The Attack on Christianity (Blue Dolphin Publishing)

What do Nubuchadnezzar, Herodotus, John Chrysostom, Caesar, Voltaire, and Hitler have in common?
They all hated and persecuted Jews.

What don't they have in common?
Christianity, for one thing.

Andrew J. Hurley examines history from Babylon to Berlin and the writings of mainstream Jewish scholars to reassess the common belief that Christianity and its supposed doctrine of "deicide" are the sources of anti-Semitism.

His surprising discovery is that this cannot be true. Anti-Semitism existed centuries before the birth of Christ. Even in the Christian era, many of the most strident anti-Semites have not been Christians. In fact, defenders of Jewish rights have held the highest positions in Church and state hierarchies.

Hurley cites first-hand accounts and histories ancient and modern to examine the relations between Jews, Christians, and other gentiles. What he finds is a pattern of human xenophobia that transcends race, creed, and time - and to which not even Jews have been immune.

Hurley's evaluation of historic anti-Semitism will surprise some and outrage others. Mr. Hurley says that unless we identify the true sources of anti-Semitism, they will continue to plague us - as they have since the days of Abraham.

INTRODUCTION
Seasonal Litigation by George F.Will
Playing Reindeer Games by John Leo

CHAPTER I: ANTI-SEMITISM AND ITS ROOTS
Christian Doctrine
The Medieval Church
Himmelfarb, Reinach, and Lazare

CHAPTER II: ANTI-SEMITISM IN ANTIQUITY
Background: Judah and Israel
The Assyrians
Isaiah
Jeremiah
The Babylonian Captivity and the Persian Empire
Alexander the Great
The Greeks

CHAPTER III: THE DIASPORA
The Decline of the Maccabean State
Herod the Great
The Destruction of the State
The Roman Wars

CHAPTER VI: THE EARLY MIDDLE AGES
Early Jews in Europe
Charlemagne, 768-814
Judeo-Christian Relations, 500-1000

CHAPTER IX: THE INQUISITION
The Background of the Inquisition
The Papal Inquisition
The Procedure of the Inquisition
The Spanish Inquisition
Maimonides
The Decline of Spanish Jewry
Emergence of the Marranos

CHAPTER XI: NINETEENTH-CENTURY GERMAN ANTI-SEMITISM
Pre-Nazi German Anti-Semitism

CHAPTER XII: WORLD WAR I AND ITS AFTERMATH
The Treaty of Versailles
The Protocols of the Elders of Zion
The Fall of the Weimar Republic

CHAPTER XIV: THE RIGHTEOUS GENTILES
The War Years
Reaction to Kristallnacht
The Yellow Badge

Most Christians would be appalled to learn that many, if not most, Jewish people believe that Christianity bears ultimate responsibility for one of the greatest crimes in human history--the Holocaust.

This monstrous libel against Christianity is spread by some prominent Jewish writers of popular books, who, out of malice or ignorance, are poisoning the minds of millions of Jewish people against Christians and Christianity....

This widespread accusation of Christian guilt is having a profound effect on our society and is a corrosive and damaging influence on our national life. It is causing many Jewish people to fear and distrust Christians and Christianity, and is responsible for the bitter church-state issues that are inundating our judicial system with endless lawsuits and constitutional challenges.

Although the First Amendment has been part of our Constitution for 200 years, only now does a militant American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) demand that such elements of our culture as Christmas carols in schools, Christmas trees in public places, etc., or any acknowledgment of the existence of God, nativity scenes, or even the display of the Ten Commandments in the classroom, be banned.

At the same time, there has grown up a contempt for Christianity that permeates the media and the liberal establishment. Ridicule of Christ and Christianity in books, plays, movies, television, etc. seems to be perfectly acceptable in contemporary society.

The infamous display showing the crucifix immersed in a jar of urine entitled "Piss Christ" was sponsored by the National Endowment for the Arts and taken on tour at public expense. Can anyone imagine a similar public display of the Star of David immersed in urine and shown as "art"?

The hostility toward Christianity and the passionate determination to extirpate it from our national life finds its rationale in the Jewish fear of another Holocaust as part of the "never again, never forget" syndrome.

It is the determination not to repeat the mistake made by the German Jews, who were complacent when Hitler first appeared on the political scene. Did they not recognize the threat of Nazism before it was too late? They believe that, had they known earlier, the power and resources of the Jewish community in Germany could have stamped it out.

Hence, if Jews are convinced that Christianity is the source of anti-Semitism and the root cause of the Holocaust, the logical position for them to take is to oppose Christianity in all of its manifestations and in every possible way. This they have done with a vengeance.

It may seem to Christians that issues such as God and prayer in school, Christmas cards, and creches in public places are harmless exercises to keep the ACLU busy or to keep funds fiowing into the war chest of the Jewish Defense League (JDL).

To the contrary, they are the first stages of an assault upon our culture that has as its objective making Christianity irrelevant, impotent, and discredited in our society.

We will assume, however, that the Jews who support their militant organizations are acting out of honorable motives and not malice. This is a reasonable assumption because, as we shall see, the greatest fault of both Christians and Jews is simple ignorance. Our efforts in this book will be to dispel this ignorance.

Holocaust memorials have had no small part in feeding fears and stirring up hatreds. They were ostensibly created to document and display the atrocities committed by the Nazis during World War II as a lesson to all mankind of the depravity of which the human species is capable. Millions of people, children as well as adults, have thus been exposed and continue to be exposed to the horrors on display.

The natural response of both adults and children is to wonder who bears responsibility for such an awful catastrophe. Unfortunately, Christian guilt and culpability are expressed or clearly implied. This means that the minds of hundreds of thousands of Jewish children, as well as adults, are daily being poisoned against their Christian friends and neighbors. The ultimate consequences of this are beyond calculation. As mentioned earlier, the pernicious falsehood that Christianity is the root cause of the Holocaust is having a destructive infiuence on the harmony of our national life....