August 31, 2011 | 11:19 pm

Fight breaks out at end of Ramadan celebration

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

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Bad times at super phun time, aka Playland Park in Rye, N.Y. A fight broke out there Tuesday and 15 people were arrested when female members of a Muslim group there to celebrate the end of Ramadan were told they couldn’t wear their head coverings on a ride. Here’s the story from The Journal News:

Three accidents on Playland rides that killed two children and a park worker between 2004 and 2007 were unrelated to clothing the victims were wearing. But the headgear ban was among safety rules that went into effect after those deaths.

“It’s a safety issue on rides. If it’s a scarf, you could choke,” Tartaglia said.

It’s unclear exactly how the fight broke out, but sounds like park officials told members of the Muslim group about the ban, which previously had been mentioned to event organizers, about the head-covering ban. “[P]ark officials were in the process of arranging refunds when members of the Muslim group got into a scuffle with each other.”

Read more here.

August 31, 2011 | 9:07 pm

Atheists and the cross in the Ground Zero rubble

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

Caught this on a re-run of “The Daily Show” tonight. Jon Stewart takes issue with the complaints of atheists who don’t want a cross-beam found in the rubble of Ground Zero to remain on the site becomes it has come to have religious meaning for some.

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August 31, 2011 | 6:15 pm

Earthquake a ‘miracle’ for previously deaf man

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

A 75-year-old veteran lost his hearing after he fractured his skull in a fall on Father’s Day. Robert Valderzak was staying at the Veteran’s Hospital in D.C. when the nation’s capital, and Valderzak, were rattled last week by an earthquake that Californians found comically trivial.

Not so for Valderzak. He told ABCNews.com that the earthquake shook him out of his bed and suddenly brought back his hearing:

“It was God’s blessing,” Valderzak told ABCNews.com, his voice shaking with emotion. “It was a miracle for me.”

(skip)

Tests confirmed Valderzak’s significant hearing improvement. But his doctors think they have a medical explanation for the “miracle.”

“He had conductive hearing loss, caused by fluid in his middle ear, as well as loss due to nerve damage,” said Dr. Ross Fletcher, chief of staff at the VA Hospital. “A combination of a drug he was taking and the earthquake event itself likely led to him losing the fluid and gaining back his hearing.”

Like many acts believed to be miracles, Valderzak’s healing has a wholly scientific explanation. But that doesn’t mean it wasn’t an act of God and, more importantly, doesn’t mean that it wasn’t a miracle from Valderzak’s perspective.

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August 30, 2011 | 1:22 pm

Kinky Friedman on 2012 GOP presidential crowd

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

Kinky Friedman says the choice among GOP presidential candidates is between those who don’t believe in evolution and those who don’t believe in Israel.

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August 30, 2011 | 10:18 am

Was God sending a message with DC earthquake and Hurricane Irene?

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

I thought only Pat Robertson, and last week Rabbi Levin, thought that earthquakes and hurricanes were God’s reaction to sinful behavior. But at a rally in Florida on Sunday, Republican presidential candidate Michele Bachmann had this to say, via the St. Pete Times:

“I don’t know how much God has to do to get the attention of the politicians. We’ve had an earthquake; we’ve had a hurricane. He said, ‘Are you going to start listening to me here?’ Listen to the American people because the American people are roaring right now. They know government is on a morbid obesity diet and we’ve got to rein in the spending.”

Somehow, I don’t think the overblown DC earthquake or Hurricane Irene are messages from God to get the finances of our political house in order. Does Bachmann really?

The morning after, her campaign said the Congresswoman was just making a joke:

“Obviously she was saying it in jest,” campaign spokesperson Alice Stewart told TPM in a statement.

That’s believable. In the above video, Bachmann is holding back a laugh while making a related comment. Not really a joke, though, so much as hyperbolic rhetoric.

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August 29, 2011 | 11:47 am

Mickey Mouse Jesus banned in Russia

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

Russia had already banned “South Park” because the show’s religious characters “bore signs of extremist activity.” I guess Russian prosecutors were not a fan of Sea Man.

