In the comments about the term Judeo-Christian the Marcionite tendencies of liberal Christianity was mentioned. Sometimes I have encountered the idea that a rejection of the Hebrew Bible within Christianity naturally results in Anti-Semitism (granted, the argument is often from neconservatives who are attempting to solidify the evangelical-neocon alliance). I decided to look into the GSS.
| Fundamentalist | Moderate | Liberal | |
| Relative to marry a Jew? | |||
| Strongly favor | 10.4 | 13.2 | 15.2 |
| Favor | 15.8 | 16.3 | 13.2 |
| Neither | 54.7 | 57.5 | 59.4 |
| Oppose | 11.4 | 9.2 | 9.0 |
| Strongly oppose | 7.7 | 3.8 | 3.2 |
| Influence of Jews | |||
| Too much | 24.8 | 24.6 | 23.2 |
| Right amount | 56.7 | 63.4 | 65.3 |
| Too little | 18.5 | 12.1 | 11.6 |
| Have Jews made positive contribution to country? | |||
| Most important | 10.4 | 12.2 | 12 |
| Important | 42.8 | 44.7 | 51.7 |
| Some | 41.2 | 35.6 | 31.3 |
| Little positive | 5.5 | 7.5 | 5 |
| Word of God | Inspired Word | Book of Fables | |
| Relative to marry a Jew? | |||
| Strongly favor | 11.7 | 13.2 | 20.6 |
| Favor | 15.9 | 16.9 | 15.0 |
| Neither | 51.0 | 57.9 | 56.7 |
| Oppose | 12.2 | 9.4 | 4.2 |
| Strongly oppose | 9.3 | 2.6 | 3.5 |
| Influence of Jews | |||
| Too much | 18,2 | 23.6 | 32.1 |
| Right amount | 62.7 | 64.7 | 58.5 |
| Too little | 19.1 | 11.7 | 9.3 |
| Have Jews made positive contribution to country? | |||
| Most important | 13.0 | 9.6 | 15.7 |
| Important | 38.6 | 50.9 | 49.0 |
| Some | 41.2 | 33.8 | 30.6 |
| Little positive | 7.2 | 5.7 | 4.7 |
The question needs more investigation. My own hypothesis is this: the desacralization of the Hebrew Bible tends to result in gentiles being far less specifically interested in some issues important to some Jews. I'm specifically talking about Israel; I am rather sure that "Jewish influence" in many liberal Christian minds means AIPAC, not "International Bankers." The examples of Kaifeng and Kerala should disabuse one of the nation that a belief in the Hebrew Bible is the only block against persecution of the Jews.
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The data seems to go different ways for different questions.
For the first question about intermarriage as broken down by it seems clear from the numbers given that there is more opposition from fundamentalists than from other groups. A similar trend is in the data when broken down by attitude towards the Bible.
The influence of Jews question seems to have too little change to be very statistically significant excepting possibly the large jump in Jews having too little influence in the fundamentalist category. (I have to say, the fact that almost a quarter of all Christians think Jews have too much influence is a bit disturbing).
The other questions seem to have not very large changes. More research is needed but also more specific questions on this issue.
I think that there should be a separation between the everyday opinions about Jews and Judaism which are mainly socially motivated, and the theo-social justifications that people makes when they start thinking about thire everyday opinions. Being more specific: the relation to the Hebrew bible have probably nothing to do with the opinion about the contemporary desired Jewish influence.
I wondered how many Jews, like Philip Weiss, think Jews have too much influence:
1: TOO MUCH INFLUENCE 6.5
2
2: RIGHT AMOUNT 73.9
18
3: TOO LITTLE INFLUENCE 19.6
5
COL TOTAL 100.0
24
But without the Old Testament Christianity itself collapses. Jesus' status of Messiah is nullified, and much of the Gospels and Epistles beomes irrelevant. One is left with a mishmash of disconnected feel-good sayings and fairy tales, i. e., the Social Gospel.
Personally, I always thought that anti-Semitism had more to do with genetic differences between Jews and non-Jews than it does with religious belief. The Soviet Union was quite anti-Semitic but also non-Christian. Even Hitler seemed to be more interested in the pagan religions figures of Europe - such as the Teutonic god Woden - than he was in biblical ones.
Personally, I always thought that anti-Semitism had more to do with genetic differences between Jews and non-Jews than it does with religious belief. The Soviet Union was quite anti-Semitic but also non-Christian. Even Hitler seemed to be more interested in the pagan religions figures of Europe - such as the Teutonic god Woden - than he was in biblical ones.
1) racial anti-semitism becomes prominent in the west in the 19th century with the rise of racial science. though there are hints of it before in places like spain, that did not block the eventual assimilation of large numbers of jews into christian europe.
2) hitler was only minimally interested in pagan gods, that was more an obsession of himmler. hitler was not much interested in christianity either. i think people try an impose on hilter a stronger set of religious convictions than he had (i doubt he was a convinced atheist either, religion was less important to him than nation & politics).
Joe, Soviet anti-Semitism came in part from pre-existing anti-Semitism in Russia before the revolution which was due in part to Christian attitudes. Part of the issue here may be that even as some forms of Christianity promote anti-Semitism there are possible restrains on that given the history of where Christianity came from and the partially shared religious texts. Once a culture removes the Christian element it is easy for the anti-Semitism to stay without the earlier connections to Judaism that might restrain the anti-Semitism. Thus, Christian cultures deChristianizing might expect a jump in anti-Semitism. I'm not sure how you could test this claim.
@Joshua Zelinsky
I think that any endogamous group within a wider society is at risk of persecution for purely base secular reasons and that anti-Semitism is not of some particularly essential Christian origin. The phenomenon is likely replicated in all sorts of societies even in prehistory. Plonking Jews in a Shinto-Buddhist or Hindu milieu would not necessarily make them safer than plonking them in a Christian one.
Jews' historical economic role likely exacerbated the problem. Look at the calls to hang bankers from a high noose metaphorically speaking in the recent "credit crunch", such as in many British tabloids,
http://www.thescottishsun.co.uk/scotsol/homepage/news/article1825464.ece
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/columnists/sue-carroll/2009/01/20/show-us-…
Imagine that in a society where only Jews where permitted to be money lenders, and their commitment to wider society rather than "their own" was exacerbated by their distinctiveness and endogamy. The Templar Knights had a dramatic persecution which was probably very related to their financial role too, but were obviously a very different institution than Judaism.
Often the people who are most anti-Semetic are exactly the kind of people who would put "Jewish interests" above Gentile interests if they themselves happened to be a Jew, i.e. people with a strong sense of ethnocentric nationalism. I think that that's a form of projection.
penta, christian antisemitism predates their 'special role' as middlemen minorities, starting with the great persecution of justinian.
Penta:
Having spent several hours over the past week wandering through these blogs and throwing in my two cents worth, you get my vote for most perceptive and informative comment I have seen so far! You even used "endogamous" in such a way that I THINK I generally understood its meaning. As a retired lawyer I don't pretend to understand a lot of what I'm reading here (and, yes, you do have to "consider the source"!), but I really did want to compliment you on placing anti-Semitism in its larger context. I am no fan of Christianity (or any other god-myths) but every culture has scapegoats and the Jews' position as one throughout European history is hardly unique. The Muslim world's "love" of Jews has been more "off" than "on" as I recall. Keep up the good work. Endogamously yours (assuming that doesn't require us to get married).