(JTA) — Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, the Georgia Republican who has been criticized in the past for her dalliances with antisemitic tropes and influencers, explained her vote against a bill defining antisemitism by saying that the bill it rejects the “gospel” that “the Jews” handed Jesus over to his crucifiers.
Greene’s opposition to the bill passed Wednesday in the U.S. House of Representatives comes at a time when a number of conservatives are embracing ancient Christian anti-Jewish ideas. In one notable recent example, Candace Owens, a conservative influencer, broke ranks with Ben Shapiro, an Orthodox Jew who runs a conservative media outlet, in part over Owens’ seeming embrace of Christian antisemitic tropes, including that Jews imbibe blood.
The bill would define antisemitism for the purposes of using it to address complaints to the federal government that the civil rights of Jews have been violated. It drew some of its strongest criticism from progressive quarters over concern that the legislation would inappropriately inhibit criticism of Israel, such as the campus protests over the Israel-Hamas war.
But Greene, posting on social media, laid out a different concern: that the bill threatened Christian expression.
“Antisemitism is wrong, but I will not be voting for the Antisemitism Awareness Act of 2023 (H.R. 6090) today that could convict Christians of antisemitism for believing the Gospel that says Jesus was handed over to Herod to be crucified by the Jews,” she said. “Read the bill text and contemporary examples of antisemitism like #9.”
In her post, Greene posts two photos: One focuses on the portion of the bill that adopts as part of its definition of antisemitism the 11 “contemporary examples of antisemitism” in the definition of antisemitism composed by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance.
The second photo highlights the ninth example, “using the symbols and images associated with classic antisemitism (e.g., claims of Jews killing Jesus or blood libel) to characterize Israel or Israelis.”
Her fellow far-right Republican, Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida, explained his no vote in similar terms on the same platform. “The Gospel itself would meet the definition of antisemitism under the terms of this bill!” Gaetz writes, and goes on to quote New Testament scripture that collectively blames Jews for Jesus’s killing.
In the years after the Holocaust, myriad Christian denominations played down or in some case repudiated the belief held for centuries that Jews were and remained collectively responsible for Jesus’s murder. The accusation of deicide was seen as one of the most potent drivers of antisemitic violence since time immemorial, and the Catholic Church in 1965 formally rejected the charge that Jews had killed Jesus.
In recent years, however, the accusation has reemerged as a cause to be championed among some far-right Christian sects. It informed Mel Gibson’s 2004 film, “The Passion of the Christ,” which stirred outrage among Jews.
In 2021, Pope Francis introduced restrictions on the Latin Mass, which calls for the conversion of Jews and accuses them of “blindness.” He cited the increasing popularity of the mass, feating it would undermine Vatican II.
Greene is not stranger to entanglements with Jewish organizations, earning criticism in the past for among other offenses, embracing a theory that the Rothschild family was using space lasers to start fires in California, and loosely invoking the Holocaust to describe perceived injustices against conservatives. She also spoke at a conference organized by Nick Fuentes, a Holocaust denier and antisemite.
In all, 21 Republicans and 70 Democrats voted against the antisemitism legislation on Wednesday. It was championed by House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Republican, whom Greene says she will try to unseat next week.
