#967: A Few Questions for Yeshua bar Yosef haNotzri (Jesus the Son of Joseph the Nazarite)

         Jesus of Nazareth - as he possibly looked 

First and foremost, Reb. Yeshua, please permit me to wish you a חג מולד שמח (chag molahd samayach) - Hebrew for “Merry Christmas.” I know that for some, it’s got to seem a bit we outré, perhaps even an act of chutzpah, for a rabbi to be addressing himself to Jesus, the son of Joseph, on December 25th. But that’s the way things go. Believe me, this blog is neither an attempt at effrontery, nor a diatribe against the religion (נַצְרוּת - natzrut - Hebrew for "Christianity) which bears your name.  And while we’re at it, please do pardon me for occasionally translating a Hebrew word or expression into English.  I am fully aware that as a lifelong Jew, your father, Yosef, would have taught you to pray in the Holy Tongue. But from what I’ve learned over the years, you like most Jews today, didn’t speak it: your lay tongue was either Aramaic or Koine Greek.  

Today, Christians all over the world celebrate your birthday, despite the fact that the precise date of your conception, let alone birth, are at best, mere guesswork.  Having annotated the Constantinople manuscript of seder olam rabbah (“The Great Order of the World” by the 2nd century tanna R. Yose ben Halafta) for my rabbinic thesis back in the late 1970s, I remember the great difficulties besieging ancient scholars on trying to figure out how old the world was, and to fix an historically accurate date for your birth.  The best they could settle on was not based on the Gregorian (i.e. January-December) calendar, aaand for a simple reason: that calendar did not go into popular usage until 1582 C.E. following the papal bull Inter gravissimas (Latin for “In the Gravest Concern”) issued by Pope Gregory XIII. In your time and place, you and your neighbors would have been using the Jewish calendar and as such, the date of your birth would have been, likely, the 5th or 6th of the month Cheshvan in the year 3756. 

The luach (the Jewish calendar) is a complicated hodge-podge wherein the years go according to the sun (solar) and the months by the moon (lunar). When held up against the utter consistency of Pope Gregory’s calendar, your birthday falls on a different day (and sometimes, different month) each year. In 2023, the 5th/6th of Cheshvan occurs on either December 20 or 21; next year it will be either the 6th or 7th of November.  Moreover, nowhere in the Christian Bible (which Christians refer to as the “New” Testament) is there a single reference or mention about observing Christmas on December 25; this would not come about for several centuries.    

During a long life of study and reflection, I have managed to make my way through the Christian Bible from cover to cover - sometimes in Aramaic, sometimes in Latin or Greek, and always in both English and Hebrew.  In this way I could discover and compare for myself the similarities of theme, narrative structure and worldview with the Hebrew Bible (in Hebrew, the תנ"ך [Tamakh], in English, the “Old” Testament).  It has also permitted me to see the vast differences between the 2 holy texts.

Among the greatest - and most obvious - similarities are the two tomes’ stress on moral action: on feeding the hungry and freeing the captive, of not doing unto others that which we would never want done to ourselves (that’s the decidedly Jewish take) and doing justice, loving mercy and living our lives with humility. It never ceases to amaze - and deeply trouble - me how so many self-identified “Christian Nationalists,” people who firmly believe that the Holocaust never happened (but nonetheless should once again be carried out), seek to do it in your name.  Or that those who push for the dismemberment of programs that feed the starving, heal the sick or provide shelter to the homeless, are justifying their civic cruelty and Dickensian hardheartedness in your name - by referring to themselves as “G-d fearing Christians.”  I guess they have never read or contemplated your words: “My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.” 

Among the greatest - and again, most obvious - differences between the two testaments are how the two texts deal with the universality of the differing religious traditions.  in Judaism, there is next to nothing said about going out and converting other people to the faith of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.  Oh yes, we do have a complete set of laws and guidelines for bringing people into the fold . . . for those who of their own free will seek to convert.  Our feeling has long been that Judaism is the best religion there is .  . . for Jews.  On the contrary - and as I have come to understand it - going out and bringing new converts into the fold vis-à-vis many approaches to Christianity is akin to a mitzvah - a religious commandment.  As Jews, we have studiously avoided spending our time growing our religion.

Another great difference between Judaism and Christianity is that, in the main, we are far more devoted to the deed, rather than the creed. We don’t follow G-d’s commandments for the sake of gaining eternal life; we follow them because it is the right thing to do.

For as long as I can remember, I have wondered how it is that many Christians - of many different approaches, sects and stripes - could carry out horrific acts of hatred, murder, mayhem and torture in yourname; you, Yeshu bar Yosef haNotzri, who lived virtually every minute of your life as a Jew. “Don’t they know?” I can still hear in my 6- or 8-year-old voice “that Jesus was a Jew?’” It always troubled me that every painting or representation of Jesus I ever saw (which is actually against strict Jewish law) portrayed you as a blond, blue-eyed Aryan . . . looking ever so much like Max Von Sydow, Jeffrey Hunter, Victor Garber (who is both Jewish and gay) and Willem Dafoe. 

Today, I wonder how many people would opt not to sit next to a person on an airplane if he looked like the picture at the beginning of this essay.  (That computer-generated photo is An image of Jesus created by Richard Neave, a former forensic artist from the University of Manchester, using forensic investigation methods and archaeological evidence.)

Leet’s face it: the historic Yeshu bar Yosef looked a lot darker than, say, Joaquin Phoenix, who hails from a Hungarian-Jewish family and played You in 2018’s Mary Madelene.  Racism and anti-Semitism are rife in our age, and much of it is being done in your name.  And herein lies my question.

Dear Yeshu: what in the how do you cope with a diabolical neo-Nazi like the 25-year old Nick Fuentes, who vows to dish out the “death penalty” for Jewish people if Donald Trump is re-elected.    This is the same Nick Fuentes who not so long ago dined at Mar-a-Lago with “Ye” (rapper Kanye West) and received plaudits from the putative Republican nominee for presidency in 2024. My question here is how are we supposed to convince those who really, truly believe they are your most fervent followers that seeking to destroy the Jewish people means that they wish to destroy you?  How can you or your modern-day disciples come to understand that they are spending so many of their waking hours organizing and urging against the very principles of love, tolerance and acceptance upon which you preached. You never asked anyone to deify you, but to merely follow your teachings. Indeed, how can we help you to safeguard your people from destruction?

Fortunately, there is a group called Evangelicals for Democracy, which works tirelessly to communicate the fact that: “As evangelicals, we believe that protecting democracy is being obedient to Jesus’ commandment to “love our neighbor as ourselves.” Therefore, we believe that every person in our society has an equal voice and representation in their governance. We also believe that access to democracy is undercut by “Christian nationalism,” which confuses the Gospel with the American state and promotes identity politics.” They are doing their best to spread this noxious concept of identity politics and push the likes of Nick Fuentes, Paul Gosar and Marjorie Taylor Green and their trolls off the highway of American politics.

 Dear Yeshu bar Yosef: We neither have to accept everything you said nor everything you believed in order to join hands with you in a quest to rid our nation and our times against the scourge of hatred. For when all is said and done, we are family . . .

Wishing you and yours a Happy, Merry Everything!

Copyright©2023 Kurt F. Stone

#960: Meet the Johnsons: It's Not a Sitcom

                 Most of the Cast of “Meet the Johnsons”

One of the great advantages (and disadvantages) of living in a world enswathed in Internet technology is how even the most relatively anonymous person can, within a matter of hours, become as well-known as Benjamin Franklin or F. Scott Fitzgerald.  For those possessing but a scintilla of cyber competence, we have Google, Bing, DuckDuckGo, Openverse and You.com to act as our personal Library of Congress.  To paraphrase the old Westinghouse all-news-all-the-time tagline, “You give us 22 minutes, we’ll give you the world.”

Case in point: less than 72 hours ago, outside of his Benton, Louisiana neighborhood, the people in his church or the constituents in his 4th District House seat had ever heard of the newly-elected House Speaker Mike Johnson. Upon first televised glance - and comparing him visually to the oft-uncoated “Gym” Jordan, he seemed like a pretty normal fellow: well-tailored, well-coifed, bespectacled, and about as benign as Clark Kent. The first published photos of his wife and 4 children, (minus his “adopted” African American son who, for reasons not yet known, was “expunged” from his official biography years ago), made them look like a “ready for prime time” super-photogenic family.

But alas, to paraphrase the Hebrew Bible (1 Samuel 16:7), Looks can be deceiving. To be both fair and honest, I have never met nor interviewed Speaker Johnson. Heck a huge percentage of elected officials on Capitol Hill (except, perhaps, his colleagues on House Judiciary or Armed Services) had to either check out his Congressional Website or find him on Wikipedia. It turns out that his relative anonymity among the 219 members of the House Republican caucus turned out to be beneficial; flying beneath the clouds (unlike Reps. Matt Gaetz, Gym Jordan, George Santos, Steve Scalise,  or Marjorie Taylor Green, to name but a few) meant that he had few - if any - hardcore enemies. Considering the amount of acrimony and waspishness that has been on display throughout the three-week Speaker imbroglio, Johnson’s relative equanimity must have seemed to like a gift from on high.

