Saturday, March 27, 2004
Modern European Attitudes
Humans are capable of great good and great evil. Religion is supposed to tilt us towards the former but, too often, has tilted many towards the latter. James Carroll in Constantine's Sword wrote about the historic roots of Christian anti-semitism and finds that Auschwitz was simply the most modern expression of a deeply rooted European tendency. The Church stood against the Nazi euthanasia programs when directed against the mentally infirm in the 1930s, causing the murderers to back down, but did almost nothing when many others, notably Jews, were the victims in the early 1940s.
It appears that European anti-semitism is back. Europeans had exported it to the Muslim world and now European Muslims are re-importing back to Europe. Not much has changed, except for the fact that in polite company, hateful acts now get a pass via the left's pro-Palestinian stance.
Most European opinion towards Jews still ranges from the hateful to the indifferent.