Now, though, a Russian court has banned Alexander Savko’s depiction of the Sermon on the Mount, with Jesus portrayed by Mickey Mouse. As with “South Park,” the drawing, which was part of an exhibit titled “Forbidden Art,” was considered “extremist.”

The Huffington Post has a little more from the court hearing:

A statement on the prosecutor’s website says, “During the court hearing, it was established that Savko’s technique of uniting the image of Jesus Christ, which is sacred for Christians, and the comical image of Mickey Mouse, which in this situation is vulgar, has turned the graphic work into a caricature of Jesus Christ. The Gospel story is therefore presented by the artist in the form of a comic, which is an extremely cynical and mocking insult to the religious beliefs and feelings of Orthodox Christian believers.”

HuffPo also got this reaction from Savko:

THE PUPROSE OF THIS PAINTING IS NOT ABUSE OF CHRIST AND NOT ABUSE OF CHRISTIANS. THIS IS DISPLAYING OF CURRENT REALITY: THE SUBSTITUTION OF HUMAN SPIRITUAL, MORAL VALUES WITH MASS-CULTURAL VALUES.

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August 29, 2011 | 9:36 am

A vain belief that the earth is the center of the universe

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

While many Christians believe that evolution was part of God’s plan, many others believe that it was not and that Creation took place over seven literal days. It’s understandable why Christians would argue this point. But I can’t imagine why anyone will still hold onto the notion that Earth is the center of the universe.

Manya Brachear of the Chicago Tribune reports about a group of conservative Roman Catholics:

Those promoting geocentrism argue that heliocentrism, or the centuries-old consensus among scientists that Earth revolves around the sun, is a conspiracy to squelch the church’s influence.

“Heliocentrism becomes dangerous if it is being propped up as the true system when, in fact, it is a false system,” said Robert Sungenis, leader of a budding movement to get scientists to reconsider. “False information leads to false ideas, and false ideas lead to illicit and immoral actions — thus the state of the world today.… Prior to Galileo, the church was in full command of the world, and governments and academia were subservient to her.”

Sungenis is no Don Quixote. Hundreds of curiosity seekers, skeptics and supporters attended a conference last fall titled “Galileo Was Wrong. The Church Was Right” near the University of Notre Dame campus in South Bend, Ind.

Sungenis points to Joshua 10:12-14—“The Sun halted in the middle of the sky”—as proof that the universe revolves around the earth. But this passage is typically considered proof of a miracle, not geocentrism.

Read the rest here.

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August 27, 2011 | 9:10 pm

Ramadan winding down; heat going nowhere

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

It’s hot in California and it’s wet on the East Coast. But for Muslims across the United States, it’s hot and dry. Ramadan is winding down, and probably not soon enough for many Muslim Americans, who have been fasting each day from food and water during one of the hottest summers on record.

I recently mentioned an NPR story about observing Ramadan in summer heat. With a little perspective after a few really hot weeks, Reuters has the general Muslim-on-the-street story. An excerpt:

Younger people like Ghaly, 36, who started fasting at age 20, have never seen a Ramadan so hot and with such long fasting hours as this one. At first, he said, Ramadan fell in December, when the daylight lasted about 10 hours.

“By the time I got thirsty, it was time to break my fast,” he said. “It was a piece of cake back then.”

These days, he tries to schedule his outside jobs before Ramadan starts. This month, he and his crew had some brickwork and exterior windows to do. They keep wet towels nearby to cool off and set up canopies and tents when they can.

“Working outside around 1 or 2 p.m., you really start to get thirsty,” he said, “It’s like you’re waiting for that minute where you break your fast, so you can get that first cup of water, which tastes incredible.”

Read the rest here.

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August 26, 2011 | 10:25 am

Observing Shabbat with a hurricane outside

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

Shabbat is approaching on the East Coast, and so is Hurricane Irene. So what’s an observant Jew to do?

The OU offers five protocols for remaining observant during a hurricane. In short: Stay home; assume the eruv is down; and, only when necessary, relight candles or change flashlight batteries. As for TV and radio, the OU had this to say:

TV or radio should be left on in a side room

Channel should not be changed

Volume on radio may be adjusted on Shabbat. Better to keep it on low for it preserves the battery and only raise it when necessary.