To use the words “a gift from on high” when referring to Speaker (and Mrs.) Johnson is no mere literary device; rather, it is purely intentional. For without question, no inhabitant of the Speaker’s Office has ever been as thoroughly besotted with the word of G-d than its newest occupant. Johnson has long described himself as “first and foremost a Christian.” An evangelical of the Southern Baptist stripe, Johnson has said: "My faith informs everything I do.” We should all prepare ourselves for a lot of “G-d speak” from the Speaker in the days, weeks and months to come. In his very first address to the House, Speaker Johnson got off to a start filled to overflowing with the rhetoric of religious fundamentalism: “I don’t believe there are any coincidences in a manner like this. I believe that scripture, the Bible is very clear that God is the one that raises up those in authority. He raised up each of you, all of us, and I believe that God has ordained and allowed each one of us to be brought here for this specific moment in this time. This is my belief. I believe that each one of us has a huge responsibility today to use the gifts that God has given us to serve.”

If Mike Johnson was the very best person the Republican caucus could agree on to become Speaker of the House, it scares the living bejesus out of me. As a practicing traditional Jew (who also has a pretty well-developed sense of humor), I cannot feel comfortable putting the Speaker’s gavel - the very gavel wielded by the likes of Joseph “Czar” Cannon, Sam Rayburn, Thomas P. “Tip” O’Neill, and Nancy Pelosi - into the hands of an election-denying, Christian Nationalist like Mike Johnson of Louisiana. Coming from a tribe that has long gone out of its way to stay out of the business of converting others to its religious weltanschauung (worldview), I find myself beset with insomnia over the thought of a Speaker - the person 2nd in line to the Presidency - who religious creed is based on saving my soul . . . or else.

Let’s take a look at what our new Speaker supports and where he expects to lead us.

• In a 2017 House Judiciary Committee meeting, Johnson argued that Roe v. Wade made it necessary to cut social programs like Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid because abortion reduced the labor force and thus damaged the economy.

  Johnson has co-sponsored bills attempting to ban abortion nationwide, such as the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, the Protecting Pain-Capable Unborn Children From Late-Term Abortions Act, and the Heartbeat Protection Act of 2021. All three bills would impose criminal penalties, including potential prison terms of up to five years, upon doctors who perform abortions.

• In 2015, Johnson blamed abortions and the "breakup [of] the nuclear family" for school shootings, saying, "when you tell a generation of people that life has no value, no meaning, that it's expendable, then you do wind up with school shooters."

• In 2018, he was involved in GOP efforts to overhaul the Endangered Species Act, introducing legislation to do so. 

• In 2020, Johnson signed an amicus brief alongside more than 100 House Republicans supporting a Texas lawsuit that aimed to overturn the 2020 election results in Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. Johnson also voted to object to the election results in both Arizona and Pennsylvania on Jan. 6, 2021. 

• Johnson has been a long-term, outspoken opponent of LGBT rights. He has called homosexuality "sinful" and "destructive" and argued that support for LGBT equality would lead to support for pedophilia and bestiality, and that sex for any other purpose than procreation between a lawfully married man and woman should be considered a crime.

• Johnson previously worked as senior attorney and spokesperson for Alliance Defending Freedom, or ADF, a Southern Poverty Law Center–designated hate group that pushes its far-right agenda through the courts.

• On May 19, 2021, Johnson and all other seven Republican House leaders in the 117th Congress voted against establishing a national commission to investigate the January 6, 2021, storming of the United States Capitol.

• During a town hall in 2017, Johnson said that he believed that Earth's climate was changing, but questioned the scientific consensus that climate change is caused by humans.

  Under Johnson, the Republican Study Committee in 2019 called Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's Green New Deal the "Greedy New Steal", called "wind and solar" "the most inefficient energy sources we have", and claimed that living near wind turbines could cause "depression and cognitive dysfunction".

• Johnson came to some prominence in the late 1990s when he and his wife appeared on television to promote new laws in Louisiana allowing covenant marriages, under which divorce is much more difficult to obtain than in no-fault divorce. In 2005, Johnson appeared on ABC's Good Morning America to promote covenant marriages, saying, "I'm a big proponent of marriage and fidelity and all the things that go with it".

• In 2016, Johnson delivered a sermon that called the teaching of evolution one of the causes of mass shootings: "People say, 'How can a young person go into their schoolhouse and open fire on their classmates?' Because we've taught a whole generation—a couple generations now—of Americans, that there's no right or wrong, that it's about survival of the fittest, and you evolve from the primordial slime. Why is that life of any sacred value? Because there's nobody sacred to whom it's owed.

• In a one-on-one interview with Sean Hannity this past Thursday, just the mass murder in Lewiston, Maine,  Speaker  Johnson made an old Republican line new again, claiming that it’s not guns that kill people—it’s their hearts. “This is not the time to be talking about legislation.”  

If this were not enough, there is Mrs. Speaker Johnson, Kelly. a mental health counselor who, along with her husband, has a popular podcast called ”Truth be Told” With Mike and Kelly Johnson. You won’t find it on the top podcast charts — they haven’t managed to hit the top 100 in the “Religion & Spirituality” section of Apple Podcasts, where it’s designated due to its emphasis on their evangelical Christian beliefs. The project is a blend of political and religious analysis, occasionally featuring guests, that illuminates Johnson’s faith-driven views on governance — and is sure to inform how he approaches his new role.

After a career as a teacher, Kelly Johnson to working as a pastoral counselor at “Onward Christian Counseling Services” where she serves as founder and president. The practice provides religious-based individual, marriage and family counseling to people across Louisiana.  Onward Christian Counseling Services is grounded in the belief that sex is offensive to God if it is not between a man and a woman married to each other. It puts being gay, bisexual or transgender in the same category as someone who has sex with animals or family members, calling all of these examples of “sexual immorality.”  “We believe and the Bible teaches that any form of sexual immorality, such as adultery, fornication, homosexuality, bisexual conduct, bestiality, incest, pornography or any attempt to change one’s sex, or disagreement with one’s biological sex, is sinful and offensive to God,” says the eight-page business document. (Interestingly, over the past several days, the counseling services’ website has become subscription only.)

Mike Johnson, I am sorry to report, is going to be one of the few Speakers in history who will have to get on-the-job training while leading and shaping the House.  Unlike recent speakers like Kevin McCarthy, Nancy Pelosi and John Boehner, Mr. Johnson has no deep ties or muscular network of allies across the country. As such, he lacks one of the most important strengths one looks for in a Speaker: an ability to raise vast sums of money. Say what you want about Kevin McCarthy, he is a six-foot tall ATM when it comes to putting the bite on people. There is nothing in Mike Johnson’s career history to suggest that he is in this league. And with the number of red seats open to question in the 2024 elections, money is going to be key.

So welcome to the world of Speaker and Mrs. Mike Johnson.  While it is definitely not going to be a sitcom, it will likely bring tears to the eyes of the American Eagle.

Copyright©2023 Kurt Franklin Stone

#946: Senator Potato Head

Were it not that Alabama’s senior senator Tommy Tuberville is single-handedly holding up Senate approval of virtually tens of dozens of Generals, Colonels and Admirals to lead the nation’s military, he might easily be the butt of every late-night talk show host not currently picking up a paycheck from Fox, Newsmax or OAN.  But what he is doing is far from funny.  In matter of fact, he is engaged in one of the most dangerous, mindless and thoroughly unpatriotic of all political ploys in the nation’s history.  What’s gotten the Alabama football coach-turned-senator particularly obstructive and petulant is the Pentagon’s decision to reimburse female service members for travel-related abortion expenses, as many of them are stationed in states that are hostile to reproductive rights. Not only that, he is demanding that these women be confined to base and be disallowed from traveling to another state where abortion is still practicable.

Because the overwhelming majority of upper-echelon military promotions are approved by unanimous consent in the Senate, if even one senator objects, the whole process is derailed.  Tuberville has flatly stated that if senators don’t like his unilateral move they can always vote on each separate officer . . . by on-the-record voice votes . . . which would take months to achieve. For decades, all these vacancies have been filled within a few minutes, thus saving time for the senate to engage in other serious business.

Because of the senator’s “feet-in-concrete” position - putting abortion ahead of America’s military readiness at a critical time in history - the United States Marine Corps will be without a Commandant for the first time in 164 years . . .  since before the Civil War.  The last time the Marine Corps was left without an acting commandant was in 1859, when Archibald Henderson, the fifth commandant of the Marines, died at 76 without a successor in place.

