After 'Passion,' more in US believe Jews killed Jesus

Earlier I made peremptory comments to end a discussion about the 'Passion.' That was unlike me and I shouldn't have done so. I feared that extensive discussion would turn ¡No Pasarán! away from "scientific socialism."

But anti-Semitism and anti-fascism are prime topics for this blog so I can't pass this up: according to the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press, since the release of Mel Gibson's Passion of the Christ, the idea that Jews are deicides has seen a "modest but statistically significant increase" in American opinion. The study found that

a relatively large proportion of people who have seen the movie (36%) feel Jews were responsible for Christ's death. However, this is also the case among people who plan to see the movie (29%), suggesting people who are drawn to this movie may be predisposed to this opinion more than others. By comparison, just 17% of those who have no plans to see the movie believe that Jews were responsible for Christ's death.

So I suppose it's open season on the Passion here. Indeed, reader Jaed said "bringing [the movie] up on the blog might not have been the best move." He may yet be right. I'm not sure quite what I'm getting myself into here so, given that I'm a materialist, I'll refrain from expressing any further opinions for the moment about that lunatic bastard Mel Gibson and his evil daddy.