May 25, 2012 | 4:02 pm

Another federal judge strikes down DOMA

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

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In other same-sex marriage news, a second federal judge has overturned the Defense of Marriage Act as unconstitutional. The San Francisco Chronicle reports:

The decision by U.S. District Judge Claudia Wilken of Oakland was the second by a Bay Area judge this year to strike down the Defense of Marriage Act, the 1996 law withholding more than 1,000 federal benefits - such as joint tax filing, Social Security survivor payments and immigration sponsorship - from gays and lesbians legally married under state law.

Wilken also overturned another 1996 law that denied federal tax benefits to long-term health insurance plans for state employees if they included domestic partners.

That law, like the Defense of Marriage Act, was based on “moral condemnation and social disapprobation of same-sex couples,” she said. She cited assertions during congressional debate that same-sex domestic partnership was “an attack on the family” and would “undermine the traditional moral values that are the bedrock of this nation.”

Read the rest here and Judge Wilken’s full opinion here.

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May 24, 2012 | 9:49 pm

Maryland high court OKs same-sex divorce

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

Maryland does not recognize same-sex marriage, but last week the state’s highest court said that if a same-sex couple legally married in another state sought a divorce in Maryland court, then Maryland would have to grant it. From the ABA Journal:

The court, in a 7-0 ruling (PDF), said Maryland courts should withhold recognition of a valid foreign marriage only if that marriage is “repugnant” to state public policy. It said that threshold is a high bar that had not been met in the case before it.

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“A valid out-of-state same-sex marriage should be treated by Maryland courts as worthy of divorce, according to the applicable statutes, reported cases, and court rules of this state,” Judge Glenn T. Herrell wrote for the court.

What caught my eye was the court’s saying that a same-sex marriage was not repugnant to state public policy—even though state public policy does not permit same-sex marriage. If this logic was in fact flawed, it would be odd coming from a 7-0 decision.

Possibly the rationale is that though same-sex marriage is against Maryland public policy, recognizing it does not rise to the level of being “repugnant” and, furthermore, it is balanced against the public policy interest in not forcing an unhappy couple to remain married.

But what the Maryland high court right to do this?

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May 24, 2012 | 2:43 pm

Help wanted: Chinese company seeks tall, white, Harvard-educated, male Jew

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

Beijing. Photo by Wikipedia/Vera Buhl

Remember how excited Christians were about the book “Jewish Wisdom for Business Success”?

Well, that book won’t suffice for a Chinese company. No, they’re looking for their own tall, white, Jewish male who attended Harvard and speaks fluent Mandarin. An excerpt of the job-posting email received by a writer for the Foreign Policy blog:

The first requirement of the job is that you must be an advanced Mandarin Chinese speaker, since the meetings will all be with Chinese people. Also men only, no females. The other requirement is that you must have some sort of background that Chinese people typically value. My contact is (deleted) and is slightly obsessed with Jewish people and thinks they are the smartest, so he naturally prefers this person to be Jewish. If he can’t get someone Jewish, he would also like someone who went to a famous university—Harvard, Yale, etc. Besides those 2 qualifications, I’m sure he’d be happy with someone who has some sort of connection to someone famous or important, or maybe someone who is really tall and handsome. Basically any characteristic that Chinese people are impressed by - he is looking for in this person.

Who knew the Chinese were obsessed with Jews? In fact, I thought China was obsessed with Hitler. Sounds like this is all just about money-making stereotypes. A little background on that here and here.

The email also said they’re looking to hire someone with a “‘white face’ to give some more credibility to the project.” Yowza.

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May 23, 2012 | 7:19 pm

Former Dodger great Shawn Green to play for Israel in World Baseball Classic

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

Shawn Green. Photo by Wikipedia/Wknight94

Shawn Green, as famous for not playing baseball for the Dodgers on Yom Kippur as he is for bagging 19 bases in one game, is pushing 40. But he isn’t done playing baseball.

Though Green hasn’t played in the Majors since 2007, he’s going to be hitting for Israel in the 2013 World Baseball Classic. From The Jewish Journal:

Green will turn 40 on Nov. 10, and it remains to be seen how well he will perform after five years away from the game. He certainly has the bona fides. He hit 40 or more home runs three times, including 49 in 2001. He collected at least 100 RBIs four times, scored at least 100 runs four times and led the league in doubles, extra-base hits and total bases.

Fellow Member of the Tribe Brad Ausmus is the team’s manager.

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May 22, 2012 | 10:28 am

More on evangelicals shifting views on same-sex marriage

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

After President Obama announced his support for same-sex marriage, I mentioned Cathleen Falsani’s “Great Gay Awakening” piece from the Huffington Post.