Marine Corps Commandant Gen. David Berger officially retired on this past Monday, leaving Assistant Commandant Gen. Eric Smith as the acting commandant and leader of the military branch until he is confirmed in the Senate.

It’s unclear when Smith could be confirmed. Tuberville’s hold on the Pentagon nominees, which he began in March to protest the Defense Department’s new abortion policy, shows no signs of weakening, even as the block has sparked bipartisan frustration. In addition to the Commandant’s position, there is that of Joint Chiefs of Staff; Gen. Mark Milley, the current chairman, who retires in September. As of late June, Tuberville’s hold was nearing the beginning of its sixth month. Talk about obduracy!

In a piece he (or a member of his staff or one of his financial supporters) wrote and published in The Washington Post, the former Ole Miss (1995-1998) and Auburn (1999-2008) head coach tried to defend his much maligned move in stating “Acting officials are in each one of the positions that are due for a promotion. The hold affects only those at the very top — generals and flag officers. The people who actually fight are not affected at all.”  This statement all but proves that Tuberville is the dimmest bulb in the lamp, for not only are all those “who actually fight” without official leadership; they are denied the 5.2% pay raise guaranteed in the Defense Department appropriation bill, which is now larded with anti-abortion amendments, thus guaranteeing it will never pass the Senate.

  And what’s more, between 5,000 to 7,400 active-duty service members or civilians employed by the DoD (Department of Defense) have an abortion each year, according to the RAND Corporation. And following the overturning of Roe v. Wade, 40 percent of active-duty female service members live in states where abortion care is unavailable or severely restricted. That’s roughly 18 percent of the active duty military in this country. On top of that, the U.S. military is plagued by alarming levels of sexual assault. So if one happen to stationed in a state with an abortion ban—which may or may not have rape exceptions—the help with travel expenses could be life-changing.

The press has been reporting on Tommy Tuberville’s political shortcomings ever since he first threw his hat into the ring back in 2019. At his first post-election interview, he misidentified the three branches of the federal government (he said they were “House, Senate and Executive”), claimed erroneously that World War II was a battle against socialism, and wrongly asserted that former Vice President Al Gore was president-elect for 30 days. Up until defeating incumbent Senator Doug Jones, he was best known for having defeated in-state rival University of Alabama football team six times in a row and being named Walter Camp Coach of the Year in 2004.  But now, he is getting to be even better known for waging his one-man war against the Department of Defense - at what cost and what purpose no one knows for sure. 

Despite both his fame on the gridiron and infamy in the U.S. Senate, there is still some uncertainty as to the correct pronunciation of  his last name: is it "Tubber-ville” or Tuber-ville?” I’ve heard both. I rather prefer the latter, (Tuber-ville). The first doesn’t work so well; he is anything but physically out of shape. When it comes to mental acuity, he is more like the tuber - a potato or yam or huti huti. Hence the nickname with which I’ve chosen to endow him: “Senator Potato Head.”  

Despite this, the senior senator from Alabama (the junior being Katie Boyd Britt) is no laughing matter; he is a man to be extremely wary of. For not only has he chosen to place a partisan political roadblock in the path of the nation’s military; he has chosen to put service to a sectarian religious creed over service to an historic need . . . namely, keeping the Army, Navy, Marine Corps and Merchant Marine far away from politics. And what’s worse, he has also declared that to be a White Christian Nationalist serving in the military is the sign of a patriot.

How very much like a greasy French fry.

Copyright©2023 Kurt Franklin Stone

#933: "A Toad Under the Harrow"

Matthew Kacsmaryk is a Judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas. He is the jurist (?) who, just the other day issued a ruling in case No. 23-10362, called ALLIANCE FOR HIPPOCRATIC MEDICINE et al v. U.S. FOOD AND DRUG ADMINISTRATION et al, by which he single-handedly fulfilled the hopes, prayers and genuflections of millions of “hyper-moral, liberty-loving Americans” by issuing a nationwide ban on the use of the abortifacient Mifepristone (Mifeprex, a progesterone blocker), one of two drugs (the other being Misoprostol, a hormone originally created to prevent stomach ulcers caused by anti-inflammatories [NSAIDs] which are  commonly used to medically terminate pregnancies. (n.b. The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals quickly reversed part of Kacsmaryk’s ruling, though the case will likely go before the Supreme Court for full resolution.)

Judge Kacsmaryk’s ruling, to say the least, was and is both bizarre and deeply troublesome. Unquestionably, the most bizarre aspect of his 49-page ruling (much of it a listing of the various plaintiffs and defendants) was his repeated reference to the 150-year old Comstock Act . The Act is an anti-vice law passed in 1873 that prohibits the mailing of “obscene or crime-inciting matter.” Kacsmaryk’s effort to resuscitate this 19th-century relic, indicates that an antiquated law passed during the Reconstruction era, will play a central role in the post-Roe v. Wade apocalyptic landscape of abortion law.    #🟦

As described in a December 2022 memorandum by the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel, the original Comstock Act arose from “the handiwork of Anthony Comstock—‘a prominent anti-vice crusader who believed that anything touching upon sex… was obscene.’”

Comstock—who helped found the New York Society for the Suppression of Vice—championed the initial version of the law which forbade the mailing of any drug, medicine or anything “for the prevention of conception, or for causing an unlawful abortion.” The prohibition on contraception and the word “unlawful” were eventually dropped. In its current form found at 18 U.S.C. 1461 (Mailing obscene or crime-inciting matter), the law prohibits “every obscene, lewd, lascivious, indecent, filthy or vile article, matter, thing, device or substance; and every article or thing designed, adapted, or intended for producing abortion, or for any indecent or immoral use” as well as advertising anything falling within these broad categories.

The most deeply troublesome part of his ruling, of course, is its central assertion: that in giving the legal stamp of approval for the use of Mifepristone in 2000, the FDA got it wrong; that the agency - whom many of the ‘hyper moral’ claim is run and staffed by liberal doctors, scientists and elitists with a pro-abortion agenda - all but ignored the possible bad (or even lethal) side effects (called “adverse events” in medical research jargon) for purposes of getting it on to the market.

In the first 18 years of its legal existence, the FDA reported that 24 women, out of approximately 3.7 million (0.000064%), have died after taking mifepristone for the purpose of medical abortion. However, as the FDA notes, “The adverse events cannot with certainty be causally attributed to Mifepristone because of concurrent use of other drugs, other medical or surgical treatments, coexisting medical conditions, and information gaps about patient health status and clinical management of the patient.”

In other words, Judge Kacsmaryk’s contention vis-à-vis bad side effects is utter stuff and nonsense.

The FDA first approved Mifeprex (mifepristone) in September 2000 for the medical termination of pregnancy through seven weeks gestation and this was extended to ten weeks gestation in 2016. The FDA approved a generic version of Mifeprex, Mifepristone Tablets, 200 mg, in April 2019. The agency’s approval of this generic reflects its determination that Mifepristone Tablets, 200 mg, are therapeutically equivalent to Mifeprex and can be safely substituted for Mifeprex. Like Mifeprex, the approved generic product is indicated for the medical termination of intrauterine pregnancy through 70 days gestation.

By extension, Judge Kacsmaryk’s ruling could be used to call any FDA-approved drug or device into question. What’s to say that next week, some fundamentalist group of physicians, pharmacists or chemists wants to sue the FDA over the approval of contraceptive pills, hormones or medical devices because the pre-marketing research wasn’t as muscular as it should have been? Or that the major COVID vaccines and boosters cause far too many deaths? First they came for the press in order to get the public to distrust anything they said or printed. Next they came for the White House and the Congress until its ratings were in the sewer. Now, if Kacsmaryk and his “patriotic” cronies have their way, trust in the Food and Drug Administration (which, by the way, was never run by Dr. Fauci, as many of them claim) will also fall beneath the sub-basement.

(n.b. Yesterday (4/15/23) Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito issued an administrative stay of Judge Kascmaryk’s ruling until the end of the day, Wednesday, April 19. The Department of Justice has filed paperwork with SCOTUS, arguing that Kascmaryk’s ruling is legally unsupportable, and thus should be overturned.)

Those of us who labor long and hard in the vineyards of research, clinical trials and medical ethics (which is not an oxymoron), know very well just how long, exhausting and thoroughgoing the process is for getting anything medical, pharmaceutical or technical approved by the FDA. Generally speaking, it takes years, billions of dollars, and innumerable trial phases (starting with laboratory animals, then healthy human subjects,  then  subjects having a particular disease or condition and finally, post-marketing statistics. Anyone participating in trials is fully informed as to what is going to happen if they voluntarily consent to enter a study. Any and all potential adverse events are spelled out; anything in a consent document that is even remotely pushy or fanciful is deleted. Every step along the way is evaluated and overseen by either a Board of Ethics or an Institutional Review Board. This is how I’ve been earning my living for several decades . . .  (And by the way, all consent documents contain a boilerplate comment to the effect that “there may be other potential adverse events that we are not currently aware of.”)

