December 6, 2011 | 6:50 pm

News from 2006: Jewish woman reportedly beaten for not moving to back of bus in Israel

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

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UPDATED: Mea culpa on my part. It turns out that this story is from 2006. That makes it no less disgusting, but it’s certainly not a burning issue. The date for the story was 15.12.06, but, in a hurry, I read that as December 6. Daniel Sieradski mentioned it today to make a point about Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar’s comment that haredi treat Jewish women “like queens and princesses.”

Not surprisingly, the norm on the bus serving the Orthodox Jews of Brooklyn has counterparts in Israel. Haaretz reports:

Miriam Shear says she was traveling to pray at the Western Wall in Jerusalem’s Old City early on November 24 when a group of ultra-Orthodox (Haredi) men attacked her for refusing to move to the back of the Egged No. 2 bus. She is now in touch with several legal advocacy and women’s organizations, and at the same time, waiting for the police to apprehend her attackers.

In her first interview since the incident, Shear says that on the bus three weeks ago, she was slapped, kicked, punched and pushed by a group of men who demanded that she sit in the back of the bus with the other women. The bus driver, in response to a media inquiry, denied that violence was used against her, but Shear’s account has been substantiated by an unrelated eyewitness on the bus who confirmed that she sustained an unprovoked “severe beating.”

Read the rest here.

I’m sure some of my loyal readers will think I’m picking on Israel, having followed up the bad-brand post with this one. Far from it. This is all part of the healthy conversation and criticisms that should take place when people actually care about, and support, a country and its people.

Thanks to Daniel Sieradski for sharing the link.

December 5, 2011 | 11:30 am

Survey says: Israel has a bad public image

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

The National Brands Index reports that Israel is the worst brand name in the world. Maybe you’re more shocked than me.

Israel Today magazine reports:

The Index surveyed 25,903 online consumers across 35 countries about their perceptions of those countries across six areas of national competence: Investment and Immigration, Exports, Culture and Heritage, People, Governance and Tourism. The NBI is the first analytical ranking of the world’s nation brands.

“Israel’s brand is by a considerable margin the most negative we have ever measured in the NBI, and comes at the bottom of the ranking on almost every question,” states report author Simon Anholt.

Read the rest here.

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December 4, 2011 | 9:56 pm

Eddie Long, troubled pastor, to stop preaching

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

Once the head of a vast media empire built on the gospel of wealth, Eddie Long’s fall from grace was quick. Last fall he was accused of sexually abusing teenage boys under his care, which lead to becoming the leading candidate for worst pastor of 2010 and some time away from the pulpit while settling the lawsuits.

Now Long is stepping away again, at least from his preaching duties. The New York Times reports that the move is to save his marriage, after his wife filed for divorce Thursday before recanting Friday.

Today Long told his dwindling congregation. From the NYT:

“Vanessa and I are working together in seeking God’s will in our current circumstances,” Bishop Long, 58, said in a statement issued by the church, New Birth Missionary Baptist Church.

During services on Sunday, he told congregants that he was still their senior pastor and would continue to provide spiritual direction, but that he needed time to take care of “some family business.” Members attending services pledged support and said they would stay until his return.

But that support does not include the many who have left New Birth Missionary, like Valencia Miller:

“The church needs a cleansing,” she said. “I’m real disappointed. He was a man we all looked up to.”

I’m not reveling in Long’s personal problems. But I can certainly understand, and share, Miller’s sentiment.

The reality, though, is that New Birth Missionary will never go back to the way it was. A lot of things lead religious congregations to split. Having the minister accused of sexual abuse has to be among the more difficult to reconcile because I’m sure that those who remained felt that those who left were disloyal to Long and New Birth Missionary.

Read the rest from the NYT here.

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December 4, 2011 | 8:42 pm

Benny Hinn: Let the Bodies Hit the Floor

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

I’m a little late to this one, but still really worth sharing. Thanks, Torch.