Christianity Today, which has the best pulse on evangelical Christians, also discussed the shifting sands of evangelical attitudes toward same-sex marriage, focusing more on surveys than liberalizing voices. Sarah Pulliam Bailey and Tobin Grant reported:

With changing attitudes toward homosexuality comes greater acceptance of same-sex marriage as a legal right. When the survey asked in the early 1990s if “homosexual couples should have the right to marry one another,” most Americans disagreed. By 1998, however, attitudes began to change. Opposition among evangelicals dropped from 90 percent to 76 percent within the same decade. The drop among non-evangelical white Americans fell from 68 percent to 46 percent. In 2010, those disagreeing that gay couples have a right to marry shrank further. Still opposed, two-thirds of evangelicals disagree that gay couples have the right to marry, compared to three in ten of other Americans.

A recent poll from LifeWay Research asked, “Do you believe homosexual behavior is a sin?“Overall, Americans are evenly split with 44 percent saying yes, 43 percent saying no, and the remaining saying they are not sure. Among evangelicals, however, 85 percent said “homosexual behavior is a sin.” The LifeWay poll also asked whether knowing that a church taught that homosexuality was sinful would make people more or less likely to attend. Half of those who believe homosexuality is sinful said that they would feel more positively toward a church that believed homosexuality was sinful.

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While evangelicals appear to be moving toward greater acceptance of marriage as a legal right, they still oppose the idea of same-sex marriage.

The why is what I don’t understand.

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May 21, 2012 | 9:03 pm

First anniversary of the day the world ended

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

Thanks to the Friendly Atheist for the friendly reminder that today is the first anniversary of the day the world ended.

Of course, the world didn’t end then, or later in October, as Harold Camping predicted. This past March, Camping said his predictions were “incorrect and sinful.”

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May 21, 2012 | 8:29 pm

Ultra Orthodox Jews rally at Citi Field to discuss ills of Internet

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

Who’s afraid of the World Wide Web? Well, plenty of Ultra Orthodox Jews. That’s why tens of thousands of black-hatted Jews filled into Citi Field Sunday: to discuss the ills of the Internet.

From the NYT:

The organizers had allowed only men to buy tickets, in keeping with ultra-Orthodox tradition of separating the sexes. Viewing parties had been arranged in Orthodox neighborhoods of Brooklyn and New Jersey so that women could watch, too.

For the attendees, many of whom said they came at the instructions of their rabbis, it was a chance to hear about a moral topic considered gravely important in their community: the potential problems that can stem from access to pornography and other explicit content on the uncensored, often incendiary Web.

Inside the stadium, a dais was set up by the back wall of center field, where rabbis led the packed stadium in evening prayers and offered heated exhortations to avoid the “filth” that can be found on the Internet.

Of course, plenty of Ultra Orthodox Jews use the Internet. I mean, it’s not like they’re sending nothing but snail mail.

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May 21, 2012 | 6:37 pm

Richard Dawkins wants your kids to read the Bible

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

Richard Dawkins. Photo by Wikipedia/Kvonnegut

It’s no mystery that Richard Dawkins, aka Dicky Dawkins, is no fan of religion. In fact, he’s a quite vocal opponent. So why does he want your kids to read the Bible?

To appreciate as a work of literature, not, unsurprisingly, as sacred truth or a moral guide. Dawkins writes in The Guardian:

A native speaker of English who has never read a word of the King James Bible is verging on the barbarian. In the week after the 2011 census, my UK Foundation commissioned Ipsos MORI to poll those who had ticked the Christian box. Among other things, we asked them to identify the first book of the New Testament from a choice of Matthew, Genesis, Acts of the Apostles, Psalms, “Don’t know” and “Prefer not to say”. Only 35% chose Matthew and 39% chose “Don’t know” (and 1%, mysteriously, chose “Prefer not to say”). These figures, to repeat, don’t refer to British people at large but only to those who self-identified, in the census, as Christians.

European history, too, is incomprehensible without an understanding of the warring factions of Christianity and the book over whose subtleties of interpretation they were so ready to slaughter and torture each other. Does the eucharistic bread merely symbolise the body of Jesus or does it become his body, in true “substance” if not “accidental” DNA? Prolonged wars have been fought over how we should interpret the words allegedly uttered at the Last Supper. Three bishops were burned alive just outside my bedroom window in my old Oxford college for giving the unapproved answer. Centuries-long schisms were based on nothing more serious than the question of whether Jesus is both God and his son, or just his (very important) son. Even bloodier wars were fought against a rival religion that sees him not as God’s son at all but just reveres him as a prophet.

Read the rest here.

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May 17, 2012 | 11:03 am

‘So what does he do with all those foreskins?’

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

Talk about lines you never expected to see in a daily newspaper ... In an article in the Houston Chronicle about a retired doctor now working as a mohel, Uriel Heilman writes about the common questions Max Mintz hears and says this: “So what does he do with all those foreskins?”

