mhaze,

I was giving historical facts concerning Britain -
not regurgitating opinions.
And I thought the BBC was a good source to share
that most people would accept and understand.
Apparently in your case I was wrong.

The BBC's almost as woke as the ABC. Defund the ABC.

My goodness there has been some denialism writ large by the usual posters.

Firstly it must be said that the relative impact on indigenous cultures of Australia's original inhabitants, particularly in the South East of the country, far exceeded that which so sadly afflicted European Jews. This genocide deserves primacy in our education system because we are still dealing with its impacts today.

Next it is irrefutable that Christian anti-Semitism has always been a central feature of the faith.

The expulsions of Jews from countries like England and Spain is a case in point.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edict_of_Expulsion

Hitler was originally quite favourable towards Jews and found anti-semitism repulsive but he was radicalised by the rightwing Christian mayor of Vienna.

The anti-Jewish passages in the New Testament are well known.

In some addled brains the issue of the Mufti in Jerusalem siding with Hitler allows some sort of transference of guilt. It does no such thing.

Hitler's penned words were very clear:

"I believe that I am acting in accordance with the will of the Almighty Creator: by defending myself against the Jew, I am fighting for the work of the Lord".

Those words stand against any attempt from some here to obfuscate Christianity's deep historical role in the persecution of the Jewish people.

Just live with it.

Here is a great interview with George Steiner that's
worth a read:

http://forward.com/culture/367139/you-really-need-to-read-this-terrific-interview-with-george-steiner/

Canem wrote: "Thanks for the information AC- horrific."

Except AC's wrong. Unspeakable things happened at the hands of the NKVD but nothing approaching AC's fantasies. Refer to "Gulag Archipelago" (the unabridged version) or Conquest's "Great Terror". Despite the terror, the Stalinists were anxious to adhere to legal requirements. They extracted confessions through all sorts of unspeakable means (eg one poor soul watched his wife and 10 yr old daughter raped and only 'confessed' when they bought in his 8 yr old daughter). But the type of things AC talks of are from earlier periods and probably were true even then. eg the story about forced self-disembowel is something attributed to AmerIndians and was more propaganda than fact.

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Most of the 10 Commandments relate to things that all societies must enforce if they are to function - don't kill, don't steal, don't lie. Its possible to envisage a society that functions successfully without the religious parts of the commandments but all the others are absolute requirements. Its just easier to enforce if they are delivered by the deity rather than the government.

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"In general Christian countries were unwilling to give refuge to Jews fleeing Nazis."

In fact the vast majority of the Jews who left Germany before 1938 went to Christian countries. Some of the more foresighted headed to Palestine but most ended up in Britain, France, Poland and Eastern Europe where they ended up being caught in the Nazi net anyway.

When you only research something from one angle, your conclusions are inevitably jaundiced. This is david f's problem. He only looks at anti-Semitism from the point of its existence in Christian nations and therefore assumes its a Christian issue. He ignores the vastly more profound anti-Semitism in the Islamic world and ignores all those Christian nations, movements and people who have provided succour to the Jews over the centuries. Unless you think the Jews were historically insane, you have to ponder why they persisted in Christian society over the millennia. Things might have been periodic bad, but they were more often good and clearly better than elsewhere

I note the dismissal of the Hebrew ten Commandments for an inferior set of values that people prefer to live by. Unless one contemplates a higher character, one will never reach a higher character. We must envisage and contemplate the highest character if we are to improve ourselves personally and our society.

1. Worship and aspire to understand holy Character.
2. Do not become devoted to the trivial or ascribe devotion to things.
3. Do not attribute evil character to the most holy.
4. Keep one day in seven for rest and reflection.

Many want to discard the devotion to holy character because to them it seems irrelavent; but unless character is in focus every behaviour is justified.

5. Respect and care for your parents.
6. You shall not plot the death of another.
7. You shall not lust for anothers wife.
8. You shal not steal anothers property.
9. You shall not give false testomony of another to destroy their character.
10. You shall not covet others property etc.