Letter to Dr. Laura, a fundamentalist radio personality. (By the way, is it normal for jews to quote the bible?)
"I would like to sell my daughter into slavery, as sanctioned in Exodus 21:7. In this day and age, what do you think would be a fair price for her?"
"(By the way, is it normal for jews to quote the bible?)"
ReplyDeleteNormal? or "typical"?
Jews (bless them) don't share the need to proselytise that Christians seem to have, so the opportunity doesn't present itself so often. (Fundie nuts excluded, of course)
But why wouldn't they quote their holy book?
BTW - love that West Wing clip.
Jeff R.
"Jews (bless them) don't share the need to proselytise that Christians seem to have"
ReplyDeleteProbably because they believe God made a deal with them alone. Nonsense, of course. People insist on dying for the stupidest reasons.
I thought their holy book was called the Torah?
ReplyDeleteForgive my ignorance, we didn't really have jews where I grew up.
Oh!
ReplyDeleteThe Torah is the first five books of the Old Testament.
Wiki has a good piece on it.
Did you realise the Muslims also revere the bible - both testaments - although they don't accept the divinity of Jesus.
Its all a horrible incestuous mish-mash.
No kidding.
ReplyDeleteFunny how the more two groups and people have in common, the more they fight.
It was my understanding, too, that the Jews accept the existence of Jesus but think of him in the same way as the Muslims - that he was a prophet, but not the son of God and not the Messiah. Since that's the whole basis of the Christian religion you can see why they might not get along.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure about the KJV specifically, but the jewish Torah and the first part of "our" Old Testament are the same book. They also have the Tanakh (a bit equivalent to the muslim Hadith, non-canonic text but a central part of their religious culture).
ReplyDeleteSo yeah, a Jew quoting, not the Gospel, but the Bible, is pretty normal.
Especially when he wants to criticize how some Christian fanatics are twisting his own Books!
Under the excuse of similarly following "to the letter" some muslim outdated texts ("Outdated"? BLASPHEMY!!!), many islamic countries deem it legal by law to marry a little girl at age nine. Because Muhammad did so, twelve long centuries ago.
They conveniently forget that 15 was also a normal age for a girl to get married in Europe, until the mentalities bloody evolved.
Mary, mother of Jesus, is similarly believed to have been married (or "forever engaged") to Joseph when she was just 12. At least she had reached puberty...
I hear such incredible things in the news. Like a Saudi man condemned for polygamy : he had seven wives at once, while the legal maximum is four. (His sentence: get at least three divorces.) Or that Pakistani imam arrested (and jailed?) for performing weddings with underage brides : one was seven, not nine.
Is this really in the same dimensional Universe I live in?
Actually, yes. Alas. The youngest known mother in Lebanon was 8 when it happened, I saw her on TV. Live. And proud of it, too! Poor fool...
Jeff,
According to a certain muslim belief, based on very official Koran verses and preached by the fundamentalists today, "Through Moses and Issa [Jesus], Allah gave the Jews and the Nazarenes their Holy Texts; but then they corrupted the Message they had received with impious falsification."
Thus, BinLadder and his mates consider that all jews and christians today are brazen heretics following books which they know are false and contrary to the one and only True Book, their own. Or, in fact, their own selective interpretation of it! But both are troublingly intertwined in an outdated traditional teaching.
Not unlike the trend witnessed in the USA today with the Bible...
And those two extremisms clashing on the world scene, courtesy of Mr Bush Jr's "crusade", is one of the stupidest political moves since... well, since I can't even remember!
BTW, Jef, from what I heard on several accounts, the muslims officially consider Jesus as "the greatest Prophet of all", even above Muhammad.
Confused? Take a number!
eolake said...
"Funny how the more two groups and people have in common, the more they fight.
HEY! I said that on my blog first!
At least twice, in fact: when these monks duked it out Shaolin-style in Jerusalem, and in my recent Gaza post.
Ah well, you're a friend, I grant you permission to borrow from me. Just mention your sources next time. ;-)
I think the Jews, in general, have a lot of respect for the teachings of Jesus, calling him a mensch and a gutte neshome among other compliments. They like the spirit in his words. Where they come at odds, is their own belief that the Messiah was supposed to restore the Nation of Israel, which we Christians consider that he did in a SPIRITUAL way. Hence, the Jews believe Jesus cannot be the Messiah, that's all.
