Lagh ba‘Omer bonfires and HapPijamoth

Jewish date:  18 ’Iyyar 5772 (Parashath Behar).

Today’s holidays:  Day 33 of the ‘Omer/Lagh ba‘Omer (Judaism), Thursday of the Fifth Week of Easter (Roman Catholicism), Feast Day of the Apostle Simon (Greek Orthodox Christianity), Feast Day of St. John Holmes (Church of the SubGenius).

Greetings.

Last year I somehow missed the Lagh ba‘Omer bonfires.  This year I planned ahead and captured a few pictures last night at a vacant lot near the local mall:

This activity was primarily one of children and families and included roasting marshmallows.  Bonfires also seem to be a relatively recent practice.  For more on current lore on Lagh ba‘Omer, especially inaccuracies in it, please see “Lagh Ba’Omer - A Gratuitous Holiday”.  It takes an hour to listen to the lecture, and it is in Judeo-English, but it is well-worth it.

This poster advertises a Lagh ba‘Omer parade and show this afternoon, courtesy of Ḥabbadh.  Parades are not a Lagh ba‘Omer tradition, but given that Israel is the only predominantly Jewish country on the planet, one has to expect that celebrations of Jewish holidays over here would be scaled up to a larger scale than in the Diaspora.  The man pictured on the poster and featured at the show is Gershon “Geri HambuGeri” Mandelba’um, a character from the Israeli children’s show HapPijamoth (“The Pyjamas”).  I have seen seasons 3, 4, and 5 of HapPijamoth on-line as part of my efforts to better understand spoken Modern Hebrew, and so I am going to use this opportunity to talk about the treatment of religion in HapPijamoth.


HapPijamoth belongs to the genre of “stupid shows”, not meant to be taken seriously and with most of the characters being not particularly bright.  (This is not an insult, but a statement of fact.  For example, one of the main characters, ‘Odhedh Paz, actually thinks he is pregnant in one episode, despite being unambiguously male.)  The show is named after a band, HapPijamoth (who actually wear pajamas during performances), and strongly associated with the band is Geri Mandelba’um (who runs a low-quality hamburger restaurant called HambuGeri) and his teenage daughter Roni.  HapPijamoth and Geri frequently get into trouble due to their lack of intelligence, greed, ignorance, laziness, and lack of foresight.  Roni is smarter than any of them and seems to be in the show for teenagers to identify with.

Given that this is a stupid show, no topic is treated particularly deeply, including religion.  The average episode ignores religion altogether, though it is dealt with from time to time:

• One of HapPijamoth, Qobbi Faraj, has a superhero-level ability to change his appearance.  (If they ever explain this, it is not in an episode I have seen.)  One of Qobbi’s alter-egos is Sabbabah Sa’li, apparently a parody of the Qabbalist Baba Sali.  This quasi-character’s speech is very difficult to understand, and I do not mean that he speaks with an accent which gives me trouble or he speaks too fast; a lot of what he says is deliberately ungrammatical or nonsense, to the point where the other characters do not know what he is trying to say.
• Roni often asks for (or extorts) money from Geri.  In one episode he takes money out of a ṣedhaqah (charity) box and gives it to her.
• In one episode Geri attempts to get kashruth certification for HambuGeri.  In order to avoid having to hire a rabbinical supervisor, he claims that his rav is Sabbabah Sa’li, which gets Qobbi into trouble since not only is Sabbabah Sa’li not on record as being ordained, but Qobbi lacks even rudimentary knowledge of kashruth.  A song in this episode about HapPijamoth becoming ba‘ale teshuvah (becoming religious) is not reflected in their behavior.
• One of HapPijamoth, Yamith Sol, enters a talent show doing an interpretive dance which goes horribly wrong in that the chair she uses during the dance falls apart and has to be repaired on stage.  The music she chooses, “’Eḥadh Mi Yodhea‘?”, is a traditional Pesaḥ song reviewing a number of the basics of Judaism; her outfit and dance are not consistent with the song or observant Jewish norms.
• Season 4 ends with all the characters mysteriously dying.  Season 5 begins with HapPijamoth in the Gan ‘Edhen for TV shows, which seems based on a popular American Christian conception of Heaven, and trying to go back to Earth in response to a prayer from a child who is distressed that the show has ended.  One of HapPijamoth, Nathan Qupperman, is put into the role of God, though as a shining human-shaped being rather than incorporeal; he declines to go back to Earth.  Geri is in the Gehinnom for TV shows, a place blatantly based on a popular American Christian conception of Hell, complete with the demon king ’Ashmedha’y in the role of the Devil.  It goes without saying that HapPijamoth are successful in their quest, as failure would mean the end of the show.  ’Ashmedha’y recurs in another episode, in which one of his schemes ends up destroying the Earth, which gets him in big trouble with YHWH.  (Yes, that gets undone, too.)

