eChurch Blog

Cross-post by Yeze over at the Rosh Pina Project

Israel’s Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amir has claimed that the granting of a kosher licence to Pnina Conforti is a sign of the end of the world. One wonders how he’ll react to the High Court ruling that, as Rabbi Yosef Sheinin has refused to grant Pnina a kosher licence, the Chief Rabbinate will have to ordain a rabbi who will:

The High Court ordered the Chief Rabbinate to ordain a rabbi in its name who will grant a kosher certificate to restaurant owned by a Messianic Jew in Ashdod. This rabbi will act in place of Rabbi Yosef Sheinin, who refused to grant a kosher certificate to the establishment.

Pnina Pie: 100% kosher

This is excellent news, and proof that Israel’s democracy and justice system are sturdy enough to withstand the machinations of those who wish harm upon Israeli’s minority citizens.

So, in this Hannukah and Christmas season, now you have yet another reason to celebrate by stuffing your face with pies!

Excellent article from the JTA on the bid to ban Christmas in Jerusalem, which is being backed by rabbis. This is a quote from Haaretz:-

Backed by rabbis, and with the self-righteous air of the American Christian right, lobby chairman Ofer Cohen told the Israeli media that he had considered publishing a list of businesses bold enough to put up Christmas decorations, call for a boycott against them, and – with a little help from Jerusalem Rabbinate – revoke the kashrut certificates of said hotels and restaurants.

Nice!

JTA

A group calling itself Lobby for Jewish Values is handing out fliers in Jerusalem condemning Christmas. They are pushing for a ban on all public displays of Christmas trees and other “foolish” Christian symbols, and asking the public to boycott restaurants and other public institutions that show such displays.

I guess it’s really true — the abused grow up to become the abusers.

I appreciate that for nearly 2,000 years Christmas was a very scary time for most Jews living in Christian cultures, and that one response to that pain and fear is to lash out at any expression of the holiday. But the fact that such behavior is understandable does not make it acceptable. An explanation is not an excuse, especially for such a small-minded and mean-spirited response to the desire of decent people to celebrate a holiday sacred to their community.

It’s especially painful and sadly ironic that in the name of Jewish values, Jews would do to others precisely what was done to us for millennia. But I guess the seduction of having that role is why the Torah repeats more than any single teaching that we are obligated to remember we were slaves in Egypt.

And while nobody should think the attitude of Lobby for Jewish Values represents the thinking of most Jews in Israel, until people can make a real Jewish case for allowing the public celebration of multiple traditions in Israel, the majority will be susceptible to being held hostage by such religious totalitarianism. So to that end, I would share a few additional Jewish values that might make the case.

First, according to Genesis, all people are created in the image of God. The Rabbis in the Mishnah said that means we are all equally valuable and unique. In other words, expressions of faith not our own can be both genuinely not ours and truly authentic expressions of faith.

Second, having been commanded by Leviticus to love others as we would love ourselves, and by the sages to refrain from doing to others what is hateful to us, we are obligated to secure the very religious freedom that we were denied.

Third, Jewish tradition does not teach that others must be like us to be present with us. In fact, the gerim mentioned throughout the Hebrew Bible are not converts, as it is often mistranslated, but fellow travelers, i.e., gentiles who shared the life of the ancient Israelite community.

Fourth, we should take the prophet Isaiah at his world when he teaches that God desires that God’s house will be “a house of prayer for all peoples.” If the longed-for Temple will welcome the many discreet peoples, “amim” in Hebrew, who will worship there, it seems that welcoming them to Jerusalem should be a no-brainer.

I could go on, but why bother. The truth is, the Lobby for Jewish Values can footnote its position probably as effectively as I can mine. The real issue is what we want. Did we wait 2,000 years for nothing more than the opportunity to do the same terrible things to others that were done to us?  I just don’t think so.

(Rabbi Brad Hirschfield, the president of CLAL-The National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership, is the author of “You Don’t Have to Be Wrong for Me to Be Right: Finding Faith Without Fanaticism.”)

Just by way of an update to this post:-

BBC

The “Arbeit macht frei” sign stolen from Auschwitz in southern Poland has been found in the north and five men have been arrested, police say.

They said the metal sign from the main gate, which symbolises for many the atrocities of Nazi Germany, had been cut into three pieces.

A major search was launched after the sign was stolen before dawn on Friday.

Its theft, the motive for which was not being reported, caused outrage in Israel and among Polish politicians.

Five men in their 20s or 30s were detained and were being taken to Krakow for questioning, a police spokeswoman said.

Read More

Cross-Post Mariano – Atheism is Dead Blog

The BOBA Digest Archives (B.O.B.A. Bottom of the Barrel Atheism).

Richard Dawkins has finally solidified his stance on evil.

When it comes to actual child abuse such as pedophilia, Dawkins refers to “gentle pedophiles” and thinks that too much is being made of it (see here).

As for Adolf Hitler’s Nazism, (as stated to byFaith Magazine),
“What’s to prevent us from saying Hitler wasn’t right? I mean, that is a genuinely difficult question.”

