The Church Has Contributed to Antisemitism, Archbishop of Canterbury Says

The Jerusalem Post ^ | 9/28/16 | Staff

[marshmallow]

"The fact that antisemitism has infected the body of the Church is something of which we as Christians must be deeply repentant.

The Church has contributed to the spread of antisemitism, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby wrote this week in an essay for the Holocaust Educational Trust.

The leader of the Church of England referred to antisemitism as "an insidious evil," adding that "it is a shameful truth that, through its theological teachings, the Church, which should have offered an antidote, compounded the spread of this virus."

Welby, who has held his position since 2013, said that "the fact that antisemitism has infected the body of the Church is something of which we as Christians must be deeply repentant. We live with the consequences of our history of denial and complicity."

The BBC quoted Jonathan Arkush, the president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, as praising the archbishop's comments as "powerful and timely."

Arkush told the BBC that Christians had indeed sometimes been to blame in antisemitism "permeating European thought."

[NorthMountain]

Speak for yourself, ya dingbat!

[T-Bone Texan]

Dingbat indeed.

[alexander_busek]

And you should hear what awful things the Archbishop said about Islam, too! /s

Regards,

[captain_dave]

It is true that the Church contributed to antisemitism. It probably started with the Council of Nicea. Only since the mid 1800s in the UK have Jews enjoyed full civil rights. Jews have been forever a foreign, yet eminently civilized, culture within European Christianity.

[Mrs. Don-o]

I don't know about "dingbat". I do know he IS speaking for himself --- that is, for his own Church of England and his own nationality, British, his own history.

Jews' civil right were curtailed in England for centuries. They were treated in some cases as brutally as the Catholics were.