Theological rating:  D (the afterlife episode is what really did it in).

Peace, and please be careful burning stuff today.

’Aharon/Aaron

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Update a few hours later:

I am aware of the incongruity between a Habbadh event and a character from a show with a theological rating of D.  This is Earth.  Weird things happen here.  I did not plan to attend the show, period.  That did not stop it from being held in the basketball court next to the synagogue I went to for minḥah (afternoon services).  And I heard Yaniv Polishuq doing his Geri HambuGeri character, including his trademark taunting (for which mere transcription cannot do justice).  And he even did a song including the trademark taunting.  Given the incongruity, the effect was surreal.

The end of the world, Indonesian intolerance of atheism, and bacon-flavored syrup

Jewish date:  14 ’Iyyar 5772 (Parashath Behar).

Today’s holidays:  Day 29 of the ‘Omer (Judaism), Pesaḥ Sheni (Judaism), Fifth Sunday of Easter (Roman Catholicism), Feast Day of St. Guiness (The Stout) (Church of the SubGenius), Feast of Saint George (Arabs in Israel).

Greetings.

I am going too long between posts again.  I am still rereading my LaVeyan Satanism books, finding rather a lot of the attitudes of Ayn Rand in there.  In the meantime, I would like to comment on a few items in the news:

1) “Miami cult who tattoo themselves with 666 say the world will END on June 30”:  I have no idea what self-proclaimed Antichrist Jose de Luis de Jesus of Growing in Grace International is thinking.  Please note that predictions of the end of the world so far have been all wrong, and I have no a priori reason to believe that De Jesus’s prediction is any different.  But I have marked the date in iCal, and if the world does end, I will be downright shocked and the first to admit he was actually right (if I still exist in some form at that point).

2) “Atheist in Indonesia Facing 11 Years in Prison for Saying 'God Doesn't Exist'”:  Indonesia has the reputation of being a fairly tolerant predominantly Muslim country.  Yet Alex Aan, an atheist who posted on Facebook his belief that God does not exist, was beaten up by an unruly mob and sentenced to 11 years in prison for his beliefs.  There is a very obvious question of why the government of Indonesia recognizes only six religions (Catholicism, Protestantism, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, and Confucianism), suggesting that the government is more interested in maintaining peace between the existing religious groups rather than enforce a general tolerance for all religions.  That an atheist can be so maltreated is definitely not consistent with freedom of religion.

3) “Rabbi Approved: Kosher Bacon Syrup”:  Harold sent me a link to this, and it just struck me as weird. There is no actual bacon in the syrup.  The only thing wrong with it is mar’ith ‘ayin, that it may create the false appearance of consuming bacon.  Then again, the product is clearly labeled as bacon-flavored on the label.

Peace.

’Aharon/Aaron

ניסיון ביקור בהר הבית מספר 5 • Attempted visit to the Temple Mount #5

Jewish date:  26 Nisan 5772 (Parashath Thazria‘-Meṣora‘).

Today’s holidays:  Day 11 of the ‘Omer (Judaism), Wednesday of the Second Week of Easter (Roman Catholicism), Feast Day of St. Lady Macbeth (Church of the SubGenius).

Greetings.

Note:  The following open letter is presented in both Hebrew and English, so if you cannot read the Hebrew version, please just scroll down.

Peace.

’Aharon/Aaron

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הערה: מכתב זה נשלח גם למשרד ראש הממשלה, למשרד לביטחון הפנים, לכמה מפלגות פוליטיות, ולג׳רוזלם פוסט, וגם מפורסם בבלוג שלי, Divine Misconceptions.

