They Killed Our Lord: The Perception of Jews as Desecrators of Christianity as a Predictor of Anti-Semitism KENNETH I. PARGAMENT KELLY TREVINO ANNETTE MAHONEY ISRAELA SILBERMAN Drawing on religious coping theory, we examined whether the appraisal that Jews desecrate Christian values (the stressor) is linked to anti-Semitic attitudes (the response). Further, we considered whether religious ways of understanding and dealing with this stressor (religious coping) mitigate or exacerbate the ties between religious appraisals of Jews and anti-Semitic responses. College students completed measures of desecration, anti-Semitism, and religious ways of coping with appraisals of Jews as desecrators of Christianity. Greater desecration was associated with greater anti-Semitism, after controlling for demographic variables and dispositional measures (e.g., particularism, pluralism, church attendance, Christian orthodoxy, fundamentalism, and authoritarianism). Religious coping in ways that emphasized expressions of Christian love were associated with lower anti-Semitism; ways of coping that emphasized being punished by God and Jews as demonic were tied to greater anti-Semitism. Perceptions of Jews as desecrators were predicted by higher levels of authoritarianism and religious orthodoxy, less closeness to Jews, greater exposure to messages of desecration, and less exposure to messages that counter the perception of desecration. On Ash Wednesday of 2004, The Passion of the Christ, Mel Gibson’s movie depicting his vision of the last 12 hours of the life of Jesus Christ, opened to a record-breaking audience. At the time of its release, many people, including Christian and Jewish religious leaders, found the movie disturbing (Goodstein 2004). Particularly troubling to some was the depiction of the role of Jews in the crucifixion of Christ and the possibility that this portrayal might promote anti-Semitism The public debates triggered by The Passion of the Christ are popular cultural variants of questions social scientists have long raised about the links between religiousness and prejudice. However, theory and research on religion and prejudice do not speak directly to the issues that were provoked by this movie, namely, the links between perceptions of Jews as desecrators of Christianity and anti-Semitism. It could be argued that the point is moot because few people in today’s world perceive Jews to be culpable for the death of Christ or, more generally, a threat to Christianity. Surveys, however, suggest otherwise. According to a survey by the Anti-Defamation League, over 20 percent of people from 12 European countries agreed that Jews are responsible for the death of Christ (Anti-Defamation League 2005a). In the United States, over 30 percent of people agreed with the same item, an increase of 5 percent since 2002 (Anti-Defamation League 2005b). Are perceptions of Jews as desecrators of Christianity, in fact, associated with anti-Semitism? This study puts this question to test. Drawing on religious coping theory, we examine whether the appraisal that Jews desecrate Christian values (the stressor) is linked to anti-Semitic attitudes (the response). Further, we consider whether religious ways of understanding and dealing with Kenneth I. Pargament is Professor of Psychology at the Department of Psychology, Bowling Green State University, Bowling Green, Ohio 43403. E-mail: kpargam@bgnet.bgsu.edu Kelly Trevino is a graduate student in clinical psychology at Bowling Green State University. Annette Mahoney is Professor of Psychology at Bowling Green State University. Israela Silberman is Associate Research Scientist in Psychology at Columbia University. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion (2007) 46(2):143–158