Debunking Judge Kacsmaryk’s contention that not all dangerous side effects were investigated prior to FDA approval of Mifepristone or Misoprostol is actually pretty easy: all one has to do is go to www.clinicaltrials.gov type in which ever drug, device or surgical technique you wish, and you will get a full history of any and every trial ever done. As but one example, if you go to the site and type in Mifepristone, up will pop 227 different trials and studies carried out over the years. You will discover that there are still active studies investigating other uses for this drug . . . including certain types of breast cancer, type2 diabetes and Adenomyosis. Type in Misoprostol and you will find 566 past, present and proposed studies on many, many issues affecting women.

(Please note: deciphering medical terminology can be difficult. If you go on to the clinical trials website, you may need to ask your family doctor, specialist, pharmacist or, in some cases, your rabbi (!) to translate things into understandable English.)

                Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk (1977- )

At about the time Matthew Kacsmaryk was being considered for a lifetime appointment to the federal bench (early 2017) he submitted a draft article to a Texas law review criticizing Obama-era protections for transgender people and those seeking abortions. At the time, he had already spent several years working for a conservative legal group fighting legal fights on behalf those who demanded that their religious beliefs and scruples be protected as a matter of law.

The Obama administration, the draft article argued, had discounted religious physicians who “cannot use their scalpels to make female what God created male” and “cannot use their pens to prescribe or dispense abortifacient drugs designed to kill unborn children.”

But a few months after the piece arrived, an editor at the law journal who had been working with Kacsmaryk received an unusual email: Citing “reasons I may discuss at a later date,” Kacsmaryk, who had originally been listed as the article’s sole author, said he would be removing his name and replacing it with those of two colleagues at his legal group, First Liberty Institute, according to emails and early drafts obtained by The Washington Post. The article, titled “The Jurisprudence of the Body,” argues that religious physicians “cannot use their scalpels to make female what God created male” and “cannot use their pens to prescribe” abortion medication “designed to kill unborn children.”  Kacsmaryk asked for his name to be removed from the article for “reasons I may discuss at a later date” and be replaced by two coworkers at the religious freedom-focused law firm

When Matthew Kacsmaryk appeared before the Senate Judiciary Committee, his dossier and collection of legal essays did not contain any information about “The Jurisprudence of the Body." It had simply disappeared from his record.  In swearing to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, he told the assembled senators that his private religious beliefs would in no way affect his ability to make dispassionate decisions based solely on the law and legal precedents. In other words, like the 3 justices named to the Supreme Court by Donald Trump (Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett), Matthew Kacsmaryk lied; they too proclaimed that they would follow legal precedent when it came to Roe v. Wade.  And of course, all 3 voted in favor of its dismemberment.

I wonder how Judge Kacsmaryk or the current Supreme Court would respond to a lawsuit filed on behalf of plaintiff’s claiming that the drug Sildenafil should never have been approved by the FDA? Using the Texas judge’s legal logic, it should be banned.  This, of course, will never happen; it will never even be considered.  Why? Because Sildenafil is known by 2 generic names: Viagra and Revatio.

The next time we vote, please remember that positions on the federal bench are lifetime appointments. It is far too easy for ideologues like Kacsmaryk or G-d knows how many Trump/McConnell/Federalist Society appointees who urrent occupy seats and gavels which will give them the power to veto the wishes of vast majorities for at least the next generation, if not 2. This should become a major, major issue for the 2024 elections.

As to Judge Kacsmaryk himself, he should be feeling, in the words of the great British novelist and wit P.G. Wodehouse, like “a toad under the harrow” . . . like one soon to be chopped up into little pieces. Although Wodehouse was writing about Hildebrand Spencer Poynt de Burgh, twelfth Earl of Dreever, it could easily have been about Matthew Joseph Kacsmaryk. Writing about the good Earl of Dreever, Wodehouse noted: “Nature had equipped Hildebrand Spencer Poynt de Burgh with one of those cheap-substitute minds. What passed for brain in him was to genuine gray matter as just-as-good imitation coffee is to real Mocha. In moments of emotion and mental stress, consequently, his reasoning . . . was apt to be in a class of its own.”

Copyright©2023 Kurt F. Stone

Is the USA a "Melting Pot" or a "Salad Bowl?"

  This past Valentine’s Day, PRRI (Public Religion Research Institute, which describes itself as a “nonprofit, nonpartisan organization dedicated to conducting independent research at the intersection of religion, culture, and public policy,” issued a report on the astonishing growth of Christian Nationalist beliefs within the American political system . . . overwhelmingly so among conservative “MAGA” Republicans and Evangelicals.  Researchers for PRRI found that more than half of Republicans polled believe that America should/must be a strictly Christian nation, either adhering to the ideals of Christian nationalism (21%) or sympathizing with those views (33%).  

  Christian nationalism is a worldview that claims that the U.S. is a strictly Christian nation and that the country's laws should, therefore, be rooted in Christian values. This point of view has long been most prominent amongst white Evangelicals, but of late, has been receiving a lot of lip service from non-Evangelical Republicans in general.

  During an interview at a Turning Point USA event last August, Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene told the overflow audience that Republican Party leaders must of necessity become more responsive to the party’s base which, she claimed, is made up largely of Christian nationalists.  And Ms. Taylor Greene, who is gaining media minutes with every passing day, is by no means the loudest voice in the pews advocating the ideals and political theology of Christian Nationalism within  the public square.  Whether they take the Bible literally - or go to church every Sunday, or publicly advocate living morally upright lives - is well beyond the point; they have found yet another cause by which they can capture the votes of otherwise under-educated, politically unsophisticated naïfs. 

  Over the past many years, members of Congress have offered up resolutions - and even a proposed Constitutional amendment - proclaiming that “America is a Christian nation.” Their arguments never seem to change: either, that the Founders ‘intended” America to be a Christian nation,” or citing Supreme Court Justice David Josiah Brewer’s lead opinion in the 1892 case Church of the Holy Trinity v. United States. The first argument - that the Founders “clearly intended the United States to be a Christian Nation” can - and has been - easily disproven. Even before he became President, George Washington may have said it best, if not first: “Religious controversies are always more productive of acrimony and irreconcilable hatreds than those which spring from any other cause.” President Jefferson denied that Jesus was “a member of the Godhead,” and Benjamin Franklin, a co-author of the Declaration of Independence with Jefferson, (and like him, a thorough-going Deist) decried Christian church services for promoting church memberships instead of “trying to make us good citizens.”
  So far as the 1892 Supreme Court case, whose origin was an 1885 law called the Alien Contract Labor Law which prohibited “the importation and and migration of foreigners and aliens under contract . . . “, the Court ruled unanimously that the Church of the Holy Trinity was not in violation of the law and could indeed employ the services of an Anglican minister who had been brought to New York from England for the purpose of service to the congregation. What is still remembered and frequently cited from this case is one sentence in Justice David Josiah Brewer’s opinion: “These and many other matters which might be noticed add a volume of unofficial declarations to the mass of organic utterances that this is a Christian nation.” Justice Brewer’s obiter dictum has come into question dozens upon dozens of times over the past 120+ years. And yet, it is still raised by Christian Nationalists to “prove” that their belief is settled law.

Over the past several years, one of the unlikeliest - and least comprehensible alliances has been that between Donald J. Trump and America’s Evangelical/Fundamentalist community. How and why such a rigorously pious swathe of America could lend so much support and so many dollars to a man who has evinced less moral fiber than any of his predecessors is beyond reason . . . except for the fact that preachers from Maine to Southern California have told their flock to do so. An article in last Thursday’s Rolling Stone authored by Tim Dickenson summed up this mystery . . . and the possible fall from “messiahship” for Trump in 2024: “White evangelical Christians are the beating heart of the GOP base. Perhaps the wildest feat of Trump’s political career was convincing the fundamentalist faithful that he — a philandering, thrice-married, “pussy” grabber — could advance the cause of Godliness in the White House. If this bloc were to lose faith in Trump, it could doom his dream of recapturing the GOP nomination.”

At this juncture, it would seem that the mantle of political Messiah is Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’ to lose. Throughout his time in office, he has increasingly risen within the ranks of Christian Culture Warriors - even without using too much overtly Christological language. His support for the removal of “immoral” books from school libraries; making the teaching of CRT (Critical Race Theory) in schools which do not even teach it a crime; decrying anything which even hints at “DEI” (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion) studies in Florida schools from K through graduate level and leading the charge for restoring the death penalty (despite the fact that the Catholic Church - of which he is a member - is universally against it . . . mark him a man who is, by implication if not invocation, fighting hard to become the leader of the Christian Nationlist pack.