זה היה יותר מדי זמן מאז ביקרתי בהר הבית, ולכן החלטתי לבקר בפסח, זמן מסורתי לביקור כזה.  נסעתי לירושלים ביום השלישי של פסח.  הפעם הטלתי מטבע כדי להחליט אם להעמיד פנים כתייר או לא, והתוצאה היתה לצאת בגלוי כיהודי דתי.  השוטר אשר דיבר איתי שאל אותי מה מתכנתי לעשות על הר הבית, ואמרתי לו אשר הלכתי לראות אבנים, עצים, צמחים, ואנשים, וגם המשטרה עושה את העבודה שלהם בכבוד.  היו לו בעיות עם הסיפור הזה, אשר בו אני דבקתי, אף על פי הוא לא חשב אשר המטרה יכולה להיות לא־דתית וגם ציינתי בצדק כי לפי חוק מדינת ישראל מותר ללא־מוסלמים להתפלל ואף להקריב קורבנות על הר הבית.  (והני המטרה שלי היתה כולה דתית, אבל זה באמת לא העניין של המשטרה או הממשלה, במיוחד כאשר הן שואפות בלי צדק לעמוד בדרכי.)  השוטר התייעץ עם בקצין שלו, אשר סירב לתת לי לעלות על הר הבית, כי הוא פחד אשר אעשה ״הפרעת שלום״.  התרגום של זה היא כי המוסלמים הם חבורה של בכיינים לא־סובלניים שעלולים לעשות התקפי זעם כאשר הם נחשפים לדתות אחרות, והמשטרה מעדיפה להיכנע לאיומים שלהם על הר הבית מלאכוף סובלנות דתית.  יתר על כן, הענישו אותי על פשע לכאורה אשר לא ביצעתי ואולי גם לא אתחייב.  במילים פשוטות, זה לא חוקי על פי בית המשפט העליון הפרה של זכויות האזרח.  השוטר אשר דיבר איתי והשוטרים האחרים בביתן הכניסה להר הבית היו אדיבים וסובלניים כאשר ישבתי בחוץ ומסרב לצאת עד שהם סגרו.  (אבל השוטר אשר דיבר איתי זרק כמה נרות אשר נוצרים השאירו בארון חפצי הערך, ורק כאשר הפסיק התנגדתי ושאלתי אותו ״מה עשו לך הנוצרים?״) עם זאת, לא הייתי מסוגל לכפות שום סיבה טובה מהם להכחיש לי כניסה.  ברור שמישהו צריך ללמוד איך לשקר בצורה משכנעת יותר ובסיפוק.  אף אחד לא מכבד שקר רע בשקיפות, במיוחד כאשר הוא אמור לחפות על פחדנות ועצלות.

אני מקווה שכל אחד בממשלה והמפלגות הפוליטיות אשר אליהם אני שולח את הפוסט הזה דווקא קורא אותו ולוקח אותו תחת דיון.  מדינת ישראל אמורה להיות ארץ של חופש, כולל חופש הדת.  ייתכן בהחלט עבור הממשלה לאכוף את חופש הדת.  מיד אחרי אשר גורשתי מחוץ לתא הכניסה להר הבית, הלכתי לרחבת הכותל.  יהודים מן כל סוגי דתיות ורמות דתיות היו התערבבו שם באופן חופשי, ואף אחד לא התלונן.  היתה קבוצה של קסים מבצעת טקס עם שמשיות, פעמונים מהודרות, תופים, ושירה.  האנשים האלה הם מחוץ לזרם המרכזי היהודי הפרושי, ובכל זאת אף אחד לא נפגע במה אשר עשו, אפילו לא חרדים.  בעת הביקור האחרון לכותל המערבי לפני זה, היתה קבוצה של בפטיסטים מן דרום אפריקה מתפללים בחצי־מעגל, ושוב, אף אחד לא התנגד למה אשר עשו, אף על פי שהם לחלוטין מחוץ לתחום היהדות על פי כל ההגדרה אשר אני יודע.  סובלנות הדדית בכותל המערבי היא הנורמה. אבל, למסיבה כלשהי, המשטרה לא מוכנים לעשות את העבודה שלהם לאכוף אותו הסובלנות בהר הבית. במוקדם או במאוחר, תהיו בבחירות, ואני אקשיב למה המפלגות השונות אומרות על אכיפת חופש דת לכולם—ומה הם כבר עשו בנוגע לנושא זה.  אני אשקול את זה כאשר אבחר לאיזו מפלגה להצביע, ואני אעודד אחרים לעשות כן גם הם. כמעט כל מדינה על פני כדור הארץ והאו"ם לפחות טוענה לתמוך בחופש הדת. זהו מעשה שלא ייעשה, כי זה יהיה מס שפתיים בלבד.

