First it was Goode, now it's Hargrove.

A certain variant of Bigots' Foot-in-mouth syndrome is apparently affecting some politicos in the Virginia State Legislature. Not only do bigots in this particular legislature seem unable to conceal their prejudice, but they refuse to back down.

The Washington Jewish Week reports:

A Virginia legislator under fire for comments regarding slavery and Jews said this week that "the New Testament does say the Jewish people crucified Christ."

But Del. Frank Hargrove (R) assured a reporter that "I don't fault you for it" or blame any Jews of today.

Hargrove made his comments Monday in a phone interview in which he was asked to explain why, in a discussion involving whether Virginia's legislature should apologize for slavery, he had said, "Are we going to force the Jews to apologize for killing Christ?"

(...)

"I don't know who killed Christ I wasn't there," said Glen Allen's Hargrove, 79, adding that all he knows is what the Christian Bible says. Asked later what the Bible does say, the delegate said that "the New Testament does say the Jewish people crucified Christ."

Does it? Methodist leaders didn't seem so sure:

John Schol, bishop of the UMC Washington Episcopal Area Baltimore-Washington Conference, said that while the church doesn't have an official teaching on the death of [JC], "most Methodists understand that the death of Jesus came about in large part because of the very challenging stances that [Christ] took in his day that created conflict for people of his day and religious leaders of his day."

It's so obvious, even a one-eyed infant with no retina could see after glancing at Jewish texts: Jews did not advocate crucifixion as a death penalty, or any other cruel Roman practices. Regardless of what the Sanhedrin said, they would have never told non-Jewish soldiers to bang nails into a man's wrists.

Apparently Christian scholars are not on the same page as Mr. Hargrove.

Mr. Hargrove needs some sensitivity training, and perhaps some good old-fashioned Bible study.