July 11, 2012 | 9:38 pm

Obama more like Lincoln or God?

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

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Speaking of gay marriage and same-sex unions, this was the cover of The Advocate last week. It poses an odd question: For his unequivocal support of gay marriage, is President Obama more like Lincoln or God?

The LGBT-interest magazine left that question open. In fact, though God and Lincoln are evoked by the cover, neither are referenced in the accompanying article. But, for the first time in decades, Obama provided the magazine with “a candidate it can endorse for president.”

July 11, 2012 | 10:10 am

Peres: Settlements bad for the Jews

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

Shimon Peres. Photo by REUTERS/Ammar Awad

Israeli President Shimon Peres said Tuesday that the West Bank settlements are bad for the Jews. JTA reports:

“It is doubtful that a Jewish state without a Jewish majority can remain Jewish,” Peres said, inferring that settlements would lead to the inextricable inclusion of the Palestinians living on the West Bank.

Peres’ remarks were an apparent response to the Levy Committee report, released Sunday, which stated that the West Bank settlements were legal because Israel does not meet the definition, under international law, of a military occupation.

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July 11, 2012 | 9:14 am

Episcopal Church approves liturgy for same-sex unions

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

St. Peter's Episcopal Church in Niagara Falls, NY. Photo by Wikipedia/Billy Hathorn

The Episcopal Church—the U.S. branch of the old Church of England—yesterday approved a liturgy for its clergy to use during same-sex unions. Episcopalians are the largest U.S. denomination to do so.

Reuters reports:

Delegates to its triennial convention voted 171-50 to approve the liturgy, titled “the Witnessing and Blessing of a Lifelong Covenant.” Episcopal bishops had voted overwhelmingly on Monday in favor of the text.

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The resolution does not mention the word “marriage” and it does not alter the church’s standard liturgy for a marriage between a man and a woman, but offers an alternative liturgy for blessing same-sex couples.

The measure also gives bishops of the church discretion in the use of the liturgy and says no one should be punished for choosing not to use it.

Reverend Bonnie Perry of Chicago, who supports marriage between same-sex couples, said she was pleased by the decision. “For me it is a window on the Promised Land. It’s not the Promised Land,” she said. “The most important part of a marriage is the blessing.”

But Steven Horst of Connecticut spoke in opposition, saying the resolution was the wrong way to proceed. Some Episcopalians will say the church endorsed gay marriage even though the word marriage is not mentioned, he said.

Even if most liberal Protestant clergy don’t support gay marriage, Episcopalian clergy have long been more supportive of gay rights than their mainline brethren. And not without creating two versions of American Anglicanism—the result of a painful church schism.

But as we’ve seen in recent months, gay marriage remains a heavily debated topic in not only other mainline denominations but also among evangelical Christians.

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July 10, 2012 | 7:14 pm

Woman uses Bible to ‘knock the demon’ out of pastor

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

Not your grandmother’s Bible thumpin’.

Ina Garrett, a 64-year-old Southern Baptist woman, has been charged with assault for, admittedly, smacking her pastor in the head with a Bible. Even more shocking is that the Rev. Leon Taylor, of the 30-member Mt. Zion Baptist Church in Selmar, Tenn., then allegedly took a swing at Garrett.

It appears that Garrett had been voted out of the church after involving herself in an effort to have Taylor removed as pastor because “he’s got the demon in him.”

The Smoking Gun has the criminal complaint. Thanks to Torch for the video link.

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July 7, 2012 | 6:50 pm

Judge orders drunk driver to read Bible’s tale of Job

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

Photo by Wikipedia/Adrian Pingstone

Really interesting constitutional questions raised by a woman who pleaded guilty to driving while intoxicated being sentenced to eight years in jail, five years probation and substance abuse counseling. It’s none of those conditions that raise the constitutional concern. It’s this:

The South Carolina judge also ordered Cassandra Tolley to read the Old Testament book of Job and write a little book report on it.