קריאה נוספת:

תיאור הנסיעה הראשונה שלי על הר הבית: http://divinemisconceptions.blogspot.com/2011/05/temple-mount-infiltration-and-vandalism.html



תיאור הטיול השני שלי על הר הבית: http://divinemisconceptions.blogspot.com/2011/08/visit-to-temple-mount-2-waqf-still.html



תיאור טיול נכשל להר הבית: http://divinemisconceptions.blogspot.com/2011/11/yishaq-rabbin-memorial-day-and-would-be.html


תיאור טיול נכשל שני להר הבית, וכתוצאה מכך אני ההתחלתי לכתוב לאנשים בממשלה׃    http://divinemisconceptions.blogspot.com/2011/12/open-letter-of-complaint-to-israeli.html

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Note:  This letter is also being sent to the Prime Minister’s office, the Ministry of Public Security, several political parties, and the Jerusalem Post, as well as being posted on my blog, Divine Misconceptions.

It had been too long since I visited the Temple Mount, and so I decided to visit during Pesaḥ, a traditional time for such a visit, and I traveled to Yerushalayim on the third day of Pesaḥ.  This time I flipped a coin to decide whether to pretend to be a tourist or not, and the result was to go openly as an observant Jew.  The police officer there asked me what I was planning to do up on the Temple Mount, and I told him that I was going to see rocks, trees, plants, and people, not to mention the police doing their job with honor.  He had trouble with this story—which I stuck to, despite him not thinking that the purpose could be anything but religious and me noting correctly that it is actually legal for non-Muslims to pray and even bring sacrifices on the Temple Mount.  (Actually my purpose was completely religious, but that is frankly not the business of the police or the government, especially when they aim to unjustly stand in my way.)  The officer consulted his commanding officer, who refused to let me go up on the Temple Mount, because he was afraid I would commit a “disturbance of the peace”.  The translation of this is that the Muslims are a bunch of intolerant crybabies who are liable to throw temper tantrums when exposed to other religions, and the police would rather capitulate to their threats on the Temple Mount rather than enforce religious tolerance.    Furthermore, this is punishing me for an alleged crime which I have not committed and may well not commit.  To put it bluntly, this is illegal according to the Supreme Court and a violation of civil rights.  The officer with whom I spoke and the other officers at the Temple Mount entrance booth were polite and fairly tolerant of me parking myself right outside and refusing to leave until they closed (though the officer with whom I spoke threw away some Christian candles in the valuables cabinet and only stopped when I objected and asked him “What did the Christians do to you?”), but I was unable to coerce any valid reason out of them for denying me entry.  Clearly someone needs to learn how to lie more convincingly and satisfyingly.  No one respects a transparently bad lie, especially when it is meant to cover up cowardice and laziness.

I hope that everyone in government to whom I send this post actually reads it and takes it under consideration.  The State of Israel is supposed to be a land of freedom, including freedom of religion.  It is entirely possible for the government to enforce freedom of religion.  Right after I was evicted from right outside the Temple Mount entrance booth, I went to the Western Wall Plaza.  Jews of all levels and sorts of religiosity were mixing freely—and no one seemed to mind.  There was a group of qesim (traditional Ethiopian Jewish clerics) performing a ceremony with fancy parasols, bells, drums, and chanting.  These people are outside the Pharisaic Jewish mainstream, and yet no one showed any offense at what they were doing, not even Ḥaredhim.  At the time of last visit to the Western Wall before this one, there was a group of Baptists from South Africa praying in a semicircle, and again, no one objected to what they were doing, even though they are completely outside the bounds of Judaism according to every definition of what I am aware.  Mutual tolerance at the Western Wall is the norm.  But, for some reason, the police are unwilling to do their job and enforce the same tolerance on the Temple Mount.  Sooner or later, there is going to be an election, and I will be listening to what the various parties have to say on the enforcement of freedom of religion for everyone—and what they have already done concerning this issue.  I will be taking this into account when choosing which party to vote for, and I will be encouraging others to do so, too.  Almost every country on Earth and the United Nations at least claim to subscribe to freedom of religion.  It is unconscionable that this should be merely lip service.

