Wayward shepherds: prejudice and the Protestant clergy

Following a 1966 study of ca. 5,000 church members in the San Francisco Bay area, published under the title "Christian Beliefs and Anti-Semitism", a similar survey of Protestant clergymen was conducted in California in 1968. In the spring of that year, questionnaires were sent by mail to 80% of the parish clergymen of the nine largest Protestant denominations in California, and 1,580 (63%) of them returned complete and usable questionnaires. The responses show that there is a positive correlation between Christian orthodoxy (unwavering belief in the main Christian articles of faith) and particularism (a disposition to see Christian truth as the only religious truth) and the belief that the Jews are guilty for the crucifixion. More than one-third of the respondents believed that the guilt was that of the Jews, rather than universal, and ca. one-fifth of them actively advocated the view that contemporary Jews bore responsibility for the crucifixion. Although the clergy were less likely than the laity to be antisemitic, their antisemitism, both doctrinal and secular, was more strongly related to their religious convictions. However, the clergy was remarkably free of antisemitism that was not rooted in religious hostility. Reflects on the ability of Californian Protestant ministers to fulfill their role as shepherds, and to foster brotherhood and a more humane society. (From the Bibliography of the Vidal Sassoon International Center for the Study of Antisemitism - The Hebrew University of Jerusalem)