Waiting for Godot to Leave

Many of you are still mad at me that I make no quarter for Holocaust deniers, thinking that what these folks need is just good plain patience and reasoning, someone sitting down and holding their hands and explaining to them calmly and serenely that the Holocaust happened, and that it was not the fault of the Jews. Maybe this will help explain my position.  It's from an email I sent to a Facebook friend. There is at the root of antisemistism something that's not able to be educated, in my opinion. When a Facebook commenter says, "The Jews elected every president since WWII and the Jews assassinated JFK," there's nothing to say to "educate" that man except addressing the demon he's dancing with, "Get thee behind me, Satan."  Take yesterday. I'm on the fence on gun control. But three anti-gun-control commenters said the following: 1. Gun control is a violation of the Tenth Commandment, "Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor...

I swear I am not making this up. A Facebook friend who refers to the Holocaust as "a historical CLAIM" said the following to me. X:  How can you say I am an anti-semite?  What do you mean by "Jew"?  What do you mean by "anti-semite"? KEVIN:  Someone told me that you believe that Obama won the election because the Jews wanted him to.  If that's true, what do you mean by "Jew"? X:  Not a single president since WWII has won for any other reason.   (inserts link to a website that blames the Jews for the Holocaust) KEVIN:  Do you want to take your comment and link down?  I won't, as it proves my point, but it's making you look pretty bad, so you might want to. X:  I can believe in unicorns if I want to, can't I? So what if I say JFK was shot by the Massad ? That's the freedom we have and enjoy by the blood shed by so many... In other words, the Jews elected Kennedy and then the Jewish secret police assassinated Kenne...

From Wikipedia ... In 1945, General  Dwight D. Eisenhower , Supreme Allied Commander, anticipated that someday an attempt would be made to recharacterize the  Nazi crimes  as propaganda and took steps against it: The same day [18]  I saw my first horror camp. It was near the town of Gotha. I have never been able to describe my emotional reactions when I first came face to face with indisputable evidence of Nazi brutality and ruthless disregard of every shred of decency. Up to that time I had known about it only generally or through secondary sources. I am certain however, that I have never at any time experienced an equal sense of shock. I visited every nook and cranny of the camp because I felt it my duty to be in a position from then on to testify at first hand about these things in case there ever grew up at home the belief or assumption that "the stories of Nazi brutality were just propaganda". Some members of the visiting party were unable to g...

Have you ever noticed that we can't hurt someone or do an injustice to someone without vilifying that person first?  We can't do a dirty deed unless we've rationalized it.  Part of the witness of Christ Himself was His "passive resistance" at His trial.  By allowing us to do what we did to Him, He showed us our sins and shamed us.  Had He resisted, we would have said, "Well, this man deserves it!  Listen to how he spoke to the High Priest!  Look at how angry he got!  Listen to how he curses us from the cross!  Look at how he spits back when we spit on him!" But in accepting His persecution and in suffering willingly and for the most part silently - indeed in praying for us as we tortured and killed Him -  He prevented us from convincing ourselves that we were in the right - or at least He inserted a lingering doubt.  And as we jeered Him, maybe one or two of us felt a touch of shame. Thus "resist not evil" and "turn the other cheek...