Further reading:

Description of my first trip to the Temple Mount:  http://divinemisconceptions.blogspot.com/2011/05/temple-mount-infiltration-and-vandalism.html

Description of my second trip to the Temple Mount:  http://divinemisconceptions.blogspot.com/2011/08/visit-to-temple-mount-2-waqf-still.html

Description of a failed trip to the Temple Mount:  http://divinemisconceptions.blogspot.com/2011/11/yishaq-rabbin-memorial-day-and-would-be.html

Description of a second failed trip to the Temple Mount, resulting in me starting to write to people in government:  http://divinemisconceptions.blogspot.com/2011/12/open-letter-of-complaint-to-israeli.html

GCB is not as bad as I feared it would be

Jewish date:  20 Nisan 5772 (Parashath Shemini).

Today’s holidays:  Ḥol hamMo‘edh Pesaḥ (Judaism), Day 5 of the ‘Omer (Judaism), Thursday in the Octave of Easter (Roman Catholicism), Feast Day of St. Print Olive (Church of the SubGenius), Feast of Mary d’Este Sturges (Thelema).

Greetings.

And now for another attempt at getting caught up blogging.  Today’s topic is the TV series GCB, which I have been watching on Hulu ever since Barry made me aware of the show’s religious nature.

The pilot episode struck me as something largely stereotyped and poorly thought out.  The main protagonist of the series is Amanda Vaughn, a woman whose husband Billy runs a scam, tries to flee with the money, and dies in a car crash with his mistress due to them doing something blatantly stupid and disgusting while driving.  Even though Amanda is not involved in the scam, the government seizes most of her and Billy’s property.  Nearly penniless, Amanda and her children, Laura and Will, return to a high-socioeconomic status section of Dallas to live with her (Amanda’s) mother Gigi.  This has two big downsides:

1) Gigi is crazy and acts in ways which drove Amanda to leave Dallas in the first place.  E.g., she dresses up Laura provocatively (and your humble blogger is strongly tempted to use much more derogatory language than that), teaches Will to mix (alcoholic) drinks, and fakes Amanda having a secret admirer in order to be able to give her expensive presents.

2) Amanda was a “meal girl” back in high school, and many of those people she was mean to still live in Dallas.  The list of regulars whom she offended is long enough to require a scorecard to keep track of:

• Carlene Cockburn:  Chief antagonist, formerly called “Kitten”, formerly very plain, now a plastic surgery addict and very vindictive.
• Sharon Peacham:  Ex-beauty queen, now food-obsessed housewife with self-esteem issues.  (The people making this show are trying to make it seem she is overweight, but one would never know it without the dialog.)
• Heather Cruz:  Realtor.
• Cricket Caruth-Reilly:  Business woman.  Formerly Bill’s girlfriend until Amanda stole him from her.
• Ripp Cockburn:  Carlene’s husband.
• Zack Peacham:  Sharon’s husband, car salesman.
• Blake Reilly:  Cricket’s husband and business partner, rancher.

These characters are all serious, church-attending Christians, but Amanda is on the receiving end of a lot of rather unpleasant payback.  Carlene, despite frequently citing the Christian Bible (giving book, chapter, and verse), is particularly vindictive and rationalizes immoral behavior (such as “borrowing” a gift card from Amanda in order to be able to determine who her secret admirer is), intimidating Sharon into helping her.  Heather lies to Amanda to keep her from getting a good home and away from Gigi’s bad influence.  Cricket makes backhanded deals to keep Amanda from getting a good job.  And if all this mean-spirited stereotyping of observant Christians was not bad enough, Zack tries putting his moves on Amanda, and it is strongly implied that Blake is homosexual and is having an affair with his head rancher.

To make things worse, despite deeply regretting what she did in high school, Amanda is something of a hypocrite herself.  Despite Cricket’s efforts, Amanda does land a job—at a Hooters clone called Boobylicious.  And considering that Amanda is downright shocked when Gigi dresses up Laura indecently, the cognitive dissonance should be so huge that even fairly unintelligent people should be able to notice it.  (Those who wonder what is wrong with using sexuality to sell food may wish to reread the Coyote Ugly Sermon.)  The dress which Amanda wears to the Longhorn Ball is also immodest and tasteless.  Clearly Amanda is not being a good role model for her children, especially her daughter.  Admittedly dressing immodestly is not as bad as stealing (according to most of us, so far as your humble blogger can tell), but being less bad is not the same thing as being good.

