Germans and Jews, together at last?

[granolachica]

While working at the library today I got into a conversation with one of my fellow workers about religion (always a mistake, I should've remembered.) I considered this guy relatively intelligent (he's a grad in poli sci) and I even assumed that he was liberal (chalk one up to wishful thinking). However, once we got on the topic of "The Passion" (dun, dun, dun) things took a nasty turn. He asked me if I had seen it yet and I replied truthfully, "No I haven't, but I know that I should see it eventually so that I can form an educated opinion about it. However, every time I go to a movie rental place and see it on the shelf I think, 'Nah, not tonight. I want to spend my money on something I really want to see, not something I feel like I should see so I can have an educated discussion about it." Anyhoo, to get to my point. He said (and I quote), "I didn't think it was anti-semitic at all, and it's like, I mean, I'm German and I don't get upset at movies like Schlinder's List, so why should Jews get upset about this?" (pause) I'm thinking, "Did he really just say what I think he said?" Then I thought, "There are so many things I could say to that comment right one. One right off the bat would be: Hmm, see what the Germans did to the Jews during WWII is a historical fact, what the Jews allegedly did to Jesus is a supposition based on a biased accounts from THE CHRISTIAN BIBLE, which are negated by two facts (1) the Jews would NEVER have had enough sway to get someone the Romans to assassinate somebody just because they wanted it (2) Apparently the Sanhedrin ruled on Jesus' fate, but wait a minute, what time of year is it? Oh that's right, Passover, one of Judaism's holiest holidays.....so, yeah, they're not going to be meeting then."

Well, all these things ran through my mind and I decided that no, I'm not going to waste my time trying to convince an ignorant Catholic (no that's not a slam at Catholics, that's just what he is) about something when I know full well I'm not going to change his mind. So I just choked back all the comments I could've/would've/should've said and instead said, "Here's another book, Brandon!"