As for parents who raise their children according to their “religion” (as stated to the Telegraph),

“It is evil to describe a child as a Muslim child or a Christian child. I think labelling children is child abuse and I think there is a very heavy issue.”

Pedophiles: no big deal!

Hitler: who knows?

“Religious” parents: pure evil, no question about it!

Way to set your standards Prof.

It is such a relief to see the Telegraph covering the plight of Christians in the Middle East. I blog about this so often and of course it is not a subject that generates much in the way of Internet traffic, but I will never stop, as long as I have breath in my body.

Telegraph:-

Rima, whose sister was murdered by Saddam Hussein’s officers, is going to America. Hani, another Christian, is off to Sweden after being kidnapped by a Baghdad militia. Michael Marody, whose cousin was likewise abducted but did not come back alive, is heading for Australia.

War-torn, anarchic Iraq, however, is not the only place in the Middle East that will see fewer Christians celebrating this Christmas. The region that was Christianity’s birthplace is witnessing an unprecedented modern-day exodus – victims of radical Islam, the global economic crisis, and new currents of sectarian feeling from both Arabs and Jews alike.

In Bethlehem, the lights are on for Christmas, but its resident Christians have dwindled from four-fifths of the population since the Second World War to just a quarter today. One by one, the carpenters who hand-craft the wooden figurines that feature in Nativity scenes worldwide are shutting up shop, hamstrung by the difficulties of working in the Palestinian West Bank.

“Every year we have obstacles,” complained Elias Giacaman, a Bethlehem woodcarver who can trace his ancestry to the Crusades. Crates loaded with unsold likenesses of Joseph, Mary and the baby Jesus fill the floor of his workshop, which has cut its workforce from 18 to six. “After the Intifada – and three or four years of curfews – there was the Lebanon war, the economic crisis and all the time we have the (security) wall. Last year things picked up, but this year it is bad again.”

Such tales of misery are repeated both in neighbouring cities and neighbouring lands. In Jerusalem, Orthodox Jews spit on passers-by wearing crucifixes. In the other Palestinian enclave of Gaza, Christian shops have been firebombed. In Egypt, meanwhile, a string of businesses owned by Coptic Christians were burned down in riots in the southern province of Qena last month. “Copts are in a continuous state of fear,” said the diocesan bishop, Anba Kirillos.

Pope Benedict touched on the insecurities of his Middle Eastern flock during a tour of the region earlier this year. “The Catholic community here is deeply touched by the difficulties and uncertainties which affect all the people of the Middle East,” he remarked.

But while the Pontiff’s statement sought to avoid finger-pointing, Iraqi Christians like Mr Marody are less hesitant. “We were driven out,” he said bluntly. “They bombed our churches. They killed us deliberately so we would leave. It was organised.”

The sweeping sectarian violence of Iraq is well documented, though the suffering of its once million-strong Christian community has been less prominently recorded.

As many 600,000 have fled abroad since 2003, while hundreds of thousands more have moved to safer areas in the north, abandoning once thriving Christian communities in Mosul, Baghdad and the southern Iraqi city of Basra.

Read More

(AFP)

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu on Saturday criticized as unacceptable remarks by the spiritual leader of Orthodox Christians that he feels “crucified” and “second class” living in Turkey.

“We regard the use of the crucifixion simile as extremely unfortunate…. I would like to see this as an undesired slip of the tongue,” Davutoglu told reporters here when asked about Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I’s comments in an interview with US television network CBS.

“We cannot accept comparisons that we do not deserve,” the minister added.

He rejected criticism that the Islamist-rooted government in Turkey was discriminating between its citizens on religious grounds.

“If Patriarch Bartholomew I has complaints on this issue, he can convey them to relevant authorities who will do whatever is necessary,” he said.

In an excerpt from the interview, which will be broadcast in full on CBS on Sunday, Bartholomew I says that the tiny Greek minority in Turkey is not treated equally.

“We are treated… as citizens of second class. We don’t feel that we enjoy our full rights as Turkish citizens,” says the patriarch, who represents the world’s 250 million Orthodox Christians.

He ruled out the option of leaving Turkey. “This is the continuation of Jerusalem and for us it is equally holy and sacred land. We prefer to stay here, even crucified sometimes,” the patriarch adds.

The CBS website quotes Bartholomew I as saying that the Turkish government “would be happy to see the Patriarchate extinguished or moving abroad, but our belief is that it will never happen.”

The Ecumenical Patriarchate in Istanbul dates from the Greek Orthodox Byzantine Empire, which collapsed in 1453 when the city fell to the Ottoman Turks.

Though Ankara does not interfere with the patriarchate’s religious functions, it withholds recognition of Bartholomew’s ecumenical title, treating him only as the spiritual leader of some 2,000 Orthodox Greeks still living in the country.

Turkish authorities also keep closed a theological school on an island off Istanbul, depriving the church of a means to train clergy.

