No subject

[LARSSON at VAX1.Mankato.MSUS.EDU]

Craig notes:
"many of the Jews of Europe murdered by the Nazis were          
descended from people born in central Europe who had been converted to
Judaism, . . . "  [NB: Craig is citing an anti-Semitic looney]

This, as far as I know (and I have some reason to know), is pure bull.
For one thing, unlike most other major religions, there has never been
a proslytizing (sp?) ethic in Judaism.  If one wishes to convert, that's
fine, but no one is about to go out and evangelize (with the exception
of a minor modern fringe group or two).  For another, what's the percentage?
Judaism has almost always been been a marginal (in all senses of the term)
group in Western culture.

also:
"There was also a British-born                      
crackpot from the turn of the century (the name eludes me but I can
probably track it down) who argued that the "People of Israel" referred
to in the Old Testament were actually blonde-and-blue-eyed
Anglo-Saxons, and that the *real* setting for the New Testament
narratives was Britain. As I recall, his theories were widely
embraced within Nazism."


This particular bit of mythology still has adherents in various forms and
sects, in the US as well as Britain.  The myth has it that the Celtic
peoples are actually the 10 Lost Tribes of Israel--so the "real" Jews
are Welsh, Scots, etc!  A variant on this is that Joseph of Arimethea 
and Jewish-Christian fellow travellers came to settle in England with
the Grail in their possession.

Some groups, like the Armstrongs' World Wide Church of God, still embrace
these myths.

Don  Larsson, Mankato State U (MN)