From the Herald Online:

“Under normal circumstances, the judge wouldn’t have the authority to do that,” said Kenneth Gaines, a University of South Carolina professor of law specializing in civil and criminal litigation. “You can’t just arbitrarily add anything you want to a sentence.

“But if she consented, it’s really not an issue. It’s critical that the defendant was in entire agreement with it.”

Tolley’s attorney, Amy Sikora, a York County public defender, said Tolley was thankful for the assignment. She has already started working on it.

But I’m not certain that is enough to overcome the constitutional concerns.

Regardless of whether Tolley consents to the judge’s sentence, the sentence still represents state action and thus implicates the First Amendment. And the sentence might run afoul of the First Amendment by being a government endorsement of religion (generally, though probably not specifically because Job is a shared book) and by entangling government in a religious function—after all, the judge will need to read and evaluate Tolley’s summary of the book, right?

(Hat tip: Religion Clause)

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July 7, 2012 | 11:57 am

Whites-only ‘Christian’ conference

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

Sure, these guys are entitled to their religious and speech freedoms. But that doesn’t mean any of us have to like it. Nor does it mean that other Christians can’t criticize such a backwards and racist interpretation of the Bible.

More at HuffPo.

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July 7, 2012 | 11:15 am

Divestment and redefining marriage measures fail at Presbyterian convention

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

Two closely watched resolutions were narrowly defeated at the Presbyterian Church (USA)‘s biennial General Assembly.

First, JTA reports on the failed divestment resolution:

Proponents of using economic pressure to force Israel out of the West Bank may have lost a key battle this week – by a hair’s breadth – but they have no intention of giving up.

That’s the message from backers of a divestment motion at the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (USA), which late Thursday night rejected a proposal to divest from companies selling equipment to the Israeli military in the West Bank.

The 333-331 vote, with two abstentions, at the church’s Pittsburgh gathering was the closest that the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement—aimed at undermining Israel’s occupation of the West Bank—has come to a win in a major American religious denomination.

Then, Reuters explains what happened to the effort to redefine marriage:

The U.S. Presbyterian Church on Friday narrowly rejected a proposal by same-sex marriage proponents for a constitutional change that would redefine marriage as a union between “two people,” rather than between a woman and a man.

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The Church, with around 2 million members, currently allows ministers to bless gay unions but prohibits them from solemnizing homosexual civil marriages.

Opponents of the change argued the move would alienate the Church from Presbyterian churches in other countries, while backers said it should be a leader in advocating for the acceptance of same-sex marriage.

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July 6, 2012 | 10:38 am

Romney, Clinton to visit Israel—separately

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

Mitt Romney. Photo by REUTERS/Jessica Rinaldi

It’s presidential campaign season, and for Mitt Romney and Barack Obama that means assuring American Jews that they’ll be good for the Israel. President Obama has frequently been criticized by hawkish American Jews for his policies in the Mideast, and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will visit the Jewish state mid-month. Don’t expect to see any photos of her visit in any Brooklyn Hasidic newspapers.

Later this summer it will be Romney’s turn to meet the Israeli prime minister. The New York Times reports:

Mr. Romney, who has pledged to “do the opposite” of the Obama administration on matters pertaining to Israel, is also expected to meet with Salam Fayyad, the prime minister of the Palestinian Authority; President Shimon Peres of Israel; the American ambassador, Daniel B. Shapiro; and leaders of the opposition Labor Party in Jerusalem. He plans to have at least one public event in a trip that will likely last less than two days.

“He’s a strong friend of Israel and we’ll be happy to meet with him,” said Ron Dermer, Mr. Netanyahu’s senior adviser, who worked with Republicans in the United States before immigrating here. “We value strong bipartisan support for Israel and we’re sure it will only deepen that.”

