August 31, 2009 | 11:04 am

Mmmmm ... Reese’s Jesus Buddha Cups

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

Follow me on

Introducing ... Reese’s Jesus Buddha Cups.

“Two great faiths in one candy bar.”

A little Monday morning humor from The Secret Sandwich.

August 30, 2009 | 3:48 pm

Questions about the ‘Seinfeld’ reunion

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

You’ve heard a “Seinfeld” reunion was coming to “Curb Your Enthusiasm.” And now a few more details emerge in this week’s issue of Entertainment Weekly, which reunites the Big Four cast members on the cover with co-creator Larry David and doesn’t give Michael Richards the Dustin Diamond treatment. The scoop from EW:

When David approached Seinfeld about a reunion plot on Curb in spring 2008, the comedian wasn’t terribly worried about mucking around with the legacy of his beloved nine-season show. “The idea of working with Larry was just too overwhelmingly appealing to me, and [Curb] is such a great show,” he says.  “There was a little part of me that said, ‘Do we really want to tamper?’…But to hell with it.  How much damage can you really do?”

Over at Primetime Jew, Jay Firestone lists the top five “Seinfeld” reunion questions:

1) What’s the deal with prison?
2) How many prison job’s did George manage to get fired from?
3) Did Bob Sacamano ever visit?
4) Did Puddy wait?
5) Did Newman’s reign over humanity officially commence at the start of Jerry’s most unfortunate demise?

Larry Jew is after the jump:

1 Comments — Leave your comment

August 29, 2009 | 12:05 pm

Ted Kennedy’s ‘quiet faith’

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

Forget Chappquiddick, Ted Kennedy is being remembered as a saint. But what about his quiet Catholicism? I talked about it Wednesday; tmatt has more here. And then there’s this story from CNN:

Sen. Edward “Ted” Kennedy didn’t wear his faith on his sleeve, but those close to him say Catholicism was much more than an ethnic and cultural identity.

(skip)

The Rev. Gerry Creedon, a priest at St. Charles Borromeo Catholic Church near Washington, counseled Kennedy for more than 30 years. He was chosen to deliver the opening prayer at Friday night’s “Celebration of Life” memorial service.

Asked if he considered Kennedy a religious man, Creedon said, “Very much so.”

Kennedy not only attended Sunday Mass, Creedon said, but also sought him out to discuss the tenets of Catholicism.

“Most people sat there either disagreeing with me or sleeping. I’d walk out of church, and Ted Kennedy would come up to me and continue the theme I was preaching on,” he said.

It doesn’t do much more to enlighten, but you can read the rest here.

1 Comments — Leave your comment

August 28, 2009 | 9:53 am

The role of religion in kidnap case

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

Talk about an unbelievable story:

A woman who was kidnapped as an 11-year-old in 1991 was reunited with her family on Thursday after the police here arrested two suspects in the case and discovered a hidden compound where she had apparently been kept for nearly two decades.

This is such an unbelievable development that I was planning on blogging about it even though I suspected it had any religious angle. But then I read down in the New York Times story and, sadly, I found this:

The break in the case came Tuesday afternoon when a University of California, Berkeley, police officer noticed Mr. Garrido trying to hand out religious literature on campus and asked him for identification. A check of police databases revealed that Mr. Garrido, 58, was on parole.

Passing out religious literature on campus ... Whaaaaat?!

More on this later at GetReligion.

0 Comments — Leave your comment

August 27, 2009 | 5:01 pm

Asking God to keep swine flu away

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

Swine flu has not spared Israel, which is why earlier this month a group of rabbis boarded a plane that flew over Israel as they prayed to keep the non-kosher influenza away. Conan O’Brien picks up on this in the above video.

Thanks for the tip, Guy.

1 Comments — Leave your comment

August 27, 2009 | 11:57 am

God and hurricanes

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

It’s typically humbling to look back and read stories you wrote years before. My favorite point of reference for this exercise if a Halloween column I wrote for the Daily Bruin when I was its business editor. Scary.