Then there is Nikki Hailey, former Governor of South Carolina and Ambassador to the United Nations, who announced her candidacy for the Republican Presidential nomination just the other day. She had little to say about what she would do as POTUS, made not a single reference to her former boss by name, and spoke mainly about how difficult it was to be raised as the daughter of a Sikh family in small town South Carolina.

                                                 Sarah Silverman 

To my way of thinking, the most telling thing about her announcement came even before her she made her announcement. The invocation at the event was delivered by controversial pastor John Hagee, who Ambassador Haley told the crowd she wants to be like she when “grows up.” Hagee’s history of controversial statements includes remarks that a God-sent Adolf Hitler was tasked with hunting Jewish people as part of a divine plan to send them to Israel, that Hurricane Katrina “was God’s retribution for a planned gay pride parade” in New Orleans, and that women “are only meant to be mothers and bear children.” Speaking about the event, The Daily Show guest host Sarah Silverman (one of the best comedians/political satirists in the business!) mocked Haley’s praise of Hagee: ““Oh, Pastor Hagee, I hope one day I can appreciate Hitler as much as you do,” Silverman joked. “Right now my appreciation of Hitler is like here (she raises her hand). I want to get it up, get it up to about here,” she continued with a raised-hand salute. She concluded by saying “Sure, this guy thinks the Holocaust is good and that’s not good but on the bright side, he does believe it happened. You know, you got to take the Ws (“Wins”) where you can.”

Hagee’s comment about Hitler and G-d’s divine plan to “send them (the Jews) to Israel,” is one of the most horrifying aspects of the Christian fundamentalist rendering of the Bible.  According to recent  polling by LifeWay, upwards of 80%  of evangelicals believed that the creation of Israel in 1948 was a fulfillment of biblical prophecy that would bring about the Second Coming . . . which means that anyone who has not accepted Jesus as their Messiah will be destroyed.  To a great degree, this explains why the largest and most fervent Zionist groups in the United States are Christian . . . not Jewish.  As a fairly knowledgeable and literate Jew, I could never support anyone who’s love of Israel is based on this revelation; if they succeed, we lose.

 Christian Nationalism posits that America must be a Christian Nation, which entails one hell of a lot of conversion.  To Jews, proselytizing and "spreading the 'Good News’ is about as foreign as ham and cheese on white bread.  We Jews do not have an exclusive on G-d or salvation. Co (my pronoun for “he/she”) belongs to everyone, and everyone belongs to Co. In fact, Judaism is the only religion that offers specific commandments for nonmembers. Following the story of the Great Flood, G-d commanded Noah and his sons to keep seven basic laws. Judaism believes that any Gentile who keeps those laws is righteous and will go to heaven.  Oh yes, Jews did go in for forced conversion once: there is one known case in which Jews (as a ruling power, which in itself is extremely rare) did in fact force gentiles to convert. This took place in the Maccabean era, around 168 BCE. A group called the Idumeans was forcibly converted by second generation Maccabees. However, the Idumeans’ ‘conversion’ was terribly ineffective. We learned our lesson; it doesn’t appear that the policy of forced conversion was popular with other Jewish zealots of the time and has never occurred since.  

Let us get to the original question posed in the title of this essay: “Is the USA a “melting pot” or a “salad bowl.”  According to Christian Nationalists it must be the former; according to American history it really should be the latter.  For what is a “melting pot?”  It is a place where a variety of peoples, cultures, or individuals assimilate into a cohesive whole.  (n.b. the term itself comes from a very popular play written by the Victorian/Edwardian-era playwright and novelist Israel Zangwill.  It tells the story of a Russian Jewish immigrant family, whose mother and sister were killed in a pogrom, hoped for a society free from ethnic divisions, and a refuge for all those suffering persecution for political or religious beliefs. Zangwill wrote, "America is God's Crucible, the great Melting-Pot where all the races of Europe are melting and reforming... Germans and Frenchmen, Irishmen and Englishmen, Jews and Russians – into the Crucible with you all! God is making the American." The play was so popular and well-received that when it opened on Broadway in 1908, playwright Zangwill’s “date” was none other than President Theodore Roosevelt!)

For many generations, the “melting pot” theory worked pretty well.  Although there were certainly racist, anti-Semitic and anti-Christian feelings, the immigrants themselves wanted nothing more than to become accepted as Americans . . . to melt into the social and cultural fabric of the new world.  The melting pot provided America with a plethora of talent, skilled workers and new citizens.  But alas, in recent times, the very concept of a “Melting Pot” has morphed into something akin to a multi-Christian nation.  More and more, we have become a “Salad Bowl” - an entity which despite being a whole (a “salad”) is composed of innumerable ingredients whose individual shape, size and individuality can still be easily identified.

To my way of thinking, “Christian Nationalism” is not only unpatriotic; it is also un-American and grossly chutzpadik (Yiddish for nervy, impudent or brazen).

If I choose to live my life as an American citizen who observes the Sabbath on Saturday rather than Sunday, to read my holy books from right-to-left rather than left-to-right or stay the hell away from shellfish and cheeseburgers, that should be of no one’s concern. I am still a patriotic American; a (hopefully) noteworthy ingredient in the greatest salad ever created. For those who disagree on religious or cultural grounds know this: you are the minority . . . get used to it.

Copyright©2023 Kurt F. Stone

Judah and His Brothers

                     Judah Maccabee stirring the people to battle . . .

I swear, if I hear one more person ask me “Isn’t Chanukah quite early this year?” I’m going to throw a boiling-hot just-out-the-fryer latke at them. The answer is a resounding “NO!” Chanukah always begins on the same date as per the Jewish calendar: the 25th of Kislev. This year, it’s Christmas that’s late, again as per the Jewish calendar. When using the Gregorian (January-December) calendar, Christmas is right on time. Now that we’ve got that calendric tidbit straightened out, let’s spend a bit of time dealing with Chanukah, the “Festival of Lights.” Truth to tell, it is a rather minor Jewish holiday which isn’t anywhere to be found in the Hebrew Bible; instead, it can be found as two books within the Hebrew Apocrypha (the so-called “hidden” or “forbidden” collection of post-Biblical works). 

Chanukah also receives short shrift in the Jewish siddur (prayer book).  It is relegated to but a single paragraph and - mostly for the purpose of indicating the timing of the festival and mentioning the names of the major players in the event which led to its creation. These “major players,” known collectively as “the Maccabees,” consisted of a family of the Jewish priestly caste (cohanim) led by a father (Mattathias [Matityahu]) and his five sons: (Judah [Y’hudah], John [Yochanan], Simon [She-mohn], Eliezer [Elazar] and Jonathan [Yo-natahn']).  In Sunday or Hebrew school, students were taught that the name Maccabee (מכבי/מקבי) is related either to the word makav (Hebrew for “hammer”) or mekabeh (Hebrew for “extinguisher”), either because the Maccabee leader, Judah pounded the enemy into submission like a hammer, or endeavored to snuff out the fire of the Greco-Assyrians, which spread death and desolation throughout the land of Israel. Another, more likely explanation is that Maccabee is an acronym for Mi kamocha ba’eilim Hashem (מי כמוך באילים י׳), namely, “Who is like You among the mighty, O G‑d?” which is  found in the Biblical Book of Exodus (15:11)

Many readers will remember a Chanukah song taught to youngsters whose refrain went: “Who can retell the things that befell us, who can count them? In every age, a hero or sage came to our aid.”  It became part of a nightly celebration including the lighting of the hanukkiah (mistakenly referred to by most as a menorah; remember, every hanukkiah is a menorah; not every menorah is a hanukkiah). Besides the nightly candelabra lighting (with its accompanying prayers), playing games of chance (as a remembrance of our ancestors gambling with their very survival) and eating either fried potato latkes (for those from a European background) or sufgani’yot (fried sugary donut holes filled with jam for those from a Middle Eastern background) there’s the old story about the “miracle of the oil”; of how a single cruse of oil, which was supposed to last but a single day at the time of the restoration of the Temple in Jerusalem, miraculously burned for a full 8 days.

It’s all very nice; a mythic fiction made for children of all ages which is nonetheless based on gut-wrenching facts . . . facts which ultimately turned heroic icons into humans with oversized feet of clay.  

                          Antiochus Epiphanes (215 BCE- 164 B.C.E.)