For Mr. Romney, the trip is an opportunity to appeal both to Jewish voters and donors, whose overwhelming support of President Obama has softened, according to some polls, and to evangelical Christians, whose trust he is still fighting to win. At the March conference of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, the pro-Israel lobby known as Aipac, Mr. Romney vowed that Israel would be the destination of his first foreign trip as president, underscoring the fact that Mr. Obama has not visited here since his election, a sore spot among some Israel supporters.

Such visits have become a campaign must. But though Romney is likely to be seen as the better friend of Israel, I wonder which lovers of Israel that will appeal to. Evangelicals think Romney is not “guided by God” and liberal Jews don’t like his politics. Republican Jews, on the other hand, were already going to vote for him.

Shmuel Rosner runs the numbers on just how many—or few—Jews will vote for Romney:

Pollster Jim Gerstein answered this question last November by saying the following: “Our latest poll of American Jews simulated an election between Obama and Romney, and perhaps presents the clearest picture of where the Jewish vote may be headed. The initial vote shows Obama leading 63 to 24 [percent]. When we allocated the undecided voters by party identification — a common practice among political pollsters when trying to map out the outcome of a race — the vote was 70 to 27 [percent].”

So what does this mean for presumptive Republican nominee Mitt Romney?

It is important to note at this point that in reality, for Jewish votes to be of any significance come Election Day, the margin between candidates has to be very small — very, very small — and in very specific areas.

Like Ohio and Florida. Significantly, they have substantial Jewish populations.

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July 5, 2012 | 10:36 pm

Should Jews celebrate the Fourth of July?

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

Photo by Wikipedia/Vito Palmisano

If you’re an American, it would be just about impossible to miss the Fourth of July. I live in one of those parts of coastal L.A. that is a mecca for July Fourth revelers. And I’ve always taken for granted the celebration of this nation’s birth.

Never have I stopped to think whether any Americans shouldn’t celebrate our independence. Abstaining would seem, well, Un-American.

So I was surprised to read Tzvi Fishman‘s piece on the website for the Orthodox Jewish Press this week, titled “The Fourth of July is Coming—Who Cares?”

An excerpt of Fishman, an Israeli writer who made aliyah, railing against Jews celebrating the good ol’ USofA:

Does anyone genuinely believe that celebrating the Fourth of July will strengthen Jewish identity? Yom HaAtzmaut is Independence Day for the Jews, not the 4th of July. Boker tov, my friends, but Israel is our nation, not America. How can you expect to strengthen Jewish identity by having Jewish kids celebrate a gentile country’s Independence Day? Even if you play “Hava Negilla” to remind the kids that they’re Jewish and have them dance a Hora, you are leading them astray, and in many cases, leading them into the arms of a shicksa or shagetz. After all, if they are Americans like everyone else, why not marry an America like everyone else? In America, everyone is equal, Jew and gentile alike. So why not marry a gentile? Why not get married to Sally Jane or Wendy Sue and watch the 4th of July fireworks together?

All I can say is, “Thank you, God, for having taken me out of America. Thank you for letting me realize that George Washington isn’t my nations’ founding father, that the Pilgrims aren’t my ancestors, that Plymouth Rock isn’t the Foundation Stone, and that the Boston Tea Party has nothing to do with my past. Thank you, God, for bringing me to the Land of the Jews, where we sing “HaTikva” in Hebrew at national gatherings and not the “Star Spangled Banner.” Thank you for making me realize that the Star of David is my nation’s flag and not the Stars and Stripes. Thank you for giving me wonderful children who are all growing up as Jews from the tip of their kippot down to their sandals and Crocs, without dual loyalties and schizophrenic identities, who celebrate Israel’s Memorial Day over fallen Jewish soldiers, and Israel’s Independence Day over having our own Jewish State, and not the Independence Day of some foreign country that is always pressuring Israel to surrender half of Jerusalem and the heart of our Biblical homeland to enemies bent on our destruction, may Hashem oust them from our midst.

