Jews should not call Jesus a "bastard", says cardinal

Holy Smoke

by Damian Thompson

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Damian Thompson is editor-in-chief of the Catholic Herald. The Church Times once described him as a "blood-crazed ferret".

Posted by Damian Thompson on 05 Oct 2007  at 19:41 
Tags: Jesus, Jews, Cardinal Francis George, Abraham Foxman, Hebrew

One of America’s most senior cardinals has called on Jews to scrap “Talmudic descriptions of Jesus as a bastard”.

Cardinal George: changes to prayers should work both ways

According to Cardinal Francis George of Chicago, in return for the removal of controversial references to the Jews in the Old Missal, Jewish religious leaders should make changes to traditional Hebrew texts that describe Jesus as illegitimate.

Here’s the quote, from the cardinal’s interview with John Allen of the National Catholic Reporter:

“Not that any group has a veto on anybody’s prayers, because you can go through Jewish texts and find material that is offensive to us. But if we’re interested in keeping the dialogue strong, and we have to be, we should be very cautious about any prayer that they find insulting. ‘They’, however, is a big tent.

“What my Jewish rabbi friend down the block finds insulting is different from what Abraham Foxman [national director of the Anti-Defamation League] finds insulting. Also, it does work both ways. Maybe this is an opening to say, ‘Would you care to look at some of the Talmudic literature’s description of Jesus as a bastard, and so on, and maybe make a few changes in some of that?’ ”

The interview is long and fascinating and you can find the whole text here. I agree wholeheartedly with the cardinal. What do you think?

Posted by Damian Thompson on 05 Oct 2007 at 19:41

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/ukcorrespondents/holysmoke/october2007/jews.htm

Athugasemdir

[Baldur Fjölnisson, 31.10.2007 kl. 11:48]

Án þess að ég vilji rakka niður gyðinga sérstaklega, þá hefur mér lengi komið tilbeiðsluleg aðdáun Omega stöðvarinnar á gyðingatrúnni undarlega fyrir sjónir, sérstaklega með tilliti til þess að skv. Talmud var Jesús lausaleikskrógi, mamma hans hóra og sjálfur soðnar hann í helvíti til eilífðarnóns skv. þessu geðveikislega trúarriti. En kannski hafa raddirnar í hausnum á þeim ekki sagt þeim frá Talmudinum ennþá...