Factually, the events which undergird Chanukah go back to the middle-to-late 2nd century B.C.E, a time when the Seleucid Empire took over Jerusalem.  The leader of these Greco-Assyrians, Antiochus IV (215-164 B.C.E.) carried the regnal name Epiphanies (Ἐπιφανής), Greek for "G-d made manifest.”  As the name implies, he thought himself to be a divine - right up there with other inhabitants of Olympus such as  Zeus, Apollo, Ares and perhaps even Dionysus for all we know.  History records that he was, above all, a mad, autocratic narcissist.  Indeed, behind his back, many of his subjects, employing a sly play on words, gave him the epithet Epimanes (Ἐπιμανή), Greek for “the mad one.”  He ruled his empire with an iron fist from 175 B.C.E. until his death in 164 B.C.E.  His hatred for the Jews was so strong that his henchmen sacked the Holy Temple in  Jerusalem, turning it into a stygian stable.  His warriors and guardsmen - likely the first professional army in the world - proscribed any form of religious worship that was not directed at him. 

Some Jews became Hellenized and thus found favor with Antiochus; many, many others sought to make war against him as a response to the many cruelties he subjected to the people of  Judea.  Led by aforementioned Judah and his brothers, Jews from across Judea went to battle, thus becoming the first people in human history to fight not for property, physical resources or anything entirely tangible, but rather for a principle: the right of religious liberty.  The odds against them were enormous; a band of farmers, artisans, scholars and religious scholars making war against a vast army of professional soldiers.  What they had on their side was a patriotic fervor for their ancestral land, a far greater knowledge for its topography, and fortuitously, a  utter lack of knowledge of the rules of warfare.  As such, of necessity, they essentially created an early form of “guerrilla warfare,”  dropping out of trees, attacking and slaughtering the marching Greco-Assyrian troops; dashing boiling oil on them from above, and leading them into what today would be called "choke-points.” (This was not the first known use of this strategy; it was likely first used in the late 5th century B.C.E. Battle of Thermopylae, when Ancient Greek city-states, led by King Leonidas I of Sparta, went to war against the greatly superior Persian Empire of Xerxes I.)

Eventually, the victorious Jews managed to retake the Temple Mount, cleansed and repaired it for religious worship, and celebrated its restoration on the 25th of the month Kislev in the year 164 B.C.E.  Unfortunately, things started going downhill shortly thereafter. Following the re-dedication of The Temple, the supporters of the Maccabees became divided over the question of whether or not to continue fighting. When the revolt began under the leadership of Mattathias and his son Judah, it was seen as a war for religious freedom by ending the oppression of the Seleucids. However, as the Maccabees realized how successful they had been, many wanted to continue the revolt and conquer other lands with Jewish populations or to convert their peoples. This policy exacerbated the divide between the various Jewish groups including the Pharisees, Sadducees and Essenes under later Hasmonean monarchs such as Alexander Jannaeus and those who followed him. Those who sought the continuation of the war were led by Judah Maccabee.

On his death in battle in 160 BCE, Judah Maccabee was succeeded as army commander by his younger brother, Jonathan, who was already the Jewish High Priest. Jonathan made treaties with various foreign states, causing further dissent between those who merely desired religious freedom and those who sought greater power. As successful as they were in battle, the Hasmoneans made rather incompetent and corrupt leaders. They also tended to infuriate the Jewish public because, as members of the priestly caste, they were forbidden to be kings . . . which they utterly ignored. The Jewish state began to falter spiritually, politically and economically.

Eventually - and perhaps not too surprisingly - a civil war broke out in the land of Judah. In order to bolster their chances of continuing to rule, the latter Hasmoneans invited the upstart Romans to assist them maintain their Jewish state. This assistance quickly became a military alliance and within a century, independent Hasmonean rule had begun to evaporate; it became a fait accompli when the Roman general Pompeius (“Pompey the Great”) intervened in the Hasmonean civil war. The Hasmonean dynasty ended in 37 BCE when the Idumean Herod the Great became king of Israel, designated "King of the Jews" by the Roman Senate, thus effectively transforming the Hasmonean Kingdom into the Herodian Kingdom – a client kingdom of Rome.  In  essence, the Hasmoneans had planted the seeds of their nation’s destruction.  Needless to say, this left a bitter, bitter taste in the mouths  of future generations.

It’s this final stage - the post Jewish revolt against Antiochus Epiphanes - which Jews remembered for centuries thereafter. And that is largely why Chanukah received little mention in the rabbinic discourses of the Talmud or the Jewish prayer book. It is bitterly ironic that this holiday, which has its roots in a revolution against assimilation and suppression of the Jewish religion, has become the most assimilated, secular holiday on our calendar. Yes, the candles are beautiful; the latkes and sufgani’yot delicious, and the songs and dreidels (the spinning tops we gamble with) are lots of fun. But the true lesson of Chanukah, remains on view for all who wish to look.

To wit, that winning battles or campaigns in the name of freedom - whether it be of a political, religious or economic nature - is, when all is said and done, easier than exercising wise, intelligent, compassionate and far-sighted leadership in times of relative peace and prosperity.  Then too, it reminds us that seeking to force others to convert to your religion is the Devil’s own work.  After the example set by Judah and his brothers, forced conversion to Judaism was outlawed for all time.

In any event, there was and is a miracle associated with Chanukah.  Not the miracle of the single cruse of oil which lasted for eight days, but rather the miracle of a relatively small band defeating a grand army in the name of freedom.  (The 8 days, by the way are made up of 1 day for the Temple’s original service of dedication and 7 for the Festival of Succot – the autumn harvest festival  - which could not be observed during the war.) The candles should serve to remind us that miracles can be within the realm of possibility only when people work together with clear eyes, willing hearts and pure souls.  Goodness knows we are all in need of miracles these days.

Chanukah (no matter how you spell it) isn’t early this year; it’s right on time. 

Wishing all our Jewish friends a Chanukah s’maycha, a Happy Chanukah!

Copyright©2021 Kurt F. Stone

Pride and Privilege, Paranoia and Prejudice

The late Alan King - one of the greatest of all Jewish comedians - once quipped “Here’s a brief summary of every Jewish holiday: ‘They tried to kill us, we won, let's eat!’”  

Mathematician/topical song writer Tom Lehrer wrote a well-known satiric piece called “National Brotherhood Week,” the opening lyrics of which go: “Oh the Protestants hate the Catholics, and the Catholics hate the Protestants, and the Hindus hate the Moslems, and everybody hates the Jews.”

In 1923, the Welsh-born, sober-sided David Lloyd George, who served as British Prime Minister from 1916-1922, noted: Of all the extreme fanaticism which plays havoc in man’s nature, there is not one as irrational as anti-Semitism. … If the Jews are rich [these fanatics] are victims of theft. If they are poor, they are victims of ridicule. If they take sides in a war, it is because they wish to take advantage from the spilling of non-Jewish blood. If they espouse peace, it is because they are scared by their natures or traitors. If the Jew dwells in a foreign land he is persecuted and expelled. If he wishes to return to his own land, he is prevented from doing so.”  Then too, there was an anonymous wit who once proclaimed “I don’t know which came first: the Jews or the anti-Semites.  It  seems to me that if G-d hadn’t, in his great wisdom created the ‘Chosen People,’ anti-Semites would have, in order to have an eternal target for their deranged animosity.”  

To my mind, the best of all quotes about the Jews comes from the pen of Mark Twain (Samuel Langhorne Clemens): "If the statistics are right, the Jews constitute but one quarter of one percent of the human race.  It suggests a nebulous puff of star dust lost in the blaze of the Milky Way.  Properly, the Jew ought hardly to be heard of, but he is heard of, has always been heard of.  He is as prominent on the planet as any other people, and his importance is extravagantly out of proportion to the smallness of his bulk.

His contributions to the world’s list of great names in literature, science, art, music, finance, medicine and abstruse learning are also very out of proportion to the weakness of his numbers.  He has made a marvelous fight in this world in all ages; and has done it with his hands tied behind him. He could be vain of himself and be excused for it.  The Egyptians, the Babylonians and the Persians rose, filled the planet with sound and splendor, then faded to dream-stuff and passed away; the Greeks and Romans followed and made a vast noise, and they were gone; other people have sprung up and held their torch high for a time but it burned out, and they sit in twilight now, and have vanished.

The Jew saw them all, survived them all, and is now what he always was, exhibiting no decadence, no infirmaties, of age, no weakening of his parts, no slowing of his energies, no dulling of his alert but aggressive mind.  All things are mortal but the Jews; all other forces pass, but he remains.  What is the secret of his immortality?”

Between the humor of comedian King and the wit of satirist Lehrer one gets an insider’s grasp of the irrepressible, self-deprecating wit of the Children of Abraham and Sarah.  Likewise, the brilliant insights of two non-Jews - Lloyd George and Mark Twain shine a blinding white light on the historic enigma of this people who are about to enter the year 5782 with prayers of hope and forgiveness, as well as historic pride and tearful remembrance.    

