Greek Bishop Equates Zionism to ‘Satanism’

As reported by the New York Time on Thursday 12/24, A Greek bishop who previously blamed Greece’s financial problems on  Jewish bankers issued a statement in which he denied that he was anti-Semitic but also equated Zionism to “Satanism.”

While I am saddened and deeply disgusted on what he says but I am not very surprised. There is nothing new or “impolite” things in his letter. Others, offered far worst. Do a little research (a.k.a – googling) and you will know that from Matthew (Matthew 27:25) to St Gregory of Nyssa (4th Century) to Luthers’s “Sincere Advice” about Jews to the Catholic Nonzius in Slovakia during the Holcaust, the histoy of Christiandom is the history of Jewish suffering.

Lets start from the start: Matthew 27:25 tells that those (Jews) who demanded that Jesus be executed said “His blood is on us and on our children!”

So, now you know when you see a doctor saving your daughter’s life, or  a  professor educating your son, please  know to whom Matthew was reffering when he wrote his Gospel.

And based on his studies of the scripture St. Gregory of Nyssa declared that Jews were “Slayers of the Lord, murderers of the prophets, adversaries of God, haters of God”

St. Augustine’s, a giant of Christian theology, description of a Jews is that ” “The true image of the Hebrew is Judas Iscariot, who sells the Lord for silver. The Jew can never understand the Scriptures and forever will bear the guilt for the death of Jesus”

St. John Chrysostom reported that “The Jews are the odious assassins of Christ and for killing God there is no expiation possible, no indulgence or pardon. Christians may never cease vengeance, and the Jews must live in servitude forever. God always hated the Jews. It is incumbent upon all Christians to hate the Jews.

And the great reformer, Martin Luther “sincerely” advised his followers to ” First, their synagogues… should be set on fire, and whatever does not burn up should be covered or spread over with dirt so that no one may ever be able to see a cinder or stone of it…

John Calvin’s opinion about Jews is that “Their [the Jews] rotten and unbending stiffneckedness deserves that they be oppressed unendingly and without measure or end and that they die in their misery without the pity of anyone”

And from our recent memory, what we know? In Slovakia during the World War II when Rabbi Weismandel met the Catholic Nonzius on a Sunday and begged him to ask Bishop Tiso to stop the deportations and murders. The Nonzius, unconvinced, explained that “I and Father Tiso do not deal with “profane matters” on the holy day(Sunday). Notice that this man of God, called the discussion about saving the life of innocent children, a profane matter. Shocked? Don’t be, read further.  The Rabbi started to weep and asked for mercy for innocent women and children. The Nonzius answered, echoing Matthew 27:25 ” there is no such thing as innocent Jewish children blood, all Jewish blood is guilty”

So why then be surprised at this “poor” Greek cleric ‘s “discovery?” While murderers Ayatohlahs and barbarian Taliban would like his comment very  attractive, what he said is far milder than what saints and major theologians have said for past 2000 years.

“It is OK to kill Jews”

Today is May 19, 2009. As I was driving to work this morning listening to the news. Some guy named Morgan was arrested for killing Yohan Justin- Jinich, a Wesleyan University student in a bookstore. The killer wrote in his journal ” I think it is OK to kill Jews”. Yohan’s grandmother, as the newsman informs, is a holocaust survivor.

Has anything changed from the dark “Years of Extermination”? Years when ordinary neighbors in Germany, Poland, Ukraine, Latvia, Stonia and many many other places, taunted, cursed and even laughed as their neighbors were being rounded up, humiliated, paraded through the town and deported to the gas chambers. Years when the ordinary citizens of Europe, educated and cultured, came home from a hard day at work, kissed and hugged their kids, drank and ate good food while listening to Bach and Wagner, and made love their wives and husbands and did not think for a moment about thousands of men, women and children they just sent to the gas chambers?

Has anything changed from the years of extermination when the best of the politicians and academic thought “it was OK to Kill Jews” and the top man of God was more worried about the advancing Communist Russian Army than 1.2 million children were being killed by the Germans and their European allies?

Has anything changed from the years of extermination when the same man of God, while meeting to the newly appointed Ambassador, found time to thank Germany for the time he spent in Germany and went on to praise Germans but could not find time to express outrage (if he had any, I doubt it) on the murder of millions of innocent through Nazi killing machine?

This not to brag as I don’t consider it a big deal that I am a fast reader but lately, well,  not. For last few days I am trying to read Saul Freidlander’s book “Years of Extermination: The Nazi Germany and Jews 1939-1945” I got from my local library. This book has become the most difficult book for me to read. I can not read more than few pages and not feel depressed, shocked and deeply sad. And when this happened, I am unable to continue and I close the book.

And the sons and daughters of these killers, these mass murderers, lecture us, on Human Rights and Democracy?