The discussion continues on The Huffington Post following Bruce Wilson's post about Manga Messiah, including this from Chip Berlet:
By condensing the crucifixion narrative and combining Biblical quotes from two different places, (and including more problematic later Gospel accounts) the Manga restores the narrative of Jews as the Christ Killers rejected decades ago by most Christian leaders.
For example, as Rabbi James Rudin points out, the "Second Vatican Council in Rome" begun in 1962 "adopted the 'Nostra Aetate' (Latin for 'In Our Time') declaration that among others things "deplores the hatred, persecutions, and displays of anti-Semitism directed against the Jews at any time and from any source."
The statement pointed out that
the death of Christ ... cannot be blamed upon all the Jews then living, without distinction, nor upon the Jews of today. ... The Jews should not be presented as repudiated or cursed by God, as if such views followed from Holy Scriptures. All should take pains, then, lest in catechetical instruction and in the preaching of God's Word they teach anything out of harmony with the truth of the Gospel and the spirit of Christ.
The Manga fails in this task. The images and Bible verse cited reduces the killing of Christ to a bloodthirsty crount (sic) of taunting Jews. And a Christian publishing house needs to explain why they have restored this narrative deplored as bigoted.
[T]he antisemitism here.... may seem obscure, it may be unintentional, but it is not invisible.
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