Incidentally, I think he himself in the Gospels never stated it exactly in this way, maintaining a certain ambiguity ("Thou said it!" can be understood both affirmatively or ironically), and leaving everyone free to believe of their own volition.
The Churches, on the other hand, got much more dogmatic.
It never ceases to amaze me, how the more humans claim to firmly believe in a thing, the more afraid they seem to be that these beliefs could get questioned.
Heck, even an absolute belief that leaves no room for counter-proof isn't necessarily true!
If I believe in the Sea Serpent, people seeking it in vain for centuries will still not be a proof that it doesn't exist, "just well hidden". Unless someone some day dries up the ocean, and can then declare: "Well, there certainly isn't any Sea Serpent alive NOW." Still doesn't prove there wasn't before that.
Better yet : some intrinsically unprovable hypotheses may turn out to be entirely true nevertheless. If you've studied Mathematics and Complex numbers, you know this outrageous postulate : "i² = -1". Then √-1 = +i or -i.
Now, how the heck do you prove i? How much is i? Show me i in some way, ANY way, as itself and not some convoluted equation.
Not possible. i is an "imaginary number".
And yet, if you check the validity of such arithmetics for any formal contradictions, it's rock solid! Can prove some very complicated trigonometry formulas in a uniquely simple and elegant way as well. It's a number that's "not real", yet it exists. A bit similar to radio-activity, which can never be seen, only detected by specific instruments. The light from highly radio-active bodies isn't gamma rays, it's secondary emitted ordinary greenish light photons. But it exists.
And I challenge any smart-Alec to prove its existence on a desert island without access to modern technology equipment!
Knowledge, belief, science...
I dream of an enlightened future, after our age of semi-barbary, where children in schools would be taught in priority how to think rationally and reliably. This is what made me like so much Van Vogt's null-A novels.
Perhaps General Semantics IS the way to our next evolution step?
But what suicidal politician would promote it?
P.S.: the whole basis of MY christian faith has nothing to do with Jesus of Nazareth fulfilling some dusty prophecy. If some official Son of God told me to slit the throats of the infidels, Jack-ripperize their pregnant women, and stomp the henceforth C-section-born baby [Hosea 13:16], I'd just tell the sick fuck to go pleasure himself anally with his sword's blade and some hot sauce as lubricant. Remember yow you felt when these Palestinian rioters ripped some israeli captive(s) to pieces and then proudly displayed their blood-soaked hands on worldwide TV? Yes, I too had a difficult digestion right afterwards.
Sone Satanists also follow several abominable recommendations because "Satan is a supernatural power, therefore we must obey him". Well, bollocks to all Zeus wannabes! I view Jesus otherwise. The guy spoke with fantastic, god-like wisdom and love, in a near-hopelessly barbaric time, so I choose to listen to his teachings. He never said "lapidate the fags". In fact, he said "adultery is wrong, but who are YOU to condemn a woman for not being a saint herself?" (And what he probably insinuated was : "The MEN who committed adultery with her are necessarily present here right now, faking indignation.")
Ergo, many very verbal Christians posing as saints today I view as blasphemous fakes.
Fear not: it would take much more to convert me to radical Islam. Pedophile polygamist murderers? Whatever Muhammad said, I'm not joining THOSE either. ):-P
The official name of my religion? It's stated in my profile.
My faith is in the formidable potential that the human spirit holds within. You can consider it as God's logo in His creation.
Do I take what I like about the Gospel and leave out the rest?
You betcha! With my God-given moral sense and basic logic. :-P
If God's not okay with it, let HE alone smite me with a target-seeking "intelligent" meteor shower. Seeing thick-skulled self-appointed underlings sent after me is, I feel, insulting. And legally shaky.
The only thing that can come from God in us humans has to be universal. Intolerance isn't. Bigotry isn't. Love, respect, forgiveness, are.
As a proof, those who lose these qualities are always perceived as becoming inhuman monsters.
I fear the monsters, yes. For the damage they can cause. But hate them? No. I pity the gaping void of their souls.
Amen, shalom, salâm, om mani padme hum, whatever. All different languages for the same divine idea anyway.