Here is some slighter better news for Christians in Turkey:-

In a decision many hope will lead to greater religious freedom in Turkey, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) found that a Turkish court ruling barring a church from starting a foundation violated the congregation’s right to freedom of association.

And now back to the bad news:-

ISTANBUL -Survey finds nearly 40 percent of population has negative view of Christians. More than half of the population of Muslim-majority. Turkey opposes members of other religions holding meetings or publishing materials to explain their faith, according to a recently issued survey.

What a sick country and I mean that literally, check out this excellent letter relating to the below article and the wretched ‘equality’ Bill. Some are more ‘equal’ than others.

Mail Online

A devout Christian teacher has lost her job after discussing her faith with
a mother and her sick child and offering to pray for them.

Olive Jones, a 54-year-old mother of two, who taught maths to children too ill to attend school, was dismissed following a complaint from the girl’s mother. She was visiting the home of the child when she spoke about  her belief in miracles and asked whether  she could say a prayer, but when the mother indicated they were not believers she did not go ahead.

Mrs Jones was then called in by her managers who, she says, told her that sharing her faith with a child could be deemed to be bullying and informed her that her services were no longer required.

Her dismissal has outraged Christian groups, who say new equality regulations are driving Christianity to the margins of society.

They said the case echoed that of community nurse Caroline Petrie, who was suspended last December after offering to pray for a patient but who was later reinstated after a national outcry.

Coincidentally, Mrs Petrie lives nearby and has been a friend of Mrs Jones for some years. Mrs Jones, whose youngest son is a Royal Marine who has served in Afghanistan, said she was merely trying to offer comfort and encouragement and only later realised her words had caused distress, for which she is apologetic.

The softly spoken teacher, who has more than 20 years’ experience, said she was ‘devastated’ by the decision to end her employment, which she said was ‘completely disproportionate’.

She said she had been made to feel like a ‘criminal’, and claimed that Christians were being persecuted because of ‘political correctness’.

Speaking at her home in Weston-super-Mare, Somerset, she said: ‘Teaching was my dream from the age of 16. It is as if 20 years of my work, which I was passionate about, has gone. It is like a grief.

‘I have been sleeping badly and been in a daze. I haven’t even got around to putting up a Christmas tree or decorations. So much for Christmas cheer.’

Read More

Arhcbishop Cranmer has also covered this:-

‘Olive Jones, a 54-year-old mother of two, who taught maths to children too ill to attend school, was dismissed following a complaint from the girl’s mother. She was visiting the home of the child when she spoke about her belief in miracles and asked whether she could say a prayer, but when the mother indicated they were not believers she did not go ahead.

Excellent letter in the Mail on Sunday today:-

Mail on Sunday

The new state religion of this country is ‘equality and diversity’. Unlike Christianity, this belief system is actually compulsory. Neutrality or indifference are, increasingly, forbidden. All must at least pay lip service to the church of Human Rights.

Official codes of conduct, which can be the basis of disciplinary action and are effectively part of contracts of employment, oblige millions of public servants to ‘promote’ equality and ‘respect’ diversity.

A powerful new Equality Bill, intended to be law by next October, will make these obligations stronger and wider.

Why should anyone be worried by this? Isn’t equality desirable? That all depends on what it means. Few would quarrel with the idea of equality before the law, or of equal opportunities to succeed. But the equality now being enshrined in European (and hence British) law, and backed by a powerful quango, the Equality and Human Rights Commission, goes much further.

What it means by ‘equality’ is the protection or promotion of various groups that the modern state regards as worthy of support. Increasingly, it also means equality of outcome – the opposite to equality of opportunity.

And what it means by ‘diversity’ is the removal of status and privileges from those, such as the Christian church or the married family, that it regards as outmoded or incorrect.

This is what led to the sacking of Olive Jones, by all accounts a dedicated teacher. Mrs Jones was accused by her local authority of ‘bullying’ a pupil. Did she threaten this pupil with violence, or lash her with a sarcastic tongue? No. She discussed her Christian faith and offered to pray for the student, who was ill.

Let us be clear what is not at issue here. Mrs Jones, though anxious to share her faith with others, is not a fanatic. When her offer was declined, she did not persist. Yet she was denounced, hauled before a superior and coldly fired.

It may well be that publicity and the support of pressure groups may rescue Mrs Jones, as it rescued Caroline Petrie, a nurse subjected to similar treatment. But the fundamental problem, the slow takeover of this country by politically correct zealots, continues to grow.

How true.

Cross-Post by Mariano – Atheism is Dead

I actually did not want to say much about this as some of my relatives were murdered in the Holocaust and I am repulsed, to say the very least.

Someone has stolen the sign from the Auschwitz death camp which adorned, if it may be referred to as such, the entrance.

The sign read “Arbeit Macht Frei”–”Work Will Set You Free.”

Who knows what the story behind this theft will turn out to be but it got me thinking:Why did the Christian Nazis and the Christian Adolf Hitler not know to actually quote the Bible upon which their movement was based and state (refutation of such assertions here),

“The truth shall set you free”?