Sunday 11 January 2009

Howard Jacobson

I'm currently watching Howard Jacobson's edition of Channel 4's "Christianity: a history". This isn't a history at all. It is a horrifically one-sided attack by a blatant hypocrite. This man is presenting a militantly anti-Christian Jewish interpretation of the Gospels, and besides completely misrepresenting both Christian history and theology, he admits that he isn't even a practicing Jew!!!

I really do like the Jewish people, and I have a great admiration for the ultra-orthodox of Gateshead; they're faithful to the Old Covenant which, short of Christianity, is just about as good as you can get. Yet this man is masquerading as a faithful Jew merely to discredit Christianity.

Still... forty-five minutes to go. I hope that I've misjudged him...

7 comments:

leutgeb said...

The only surprise was that he didnt mention Pope Pius XII, or was I in the kitchen at that point? To be fair he did say that Christians suffered in the Holocaust. Weird that when he was going on about an apology from Christians for centuries of anti-Semitism, no mention fo JPII in 2000. Shots of BXVI at Auschwitz strangely absent also.

A more interesting study would be on the similarities between Judaism and Catholicism.

I find Jewish people very warm, family orientated and of course many of the finest classical musicians in the world are Jewish.

Anonymous said...

hrmmm... I have set this to record on Sky+. Will let you know what I think.

Augustine said...

Here's a preview for you Mark:

"For many Christians, the Holocaust was payback time..."

Could you imagine anyone at Channel Four describing the Armenian Genocide as Muslims getting payback on Armenian Christians simply for daring to exist? No, C4 is to busy broadcasting the foul Holocaust-denying President of Iran just for shock value...

Anonymous said...

I haven't watched it yet, Augustine, but in a growing climate of anti-semitism in pre-WWII Europe, that comment was not untrue.

You should read Martin Gilbert's "The Righteous". It is an account of those who risked their lives to save Jews; but at the same time, it highlights that too many Christians turned a blind eye, and some even "shopped" the Jews, turning them in to the authorities.

...not that I'm standing up for Channel 4!

Augustine said...

Oh absolutely, but you'll understand when you watch it what I mean... the context and timing of that particular phrase that the bias is almost comic!

Paulinus said...

I expect little more. Like you I have the utmost respect for the Jews: in Leeds where I grew up, the Jewish community (much of their latter wealth founded on tailoring) completely replaced the vestments of my parish church when they were destroyed by fire.

I mean completely replaced - pre-conciliar High Mass and Low Mass sets in every liturgical colour and all the extras. I have heard similar stories of the Jewish community in Manchester where Jacobson grew up. They seemed to recognise in the Irish and Italians of last century, an image of themselves a generation or two before.

Jacobson seems to be nursing a grievance on behalf of a people he has turned his own back on in order to claim victim status for himself.

He should know better.

mikesiva said...

I thought it was a very good programme by Howard Jacobsen. It was a strong historical look at what Jesus might really have been like.

Remember, the gospels were written decades after the death of Christ, and their accuracy must be questioned....