Another worthy example is a story I wrote on the heels of Hurricane Katrina, which flooded New Orleans four years ago this week. The focus of my story was theodicy—the attempt to understand God’s goodness in light of all the pain in this world. And, as I mentioned, this is not among the better stories I’ve written. But on this occasion, it’s worth mentioning.

Here’s an excerpt:

A natural disaster is, for many, the ultimate test of faith. For others, it is dramatic validation that either God doesn’t exist or that he is a sadistic supreme being.

In the past year, humanity has been rocked by a tsunami-spawning earthquake, two monster hurricanes in the U.S. Gulf Coast and the massive quake in Pakistan. In 2003, Southern Californians fell into their own hell when wildfires raged from Ventura County to eastern San Diego County, including the San Bernardino and San Gabriel mountains.

“If there was a God, how come he let all that happen?’ Tom Cotton, 51, of Pinion Hills asked while finishing a burger at a Carl’s Jr. in San Bernardino.

“If it’s his plan,’ Cotton said, scanning the restaurant as if he was going to curse, “he’s sure got a messed-up plan.’

God only knows what that plan might be.

“If God is wiser than we, His judgment must differ from ours on many things, and not least on good and evil,’ C.S. Lewis, the Christian philosopher and children’s author, wrote in “The Problem of Pain.’ “What seems to us good may therefore not be good in His Eyes, and what seems to us to be evil may not be evil.’

Lewis begins the book by stating that when he was an atheist, he, too, believed God was either cruel or a farce.

“If you ask me to believe that this is the work of a benevolent and omnipotent spirit, I reply that all the evidence points in the opposite direction.’

You can read the rest here. And let me know what you think about God and suffering in the comments section below.

0 Comments — Leave your comment

August 26, 2009 | 12:08 pm

Ted Kennedy, liberal lion and Camelot Catholic, is dead

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

You’ve likely heard by now that the great senator from Massachusetts, Edward Kennedy, has died.

Kennedy, who succumbed last night after a year-long fight with brain cancer, was a stalwart of the Senate, it’s third-longest serving member, and an iconic figure in American Catholicism. Certainly not the most pious, but among the most recognizable.

Over at GetReligion, tmatt goes so far as to ask readers a true-or-false question: “Based on the information available in the mainstream press coverage of his death, Edward Kennedy is the most influential American Catholic political leader in our nation’s history.”

I’m neither quick to agree or disagree. What fascinates me is the degree to which Kennedy was a practicing Catholic. We may never know. But, much in the same way that high-profile or newsworthy Jewish Americans are identified more by their tribal affiliations than their personal beliefs, Kennedy was a liberal Catholic and the last living prince of Camelot.

Truly, this is the end of an era.

In light of Kennedy’s passing, David Brody of Christian Broadcasting Network excerpted some quotes from a 1983 speech at the late Rev. Jerry Falwell’s Liberty Baptist College titled “Faith, Truth and Tolerance in America” (seen above):

“I have come here to discuss my beliefs about faith and country, tolerance and truth in America. I know we begin with certain disagreements; I strongly suspect that at the end of the evening some of our disagreements will remain. But I also hope that tonight and in the months and years ahead, we will always respect the right of others to differ, that we will never lose sight of our own fallibility, that we will view ourselves with a sense of perspective and a sense of humor. After all, in the New Testament, even the Disciples had to be taught to look first to the beam in their own eyes, and only then to the mote in their neighbor’s eyes.I am mindful of that counsel. I am an American and a Catholic; I love my country and treasure my faith. But I do not assume that my conception of patriotism or policy is invariably correct, or that my convictions about religion should command any greater respect than any other faith in this pluralistic society. I believe there surely is such a thing as truth, but who among us can claim a monopoly on it?”