Even in writing last summer about The Circumcision Wars, I didn’t come across that question. Here’s the answer:

It depends, he says, on what the parents want.

Some ask that it be buried, in accordance with Jewish tradition, and it ends up in a pot of soil or in the backyard. Others want to keep it, and Mintz hands it over wrapped in a piece of aluminum foil. Most parents forget about it, though, and Mintz simply disposes of it.

“According to Jewish religious tradition, if you cut your arm off, you bury it so it comes back to you during the resurrection of the dead,” Mintz says. “But you don’t need your foreskin back. You can just throw it away. But if they want me to bury it - no problem, I have plenty of places to put it.”

Read the rest here.

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May 16, 2012 | 7:46 pm

Pacquiao condemns gay marriage as an affront to God

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

In an interview on the examiner.com website, world champion boxer Manny Pacquiao, who is Roman Catholic, said he didn’t agree with President Obama’s support for gay marriage and proceeded to reference Leviticus:

“God only expects man and woman to be together and to be legally married, only if they so are in love with each other.”

“It should not be of the same sex so as to adulterate the altar of matrimony, like in the days of Sodom and Gomorrah of Old.”

Those remarks have drawn criticism, in part because originally it was believed that Pacquaio had directly quoted Leviticus 20:13 in the interview:

“If a man lies with a man as one lies with a woman, both of them have done what is detestable. They must be put to death; their blood will be on their own heads.”

But today the interviewer said that Pacquiao never quoted Leviticus—he added that to provide the biblical context.

Pacquaio also responded to the Associated Press with a some-of-my-best-friends-are-gay comment:

“I’m not against the gay people,” Pacquiao said. “I’m not condemning them. ... I have a cousin (who is) gay. I have relatives (who are) gay. I have a lot of friends (who are) gay, so I’m not condemning gays. What I said is I’m not in favor of same-sex marriage. That’s the one thing I said to the guy.

“I told (the reporter) I’m against same-sex marriage,” Pacquiao added. “He said, ‘Why?’ I said, ‘It’s the law of God.’ That’s all I said.”

Read more from the AP here.

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May 16, 2012 | 11:52 am

Public teacher rants about being Mary Magdalene, marrying God

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

And I thought the gold-teeth-from-God story was bizarre. In San Benito, Texas, a ninth grade teacher has been removed from the classroom after subjecting students at her public school to a 12-minute rant about her belief that Jesus had a romantic relationship with Mary Magdalene and that this unidentified teacher was Mary Magdalene incarnate.

From Kate Shellnutt at the Houston Chronicle:

“I am married to God, and I don’t know what’s going to happen to my husband that’s here (on earth). One of my eyes is mine and the other one belongs to God, so God is watching what you all are doing.”

More from the Houston Press:

She said that an army of God was coming to destroy this world on December 21, 2012, but not to worry, because Jesus had created another planet that was more beautiful than this one, a Utopia full of waterfalls where everybody was always 25 years old, where money does not exist, but Christmas does, complete with Santa Claus.

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She says that she loves Jesus and that they will be getting married one day and that she will give birth to their child once she gets to heaven. She says that though she has never met Jesus, the two of them spoke daily and he kept her up all night with his conversation.

The rant, captured on a student’s cell phone and shared on YouTube, can be seen at the top of this post. It starts in English and then transitions into Spanish.

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May 16, 2012 | 10:18 am

Jesus makes another bid for president?

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

Photo by Wikipedia/Francisco Ribalta

Four years ago, there was the Jesus for President campaign, through which a progressive Christian urged other Christians to vote based on environmental and social justice issues, not abortion and homosexuality. This election season there is a very different “Vote for Jesus” effort being led by Internet evangelist Bill Keller, who five years ago lost his TV program for slamming Islam.

The Christian Post reports on Keller’s disgust for Romney and Obama:

Keller, who in the past has compared the choice between Romney and Obama as “flipping a coin where Satan is on both sides,” explained in an exclusive interview with The Christian Post on Friday that Christians can play a big part in the future of America by making a statement vote by writing in “Jesus” on their ballots, instead of choosing “the lesser of two evils.”

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“This is not about politics, it is about THE ETERNAL SOULS OF MEN! A true Christian will NEVER put politics above souls, so please watch for any so-called Christian leader who endorses and supports either President Obama or Mitt Romney, since they are nothing but ‘hirelings’ and NOT true men or women of God since they obviously don’t care about souls!” Keller expressed in a written statement on the Vote for Jesus website.

This is not the first time an evangelical has said Romney is not guided by God or that Obama is part of Satan’s plan (and Justin Bieber is too). But, beyond that, I get the feeling—a sneaking suspicion—that Keller doesn’t understand the role of the president of the United States.

Jesus is, indeed, a perennially popular write-in candidate. And this is not the first time that an individual or organization has encouraged voters to write-in Jesus rather than vote for a name on the ballot.

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