May 30, 2008 | 4:08 pm

Welcoming God’s Blog to The God Blog

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

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Tuesday marked the arrival of the new blogger at The God Blog. He can be seen in the cartoon to the right, which I cropped from here, and He’s kind of a big deal, so I’ve given Him His own category.

It’s called God’s Blog, and, as The Creator wrote, “Here, and also here, you’ll discover Jehovah’s thoughts on a host of topics, from sports and science to politics and pain, from false religions to religious intolerance.”

I will be the author of this blog, though the goal is to channel God’s perspective, not mine. (I say “goal,” because He is infallible; I am not.) This project will be a work in progress, but it’s one I think you will enjoy. I’ve already got a number of topics I plan to write about, some timely, others, like God, totally timeless. They will be light and fun (God’s favorite sports team) and deep and probing (why natural disasters indiscriminately steal lives.) I’d also like to hear from readers about issues they want discussed; seriously, though, don’t ask about homosexuality.

May 30, 2008 | 1:03 pm

McCain talks the hawk talk with Jeffrey Goldberg

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

Jeffrey Goldberg got his new blog off to a good start three weeks ago by publishing an interview with Barack Obama that was quoted just about everywhere in the American press. Today he follows up with conversation with John McCain. Here’s how he opens it:

The two candidates, who are scheduled to address the AIPAC policy conference in Washington, D.C. early next week, have well-developed thoughts on the Middle East, and their differences are stark. Obama sees the Israeli-Palestinian dispute as central to America’s problems in the Middle East; McCain names Islamic extremism as the most formidable challenge. Obama sees Jewish settlements as a primary obstacle to peace between Israel and the Palestinians; McCain downplays settlements as an issue, instead identifying Hamas’ rocket attacks on the Israeli town of Sderot as the most pressing problem. And both men take very different positions on the issue of Philip Roth.

In our conversation, McCain took a vociferously hard line on Iran (and a similarly hard line on Senator Obama’s understanding of the challenge posed by Iran). He accused Iran of not only seeking the destruction of Israel, but of sponsoring terrorist groups – Hamas and Hezbollah – that are bent on the destruction of the United States. And he said that the defense of Israel is a central tenet of American foreign policy. When I asked him why he is so concerned about Iranian threats against Israel, he said – in a statement that will surely placate Jewish voters who are particularly concerned about existential threats facing Israel – “The United States of America has committed itself to never allowing another Holocaust.”

Quite a bit drier and doing a lot of question-dodging, McCain mainly answers questions about his plan for engaging Iran and says the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is not a “constant sore,” as Obama said, but “a national security challenge.”

Huh?

Here’s the transcript, and a humorous exchange after McCain interpreted a question as probing for criticism of President Bush. (Yeah, he doesn’t deserve that. He’s the president!).

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May 30, 2008 | 12:05 pm

Jumping for Jesus in a house filled with Jews

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

Karen Lyons kept smacking my leg and acting as if she was going to jump out of her seat. She’s a church-going Christian from Pacific Palisades, married to a

temple-attending Jew, and she’s prone to such reactions when asked why she loves Israel and what she thinks of those who criticize its actions.

“It makes me physically ill, because that is not the Word of God. God have mercy on their souls because they are ignorant,” she said. “He says pray for the peace of Jerusalem. Pray for the peace of Jerusalem! That is where he is coming back!”

That is the beginning of a column I wrote this week about a large interfaith celebration of Israel, organized by the Israel Christian Nexus and sponsored by the Jewish Federation and Israeli consulate, at L.A.‘s Forum last week. You can read the rest here.

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May 30, 2008 | 11:11 am

Obama sure knows how to pick ‘em

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

Father Michael Pfleger steps onto the stage about 00:35 in this undated video, offering what looks like more of the same from Barack Obama’s home church. This diss of Hillary Clinton is what’s gotten Pfleger into trouble and again turned national attention Obama’s pastor problems:

“She just always thought that, ‘This is mine. I’m Bill’s wife. I’m white.’ ... And then, out of nowhere, came ‘Hey, I’m Barack Obama.” And she said, ‘Oh damn, where did you come from? I’m white. I’m entitled. There’s a black man stealing my show,’” Pfleger said at Trinity United Church of Christ.

He then went on to parody Clinton, sobbing and wiping his face with a handkerchief.

“She wasn’t the only one crying,” he said. “There was a whole lot of white people crying.”

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May 30, 2008 | 10:17 am

Muslims leading the war on terror

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

FaithWorld recently had a post worth reading about how Indian Muslims are fighting the anti-jihad jihad. A snippet:

Apparently a “Movement Against Terrorism” has been created by clerics to exhort imams to use Friday prayers at mosques across India to speak out against terrorism.

