"By the close of the Indian Wars in the late 19th century, fewer than 238,000 Indigenous people remained, a sharp decline from the estimated 5 million to 15 million living in North America when Columbus arrived in 1492."
Point being, the problem is less that Jews were blamed for the death of Jesus etc than it is that European culture has a long history of the ruthless mass murder of just about everybody it encountered.
There was the endless warring between European states, continuing to this day in Ukraine. European colonialism around the world ruthlessly dominated local populations by any means necessary. European expansion in to the New World was possibly the biggest genocidal crime in human history. Most of this centuries old horror show had nothing to do with Jews, and everything to do with European Christian culture.
Europe culture was dominated by Catholicism to a degree unimaginable today for a thousand years. A thousand years. And still the genocidal horrors went on and on, expanded around the planet, and in to the New World. One of the world's leading religions utterly failed to tame the beast. That's the story. The Jews are minor players in that story, only one of countless victim groups over a period of centuries.
Arguably the biggest victims of European horror were the native people's of the New World. It's interesting to observe that, generally speaking, the native peoples who were mass exterminated in their millions during the establishment of America seem not to have embraced a victim identity. The history is not ignored, but neither is it a focal point. As best I can tell.
I think I've said this before, but universal theories of Everything are dangerous. Christianity, Islam, Marxism, Darwinism, liberal democracy -- if you start to think you have an answer that applies to everything and everyone, then it's wise to sit down and think again. ... I often imagine the rabbis, sitting around the rubble of the Second Temple: "Maybe we need a bit more humility here, guys." And then some of them thought: "Humility! That's it! Let us bring humility to all the nations of the world!"
My hobby horse universal theory is that everybody should freeze their asses off in the Yukon! There's a lot less trouble in the world when everybody is at home huddled around the stove.
The Pope may have been a protector, but it’s the foot soldiers who have boots on the ground. What the Church teaches — the Story it tells every Sunday — matters most. And if that Story still casts the Jews as blind to G*d’s ultimate revelation, then we have what script doctors might call a narrative complication without a resolution.
In a twisted sense, pogroms and inquisitions and expulsions are Christian attempts to make the Story make sense. Because Jews who keep insisting on being Jews are Jews who wreak havoc with the Catholic Story. Which leaves the Church with two options: dual covenant theology (the Jews are still in) or the pre-Vatican II consensus (the Jews are out). Option 1 is a good moral decision but a narrative nightmare. Option 2 makes narrative sense, but is morally abhorrent and leads to violence.
Over time, the Story — the “greatest ever told” — always wins. That’s why there’s so much backtracking on Nostra aetate. And why the Story needs a lot of work.
https://www.history.com/news/native-americans-genocide-united-states
"By the close of the Indian Wars in the late 19th century, fewer than 238,000 Indigenous people remained, a sharp decline from the estimated 5 million to 15 million living in North America when Columbus arrived in 1492."
Point being, the problem is less that Jews were blamed for the death of Jesus etc than it is that European culture has a long history of the ruthless mass murder of just about everybody it encountered.
There was the endless warring between European states, continuing to this day in Ukraine. European colonialism around the world ruthlessly dominated local populations by any means necessary. European expansion in to the New World was possibly the biggest genocidal crime in human history. Most of this centuries old horror show had nothing to do with Jews, and everything to do with European Christian culture.
Europe culture was dominated by Catholicism to a degree unimaginable today for a thousand years. A thousand years. And still the genocidal horrors went on and on, expanded around the planet, and in to the New World. One of the world's leading religions utterly failed to tame the beast. That's the story. The Jews are minor players in that story, only one of countless victim groups over a period of centuries.
Arguably the biggest victims of European horror were the native people's of the New World. It's interesting to observe that, generally speaking, the native peoples who were mass exterminated in their millions during the establishment of America seem not to have embraced a victim identity. The history is not ignored, but neither is it a focal point. As best I can tell.
And then, there's this.... :-)
https://www.discover-the-world.com/blog/beautiful-views-of-the-yukon/
This Yukon thing is beginning to grow on me!
I think I've said this before, but universal theories of Everything are dangerous. Christianity, Islam, Marxism, Darwinism, liberal democracy -- if you start to think you have an answer that applies to everything and everyone, then it's wise to sit down and think again. ... I often imagine the rabbis, sitting around the rubble of the Second Temple: "Maybe we need a bit more humility here, guys." And then some of them thought: "Humility! That's it! Let us bring humility to all the nations of the world!"
Rinse and repeat. 🙄
My hobby horse universal theory is that everybody should freeze their asses off in the Yukon! There's a lot less trouble in the world when everybody is at home huddled around the stove.
The Pope may have been a protector, but it’s the foot soldiers who have boots on the ground. What the Church teaches — the Story it tells every Sunday — matters most. And if that Story still casts the Jews as blind to G*d’s ultimate revelation, then we have what script doctors might call a narrative complication without a resolution.
In a twisted sense, pogroms and inquisitions and expulsions are Christian attempts to make the Story make sense. Because Jews who keep insisting on being Jews are Jews who wreak havoc with the Catholic Story. Which leaves the Church with two options: dual covenant theology (the Jews are still in) or the pre-Vatican II consensus (the Jews are out). Option 1 is a good moral decision but a narrative nightmare. Option 2 makes narrative sense, but is morally abhorrent and leads to violence.
Over time, the Story — the “greatest ever told” — always wins. That’s why there’s so much backtracking on Nostra aetate. And why the Story needs a lot of work.