I never understood why some Christians blame Jews for killing Jesus.

   First, let me say I am an atheist. Some who read this blog will say I therefore have no right to comment, and no knowledge upon which to comment competently, on or about any matter related to Christianity. As to the former: when candidates for political office practically have to pass a religious test to be considered for office, then Christianity affects us all. As to the latter, I was raised as a Christian. During (the typically boring) sermons, I read the bible. That experience is one of the reasons why I am an atheist.

   Second, I believe the evidence that a Jesus existed, as described in the New Testament—what some scholars refer to as the "historical Jesus"—is lacking. Let us put that point aside for another day.

   How is it the Jews get blamed for the Crucifixion? They have been blamed throughout history for that event. Paul did so in 1 Thessalonians 2:15. The First Crusade slaughtered Jews as it made its way to Jerusalem. Pogroms were carried out in Russia. The concept of a "ghetto" arose from efforts to restrict Jews’ areas of residence. 

   Going back to the events as described in the various gospels, members of the hierarchy (the Sanhedrin) of the Hebrew faith are depicted as having desired to get Jesus out of the way and as having tried him. The real power in Jerusalem lay in the hands of the Romans. Theirs were the orders issued and carried out. To blame Jews for Christ’s execution is to place blame on an entire group of people for the acts of a few of the group’s leaders. That is like blaming all of the United States for the acts of George W. Bush.

   An important matter to remember is that, in the Christian cosmology, the Supreme Deity—the Big Guy—wanted Jesus to die. That was the whole plan. Jesus would come to Earth, suffer for others’ sins, be executed, then arise from the dead. These events had to happen so that Jesus could die for the sins of the human race. Without Jesus’s execution, a main dynamic of the religion is lost. Or, as Bob Dylan wrote, something like Judas Iscariot had [g]od on his side.

   Roman law carried out the execution. Roman hands pounded in the spikes. Romans also drove Jews who had not been killed out of the region. Thus began the most recent of the Diaspora of the Jewish people.

   The 1900 years that followed saw anti-Semitism as a given in the Western world. Pogroms were carried out. Laws were passed that forbade Jews from owning land. Land was, and still is, important in any economic system. Prohibited from engaging in some things, Jews adapted and engaged in other economic activities in the course of survival. They became artisans. Generally, they became better educated, as education was a means by which we learn the tools of survival. With higher education came involvement in the learned professions—education itself, law, and medicine. While ownership of land was not legal for them, ownership of money was legal. Jews banked—at the same time as other ethnic and religious groups. The Knights Templar (Roman Catholic) were known for their banking system. The smarts and the money were coupled for the Jews, however, with the stigma (or stigmata) of the death of Jesus (for which the Pope forgave them officially in a recent book; that was spiffy of him—forgiving people of something for which they were not responsible and for which they were without blame as a people).

   Anti-Semitism reached its industrialized climax with The Holocaust.

   Let’s not go there yet. One more historical development should be noted. 

   During the late Nineteenth Century, Theodor Herzl is credited with developing the philosophy of Zionism. Others previously had written about its core concepts, the chief of which involved . The main belief is Jews should migrate to Israel. In 1851 the percentage of the Jewish population in Palestine was four (4) percent. By 1948 it was 33 percent.  By 1988 it was sixty (60) percent.

   During the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s, Jews fled what became The Holocaust. When they arrived in Palestine, other people already lived there.

   Today, Saturday, February 25, 2012, at 11 a.m. at Big Hat Books, 6510 Cornell in Broad Ripple, we shall discuss whether United States bias toward Israel. Our guests will be Jeff Cox and Kurt Lorey.