This was no flash in the pan. Earlier this year, tens of thousands of clerics and students from around India attended a meeting near Delhi at the 150-year-old Darool-Uloom Deoband — whose strict interpretation of Islamic law is said to have inspired the Taliban in Afghanistan — and denounced terrorism as against Islam.

This is good news, similar to what Lord Hameed said last month and Maher Hathout voiced in February, and it is what we should expect, even if too many Muslims miss this point. Last year’s train bombing was orchestrated by Pakistanis—that is some seriously bad blood—and much of the religious violence in India has been Hindu-incited pogroms against Muslims and also recently against Christians. And you thought only Russians knew how menacing a mob riot could be.

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May 29, 2008 | 5:23 pm

In defense of John Hagee

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

I mentioned in a post yesterday that leading Jewish organizations have been mum on the topic of the Rev. John Hagee and his now-infamous Hitler sermon, but that some Jews have rushed to his side.

Doris Wise Montrose, L.A. president of Children of Jewish Holocaust Survivors,  said her father and his friends rarely spoke of the Holocaust without mentioning God’s hand in it. (How do you talk about tragedy, especially on such an enormous scale, without wondering where God was?)

It seems now that Hagee must be the one asking: Why? Why did the public turn against him so hard when his words weren’t universally offensive, even if they were disagreeable?

“What was most breathtaking about the debate over Pastor Hagee’s statements on the Holocaust was the complete absence of one,” David Brog, Hagee’s right-hand who recently discussed theodicy with Haaretz, wrote in an op-ed titled, “The New Inquisition.”

This was not a case where thoughtful arbiters discussed his words in the context of a rich Judeo-Christian tradition of theodicy.  There was no respect given to a quite common worldview.  There was no trial.  We skipped right to the auto da fe.

Breathe in deeply and you can still smell the embers smoldering around Pastor Hagee’s public persona.

The latest pressure is being exerted upon Sen. Joe Lieberman, who agreed to speak during the annual meeting for Hagee’s Christians United for Israel and can be seen in the above video likening Hagee to Moses. A confidant of John McCain, who pushed Hagee aside, Lieberman has refused to cut ties.

“I believe that Pastor Hagee has made comments that are deeply unacceptable and hurtful,” Lieberman said in a statement. “I also believe that a person should be judged on the entire span of his or her life’s works. Pastor Hagee has devoted much of his life to fighting anti-Semitism and building bridges between Christians and Jews.”

So what’s really going on here? Were Hagee’s words hurtful, misrepresented or, on their face, uncontroversial? The always thoughtful Rick Richman of Jewish Current Issues writes that the case is awfully flimsy. He addresses five points, among them Montrose’s letter, the repeated media criticism of Hagee, the pastor’s talk in March at Stephen S. Wise Temple and a bit of theology:

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May 29, 2008 | 4:34 pm

Judicial candidate advocates deporting non-whites

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

Kevin MacDonald meet Bill Johnson. Bill is a handsome man of middle age; he wears fashionable glasses and has a respectable law profession. Bill’s running for an open seat on the L.A. County Superior Court bench, and he seems like your kind of guy. As a judicial candidate, Bill has no campaign platform, but he’s not particularly a fan of minorities and in years past has advocated restricting U.S. citizenship to non-white Hispanics and deporting anyone with even a Jewish great-grandparent. More from this week’s Jewish Journal:

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May 29, 2008 | 3:30 pm

Tales from the Crypt: Stonehenge an ancient cemetery

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

What’s a guy got to do to get a plot at Stonehenge?

At least part of the mystery of Stonehenge may have now been solved: it was from the beginning a monument to the dead.

New radiocarbon dates from human cremation burials in and around brooding stones on Salisbury Plain in England indicate that the site was used as a cemetery from 3000 B. C. well into its zenith around 2500 B.C., British archaeologists reported on Thursday.

What appeared to be the head of a stone mace, a symbol of authority, was found with one of the burials, the archaeologists said, indicating that this was probably a cemetery for the ruling dynasty responsible for erecting Stonehenge.

“It’s now clear that burials were a major component of Stonehenge in all its main stages,” said Mike Parker Pearson, an archaeologist at the University of Sheffield in England.

In a teleconference with reporters, arranged by the National Geographic Society, Dr. Parker Pearson described the three burials of burned bones and teeth that were dated in recent weeks. Researchers estimated that up to 240 people were buried there, all as cremation deposits. Other evidence from the British Isles shows that skeletal burials were rare at this time and that cremation was the custom for the elite.

