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Reply to "So if Jeremy Corbyn is antisemtic for promoting Hobson's "Imperialism" is the Arch Bishop of Canterbury antisemitic for reading the New Testament?"

El Loro posted:

Carnelian, as I'm a Christian, I would not wish to say or infer that Jeremy Corbyn is antisemitic. 

 

I found this interview he gave a few years ago:
https://thirdway.hymnsam.co.uk...ile/far-sighted.aspx

 

It's a lengthy interview but this extract relates to his religious views:

Was there any religion in your family?

Yeah, there was. My mum was a Bible-reading atheist - no, agnostic, probably. She had been brought up in a religious environment and her brother was a vicar, and there was quite a lot of clergy in her family. Going back a lot further, there is a Jewish element in the family, probably from Germany. My father was a Christian and attended church; and the school that I went to was religious - we had hymns and prayers every morning.

The school motto was 'Serve and Obey', I believe.

Was it? I don't remember that but it sounds about right! So, I did go to church as a child, yeah.

At what point did you decide that it wasn't for you?

I'm not anti-religious at all. Not at all. And I probably go to more religious services than most people who are very strong believers. I go to churches, I go to mosques, I go to temples, I go to synagogues. I find religion very interesting. I find the power of faith very interesting. I have friends who are very strongly atheist and wouldn't have anything to do with any faith; but I take a much more relaxed view of it. I think the faith community offers and does a great deal for people. There doesn't have to be wars about religĀ­ion, there has to be honesty about religion. We have much more in common than separates us.

I think the point I'm making is that if Corbyn is to be hung for not mentioning antisemitic content in a book he wrote a forward for then it follows that you can't be selective in the content you condemn.  We wouldn't expect the Arch Bishop to apologise for antisemitic content in the Bible before every service.

 

I'm not really saying Christians are all antisemitic and the typical British Christian isn't an antisemite (just like the typical Labour member) but raising a fact that the New Testament is by far the main source and justification for antisemitism.  Long, long before Hitler and conspiracy theories about the Rothschilds 'the good book' informed antisemitism and inspired antisemitism.  

Carnelian
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