Without question, there are tons and tons of things to be proud of when it comes to the accomplishments of Jewish people.  Hell’s bells, a brief ramble through the pages of movie history, broken down into producers, directors, screenwriters, composers and stars is enough to make one’s chest puff up to the point of exploding.  Then too, the number of Jewish brothers and sisters involved in medical research, physics, chemistry, biology and various sciences we cannot even pronounce is legion. In the world of politics, the Senate Majority Leader (New York’s Chuck Schumer) and the floor leaders of both Trump impeachment trials (California’s Adam Schiff and Maryland’s Jaimie Raskin) are all "MOT” (members of the tribe).  Within the  Biden Administration we can identify far more than a minyan occupying important posts:

Ron Klain: Chief of Staff

Janet Yellin Secretary of Treasury

Alejandro Mayorkas: Secretary of Homeland Security

Tony Blinken Secretary of State

Merrick Brian Garland: Attorney General

Jared Bernstein: Council of Economic Advisers

Rochelle Walensky: Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Wendy Sherman: Deputy Secretary of State

Anne Neuberger Deputy National Security Adviser for Cybersecurity

Jeffrey Zients: COVID-19 Response Coordinator

David Kessler: Co-chair of the COVID-19 Advisory Board and Head of Operation Warp Speed

David Cohen: CIA Deputy Director

Rachel Levine: Deputy Health Secretary

Jennifer Klein: Co-chair Council on Gender Policy

Jessica Rosenworcel: Chair of the Federal Communications Commission

Stephanie Pollack: Deputy Administrator of the Federal Highway Administration

Polly Trottenberg: Deputy Secretary of Transportation

Mira Resnick: State Department Deputy Assistant Secretary for Regional Security

Roberta Jacobson: National Security Council “border czar”

Gary Gensler: Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chairman*

Genine Macks Fidler: National Council on the Humanities

Chanan Weissman: Director for Technology and Democracy at National Security Council

Thomas Nides U.S. Ambassador to Israel [to be confirmed]

Eric Garcetti U.S. Ambassador to India [to be confirmed]

David Cohen: U.S. Ambassador to Canada [to be confirmed]

Mark Gitenstein: U.S. Ambassador to the European Union [to be confirmed]

Deborah Lipstadt: Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Anti-Semitism [to be confirmed]

Jonathan Kaplan: U.S. Ambassador to Singapore [to be confirmed]

Marc Stanley: U.S. Ambassador to Argentina [to be confirmed]

Rahm Emanuel U.S. Ambassador to Japan [to be confirmed]

Sharon Kleinbaum: Commissioner of the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom  

Thankfully, to date, there has been precious little chatter from cyber anti-Semites about the overwhelming number of Jewish men and women serving the country in top-line posts.  Historically, those who hate Jews need little reason for their conspiratorial animosity.  Historically, the reasons why people hate Jews falls into roughly six categories:

1. Economic -- "We hate Jews because they possess too much wealth and power."

2. Chosen People -- "We hate Jews because they arrogantly claim that they are the chosen people."

3. Scapegoat -- "Jews are a convenient group to single out and blame for our troubles."

4. Deicide -- "We hate Jews because they killed Jesus."

5. Outsiders -- "We hate Jews because they are different than us." (The dislike of the unlike.)

6. Racial Theory -- "We hate Jews because they are an inferior race."

Every other hated group is hated for a relatively defined reason. We Jews, however, are hated in paradoxes: Jews are hated for being a lazy and inferior race - but also for dominating the economy and taking over the world. We are hated for stubbornly maintaining our separateness - and, when we do assimilate - for posing a threat to racial purity through intermarriages. We are seen as pacifists and as warmongers; as capitalist exploiters and as revolutionary communists; possessed of a Chosen-People mentality, as well as of an inferiority complex. It seems that we just can't win.

Over the past year or so, there has been an obvious rise in the number of anti-Semitic events in both the United States and Europe, as well as throughout much of the rest of the world. Much of it has been focused on Israel and the spread of COVID-19. In a sense, history is repeating itself; much of Europe blamed the Jew for the spread of the so-called “Black Death” of the early Middle Ages. And yet, if there are any bright spots on the horizon when it comes to COVID-19 and its Delta variant, they emanate from Jewish scientists, immunologists and infectious disease specialists in America, Europe and Israel. As Jews, we can be proud, knowing that our sons and daughters have been largely at the forefront of containing the worst, most lethal pandemic of the past century. But at the same time, we are both puzzled and frightened by the response of professional Jew-haters who tell their followers that we are largely responsible for its spread.

It is one of the great ironies of human history that virtually every powerful culture or civilization which sought to eliminate the Jews from the face of time are now extinct . . . to be found mostly in museums or libraries.  It is even more ironic that the great and literate histories of their growth, decline and fall, have been written primarily by Jewish historians.  Perhaps. when all is  said and done, the underlying truth of being  part of the “Chosen People” is precisely this: that we have been “chosen” to exist throughout time . . . to continue adding to human history regardless of what our enemies - both ancient and more contemporary - might have wished.    
I for one am more than amazed that few professional anti-Semites have yet to figure out that the vast majority of the people serving in the current administration are either Jewish or Catholic. If they had, the level of finger pointing and ethno-religious animosity would be far, more virulent than it already is.

We are by no means a people without flaws. Like any people, we have our historic and contemporary embarrassments. From the phony “Messiah” Rabbi Sabbatai Zevi (1626-1676) and the man who continued Zevi’s cult, Jacob Frank (1726-1791) and from such psychopathic American gangsters as Benjamin “Bugsy” Siegal (1906-1941) Mickey Cohen (1913-1976) and America’s greatest/worst fraudster Bernard “Bernie” Madoff (1938-2021) Jews have plenty of MOT (“Members of the Tribe”) to be embarrassed by.  Then too, we have provided the world with more medical discoveries, scientific breakthroughs, Nobel and Pulitzer Prize winners as well as Emmy, Oscar and Tony winners and MacArthur Fellowship (“Genius Grant”) recipients than any other tiny family on the face of the earth.   

As we enter this New Year, we have much to be proud of . . . and much to worry about. Those who hate despise and dream up noxious conspiracies about the children of Abraham and Sarah not about to disappear from the human equation. Then again, their pernicious derangement isn’t about to stop us from doing everything in our power to make the world a better, saner, more healthy place. It’s just part of the price we pay for being “chosen.” Pride comes with privilege; paranoia always runs alongside prejudice.

So be it.

Copyright ©2021 Kurt F. Stone

Faith and Belief . . . Wisdom and Comprehension

(Once again, it’s that time of year when, in addition to twice-weekly medical teleconferences, thrice-weekly college lectures, writing essays and trying to follow as many Dodger games as possible [they are currently in the midst of a nine-game winning streak], preparations for High Holiday services are consuming more and more of my time and grey matter. And again, its that time of the year when, in the hopes of using my waking hours more expeditiously, I double-dip: my weekly blog essays form the main basis for of my Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur services . . . and vice-versa. What follows, will likely be delivered on Tuesday morning, September 7, the first day of the Jewish New Year 5782.)Unlike most monotheistic religions, Judaism has always placed a higher value on the deed, rather than the creed. Want proof? Ask ten learned rabbis what Jews believe about X or Y, and chances are, the rabbis will stroke their beards (that is, if they are males) and get a thoughtful look on their faces and then begin with something like “Well, some Jews believe . . . “ Then again, ask the same ten learned rabbis what Jews do in situation X or Y and the answer will be quickly forthcoming if not precisely the same. I have long assumed that the bit with pulling on a beard (or perhaps twirling a curl or a side lock) permits the scholar to look both thoughtful and wise even when he/she doesn’t know the answer.

The vast majority of rabbinic literary works (commentaries on virtually anything and everything under the sun) come mostly in the form of debate and argumentation. Indeed, one terribly wise and long forgotten sage once compared these discursive meanderings as “intellectual arguments across the generations.” Occasionally, when one sage wished to insult a colleague without calling him an uneducated simpleton, he would quote the 12th/13th century Spanish thinker Nahmanides (known as “The Ramban”): והמשכיל יבין (v’ha-maskeel yavin -  meaning - “The educated person will understand”).

