A recent article on the far right website worldnutdaily whines about the complaint by American Atheists against the Ground Zero Cross. According to the author, it shows atheists’ hatred toward the “Judeochristian” symbols.
But why “Judeochristian”? Whence is the cross a Jewish symbol? As it turns out, horrible historical crimes have been committed against people of Jewish faith in the name of the cross. Ground Zero Cross is exclusionary of all non-Christians, but for the Jewish people it is a reminder of some very dark days.
And of course, the accusations of “deicide” were at the heart of the (Protestant Reformation founder) Martin Luther’s nasty book “On Jews and Their Lies”, which later became a blueprint for the holocaust. (Image above, from nobeliefs.com).
And if you thought harassment of Jews using the cross was a thing of the past, think again. Mikey Weinstein started the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, became outspoken in this regard after his family became targets of harassment at the Airforce Academy in the wake of the showing of Mel Gibson’s “The Passion Of The Christ” which depicts Jews as Christ killers. The story is narrated in the documentary “Constantine’s Sword” featuring former priest James Carroll.
Oh, and Weinstein has also received plenty of antisemitic hate-mail since he started his activism.
The negative sentiments of the Religious Right toward the Jews are not always under the surface; they do sometimes let the cat out of the bag. One of the most egregious examples, perhaps, was when extremist Ann Coulter told Jewish interviewer Donny Deutsch that Jews “should be perfected” by accepting Christianity, and that they “have to obey”. But of course that is the interviewer’s fault, didn’t you know. Another example was the dismissive attitude of justice Antonin Scalia when he was enlightened that Jews (gasp!) do not have crosses in their graveyards.
If this is what the religious right thinks about Jews, then why is it that when they get a complaint about an exclusively christian symbol, they call it “Judeochristian”? Could it be anything other than an attempt at deception?