Add to this that it is revealed that Carlene and Ripp are the real owners of Boobylicious and that the name for the show was originally planned to be Good Christian Bitches, and the initial impression is that the writers are a bunch of mean-spirited hacks who hate Christians and think that compared to them even someone who regularly does something sleazy is better.  And that impression would be wrong.

The writers do carry over everything from the pilot into the succeeding episodes, but the characters are not simple, unchanging cardboard cutouts.  Heather reconciles with Amanda very quickly, and her other “enemies” slowly develop better relations with her, even though so far in the series there has been plenty of friction.  While Carlene is the slowest to improve, she can be moved by argument—preferably citing appropriate scriptural sources—and she does have a conscience and care about other people.  (Her reactions may not always be the most sensible, but she does try.)  Sharon, while the most passive of the main characters, has been on a self-improvement kick since doing some volunteer work at the church and is taking more initiative.

The lack of cardboardness is particularly prominent in romantic relationships.  “Bad guys” in GCB can and do have loving, committed relationships.  To be sure, they have problems, but they work to overcome their problems.  The aforementioned business of Zack hitting on Amanda turns out to be due to some inner turmoil stirred up by her arrival; he repents his mistake and constantly works with Sharon to improve their relationship.  Carlene and Ripp also have some rocky moments, but they remain committed to each other.  Notable is the relationship between Cricket and Blake.  Blake is indeed homosexual, while Cricket is heterosexual.  While they satisfy their sexual urges with other people and do not hide the fact from each other, they are emotionally very intimate.

Also breaking cliché:  So far in the series, Amanda has not been sexually active, despite being the central character, and the only man she has ever been with is her husband Bill.  Carlene has been a little worse, only having gone all the way with Ripp, but having done some things in high school which she is not proud of.  (No details are available; the writers seem to want the viewers to use their imaginations.)  Neither currently violates Christian sexual mores, despite how they dress.

GCB is not what your humble blogger would consider an ideal series, and the content is not for everyone.  But it certainly is not as bad as first impressions suggest it is.

Peace and happy Pesaḥ.

’Aharon/Aaron

Maṣṣah and Paul’s continuing scholarly incompetence

Jewish date:  19 Nisan 5772 (Parashath Shemini).

Today’s holidays:  Ḥol hamMo‘edh Pesaḥ (Judaism), Day 4 of the ‘Omer (Judaism), Wednesday in the Octave of Easter (Roman Catholicism), Annual $30 Donation (Church of the SubGenius).

Greetings.

It has been far too long since I last posted.  A lot of this is due to preparation for Pesaḥ (Passover), though I have had other things keeping me busy, and I hope this post will be a step in the direction of getting caught up.  Towards that, I present two topics today:

1) Relevant to Pesaḥ, some articles on the symbolism of maṣṣah (unleavened bread):  “A new look at Hametz, Matza and everything in between”, “Deconstructing Matzo”, and “Leavened or Unleavened: A History”.  To summarize:  At the time, Egypt was the only place at the time where people made ḥameṣ (leavened bread).  Thus eating maṣṣah, even before leaving Egypt, was a symbolic rejection of Egypt and what it stood for.  This strikes me as a very elegant explanation.

2) My notes on the last chapters of Romans, following up on my notes on chapters 1-4 and 5-12:



Romans 13:1-7—Paul preaches submission to authorities.  This includes the government, which he claims are “God’s servants”.

Romans 13:8-14—Paul preaches love, claiming it is “the fulfillment of the Torah”, glossing over that at best just the moral commandments can be subsumed under the rubric of love.  Cites Exodus 20:12-13 in scrambled order are presented as subsumed under love.  Leviticus 19:18 is given as the source for the commandment of love.

Romans 14:1-23—Paul seems to be preaching that one who is strong in faith should not act in an antinomian way such to cause someone who is weak in faith to stumble, in particularly bringing up food and drink.  (Paul still brings no valid justification for antinomianism.)  Cites fragments of Isaiah 49:18 and Isaiah 45:23 dishonestly as if they were a continuous quote.

Romans 15:1-13—An attempt to back up the previous section.  Cites Psalms 69:10, a botched version of Psalms 18:50, a botched version of Psalms 32:43, Psalms 117:1, and a botched version of Isaiah 11:10 as if they had anything to do with Jesus.