Most importantly, stay inside, stay dry and stay safe.

(H/t: Kung Fu Jew 18)

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August 25, 2011 | 12:45 pm

Syrian thugs break hands of political cartoonist

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

This story out of Syria reminds just how awesome having a free press is. The AP reports:

Masked gunmen dragged Syria’s best-known political cartoonist from his car before dawn Thursday, beat him severely and broke both his hands as a warning to stop drawing just days after he compared Syria’s president to Moammar Gadhafi, a relative and activists said.

Hospitalized with serious injuries, 60-year-old Ali Ferzat has become the most famous victim of the repression of Syria’s five-month uprising. The attack on him was a stark reminder that no Syrian is immune to the crackdown.

“This is just a warning,” the gunmen told Ferzat, according to a relative who asked that her name not be used for fear of reprisals. “We will break your hands so that you’ll stop drawing.”

Of course, many have suffered much greater harm than Ferzat in the months since Syrians rose up in revolt against Bashar Al-Assad. More than 2,200 people have been killed since Al-Assad’s thugs, official and unofficial, started their crackdown on protesters.

But maybe Ferzat’s story will resonate more profoundly than all those lost lives.

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August 24, 2011 | 11:08 pm

LA DA moves to have committed former priest convicted of molesting children

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

It’s been a long time since I’ve written about Michael Stephen Baker. The defrocked Catholic priest who sent to prison for molesting boys before I even started The God Blog. But Baker is back.

His prison sentence ended last week, and now Baker is again going to be arraigned—this time in an effort to have him committed indefinitely to a state hospital. As the LA Times reports:

Prosecutors will argue that Baker can be committed under a law that seeks to more stringently keep tabs on sexual offenders and reduce the risk of recidivism, Watson said.

Passed overwhelmingly by voter initiative in 2006, the law mandated evaluations for thousands more sex offenders than in the past to determine whether their conditions warrant hospitalization after criminal sentences have been served.

Lawyers for Baker filed a motion Wednesday to have the petition dismissed. If they are successful, Baker would be released on parole.

Otherwise, a jury of Baker’s peers will decide whether he should be committed. And I don’t think Baker’s peers take kindly to former priests who molested almost two dozen children.

Baker was among the worst offenders in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles. The sex scandal was costly for the church, financially and reputationally. Cardinal Mahony, under whose leadership abuse went on, has retired. But the archdiocese is still dealing with his tainted legacy.

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August 24, 2011 | 3:45 pm

NY rabbi blames gay marriage for DC earthquake

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

It seems like whenever there is a natural disaster, some religious figure blames it on gay marriage. (This one from Pat Robertson is not real.) Following Tuesday’s devastating earthquake in Washington—“We WILL Rebuild”—a New York rabbi repeated that claim. Check it out in the above video.

The HuffPo transcribes:

“The Talmud states, ‘You have shaken your male member in a place where it doesn’t belong. I too, will shake the Earth,’” Levin says.

He also notes that he does not dislike gay people.

“We don’t hate homosexuals,” he says. “I feel bad for homosexuals. It’s a revolt against God and literally, there’s hell to pay.”

Like I said, we’ve heard this one before. But if God really was exacting justice for New York’s gay marriage law, don’t you think he’d choose a bigger earthquake?

As for whether the Talmud really says that, Tzvee’s Talmudic blog says it does. However, with a caveat:

Now not only is this a strange teaching. We must chastise these rabbis for not doing their Talmud homework and for not paying closer attention to the text in Yerushalmi Berakhot (9:2), which several years back we translated and published through the University of Chicago Press.

According to the Talmud text, earthquakes are caused by any one of a number of acts: yes one of them is gay sex, but others are by disputes, and also by not taking heave offering and tithes from your produce, and also because God is just upset that the Temple is in ruins and there are theaters and circuses in Israel.

Rabbis ought to know better than to cherry pick among the Talmudic reasons for earthquakes.

To be sure, I do not think that Rabbi Levin is homophobic, as the headline for the above video says. But the video is relevant to this post and I have no control over that headline.

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