“There are those who do, and their own words testify to their intolerance. For example, because the Moral Majority has worked with members of different denominations, one fundamentalist group has denounced Dr. Falwell for hastening the ecumenical church and for “yoking together with Roman Catholics, Mormons, and others.” I am relieved that Dr. Falwell does not regard that as a sin, and on this issue, he himself has become the target of narrow prejudice. When people agree on public policy, they ought to be able to work together, even while they worship in diverse ways. For truly we are all yoked together as Americans, and the yoke is the happy one of individual freedom and mutual respect.”

“The separation of church and state can sometimes be frustrating for women and men of religious faith. They may be tempted to misuse government in order to impose a value which they cannot persuade others to accept. But once we succumb to that temptation, we step onto a slippery slope where everyone’s freedom is at risk. Those who favor censorship should recall that one of the first books ever burned was the first English translation of the Bible. As President Eisenhower warned in 1953, “Don’t join the book burners…the right to say ideas, the right to record them, and the right to have them accessible to others is unquestioned—or this isn’t America.” And if that right is denied, at some future day the torch can be turned against any other book or any other belief. Let us never forget: Today’s Moral Majority could become tomorrow’s persecuted minority.”

“People of conscience should be careful how they deal in the word of their Lord. In our own history, religion has been falsely invoked to sanction prejudice—even slavery—to condemn labor unions and public spending for the poor. I believe that the prophecy, ”The poor you have always with you” is an indictment, not a commandment. And I respectfully suggest that God has taken no position on the Department of Education—and that a balanced budget constitutional amendment is a matter of economic analysis, and not heavenly appeals.

Religious values cannot be excluded from every public issue; but not every public issue involves religious values. And how ironic it is when those very values are denied in the name of religion. For example, we are sometimes told that it is wrong to feed the hungry, but that mission is an explicit mandate given to us in the 25th chapter of Matthew.

Second, we must respect the independent judgments of conscience.

Those who proclaim moral and religious values can offer counsel, but they should not casually treat a position on a public issue as a test of fealty to faith.

A full transcript is here.

In bonus coverage, Rob Eshman, writing at Bloggish, gives a rundown on Kennedy’s impeccable record on Israel.

2 Comments — Leave your comment

August 25, 2009 | 11:58 am

Bernard Madoff’s cancer

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

Yesterday the venerable New York Post reported that Bernard Madoff—yep, $65 billion Bernie from Cell Block C—was dying of cancer. I’m not sure who was the more accomplished conman in this short story: Madoff or the Post’s reportorial standards.

But first, it’s worth considering whether God might punish Madoff for his sins. Here’s what Rabbi David Wolpe said about Madoff back in December:

Maimonides lists sins—following the laws of the Mishna—that cannot be fully forgiven.  Common to most is an inability to make restitution (another example is one who coldly assumes “I’ll sin, be forgiven, sin, be forgiven” etc.).  Madoff cannot conceivably make restitution to the unnumbered he has hurt—from lost personal savings to people dependent on the bone marrow registry whose holdings he squandered.  Perhaps someone of purer soul might be persuaded to find redemption possible for him.  I confess I cannot.

Some have reserved for Madoff a special place in hell. But might God be expediting that sentence?

Well, I tend to believe those days of divine retribution are gone. And Madoff is thus far not proving otherwise. Despite the New York Post’s report, which was confirmed by the Wall Street Journal, the U.S. Bureau of Prisons denied yesterday that Madoff has cancer:

“While the NY Post story is full of inaccuracies, and we can’t specifically address all of them, we can tell you that Bernie Madoff is not terminally ill, and has not been diagnosed with cancer.”

1 Comments — Leave your comment

August 24, 2009 | 4:21 pm

Sarah Silverman and Kabbalah

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

So that’s Kabbalah.