Romans 15:14-22—Paul proclaims himself minister to the Gentiles, appointed by Jesus, trying to back up his appointment with his allegedly having performed miracles.  (Miracles are not actually valid proofs of prophecy when proclaimed by a heretic.)  Cites Isaiah 52:15 as if it had anything to do with Jesus.

Romans 15:23-33—Paul plans to visit Rome.

Romans 16:1-27—Paul sends greetings to various people.


Please note that this is entirely in keeping with Paul’s intellectual dishonesty and scholarly incompetence in the previous chapters.  I am not optimistic about the rest of his letters.


Peace and happy Pesaḥ.

’Aharon/Aaron

The Fast of ’Ester and miscellany

Jewish date:  13 ’Adhar 5772 (Parashath Ki Thissa’).

Today’s holidays:  Fast of ’Ester (Judaism), Feast Day of Perpetua and Felicity (Roman Catholicism), Bahá’í Month of Fasting (Bahá’í Faith), Feast Day of St. Barbara Eden.

Greetings.

Current holiday alert:  The Purim season is upon us.  Today is the Fast of ’Ester, which commemorates the fasting by ’Ester and the rest of the Jewish people preceding her approaching the Persian king ’Aḥashwerosh to save them from the machinations of the evil Haman.  Tomorrow is Purim and the day after that Purim Shushan, which celebrate the victory of the Jews over their enemies.  The story is recounted in the Book of Esther.

I have decided to take advantage of the fast day to note a few items from the news recently.

1) “Doctors 'should have the right to kill unwanted or disabled babies at birth as they are not a real person' claims Oxford academic”:  This is an example of why I did not go into bioethics, considering it a field of non-problems.  As I noted in my review of Atlas Shrugged, morality is a matter of opinion.  The bioethicist in question is of the opinion that newborn babies do not qualify as people and thus killing handicapped or unwanted babies is not murder.  While she is entitled to her opinion, her arguments are doomed to fall on deaf ears unless she can either justify them to others in terms of their own moral systems or convince others that hers is right.  The reported reactions strongly suggest she has failed horribly.

2) “The Middle East’s real apartheid”:  A piece on the hypocrisy of how the term “apartheid” is used by anti-Semites, noting the severe discrimination in Arab/Muslim countries.

3) “Witnessing 'child witch' exorcism in the DR Congo”:  This is an illustration of why beliefs need to have some basis in reality.  The results of believing that children are possessed can be disastrously cruel.

4) “Atheist group targets Muslims, Jews with ‘myth’ billboards in Arabic and Hebrew”:  Yes, the militant atheist PR machine is at it again.  And now they’re putting up billboards in and around New York City proclaiming to Jews and Muslims in Hebrew and Arabic about their gods “You know it’s a myth… and you have a choice.”  This itself is a mistake, as not everyone knows that YHWH and ’Allāh are myths, and those who believe in these gods are quite likely to wonder the people running these ads are thinking.  (A billboard is not a good medium to make even a half-decent argument for practically anything.)  The article gives some idea what the atheist PR machine is thinking:

Dave Silverman, the president of American Atheists, said the signs are intended to reach atheists in the Muslim and Jewish enclaves who may feel isolated because they are surrounded by believers. “Those communities are designed to keep atheists in the ranks,” he says. “If there are atheists in those communities, we are reaching out to them. We are letting them know that we see them, we acknowledge them and they don't have to live that way if they don’t want to.”

I get the impression that Mr. Silverman is living in a fantasy world.  In the United States, nonbelievers can—and do—leave their belief communities.  No one is stopping atheists from leaving the Jewish and Muslim communities.  No one is even stopping them from expressing atheistic beliefs or remaining in their communities if they do so.  And if the American Atheists are trying to reach nonbelievers who have trouble getting out, they should be advertising in more isolated places, such as Kiryas Joel and New Square.

Peace, and have an easy fast and a happy Purim.

’Aharon/Aaron

The writers for Glee fail exegesis forever

Jewish date:  8 ’Adhar 5772 (Parashath Teṣawweh).

Today’s holidays:  Friday of the First Week of Lent (Roman Catholicism), Bahá’í Month of Fasting (Bahá’í Faith), Feast Day of St. Wonder Woman (Church of the SubGenius).

Greetings.

