Quote:
Originally Posted by Sean
It strikes me that he's not actually "following what the gospels say" as much as he is trying to use the gospel to justify his anti-semitic views. That's why he's called anti-semitic.
I'm curious why you have a particular problem with the overuse of the charge of anti-semitism. I would say that there are many terms being overused these days - sexist, racist, homophobe - all applied to people far too freely over issues that often aren't actually rooted in sexism, racism, or homophobia. Do you feel that labels like these are over-used as well, or do you mainly just feel that way about "anti-semitism"?
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To be honest, I didn't think that he was using the gospel like you say, from just reading that article. However, now that you mentioned it can be taken to appear that way. Or we can read into it that way. If he is doing this, then I agree with you.
I have a problem with the overuse of a lot words, like you say. The particular reason for my dislike of term anti-semitic is that it is now used solely for the Jews and Israel. When in fact, the Semitic people consist of much larger category then just Jews.
And then there is another issue, that being that Jews are the only people who are classified as a race by their religion. Therefor, if one was to criticize Judaism, then are often called anti-semitic. When in reality, they may have nothing wrong with people who are Semitic. This leads into what Strangelet said:
"I *strongly* disagree that it isn't disgustingly hateful to point to an ethnic group and claim my religion sayz you're evil. i don't know how you could be more anti semitic."
If there is a religion that says such a thing, then I agree with you. However, if a religion says "because these people do x, y, z... they are evil". I have no issues with this. But we can't use this logic against Jews because, like I said, they are the only group of people who are classified as an ethnic group based upon their belief, instead of their origins.