Letters to the Editor
-
I'm with fishanthrope...
My religion - because I know you're all dying to know about my religion - requires me to wear half a hollowed-out watermelon on my head on alternate Thursdays, and all week during the last four days of February during a leap year. A fresh melon is used on each occasion, and the flesh of the fruit must be scooped out with an olive wood spoon, placed in the hubcap of a '68 Dodge Dart and dried in the sun. This dessicated matter is sprinkled on saltine crackers and served during Mishmash, my religion's high holiday, which occurs whenever my neighbor's Yorkie makes that yowling sound for more than thirty-six minutes. The hollowed-out melon half, after being worn, is wrapped in a sheet (50/50 cotton/poly is acceptable, although some purists use only 400 thread count percale) and placed in a cellar closet until the next Mishmash, when it is removed, filled with 151 proof rum and ignited while a children's choir sings Chic's "Good Times" with accordian accompaniment. Then the protective melon-sheet is spread out on a table and its intricate patterns of mold examined, shroud-of-Turin like, for images of the Three Stooges, the holy trinity of my religion.
Seriously, who gives a shit about what kind of hat you wear, or why you wear it, or how. I'm so sick of Christians, Jews, Muslims and 'faith' in general that if I were G_d - and maybe I am, you never know - I'd blow this rock to smithereens and retreat to deep space for a do-over. I don't care what you believe or what silly-ass rituals and garments you drape around yourself to show everyone how damn special and chosen you are. Just shut up and go away.
-
But who's fault is it for the confusion???
That the world saw Jack Abramoff wearing this hat for the first time while admitting to such grievous transgressions, that much of the world will now associate this symbol of piousness with the gangster look, is a Chillul Hashem -- an act that shames the name of G_d.
Yeah, But who's fault is that. This guy never dressed like this before and certainly never acted pious, at least during the years covered by the indictment. Was he trying to signal he was repentant for the past? People love a repentant sinner. Was his contrition real or was it staged? Regardless, I do not think the general public should be held responsible for that confusion. It was Abramoff's acts that shamed god, along with all the rest of us for allowing this to continue by voting in his coconspirators over and over again.
-
Another vote for STFU
Religion is like a disease. Keep your symptoms to yourselves, why can't you? We wouldn't want to look at your running sores, after all.
-
To Fishanthrope: of Babies, Bathwater, Borsalinos
Jewish sages teach: "Wisdom is attained when you learn from all people."
How is that not relevant? But you ignore that sagacity. I don't know why other Jews cover their heads, but I can tell you why I wear a kipa every day and why I have since I left my parents' home and went to college (the very secular Florida State University). There are three reasons, in ascending order of importance:
1. I wanted people to know that I was Jewish so that if they perhaps had never met a Jew or had a question about what Jews do or what Jews think, I could be asked. I was surprised by the number of people who claimed never to have seen a Jewish person before.
2. I wanted to become emblematic of Jews so that I would behave better. I wanted to wear a uniform so that I would remember: when I act callously or viciously, people will think "huh, that is one son-of-a-bitch Jew." Likewise, when I acted with kindness, compassion, understanding, levity, etc, people will think "huh, that's one cool-ass Jew." I think that if people were more easily identifiable by their group, if they knew that their actions reflected on more than just themselves, they would act more civilly.
3. This is, as best as I can tell, the driving force behind religion. Humans are unlike all the other animals. We are part beast and part angel. Jews believe that there are things we do because of our beast-part, like eating (angels, as I'm sure everyone knows, don't need to eat). Other things we do because of our angel-part, like praying (animals, mantises notwithstanding, don't pray). When Jews want to imbue an act with the angel-quality, we cover our heads. Some Jews, myself among them, want to raise everything they do to that level. It reminds us that we should be moral all the time. I try to walk morally, eat morally, treat my coworkers (in my secular office) morally.
To act morally all the time. How is that not relevant? How is that a message that shouldn't be spoken for a hundred years?
You may argue that religions have caused numerous wars and numerous deaths, and untold misery. But humans have done that through out history without the cover of religion, no? It seems you have a baby/bathwater thing going on.
Inwardly, religion may be about a practitioner communing with God (for me it's not--I'm a studied atheist) but outwardly, religion is about acting morally all the time. I would argue that's a message we should more, not less, often.
-
On hats and brats.
dubious writes -
Ummm.....perhaps the hat is worn as a ploy to gain the support and sympathy of people like Stephen Hirsch.
Calling it an act that "shames the name of G_d" doesn't sound precisely like support and sympathy. Just sayin'.
And, fishanthrope and the rest of the "just shut up" crew - a couple of notes. I am an atheist, raised in a household that was entirely non-religious. I don't like religion, I don't get it, and I feel completely fulfilled without having it in my life. However, I found the piece interesting. I grew up in Georgia. When I wasn't dodging threats of being burned at the stake from my fellow students (I am not joking), I saw plenty of fundamentalist Baptists and born-agains flash their crosses around when they found themselves in hot water. (Hell, we've all seen that.) I find it interesting to see what seems to be similar behavior in a faith to which I had less exposure during the earlier part of my life. It's no surprise to me that any religion is filled with hypocrisy, but I still like seeing how it works.
My second point is this - damn, people, you read the whole article, *and* comments, just to whine about people talking about religion when you have no interest? Plenty of times I have no interest in an article on Salon, or an article on religion elsewhere. You know what I do? I don't read it, and I certainly don't go on to bitch about it. Talk about needing to SHUT UP.
(That said, clearly I should stop reading the comments on Salon, because I'm too weak to resist railing at stupidity, and it just creates a vicious cycle.)