Another Sheffield archaeologist, Andrew Chamberlain, noted one reason to think that Stonehenge burials were for generations of a single elite family. The clue, he said, is the small number of burials in the earliest period and the larger numbers in later centuries, as offspring would have multiplied.

Given the monumental surroundings, Dr. Parker Pearson said, “One has to assume anyone buried there had some good credentials.”

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May 29, 2008 | 2:05 pm

Even atheists have feelings

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

The Kern County car dealership that ran a radio ad blasting the godless is itself under attack, with critics wondering just how stupid a country-bumpkin Christian could be to dismiss 14 percent of his customer base (actually atheists account for between 3 percent and 10 percent of the U.S. population). But, in fact, Kieffe and Sons employed a tried-and-true marketing approach in this ad:

“Did you know that there are people in this country who want prayer out of schools, “Under God” out of the Pledge, and “In God We Trust” to be taken off our money?

“But did you know that 86 percent of Americans say they believe in God? Now, since we all know that 86 out of every 100 of us are Christians who believe in God, we at Kieffe and Sons Ford wonder why we don’t just tell the other 14 percent to sit down and shut up.

“I guess maybe I just offended 14 percent of the people who are listening to this message. Well, if that is the case, then I say that’s tough; this is America, folks—it’s called free speech. And none of us at Kieffe and Sons Ford are afraid to speak up. Kieffe and Sons Ford on Sierra Highway in Mojave and Rosamond: if we don’t see you today, by the grace of God, we’ll be here tomorrow.”

Rick Kieffe is backpedaling now, which should be no surprise, saying that he can’t recall approving the ad. That’s inconsequential: Kieffe and Sons Ford has already garnered international attention and, no doubt, built some serious rapport with folks who want to support this perceptively righteous battle.

Just another strange story from Kern County.

My wife hails from Bakersfield, and before I visited I always assumed it was a backward place. Having read “Mean Justice” and the “Lords of Bakersfield” series, which discussed at length a district attorney, Ed Jagels, who built his career prosecuting child-molestation rings that imprisoned dozens but never actually existed, who would disagree?

In fact, it’s a pretty decent place, a blazing hot suburb of nowhere, surrounded by the hilariously named Pumpkin Center and Weed Patch. (Disclosure: My mother-in-law has long been involved with the Chamber of Commerce and I am the owner of a coffee mug that states, “Bakersfield—Life as it should be.”)

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May 29, 2008 | 11:40 am

Livni joins chorus urging Israel’s Olmert to step down

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni’s statement today that it’s time for PM Ehud Olmert to step down and for their Kadima Party to move on was expected and well deserved. It was also a bit disingenuous.

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May 29, 2008 | 10:25 am

Why the Religious Right won’t forsake McCain

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

John McCain is a lucky man. He’s alienated what has become an important part of the Republican Party—conservative Christians—by shoving aside the Revs. John Hagee (Hitler remarks) and Rod Parsley (general nuttiness) and staying mum on California’s Supreme Court ruling in favor of gay marriage. And yet he appears at worse in a dead heat with Barack Obama, maybe better.

How can this be? Well, Ed Stoddard writes for Reuters that McCain has a trump card guaranteeing the Religious Right’s vote:

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May 29, 2008 | 12:47 am

Starbucks and the Holocaust

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

Fortunately, Starbucks hasn’t been around long enough for this to be one of those stories.

Speaking to MBA students at UCLA today, Starbucks Chairman and CEO Howard Schultz, I was told, related business ethics, and his brand’s success, to compassion during the Holocaust. Schultz is a dedicated Jew—his company was boycotted because of a fabricated letter that claimed buying a latte supported Zionism—and he pulled a lesson from what an Israeli rabbi had shared with him and a group of American men on a recent visit.

The rabbi explained that when Jews arrived at the concentration camps, blankets were only given to every sixth man (I’m not certain about the veracity of this statement, but that is irrelevant). Auschwitz wasn’t exactly in a tropical setting, and these blankets were in high demand. But despite needing the warmth, the men lucky enough to receive a blanket were prone to share with their fellow prisoners.

This, Schultz said, was the human condition. We desire social connection, and we want to help those we perceive as suffering. It’s a reason, he said, that employees and customers enjoy the Third Place environment that Starbucks created. And it’s a reminder—out-of-business Joe Coffee Shop owner may want to stop reading now—to look out for the little guy in your industry.

No doubt this is a healthy lesson for UCLA’s future business leaders. And the fact that Schultz was the one to share it only means it will stick. But is it true? Is the human condition really one of compassion?

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