Who’s an anti-semite?

Several people have taken exception to parts of my list of beliefs that do not make you an anti-semite. For example, Chip writes:

I do have to take some exception to the third: “thinks that Jews aren’t going to heaven because they don’t accept Jesus as their savior”

My reasoning is that someone who is so presumptious to think that another’s particular variety of the Supreme presupposes their ultimate eternal disposition is at the core a religious elitist. What if the Supreme’s definitive criteria for the successful transition into the next life is based on this one (novel concept: experience begets experience), that is, on our ability to love one another and get along?…

I’ll admit that it’s no fun to be regarded by someone — or by an entire denomination — as believing in an incomplete religion that dooms me to a life of eternal damnation. But “anti-Semite” is a strong word that has a political effect when uttered. The point of my piece was that we should reserve it for the real enemies of Jews. A Christian who believes I am damned may well still support my right to hold my false beliefs, support my right to equal consideration under the law, and may even personally like me. I need a way to differentiate that person from the one who thinks I’m responsible for AIDS, 9/11, world poverty and the early death of his Messiah.

I’m not trying let off the hook those who say that only believers in Jesus get into heaven. On the contrary, I want to engage people in dialogue about beliefs such as these. But once you call someone an anti-semite, you’ve poisoned the well and conversation becomes much much harder, if not impossible — and likewise for conversations about race, gender, sexual preference, etc. etc. etc.

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