Jewish Leader ( Eric Yoffie) Blasts Right-Wing Activists

HOUSTON (AP) - The leader of the largest branch of American Judaism blasted conservative religious activists in a speech Saturday, calling them ``zealots'' who claim a ``monopoly on God'' while promoting anti-gay policies akin to Adolf Hitler's.

----snip----

``What could be more bigoted than to claim that you have a monopoly on God?'' he said during the movement's national assembly in Houston, which runs through Sunday.

----snip----

Yoffie did not mention evangelical Christians directly, using the term ``religious right'' instead. In a separate interview, he said the phrase encompassed conservative activists of all faiths, including within the Jewish community.

----snip---

``We cannot forget that when Hitler came to power in 1933, one of the first things that he did was ban gay organizations,'' Yoffie said. ``Yes, we can disagree about gay marriage. But there is no excuse for hateful rhetoric that fuels the hellfires of anti-gay bigotry.''

much more...



http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-5426822,00.html

:woohoo:

:applause:

don't seem aware that the descendents of those who authored the Bible -- Jews -- don't themselves take the Bible literally, word-for-word. For example, Jews have mostly considered the story of Genesis to be symbolic, not a description of actual events. And yet, so many fundamentalists insist that Genesis is the literal truth.

keep it simple stupid applied to the vastest mystery there is....how did human life come to be?

At least not the part that contains the teachings of Jesus Christ. It contains too much about the immorality of Republican fiscal policies and too much about Pharisees and Scribes. People who took the bible word-for-word were William Jennings Bryan and Jimmy Carter, not Pat Robertson or Jerry Fallwell

Jefferson Bible (which the Unitarian Universalist church in our neighborhood uses).

Blow their mini-minds.

is speaking out for civil rights ..This is so true..

"We cannot forget that when Hitler came to power in 1933, one of the first things that he did was ban gay organizations,'' Yoffie said. ``Yes, we can disagree about gay marriage. But there is no excuse for hateful rhetoric that fuels the hellfires of anti-gay bigotry.''

Yoffie makes a lot of sense. I agree with everything he says. We need many more voices of men and women of all faiths coming together to denounce the hatred that divides us. I have always believed it to be the height of presumption for right wing, conservative Christians to try to claim THEY have exclusive rights to the Bible.

Though I can't really see the Catholic Church agreeing with what he said, which is probably why if this atheist were ever to go looking for a new religion, Reform Judaism would be where I'd be heading...

Violet...

the words of two people who have been brave enought to speak out.

This is a good day. I praise the opportunities I had today to learn and hear what I call the truth - one through the Washington Journal and the other because of DU.

Benjamin Ferenz - my new hero.
Rabbi Eric Yoffie - my new hero.

I agree with him there. And secularists are being dragged into their religious disputes. For my part, Christians, Jews, and Muslims are all off base in most of the specifics of their beliefs, especially the conservative dogmatists. I get tired of the assumption I should choose between them. They ought to be free to practice their religions in their separate houses of worship, and leave the rest of us in peace.

and we can amp up the religous wars and smash those facist dickbags into hell where yhey fucking belong---yea baby

Since it has a very specific origin in Jewish history. I say that as someone who takes note of little things in language.

I am proud that he is the religious leader for my affiliation (Reform Judaism). And, in true Jewish tradition, I'm sure he has a mom somewhere who is just bursting with pride.

BTW, did you know he was also the only American religious leader to march in the Million Mom March in Washington DC in 2000.

man, I love the politics of the movement! I wish the Conservative Jewish movement had equally good politics.

That's why I'm happy in the Reform branch!

and that is why I attend a conservative shul.

Reform has my political heart but the USCJ has my Yiddishe heart.

I go to a small Reform congregation and send my son to a school at a conservative synagogue. I really enjoy studying with my reform rabbi and that is why I haven't joined the conservative shul where my son goes to school where I can get the traditional services and be around people who share the same progressive point of view.

I attend a Synagogue with a fairly conservative service, but its reform in everything else. All of us like the more traditional services.

here tend to be almost like church or new age-y. There is a Jewish Renewal synagogue but I've not attended enough services to get a feel for it.

the services were kind of Unitarian with an (optional) kippah.

...the only Media (besides DU) reporting on what is happening in Houston, Texas, USA?
(Rhetorical Question, you need not answer)

I just google news-ed it and it came up in the Hosutone Chronicle and the Seattle Post Intelligencer, to name just 2.

I always use the Guardian World Latest for breaking news, though, so that's why when I post in LBN it generally comes from there :shrug:

It's now on ABC News at http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=1329573

But WBBM has gone to their THREE HOUR Bears "Pregame" show, so I switched to National Propaganda Radio, where I heard Bush say that Murtha has "a right to his opinion", and NOTHING about Rabbi Zoffie..

Figures. Now LeeAnn is giving IL Douche and TinMan aural sex.

:kick:

the Jewish vote.

