Serious question about anti-semitism.
 

Somehow, I think Moses would be surprised to learn he was a pagan. I forget how old he was when his mama sent him down the river, but if it was more than 8 days after his birth (and I think it was), Mrs. Moses (aka Tzipporah) would also be surprised to learn that Moses was a pagan.

Serious question about anti-semitism.
 

The Vatican could benefit from a good editor.


A simple "yo, Jews, sorry about the bad vibes" would have sufficed.

Maybe with a "Bummer about the Inquisition" thrown in.

Final Death Pool Reminder
 

What the fuck? You charged me a $25 entry fee and got my social security number. Bitch.

I give you these 15 [crash!] 10 Commandments
 

Pay no attention to me -- my Mosaic knowledge was gained by repeated viewings of that delightful Dudley Moore comedy, "Wholly Moses."

(uh, brc -- remember the whole golden calf, etc.)

Final Death Pool Reminder
 

I won one of their contests; but they just made up more rules.

Final Death Pool Reminder
 

Sorry. Changed the rules when I found out others were not as gullible as my monkey friend. I do reiterate that the deed to the Golden Gate Bridge is in the mail to you as we speak though. Your check for that purchase cleared my bank this week. Pleasure doing business with you.

Serious question about anti-semitism.
 

A Christian who hates people (as opposed to sinful acts), and particularly an entire group of people, is a total oxymoron but I'll stick with the anti-Semitism topic. There are several reasons why someone would take a Christ killer position:

1. Not everyone who calls himself a Christian is one. Duh. Some of those little c "christians" hate Jews and the crucifixion is a justification that sounds more righteous than than the usual crap about controlling the banks, media and government.

2. Some people have a limited concept of Jesus -- if you believe he was merely a good teacher then his death is something to be angry about. If you believe Jesus was God in human flesh, then you should realize that no one can involuntarily kill the God of the Bible. Jesus could have said a word and vaporized Pilate, the Romans, the high priest et al. That he did not, should make one humble, not angry.

3. God doesn't make Stepford Christians. We're still sinners and some people's sins are hating minority groups. This does not make it right. As for Mel's Passion fueling anti-Semitism, a lot of churches are hosting discussions of the movie. I hope these discussions make it clear that anti-Semitism is not an appropriate response to the movie.

P.S. BRC, thanks for putting the Britten in my head to take the McDonalds jingle out of it.

Final Death Pool Reminder
 

Well, okay, that's more like it. I still don't see why the bank needed pictures of me in drag to approve the purchase, but whatever, I felt pretty that day.

Serious question about anti-semitism.
 

That, and a "bygones" would do it for me.

Ash Wednesday
 

Normally my flavor of wingnut does not give up things for Lent but I decided to this year. I was first going to give up ice cream (I loooooove ice cream) but decided that wasn't much so I'm going for broke and giving up ice cream AND cola. I am an addict and never have a can far from my hand. My brother once asked if I have to run an IV line at night. I had two cans left last night so decided to finish them this morning and then start. I have half a can left.

This is to put you all on notice that unless I cave and forego my vow, I may be the uber bitch from hell for the next 39-1/2 days. Be afraid. Be very afraid.

Serious question about anti-semitism.
 

1. This is why I talked about people who had anti-semitic attitudes because of their sincerely-held belief in the theory that "the Jews were responsible for Christ's death. My guess is the majority of people who call themselves "Christian" use this reason as a pretext. I'm not saying the others don't exist, but. . .

2. Can a true believer in Christianity have such a limited concept of Jesus? Seems to me the purchase of salvation for believers through his death is central to the theology, isn't it?

I suppose someone who thinks Jesus was merely a good teacher or a prophet may be justifiably angered by his death.

If I'm not mistaken, Jesus is recognized as a form of Prophet in Islam, isn't he? It would be like rain on your wedding day to think in terms of Muslims being justifiably pissed at Jews for this reason.

3. Certainly. I was just attacking the rationality of a sincerely held belief causing the anti-semitic feelings.

I have no comment on this belief being used as pretext for hating. Those people are just assholes.

Who am I kidding? That is a comment. They're the worst kind of assholes.

Ash Wednesday
 

Now this is going to sound all flakey and earnest, but I don't show my flakey and earnest side here enough, I suppose. So Fugee, I gave up caffeine totally last month. I'm on my 35th day or so. I was a total addict. Not really scarfing it down in huge quantities, but if I went without it for one day, I got an enormous headache.

I hate being addicted to anything so I wanted to give it up just so I wouldn't be addicted. And I tried and I tried many times in the past but I would cave. I got down to one cup a day, but I couldn't give it up without the huge headache.

So the only thing I did differently was wake up and meditate for 5 minutes in the morning before doing anything else. I suppose you could pray. It worked! I went without caffeine that day and every day since. NO headache. A miracle of sorts, not to debase the term miracle.

I suppose I could have passed on this little advice by PM but now that I've typed it all out I'm going to subject you all to it. sorry

Ash Wednesday
 

not addicted? did you not earlier post about smoking in the apartment?

Ash Wednesday
 

1. She said she hated to be addicted to things. Not that she was not addicted to things.

2. Some people can smoke cigarettes and not be addicted. You know, the people that have 2 or 3 on weekend nights and one or two over the course of the week, and who totally bug the shit out of the people that go into total freak out if they go more than an few hours without a fix.

Serious question about anti-semitism.
 

The way I see it, we're all going to the same place in the end regardless of what building we do or do not pray in, so hating anyone for the religion he was born into seems one of the silliest things I can imagine.

You cannot believe how many people get pissed when I say the above, which is usually my pat response to any religion dicsussion. A lot of people really believe they're going somehwre better than the guy dwon the street who's of a different faith or is an atheist. They get pretty damn indignant at the notion that we're all really the same no matter how try to differentiate ourselves. Its funny, because these same people decry racism, yet a lot of them think the Sikh who lives next door is a pagan who "won't make it into the kingdom."

I recall asking a nun as a kid "Why doesn't my cat go to heaven?" She said Heaven was exclusively for humans. I'm still waiting for the supporting cite.

We all pray to the same God. Anyone who thinks he's got better ticket waiting at the end of this gig because he said a few extra hail marys or got some ashes is a king clown.