Read more of this post

0 Comments — Leave your comment

August 24, 2009 | 2:46 pm

Jewish Jordan hanging it up

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

There were a flurry of stories about Tamir Goodman this past spring that looked at the fizzled career of the Jewish Jordan 10 years after he exploded onto the scene. Now it looks like Goodman is hanging up his Air Jordan’s.

Just got an email inviting me to Goodman’s retirement press conference next month. In honor, here’s some previously unpublished quotes from the interview I did with Goodman back in April. What most surprised me, and is clearly evident in these comments, is the sense of godly purpose with which Goodman played the game and lived his life:

“I was born with a special Jewish pride,” Goodman said. “I was so eager to show the world that Jewish players could play too. I love that I was created with that.

“When I was six and going to basketball camps, I couldn’t wait to be not only successful but show everyone that I was successful with my kippah on and eating kosher food. I wanted to show everyone not for myself but for the Jewish world.”

He later added: “My biggest blessing that I have always had is being able to grow closer to the Torah and closer to God through the Commandments and it has just helped my basketball in every way. The same type of dedication and faith and hard work and everything that the Torah expects from you, is the same tools that you need to succeed at basketball—hard work, preparation, team work. You can’t just pray in the morning. You have to prepare. There are no days off in Judaism, just like basketball.”

Now it looks like Goodman will be dedicating himself to charity as the new director of the Haifa Hoops for Kids program.

0 Comments — Leave your comment

August 24, 2009 | 12:14 pm

Mormon Church gets a blog

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

The rest of us are living in the 21st century, but the Mormon Church seems to have just discovered blogging as an effective medium for communication:

The blog—at http://newsroom.lds.org/blog/—will include “commentary, additional context, localized stories and background to help the news media and the public better understand news and issues related to the church,” Lyman Kirkland, the department’s manager of social media, wrote on the site.

The information, managed and written by the church’s public-affairs staff, will be “reliable and accurate,” Kirkland wrote, but “should not necessarily be viewed as official statements from the [LDS] Church.”

In addition, the blog’s tone will “more conversational” than the usual LDS news release, he wrote.

E-mails are welcome, but readers generally will not be able to post comments on the site. “From time to time,” Kirkland said in a statement, “we may open comments on some posts.”

The blog can be followed via Facebook, Twitter, e-mail subscription or rss feed.

Big news, I know. Reminds me of when the Israeli consulate joined MySpace.

To be fair, this here blog wasn’t created until 2007 and major institutions, whether we’re talking about the Mormon Church or Coca-Cola (welcome to Twitter!), tend to greet technological changes rather slowly.

0 Comments — Leave your comment

August 23, 2009 | 5:28 pm

John Piper, gays and Lutherans

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

I’m not even an armchair John Piper observer, but the latest musings of the pastor who brought us “Desiring God” pulled me off the couch. Here’s a summary from The New Christians blog:

So yesterday, John Piper once again entered crazy-television-evangelist territory and blamed a small tornado that jumped over Minneapolis and toppled a steeple on Central Lutheran Church on the fact that the ELCA delegate were down the street discussing whether to welcome practicing homosexuals into the clergy. He even implies in his post that the lack of warning by the National Weather Service shows that God cooked up this twister with her his pinky at the last minute.

Of course, this is not new territory for Pastor Piper. He made similar claims to know the Divine Mind after the Minneapolis bridge collapse, the Asian tsunami, and other times ...

All of this is to be expected. Piper’s twisted logic that interprets some natural phenomenon as authored by God to scare sinners while completely ignoring others shocks us, I think, because he otherwise seems like a pretty reasonable fellow.  For words like that to come from bombasts like Falwell and Robertson is to be expected, but Piper somehow seems above that.

But he keeps doing it, so we should no longer be surprised. It’s part of his schtick.

As for that ELCA debate, the largest Lutheran denomination voted to allow gay men and women in committed relationships to serve in the clergy. Over at GetReligion, tmatt questions whether that limits these Lutherans to monogamous relationships.

2 Comments — Leave your comment