Elaine Pagels Quotes
The Romans weren't trying to kill all the Jews, but they did destroy Jewish resistance to Roman rule. Jerusalem was turned into a Roman army camp, and it was a total devastation.
Pagels, Elaine. Interview. From Jesus to Christ: The First Christians, PBS Frontline, 1998.
In 1933, there was still a some of anti-Semitism in America. The persecution of Jews in Germany was very clear at the time, just from the statements and writings by Adolf Hitler and other high level government officials and the laws that they were instituting and proposing. McFadden was one of the extreme isolationists in Congress at the time. They knew very little of the rest of the world, and believed the false assurances provided by German officials and American anti-Semitic, Fascist, pro Nazi partisans. McFadden’s statement was not only contrary to fact, but is among the most naïve of Congressional speeches.
Describing the conquest and destruction of Jerusalem and the Second Temple in 70 AD.
Locke wrote the Charter of South Carolina in which any 7 people could assemble and form a church including:
Some bigots blamed the Jews for the Black Plague, then rampant. This is documentation of the Pope’s intercession to protect Jews. Pope Benedict XII, ?-1342, was an enlightened and moral leader who did not share the superstitions of many and realized that something was transmitting the disease. See {611790} for his behavior. The graphic is of the Pope.
A large part of the Middle East and the now “Arab” states used to be a very large Jewish State. Jews had lived in the Palestinian area and expanded from there, also using conquest as all other nations had and even occasionally, forced conversion, to establish the Jewish State. This was destroyed by the Romans and the Jews have not had a state until 1948 when the UN voted to create Israel.
Despite Gross and the Nazi perpetrated holocaust, Jews not only are returning to Europe but have reached many of the highest achievements. (For example, French President Sarkozy was a Jew) Nazi’s however are almost extinct in Europe, and Germany has been one of the major leaders outlawing Nazi’s and their ideas.
Churchill was very favorably disposed towards the Jews and admired them greatly throughout his entire career. Before WWII, many British upper class aristocrats were very anti-Semitic.
Elaine Pagels, née Hiesey, is an American religious historian. She is the Harrington Spear Paine Professor of Religion at Princeton University. Pagels has conducted extensive research into early Christianity and Gnosticism.