Much more here—and likely much more on the anti-Semitic forums that are bound to grab onto Fishman’s screed and manipulate as “evidence” of something beyond dual loyalty.

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July 5, 2012 | 6:56 pm

Presbyterians debate divestment measure

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

Still no word from the General Assembly of the largest Presbyterian denomination in the United States, the PC(USA), as to whether the church will adopt a resolution to divest from Israel. Now that bellies are full, debate is under way.

Check out the livestream of the debate here.

And is what the AP’s Rachel Zoll wrote about the resolution earlier today:

The exact amount of money involved in the Presbyterian divestment is unclear. The funds are divided between the church Board of Pensions and the Presbyterian Foundation. The board investments are estimated to be around $16 million. However negligible the economic impact, pro-Palestinian activists consider the withdrawal of funds an act of social witness.

The Rev. Walt Davis, of the Israel Palestine Mission Network, a pro-Palestinian Presbyterian group, argued that the denomination would have divested years ago from the companies under church’s own socially responsible investment guidelines “were it not for the Israel lobby.”

“They said first that it’s anti-Semitic, then that it’s anti-Israel, then that it delegitimizes Israel. It’s none of those,” Davis said. “It’s us being true to our values.”

But the liberal-leaning Americans for Peace Now, which calls for the evacuation of Jewish settlements in the territories and supports a Palestinian state, said the Presbyterian effort was “misguided and counterproductive.”

The way Presbyterian resolutions get debated, a vote might not come in tonight. It’s already 9 pm in Pittsburgh (hometown of the VideoJew himself). But whenever votes are cast, this is far from the last time the issue will come up at GAs.

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July 4, 2012 | 10:36 pm

European scientists say they discovered Higgs’ boson

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

So about that Higgs boson, European scientists announced today that they have discovered a new subatomic particle—the boson that could explain how matter came from matterlessness.

Reuters reports on the findings from CERN:

“We have reached a milestone in our understanding of nature,” CERN director general Rolf Heuer told a gathering of scientists and the world’s media near Geneva on Wednesday.

“The discovery of a particle consistent with the Higgs boson opens the way to more detailed studies, requiring larger statistics, which will pin down the new particle’s properties, and is likely to shed light on other mysteries of our universe.”

Two independent studies of data produced by smashing proton particles together at CERN’s Large Hadron Collider produced a convergent near-certainty on the existence of the new particle.

It is unclear that it is exactly the boson Higgs foresaw, which by bestowing mass on other matter helps explain the way the universe was ordered after the chaos of Big Bang.

But addressing scientists assembled in the CERN auditorium, Heuer posed them a question: “As a layman, I would say I think we have it. Would you agree?” A roar of applause said they did.

Read the rest here.

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July 3, 2012 | 5:27 pm

How worried should Israel be about the new Egyptian president?

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

Mohamed Morsi, who was elected last month in Egypt’s first democratic presidential election, had already voiced doubts about al Qaeda’s role in 9/11, calling for a “scientific conference” to identify the real perpetrators of the attacks that killed 3,000 Americans.

No word on whether Morsi wants Cartman to run that conference or whether he thinks the attacks were carried about by, you know, the Jews. But, according to the Washington Times, he’s certainly no friend of the United States or Israel, “calling the Bush administration ‘the world’s terrorism leader’ and accusing it of getting ‘in line with Israeli occupation forces in aggression, injustice, encroaching lands and raping women.’”

This weekend, Morsi vowed to support Palestinians but said that Egypt will honor its peace treaty with Israel:

Egypt’s newly elected president has sent an implicit message of reassurance to Israel in his first major address after taking office, but he also pledged support for the “legitimate rights” of the Palestinians.

Islamist Mohammed Morsi said Saturday that his administration will continue to honor its international treaties - a thinly veiled reference to the Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty.

Is there a “for now ...” in that message? How concerned should Israel be? Slate has some thoughts.

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