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December 4, 2011 | 3:50 pm

Pentagon lifts ban on Bibles in military hospital

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

On Sept. 14, a memo from the chief of staff at Walter Reed Army Medical Center told hospital staff: “No religious items (i.e. Bibles, reading material, and/or artifacts) are allowed to be given away or used during a visit.”

U.S. Rep. Steve King of Iowa took issue with this prohibition Friday, noting that it would prevent visitors from reading the Bible to sick family members or friends and could prevent dying patients from receiving their Last Rites. And the Obama Administration responded by dropping the policy.

Beliefnet reports:

“The instructions about the Bibles and reading material have been rescinded,” said Sandy Dean, a public affairs officer for Walter Reed. “We appreciate Congressman King bringing this to our attention. We don’t want our instructions to be ambiguous.”
King said the military has some explaining to do.

“I don’t think there’s any excuse for it and there’s no talking it away,” he told reporters. “The very existence of this, whether it’s enforced or not, tells you what kind of a mindset is there. The idea that these soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines that have fought to defend our Constitution, and that includes our First Amendment rights to religious liberty – would be denied that religious liberty when they are lying in a hospital bed recovering from wounds incurred while defending that liberty is the most bitter and offensive type of an irony that I can think of.”

Read more here.

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December 3, 2011 | 1:53 pm

Dog shoots man

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

One of the first things that journalism students learn is to avoid news of the dog-bites-man variety. There is nothing new about that. Man bites dog, now that would be a story.

But what about dog shoots man?

The story from Salt Lake Tribune:

“One of the hunters was inside the boat with the dog, and the other hunter was in the water,” Potter said. “The guy in the water had put his 12-gauge shotgun across the bow of their boat.”

It turned out to be a doggone recipe for a painful end to the day’s outing.

“The dog got excited, was jumping around inside the boat and then it jumped on the gun. It went off, shooting the [decoy setter] in the buttocks,” Potter said.

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December 2, 2011 | 8:41 pm

News anchor: Santa doesn’t exist, get over it

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

Bah humbug!

A Chicago news anchor surprised some parents and potentially confused some children when she announced during a nightly newscast that Santa Claus doesn’t exist.

Robin Robinson, an anchor at Fox Chicago, responded to a segment about managing gift expectations of children during Christmas by saying that they should know there is no Santa Claus.

“Stop trying to convince your kids that Santa is Santa,” Robinson said to co-anchor Bob Sirott during a segment Tuesday night. “That’s why they have these high expectations. They know you can’t afford it, so what do they do? Just ask some man in a red suit. There is no Santa.”

That story is from ABC News, and it’s pretty tragic.

For anyone who needs their faith restored, just read “Yes, Virginia,” the most reprinted editorial in history.

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December 1, 2011 | 2:23 pm

Small Kentucky church votes to bar interracial couples from membership

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

In 2011, how is it possible that a church could vote to not accept interracial couples as members?

Gulnare Freewill Baptist Church, a small church in rural Pike County, Ky., reportedly did just that.

The issue began this summer, after the daughter of the longtime church secretary and clerk, who is white, led a worship song at the church with her fiancee, who is from Zimbabwe. The pastor at the time, Melvin Thompson, said the two couldn’t lead worship again.

Thompson later stepped down, citing health reasons. But that wasn’t the end of it.

The Kentucky Herald-Leader reports:

In early November, Thompson proposed the church go on record saying that while all people were welcome to attend public worship services there, the church did not condone interracial marriage, according to a copy of the recommendation supplied by the Harvilles.

The proposal also said “parties of such marriages will not be received as members, nor will they be used in worship services” or other church functions, with the exception of funerals.

The recommendation “is not intended to judge the salvation of anyone, but is intended to promote greater unity among the church body and the community we serve,” the copy supplied to the Herald-Leader read.

Truly shocking and indefensible.

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