I think Chip is being a bit rigid in his thinking. As a statement of fortitude in the face of prejudice it is no doubt an admirable thing to say that you challenge any and all stereo-typing wherever it raises its head, but to follow such a creed would be absurd.
There are many stereo-types that are really not harmful at all. By and large it does no harm to say that left-handed people are untrustworthy, or that Scotsmen are mean, or that estate agents are vulgar, or that girls from Essex are loose. It isn't true, but it does no harm.
I am interested to know whether Chip will support the campaign against the stereo-typing of men in advertisements (as stupid and lazy), or whether, like me, he thinks that it would be silly to do so. Is Chip going to organise a campaign to ban Michael Moore's book on 'What's Wrong with White Men' or does he, like me, think that actually it's quite a funny joke. Well, Chip, you're welcome to challenge these prejudiced stereo-types, or you can lighten up, and recognise that there are no absolute rules, and circumstances alter cases. Never say never, Chip
And then to the matter in hand. Chip wants us to believe that Christianity is not necessarily anti-Semitic. Well, of course, the strength of the anti-Semitic sentiment can be pretty incidental, but on the strictly formal logic that you prefer, it is difficult to see Christianity as anything other than anti-Jewish. You can say that the Jews didn't kill Christ, the Romans did, but the Elders of the Synagogue appealed to the Romans to act against Christ, and the Jewish crowd turned their backs on him. (Me, I would have voted to release Barrabas, too.)
I'm not entirely surprised that Christians, having been caught hurling Jews into the Gas Chambers are nowadays a bit embarrassed by these passages that were so readily cited by anti-Semites in the many pogroms beforehand. But the fact that Christians want to disguise the anti-Jewish elements of their faith is no reason to accept their intellectual somersaults.
I think that the reason that Chip feels it necessary to pay lip-service to the forced argument that Christianity is not in its character anti-Jewish is because, practically, he knows it would be impossible to follow through the logic of his 'against all prejudice, wherever expressed' thesis in the case of Christianity (and other religions). In fact it would demand a root and branch campaign against Christianity, which would itself be a form of bigotry.
Let me expand the point a little. Most religions are in their nature hostile to other religions, and prone to prejudicial and stereo-typical attitudes. The Jewish religion, in making the Jewish people the chosen people is making a judgement on gentiles. When Islam says that you may eat in the Jews house, but not sleep under his roof it is making a judgement that one could only call prejudiced. When the activists of Hizb-ut-Tahrir tell us that Islam abominates homosexuality, they can quote scripture to support it, as they could from the old and new testaments if they chose to.
So what should we do? Stamp out Islam, Judaism alongside Christianity. No, of course not. Some of us might look forward to the day when people no longer need these spiritual crutches. But Freedom of Conscience is a higher principle than stamping out prejudice in all its forms. With freedom of conscience, the obligation is upon us to dissuade, rather than suppress.
And more importantly, there has to be a scale of judgement. There are one or two people who hold old-fashioned anti-Semitic prejudice in the UK. But as a rule they are impoverished nutters, who are widely reviled by society. Indeed, if contemporary anti-Semites were not so unlovely, they would be the object of pity, rather than hatred. To preoccupy oneself with this largely peripheral attitude would be just a waste of effort, and worse, it would grant these views much greater importance than they have.
It makes as much sense to make an issue out of peripheral prejudices like these as it does to hunt down the remaining handful of 'flat earthers'. -- James Heartfield The 'Death of the Subject' Explained is available at GBP11.00, plus GBP1.00 p&p from Publications, audacity.org, 8 College Close, Hackney, London, E9 6ER. Make cheques payable to 'Audacity Ltd'