Orthodox Jews

Rick Santorum Attacked Mainline Protestantism Four Years Ago: The Fight Against Satan!

Ronald 2 Comments

Former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum, the frontrunner in many polls for the Republican Presidential nomination, is now revealed belatedly to have issued a harsh attack on mainline Protestantism–meaning the Episcopal, Lutheran, Methodist and other churches who have, at least in portions, accepted the growing role of women and of gays and lesbians in church affairs–in a speech at Ave Maria University in Florida in 2008.

Santorum, a conservative Catholic, who is appealing to many evangelical Christian groups, condemned the mainline Protestants for having given in to Satan by liberalizing their approach to the Gospel.

Since mainline Protestants are a very large group as a whole in American religious life, this revelation should have a dramatic effect, and become a new issue in American politics. Many mainline Protestants have already abandoned what they consider the hardline, narrow minded view of the Republican Party since the 1990s, and have often been described as “progressive” in their social views.

So we may be witnessing a new religious “war”, in which evangelical Christians, conservative Catholics, and Orthodox Jews are pitted against mainline Protestants, liberal oriented Catholics, and Conservative and Reform Jews, in the struggle for the spiritual support of Americans, in a country that was created based on separation of church and state, but has been pushed toward a theocratic vision by right wing religious advocates, which clearly include Rick Santorum as their present day “savior” from reform and modernization!

Health Care, Women’s Health Rights, And Churches And Synagogues

Ronald 2 Comments

The Obama Health Care legislation has come under attack on a new front: that hospitals and universities and other institutions connected to religious groups, other than actual church or synagogue properties, are being required to provide contraceptive and abortion services to women who work for those institutions, outraging the Catholic Church, Orthodox Jews, Mormons, and Evangelical Christian groups that oppose such practices.

An exemption for churches and synagogues has not been enough to appease these religious groups, and it threatens the support of these groups for the Obama re-election campaign, but if the Obama Administration abandons the rights of women of all religious persuasions and denies them such services, they could also lose support among women who want these services covered.

It is clear that a majority of Catholic women ignore the teachings of their own church, while it is not clear that the same is true for Orthodox Jews, Mormons, and Evangelical Christians.

So this presents a quandary for Obama, and is being called an attack on religion, rather than an issue of an attack on women’s health and basic human rights to control their own bodies. Rather than have to follow the teachings of groups that are dominated by men, many millions of women want to determine their own futures, and not be controlled by their employers as to what health coverage they have.

The likelihood is that Obama will cave in on this to the religious groups, but a true profile in courage would be to make it clear there is religious freedom in this country, but it should not dictate health services available to women in the name of religious liberty.

One does not have to accept contraceptives or pursue abortion, but women should have the freedom, no matter what their religion or no religion, to pursue their own freedom, separate from organized religious institutions trying to control their destiny. They should not be required to quit their employment to have freedom of choice.

Evangelical Christians, Orthodox Jews, And Prejudice Against Women, Gays, Blacks

Ronald 1 Comment

It is a very unpleasant reality that people who claim extreme religiosity, whether evangelical Christians or Orthodox Jews, often have proved to be bigoted and prejudiced against women, gays, and blacks. It is a sad commentary on those who profess to be closest to God!

This reality rears its ugly head when we learn that the leader of an evangelical group in Iowa has called upon Minnesota Congresswoman Michele Bachmann to withdraw from the Presidential race, even though she is polling better than Texas Governor Rick Perry and former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum in the state polls before the Iowa Caucuses that occur thirteen days from now. What reason other than being a woman could there be for such a statement? It is well known that evangelical Christians believe in the “traditional” role of women as walking behind men and being subjugated to their husbands. Also, Orthodox Jews see women as not worthy to sit with men at a synagogue service, and separate men from women at weddings. It is time for such discrimination to end in both religious groups!

It is also well known that both groups are anti gay, and both have promoted racist attitudes against African Americans historically, and have not repudiated such attitudes even recently. This is a good explanation why the “n” word has been utilized so often in both evangelical and Orthodox Jewish circles.

All of this is extremely outrageous, and undermines the whole concept of what it means to be religious!

A Split In The Jewish Community Over Barack Obama

Ronald 1 Comment

The Jewish community in America is badly split over supporting Barack Obama for re-election.

The vast majority of Jews seem ready to endorse and back Obama for a second term in the White House, encouraged by his domestic reform initiatives in the tradition of the New Deal and Great Society, and his policies backing the traditional friendship with Israel and insuring its security. The public statements of the Israeli Ambassador to the United States and the Israeli Defense Minister praising Obama also help insure the support of much of the Jewish population, which traditionally votes Democratic since the time of Franklin D. Roosevelt.

But two groups break from that sense of positive support of Obama–the Orthodox Jewish community and many wealthy Jewish businessmen and their families who are part of the “one percent”!

These two groups are willing to endorse Newt Gingrich’s statement that the Palestinians are “an invented people”, to wish for an attack on Iran based on its potential threat to Israel and the West (another preemptive act as in Iraq in 2003), and to be opposed to much of the traditional reform programs of the New Deal and Great Society, in their fierce desire to avoid paying more equitable and fair levels of taxation!

The Republican Jewish Coalition gathering in New York City recently was disturbing in seeing that a minority of Jews have a totally different perspective based on their religiosity, and their desire to avoid paying taxes despite their financial success.

Obama received 78 percent of the Jewish vote last time, although John McCain received 80 percent of the Orthodox Jewish vote. This time, Obama will probably get a bit less, which could be decisive in several states in a close election scenario.