Why did that true statement get you to read this far in disbelief anyone would claim such a thing? Is it heresy? Are you reading to build up a case of self-righteous anger and shout antisemitism?

You are reading the wrong article for any of that. If you keep reading you will learn the statement is correct. You may decide it is antisemitic because it is a truth that should not be spoken. To my mind that is religious censorship and I damn you if you do that.

Regarding the history of Christians and Jews, I want to make one point that will hopefully be remembered in every time you read about Christian antisemitism. Christians treated Jews better than any other religion and often better than they treated fellow Christians. That is a fact. And this is why.

At one time in the part of the world the Romans called Germanica the people worshipped Odin as the chief god of a pantheon roughly like the Roman and Greek pantheons headed by Jupiter/Zeus. They survived the Romans and went on to conquer Rome. And there was a place called Egypt that worshipped a pantheon headed by Ra for thousands of years. But when they met the Christians they disappeared.

As a matter of fact after Constantine made Christianity the official religion of the empire it changed from a peaceful religion to a violent one with conversion by force. Not one member of any religion with which the Christianity came into contact in its expansion survived. Odin and Zeus and Ra are but the most obvious examples.

But after nearly two thousand years of coexistance, despite Jews trying to wipe out Christians as recounted in Acts in the New Testament, Jews are still with us to complain how they were treated. There are no followers of the other religions to whine about how they were treated.

Christianity did not reserve its militancy for pagan religions. The Albagensians were declared heretics and exterminated, genocided if you will. I mean the real thing, not just an attempted extermination. They were all killed, wiped from the face of the earth. And that goes for several other christian groups labeled heretics such as the Manicheans. A little research uncovers a lot of groups that vanished when confronting Christianity.

Anglicans and every protestant is still with us but not for lack of trying. And the same can be said of Islam. Christianity always attempted to eliminate them but was not always successful. In all these centuries there was never an attempt by Christianity to eliminate Jews.

And where Islam and variations on Christianity such as Anglicans and Lutherans survived it was by military strength. In Europe, Jews never had any military strength. They were always as vulnerable as the Albagensians who were murdered to the last man, woman and child.

Jews were kicked out of countries, shoved around, had lots of problems here and there and in every century. Those were nothing in comparison to what Christians did to other religions and to fellow Christians.

Whether it was by mass slaughter or slow attrition the only religion to survive Christianity has been Judaism. The only religion which has been permitted to coexist with Chrisitanity is Judaism.

We do not hear the followers of Odin or Zeus or Ra whining about how they were treated by Christians. There are none left to whine. We do hear Jews whining about how they were treated even though they were treated better than any other religion and better than variations of Christianity.

Even the Inquisition was not directed towards Jews. It was directed at those suspected of falsely converting to Christianity and the issue was solely the falsity of the conversion, not their previous religion. I know Jewish mythology has it otherwise but that is what happened.

The elimination was not always violent. It was often by the systematic elimination of all civil and legal rights for non-christians and their institutions such as temples and priests. They were also required to follow Christian laws. Jews were usually second class but they did not lose everything and they were permitted their own courts and laws. There could be synagogues but no temple to Athena and prostitution even in the temple was a sin and illegal.

And I don't mean to end the story in Europe. Everywhere Christians went around the world in the Age of Exploration local religions were suppressed as quickly as possible. Jews could travel with the explorers and practice their religion openly where a native could not. This continued into the twentieth century until native religions were all but eliminated. Some few did survive in drastically decreased numbers as the conversion fervor was lost with WWII. That is within the lifetime of about one fifth of the people alive today. That is what we call recent history.

But since WWII the Jews, those who were treated infinitely better than any other religion by the simple fact they survived, have become the loudest group to bemoan their ill treatment. If they had been treated like the Albagensians we would not hear them whining about their treatment.

Here we are in the early 21st century with the word antisemitism as a curse when it covers the best treatment Christianity has ever given any relgion.

And to stir up the pot even more it is being applied to Islam when Islam is exactly the same as Christianity when it comes to Jews. They eliminated every religion they could except for Jews. Yet today we are being regaled with the same false notion that Islam is inherently antisemitic when in fact Judaism is the only religion which was permitted to survive and coexist with Islam. Dozens of pagan religions were eliminated as it spread. But Judaism was untouched.

But Jews will complain about their treatment under Islam ignoring the fact they are about the only religion which survived to complain about it.

This constant whining, and there is no better word for it than whining, is annoying. Jews make the point of having a high premium on education so certainly they know the fact that their survival is unique in both the Christian and Islamic world. Yet they complain, they whine, they kvetch, they are rude about it. They act as though they deserved better when they got the best there was to get, survival.

They got better than literally hundreds of religions both major and minor. They got better than dozens of variations upon Christianity. They survived with Christianity and Islam despite never having had the military power to assure their own survival.

Yet to hear their version of history Jews were treated terribly but as an educated people they know better.

"We were treated so terribly"
"You were treated better than anyone else."
"We deserved better than better."

The reason I do not talk about the culture is because Christians have taken up the same refrain and are falling all over each other to pretend to be Jewish. Why? Chic I guess. Some people find it cool to talk in the funny accent. Of course it is idealized by Hollywood which doesn't hurt.

For whatever reason these days the entire Christian world is obsessed with the treatment of Jews over thousands of years. And even though they started it with the persecution of Christians, Jews were not persecuted per se as a matter of Christian policy. No Pope ever ordered all Jews be given the choice of conversion or death. But Jerusalem gave the recant or die choice to Christians.

When Islam was spreading the Jewish kings killed the followers of Islam but when Islam conquered they were permitted their religion and their traditions. Yet this is considered a sign of antisemitism.

It is time we started living with history the way it is. If the Albagensians or Manichians had had a Holocaust they would still be around to complain about it. If the worshippers of Ra or Jupiter had met Hitler they would be telling stories about it. Unfortunately for them, they met Christianity.

So the next time you hear about how poorly Jews have been treated down through the centuries, keep in mind they are the luckiest people in the world to be here to tell about it.

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