy song: “Throw the Jew down the well….” The audience gleefully and willingly joined in, clapping their hands and having a ball. I bet, in another context, every one of those people would have vehemently denied they were antisemitic. They would have been shocked at the suggestion! Yet there they sang it in full voice. Now I understand that, for a non-Jew, this experiment with a bar song means nothing. But for a Jew, it’s a chilling reminder of how well entrenched antisemitism is.

Nevertheless, in wrapping up, I appreciate your thoughtfulness and respect and restraint. Thank you once again for your sensitivity.

So, I will not do that here any more. However, I do intend to do it in other media venues, as Franklin Roosevelt said, “Again and again and again and again.” So, if you show up at one of those other venues, please let me know that you are there so I can move on to another venue. In our particular context with the Religious Right here in the United States, I remain firmly convinced that the image given to the Scribes and Pharisees in the New Testament (whether historically accurate or not) has millions of times more power to keep my Jewish friends out of ovens rather than put them into ovens. Keep that in mind. I am working for you—not against you.

PLEASE! I am asking the good people here to please stop bashing Jews and Judaism.

The New Testament’s depiction of “scribes and pharisees” is nothing but antisemitism. I know most Christians are unaware of that fact but it’s true. Let’s remember: A scribe is just a stenographer, a person who (a) makes a copy of something that has already been written, or (b) writes down what is being dictated to him. I hardly believe a scribe is worthy of such hatred; it would be like blaming a lowly secretary for what her boss at Enron instructed her to do instead of blaming the boss.

As for the Pharisees, they were actually good guys. Jesus’ teaching was mostly straight out of Pharisaic philosophy.

I think the real reason the gospel writers trash “scribes and pharisees” is because they are two factions of Jews who survived the destruction of the Second Temple (CE 70). They are the ones who kept Judaism alive, helped Judaism to evolve from a temple/priest/sacrifice system to a synagogue/rabbi/prayer system. The Pharisees were the forerunners of today’s modern “rabbinic Judaism.” We Jews celebrate, honor, and are thankful for the Pharisees because, without them, it’s questionable if Judaism would have survived the destruction of the temple, and the scattering of the Jews.

Which is exactly why the gospel-authors and Christianity hate the Pharisees.

Those who most deserved Jesus’ wrath would have been (or should have been) the Sadducees. The Sadducees were the powerful, Roman-collaborating, wealthy class – the religious leaders of the day who ran the Temple. The high priest, Caiaphas, was a Sadducee. Ironically, the Sadducees did not survive the destruction of the Temple in CE 70. They rapidly ceased to exist as a cohesive group and disappeared from history. But they are the ones whom Christians should hate as the Sadducees were responsible for the arrest of Jesus and handing him over to the Romans. But no, since the Sadducees were vanishing or gone by the time the gospels were being written, the gospels give the Sadducees a free pass and instead lay ALL the blame on the Pharisees – or THE JEWS collectively – as they are the ones who were still around.

I explained all this a couple of pages back but, once again, I have been ignored. I realize I present facts that are a terribly inconvenient truth for Christianity. But like it or not, bashing the scribes and pharisees is nothing but sloppily veiled antisemitism. Have we Jews not suffered enough Christian bashing? How many more centuries must the bashing continue?

Add this one to the list of all the other “Can you believe they actually said that!” quotes.

McLeroy’s level of arrogance is astounding. And so is everyone else that agreed with him.