Principal Deems Jesus Chant Offensive
I was looking for some information about James Cameron's "Jesus tomb" film (more on that in a later post) when the above headline caught my eye.
For those who haven't heard about it: there was a high school basketball game in Virginia between a Catholic school and another school, which was marred by an "antisemitic chant" and "antisemitic graffiti." The "antisemitic" chant was, "We love Jesus," and the "antisemitic" graffiti was the word "Jew" painted on the gym wall below the name of the home team.
I confess, I was a bit puzzled that anybody would perceive "We love Jesus" as an antisemitic chant. They weren't even playing against a Jewish school: the game was on the night of February 2, and no Jewish school would host a basketball game on a Friday night, Shabbat! But apparently, the hosting school is known to have a significant Jewish population, and anti-Jewish sentiment was the essence of the message expressed.
The important thing to understand about antisemitism (and all bigotry for that matter) is that hatred lies in the heart, not in the words. The word "Jew" is not an offensive term. I use the word all the time. It's much less cumbersome than the politically correct "Jewish person." But the word "Jew" becomes offensive when it is used to express the hatred in the heart, when it is used as a shorthand for, "This is a person you're supposed to hate, and you're supposed to hate him because he is a Jew."
Likewise, there is nothing wrong with the words "We love Jesus," nothing inherently offensive about them. But when the hatred lies in the heart and the words are used as a shorthand for, "We love Jesus, but you don't, and we're going to make you suffer for it," then yes, that's hate speech. And it saddens me that young people are apparently using words of love to express hate. At least, that seems to be what the Catholic school's principal thought.
Let me emphasize: it was the Catholic school's principal, not any Jew in the community, who drew the conclusion that this was antisemitic. The ADL, usually the first to jump on any perceived antisemitism, says absolutely nothing about this incident. But I suspect there will be a backlash against the Jewish community anyway.
It has been reported that the students of the Catholic school will get some sensitivity training. But I have a bad feeling that this compulsory training will only teach them the message that "those dirty Jews think it's offensive to love Jesus." I doubt any of them will notice that the person who described this as antisemitic, the person who organized the sensitivity training, was their own Catholic principal. Hatred is invulnerable to logic.
News Link:
CLICK HERE to read more...
For those who haven't heard about it: there was a high school basketball game in Virginia between a Catholic school and another school, which was marred by an "antisemitic chant" and "antisemitic graffiti." The "antisemitic" chant was, "We love Jesus," and the "antisemitic" graffiti was the word "Jew" painted on the gym wall below the name of the home team.
I confess, I was a bit puzzled that anybody would perceive "We love Jesus" as an antisemitic chant. They weren't even playing against a Jewish school: the game was on the night of February 2, and no Jewish school would host a basketball game on a Friday night, Shabbat! But apparently, the hosting school is known to have a significant Jewish population, and anti-Jewish sentiment was the essence of the message expressed.
The important thing to understand about antisemitism (and all bigotry for that matter) is that hatred lies in the heart, not in the words. The word "Jew" is not an offensive term. I use the word all the time. It's much less cumbersome than the politically correct "Jewish person." But the word "Jew" becomes offensive when it is used to express the hatred in the heart, when it is used as a shorthand for, "This is a person you're supposed to hate, and you're supposed to hate him because he is a Jew."
Likewise, there is nothing wrong with the words "We love Jesus," nothing inherently offensive about them. But when the hatred lies in the heart and the words are used as a shorthand for, "We love Jesus, but you don't, and we're going to make you suffer for it," then yes, that's hate speech. And it saddens me that young people are apparently using words of love to express hate. At least, that seems to be what the Catholic school's principal thought.
Let me emphasize: it was the Catholic school's principal, not any Jew in the community, who drew the conclusion that this was antisemitic. The ADL, usually the first to jump on any perceived antisemitism, says absolutely nothing about this incident. But I suspect there will be a backlash against the Jewish community anyway.
It has been reported that the students of the Catholic school will get some sensitivity training. But I have a bad feeling that this compulsory training will only teach them the message that "those dirty Jews think it's offensive to love Jesus." I doubt any of them will notice that the person who described this as antisemitic, the person who organized the sensitivity training, was their own Catholic principal. Hatred is invulnerable to logic.
News Link:
CLICK HERE to read more...
posted by JewFAQ | 5:30 AM
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