What prompts a 19-year-old college student to set a historic synagogue on fire in Jackson, Missouri? (This happened on January 10, 2026.) What prompts another 19-year-old college student to carry a rifle into a synagogue in Poway, California and begin shooting at random, seeking to kill as many Jews as possible? (This happened on April 27, 2019.)

It appears that both of these young men were infected by a deadly virus, a virus known as antisemitism, a virus that affects one’s ability to think rationally. But in both these cases, it was an especially insidious strain of antisemitism that affected them, one that is completely oxymoronic: “Christian” antisemitism.

This is an antisemitism that cloaks itself in Christianese, often citing biblical verses in support. It is an antisemitism that parrots the standard (or latest) antisemitic tropes but adds in alleged theological support.

Yet the Christian faith is based on the teachings of a Jewish rabbi named Yeshua and grounded in documents written almost entirely by Jews/Israelites. This makes it all the more tragic when the tenets of this faith are used to kill Jews or destroy places of Jewish worship. It is an absolute perversion of the gospel of love and kindness and compassion and forgiveness.

Stephen Spencer Pittman, the........

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