I am so glad that Rabbi Yoffie is speaking up on this. Even if he only represents a portion of Judiasm, I am hoping that it will be a wake up call to all people of the Jewish faith. These neo-cons do not have Judiasm's best interests at heart.

Bush probrably got the majority of Orthodox Jewish voters, but they are by far not the majority of Jews.

There are many of us here on the left. Traditionally we always vote Democratic. Sometimes I wish the left would understand this. Pro Israel (Zionist) doesn't mean pro Shrub.

No one here on DU hates junior more than I.


No one.

White Protestants, Bush got 69 percent.
White Catholics, Bush got 50 percent.
Hispanics, Bush got 42 percent.
Asian Americans, Bush got 34 percent.
Jews, Bush got 24 percent.
African Americans, Bush got 11 percent.

Because of the collapse of the exit polling system in 2004 - one can argue with the specific numbers - but all of the services give the same ranking order.

the Protestant and Catholic religious right 100% of the time on 100% of the issues.

Stem cell research, abortion within limits, and teaching of evolution are all permitted -- .

are allowed to attend orthodox synagogues as well.

I didn't know.

:hi:

:yourock:

And I will say "55" in Japanese.

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

and it is running in many other papers as well.

Peace.

For ex: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/11/19/ap/national/mainD8DVQSEG6.shtml

However, GU loves exactly this kind of stuff :-(

A 'trap'? The Guardian prints that an American religious leader holds views very close to that of the 'typical Guardian reader', and you think it's a 'trap'?

There was nothing in Yoffie's speech about Iraq. So it's not surprising that it doesn't appear in the AP report.

Are you advocating that gay rights are dropped completely from public discourse, since you think they cause 'political death'? That people should ignore what they think about human rights, because they think they might get shouted down? Unbelievable. What is your evidence that Yoffie is a provocateur? That's a very damaging allegation.

I did my best to make it as clear as possible :-)

and it's still not clear.

The best that I can do in working out your message is that you think that a British liberal newspaper, whose readership is literally a byword for 'liberal', does not print articles for that readership, but to provide fodder for Christian fundamentalists in the USA to say "look - there are people who don't agree with us! Everyone must vote Republican!". This would show an astounding level of paranoia. I wanted you to show that interpretation was wrong. But now you seem to say it's exactly what you meant.

You seem to go on to advocate never talking about anything that fundamentalists might disagree with, describing such talk as evidence of being a 'provocateur'. You seem to accuse Yoffie of secretly working for conservatives, and just pretending to be liberal, so that liberals will jump up and support gay rights, exposing themselves to - something? I'm not sure what. Are you saying it's bad to support gay rights? As I say, that's a very serious accusation you level at Yoffie.

If I have misinterpreted your opinions, please reword them, and not just say "look at them again".

That's sarcasm, in case anyone gets the wrong impression.

Yes, this is misreperesentation, the text does need clarification! I will repost the new variant soon.

Yours: "With euro-Muslims, in the Muslim world, in the developing countries - all this is simply out of question"

But trying to make some sense out of your append -- I can only reply with a reference to an earlier append of mine on another topic -- http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=124&topic_id=90990&mesg_id=91253>.

:toast:

Just in time for Thanksgiving! I wonder if he knows Barry Lynn.

Boo hoo, why must they suffer so??

nut job fundamentalists.

...and doing a good job of it, too. :toast:

where we debated, and passed, a resolution stating that sexual orientation was not grounds upon which a member synogogue could fire or refuse to hire staff, including Rabbis and Cantors.

That was in 1989 or 1990.

In previous years it had already been decided that sexual orientation was not a barrier to ordination.

Since i can't modify DU posts, here is
the comment in my blog. This way, I will be able to chnge it if necessary.

is that their report (via AP) talked about the speech calling for tolerance for gay rights, and condemning the religious right for its lack of tolerance, while there was also a vote at the Reform Judaism convention which did call for a phased withdrawal from Iraq, which you thought was better news. However, The Guardian did report this vote here too.

Apart from that, you still seem to be saying that gay rights shouldn't be discussed - by religious Jews, at least, because it stirs things up too much. And that The Guardian should know better than to report such things. If this is what you're saying, then I disagree profoundly. It happened, it was put on the AP newswire, and criticism of the religious right by religious liberlaism is quite important - we have many regular calls for it here on DU, and I think it is good to see - it counters the claim of the right that religious people are 'naturally' on the right of politics.

Lastly, I'll say that if you can't work out how to discuss the article meaningfully, wouldn't it have been easier not to address it at all? ;-)

and in this game, everybody knows exactly what he is doing!
New GU link is uploaded to http://inplainview.monitor.us.tt/comm.InterUK.htm

your previous entry says "GU discusses OSP etc. as if breaking news" - but the date on the article is Thursday July 17, 2003. Back then, the OSP wasn't widely known about.

Thanks for pointing this out. This entry is removed
http://inplainview.monitor.us.tt/comm.InterUK.htm