Archive for July 2008
Jewish Seminary Student Should be Expelled
Excerpts from Aron Heller’s article for the Associated Press (in italics):
JERUSALEM – An Israeli newspaper’s decision to publish a handwritten prayer left by Barack Obama in the cracks of Jerusalem’s Western Wall drew criticism Friday as an invasion of his privacy and his relationship with God.
Maariv ran a photograph of the note on its front page Friday. It said the note was removed from the wall by a Jewish seminary student immediately after Obama left.
The paper’s decision to make the note public brought quick criticism from religious authorities. The rabbi in charge of the Western Wall, Shmuel Rabinovitz, called it an intrusion on Obama’s intimate relationship with God.
“The notes placed between the stones of the Western Wall are between a person and his maker. It is forbidden to read them or make any use of them,” Rabinovitz told Army Radio.
The newspaper’s action “damages the Western Wall and damages the personal, deep part of every one of us that we keep to ourselves,” he added.
This is a horrifying invasion that goes beyond mere privacy. The “Jewish seminary student” has no place in a seminary, leading people in a religious and spiritual setting. He should be immediately expelled and banned from attending any other Jewish seminary. I am utterly horrified by this act. I cannot imagine how this act of treason against God—which is what I believe it is—will do anything to help the man who could be the next American President have a sense of unity with Israel, which is no small matter, even if it is not the largest concern here. That seminary student should be grievously ashamed, as should Maariv.
People Mailbag 7/28/2008
#1–I don’t think People magazine should put dead folks on their cover unless the death is particularly surprising (the person is young, the death is violent, the death was wholly unexpected, etc.) or the person is REALLY famous, and I’m talking Princess Di level famous, though that would qualify in the “surprising” category anyway. People should highlight the living not the dead. People isn’t a magazine designed to honor lives. Those are called tributes, and they aren’t People’s mission.
#2 Kathy Rolita wrote:
I am a 52 year old, heterosexual, happily married (for 26 years) motehr of two, and I am also a Christian. Personally, I think a same-sex couple who are devoted to one another should have the legal right to get married and enjoy all the benefits that come with marriage. God bless all of you out there who just want what I have and so many others take for granted.
Kathy, you said it! I hope more people stand up for these universal rights. Personally, I support civil unions for ALL, followed by a “marriage” from religious/spiritual folks. That way, the only marriage a person who believes that only a man and woman should have can fight for that way of life within their own church or church-governing body. If a person thinks that it’s an indignity to marriage then make sure one’s own clergy person doesn’t perform such marriages! That’s the only way that homosexual marriage would affect you. It makes sense to me that everyone should get the same legal, healthcare, insurance, inheritance and employment rights via civil unions, and if someone wants their marriage sanctified by a church or other religious organization then great. It would then be up to religious figures and their congregants to guide who can be married.
If anyone reading this believes marriage only belongs to a man and a woman, then great, fight for that in the religious community on the basis of religion. That’s where such decisions belong.