The goal of this project is the examination of religious fallacies and misinformation.  This happens a lot in popular culture, and one of the shows I am monitoring, Glee, seems particularly prone to this problem whenever it deals with religion.  One of its recent episodes, “Heart”, shows especially bad religious reasoning that is going to annoy me until I report on it.



This is a Valentine’s Day episode.  Among other things, the “God Squad”, a sort of Christian religious club in the high school, decides to raise money by selling “singing Valentines”.  The God Squad has a new member who is a sort of goth until-recently-homeschooled Christian and who notes that Valentine’s Day is a religious holiday.  (It least it was a Catholic holiday.)  Meanwhile, a “Bible thumper” complains to the principal about Santana and Brittany kissing at school, leading him to be paranoid about homosexual public displays of affection.  (Cliché 1:  Thinking one has a right to keep anyone from doing anything which might offend them.)  Santana is understandably annoyed at this, and so she hires the God Squad to give a “singing Valentine” to Brittany.  (Cliché 2:  Petty revenge, the pettiness being that Santana has no evidence that any of the God Squad complained to the principal in the first place.)  The God Squad then discusses among themselves about whether they will actually sing to gay people.  Distressingly, none of them shows any decent understanding of how to interpret the Hebrew Bible or the New Testament, jumping immediately into stereotypes and atrocious excuses for reasoning:

1) Mercedes:  Since one in ten people is supposed to be gay, one of the 12 Apostles might have been gay, presumably Simon since he has the “gayest” name.  This assumes that the Apostles were sexually normal, not a foregone assumption.  Also not forgone assumptions are that the incidence of homosexuality in Second Temple Period Israel is the same as in 2012 America and that there is no distinction between having homosexual desires and practicing homosexuality.  Not to mention that the presumed gayness of any Apostle is purely hypothetical, not something actually known.  Thus Mercedes has no argument.

2) Sam:  It is (purportedly) an abomination for a man to lay down with another man.  This is actually a misinterpretation of Leviticus 18:22, which prohibits male homosexuality, but a man simply lying next to another man is not prohibited.  Sam, however, grossly misinterprets this as banning sharing a tent in the Cub Scouts.  Thus he starts off with one of the few sources actually relevant to the question of homosexuality in Christianity and then shoots himself in the foot rhetorically when he has no reason to do so.

3) Quinn, trying to counter Sam:  Other abominations (purportedly) include eating lobster, planting different crops in the same field, and giving someone a proud look—but not slavery, and Jesus never mentions slavery.  The prohibition of eating lobster (along with all water-dwelling animals which do not have fins and platelike scales) is Leviticus 11:10, which uses a different term of disapproval, sheqeṣ, than that used for male homosexuality, to‘evah.  The prohibition of planting two different species of seed together is found in Leviticus 19:19 and Deuteronomy 22:9; in neither verse is it referred a to‘evah or sheqeṣ or any other term of disgust.  I have no idea where Quinn got this alleged prohibition of giving someone a proud look.  Slavery is never called a to‘evah or sheqeṣ by the Hebrew Bible or mentioned by Jesus.  (Paul is a different matter.)  None of this, however, is relevant in the least to question of homosexuality in Christianity.  This is pure rhetoric, not reasoning, and to make things worse, it is clichéd rhetoric.  At best, there is an implied argument that since modern Christians do not think they are bound to keep the Torah, they should not be forbidden to commit homosexuality, which among males is explicitly prohibited by the Torah.  However, none of the characters has the sense to cite even Paul’s specious antinomian arguments.

4) Sam:  Perhaps Jesus was trying no spare Simon’s feelings.  This is just an assumption that there was a gay Apostle.  There could have just as easily been no gay Apostle, so there is no real argument here.

5) Mercedes:  Given that everyone in the God Squad really sucks when it comes to exegesis, Mercedes says she does not want to hurt Santana’s feelings or make anyone do anything they are not comfortable with.  The other members of the God Squad can accept this, but this does not solve the problem of whether to deliver the “singing Valentine” or not.

What do they eventually decide to do?  They deliver the “singing Valentine” on the basis that “Love is love.”  Is there any source for this in the Hebrew Bible or the New Testament?  No.  The God Squad may have satisfied Santana, but their rationale is poorly justified.  The writers could have done much, much better than this.

Anyone writing about homosexuality, please, please, please do not do anything as lame as what the writers for Glee did.

Peace and Shabbath shalom.

’Aharon/Aaron