                        Nachmanides (1194-1270)

Let’s take a brief rhetorical respite before returning to The Ramban’s insightful bit of wisdom and how it ties in to this essay/sermon. The past several years have brought unutterable changes to our lives - and not just in terms of our physical health, the state of our economy, or the changes made in the way we live our lives all over the globe. Most of us have, at one time or another, spent days, weeks and even months cordoned off from family and friends. We have learned, due to dire necessity, how to shop on-line, work from home, and even attend school and religious services via Zoom or other cyber platforms. For Anna and I as well as our family, the changes have been relatively easy; we love and get along well with our constant cabin-mates, and are employed in fields (like teaching, law and medical ethics) which can easily be accomplished from home. At the same time, we - like you - miss getting together panim el panim (Hebrew for “face-to-face”) with our friends, “playmates” and people who don’t live in our homes. Everyone should be so lucky! But the changes go well beyond matters of lifestyle and communication. One of the most serious and even frightening changes deals with how many people respond to reality. One of the very worst things to emerge over the past several years is the inability on the part of many to believe others . . . of being mistrustful of professionals, the highly-educated or leaders of the so-called “opposition” or, conversely the poorly educated, stridently fearful or those suffering from any number of noxious phobias.  Again, COVID-19 provides a chilling example of this most dangerous new trend . . . mistrustfulness.  Here in the  United States alonge, nearly 650,000 have lost their lives to COVID-19; many more have had the pants scared off them by the very thought of testing negative and perhaps beginning a wrenching downward spiral. Then too, there are all those who refuse to believe that there is any such thing as a COVID-19 pandemic - that it is a conspiracy on the part of one political party to wrest power from the other party or to take away individual freedom and liberty (think masks). How many times have we heard that the vaccines which nearly 190 million Americans have already willingly taken contain tracking devices - put there by Communists, Socialists and assorted agents of maleficence for various evil purposes?"  Or that the real reason for healthcare workers going door-to-door isn’t to get citizens vaccinated, but to ultimately take away their guns and Bibles?  (Yes, there are quite a few people who have bought into this bilge). In short, there are many who have lost the ability to trust anyone in a position of knowledge or authority. These are the folks that Ramban (Nachmanides) spoke of so many centuries ago when, tongue in cheek, said oh so many centuries ago והמשכיל יבין - “The enlightened, the educated will understand what is נָכוֹן (true) and what is שְׁטוּיוֹת (uttrt B.S.).”   

Of late, we have learned about virulent “anti-vaxxers” who have fallen prey to COVID-19 and its Delta variant and then, shortly before death, have urged people to go out and get vaccinated, be sure to wear masks, wash their hands and keep a reasonable amount of social distance. While it is both good and meritorious for them to warn people before their death of the importance of of these things (masking, social distancing and getting vaccinated), one must wonder what got into their minds prior to falling ill. How could they have ever been so easily convinced that they were somehow immune to the gravest pandemic since 1918? And even more important, how could so many supposedly intelligent, well-educated people convince so many others that they should fall prey to such an obvious hoax?

והמשכיל יבין

As we turn our attention to the New Year (whether Jewish or not), we would do well to recognize that truth comes far more often from the lips of experts (no matter what their fields) than from the mouths of fools.  And that those who attempt to convince the masses that it is the fools who are the true experts, generally have an ulterior motive up their sleeve.

מאחלת לך שנה טובה ומתוקה  (Hebrew for “Wishing you a and happy, healthy and sweet New Year.”

Copyright©2021 Kurt F. Stone

Congressional Bigots, Racists and Utter Morons

Ever since day one, Congress has been peopled with generations of Blue Bloods like the Saltenstalls, Cabots Lodges, and Freylinghuysens, as well as the Dingells of Michigan, The Chaffees of Rhode Island and the Tafts of Ohio. Then too, there are the California actors who served in Congress; their numbers include the very first, Julius Kahn, a noted Shakespearean actor whose San Francisco district has long been represented by Speaker Nancy Pelosi; former Broadway star (and wife of Melvin Douglas) Helen Gahagan (who was derisively called “The Pink Lady” by California ultraconservatives); Sonny Bono, George Murphy (whom satirical songwriter Tom Lehrer noted “Now we’ve got a senator who can really sing and dance”); and of course two non-members of Congress: Ronald Reagan and Arnold Schwarzenegger. Moving away from the Golden State, Minnesotans sent Al Franken to the U.S. Senate, Fred Grandy (A.K.A. “Gopher” in The Love Boat) represented an Iowa house district for 8 years, and The Dukes of Hazzard’s Ben “Cooter” Jones, was a two-termer from Georgia.

Among the professional athletes who became successful politicians, several were Hall of Famers in their respective sports: New Jersey Senator and basketball legend Bill Bradley (who was also a Rhodes Scholar and an Olympic Gold Medalist); Kentucky Senator (and Hall of Fame hurler) Jim Bunning; Seattle wide receiver and 4-term member of the House from Oklahoma, Steve Largent.

Congress has also had more than its share of morons, bigots, anti-Semites, and outright intellectual lightweights.  One of the most obnoxious of ‘em all was a sixteen-term Democratic Representative from Mississippi, by the name of John E. Rankin (1882-1960).  Rankin, who served in the House from 1921-1953 at one point chaired the notorious House Un-American Activities Committee. He was a thorough-going racist and anti-Semite. He hated anything involving Hollywood . . . which he believed with all his heart and soul was the American capital of the Communist conspiracy.  That’s Rankin in the picture to the left, enswathed in an endless petition demanding a thorough investigation into the producers, directors, writers and actors in Hollywood . . . all of whom he was certain were card-carrying Jewish Marxists.  One wonders if it ever dawned on him that being draped in all those signatures made him look like a rabbi!

In 1944, Time Magazine reported Rankin referring to Jewish columnist Walter Winchell (Winshell) “the little Kike.” This incident inspired the novelist Laura Z. Hobson to write her world-famous story of antisemitism, Gentleman's Agreement (1947).

Today’s 117th Congress likely has more bigots, racists, anti-Semites and utter morons than any gathering in the past 100 years.  Among the worst are:

• North Carolina Freshman Republican Madison Cawthorn, the youngest member of Congress, who defended his having missed the most votes in Congress by claiming that it was far more important servicing his wife during their honeymoon than serving the people of his district.  "If I have to choose between voting with Nancy Pelosi or spending time with my beautiful wife, I’m choosing Cristina every time," he said.  Cawthorn further admitted he had missed a number of votes in the week he was gone but said it was all "Democrat garbage."

• Georgia Republican Andrew Clyde who likened the mob’s breaching of the Capitol on January 6 to a “normal tourist visit,” despite photos from that day showing him, mouth agape, rushing toward the doors to the House gallery and helping barricade them to prevent rioters from entering. The images resurfaced this week on social media amid a wave of disbelief and outrage over Clyde’s comments, including from several Republicans.  (It should be noted that the actor who probably played more dumb sidekick parts in Hollywood Westerns than anyone in history was the Scottish-born actor Andy Clyde, best known for playing Hopalong Cassidy’s comic relief, “California Carlson.”  Oddly ironic, no?)

• Arizona Rep. Paul Gosar, who is so far out of it that even his siblings want him expelled from Congress. 

• Texas Rep. Louie Gohmert who freely concedes that people believe that he’s the “dumbest member of Congress.”  Among his loopiest actions are claiming his face mask likely gave him COVID-19 (on the extremely rare occasions he wore one) and then taking the failed Donald Trump “cure” hydroxychloroquine to fight it. He has said that caribou love to “date” over oil pipelines and nominated Republican Newt Gingrich to be speaker of the House 13 years after Gingrich left Congress.

• Georgia Freshman Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene who, among many other inanities, recently likened Congressional leaders forcing members to wear masks during their time on the House floor to the Holocaust.  Furthermore, she was voted off all her Congressional committees due to her steadfast support of QAnon supported-reality, and has spent the lion’s share of her free time stalking the likes of Representatives Alexandria Ocasio Cortez and Eric Swalwell as well as Marjorie Stoneman Douglas survivor David Hogg.  Moreover, even before she won her seat in Congress, Greene suggested that  a bank controlled by the Rothschild family, who are Jewish, a utility company responsible for the fire and then-Gov. Jerry Brown had a compelling motive to spark lethal forest fires in California, thus clearing the path for a high speed rail project that Brown wanted.

• Colorado Rep. Lauren Boebert who, like her freshman colleague M.T.G. is out on the edge of political sanity, recently posted a tweet asking her followers to reveal their favorite verse from the Bible. Unfortunately for Rep. Boebert, her public tweet garnered responses from people who are decidedly not impressed with the Colorado legislator’s overall performance as one of Congress’s most notorious wanna-be seditionists and gun-rights advocates.

It would seem that Rep, Boebert, who knows as much about the Bible as yours truly does about about lobster bisque, has posted her question in order to gather in more reelection cash. How in the world could I be so dismissive of another’s religious convictions? Well, it seems to me that one who truly knows their Bible, would be aware of certain verses, such as:

                    Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene (L) & Lauren Boebert (R)

• “And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others,” (Matthew 6:15);

• “For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me.” (Matthew 25, 35)

• If any of your fellow Israelites become poor and are unable to support themselves among you, help them as you would a foreigner and stranger, so they can continue to live among you.” (Lev. 25: 35)

• '"Before the blind, do not put a stumbling block- (Lev. 19:14).

This last verse, "וְלִפְנֵ֣י עִוֵּ֔ר לֹ֥א תִתֵּ֖ן מִכְשֹׁ֑ל” is, in my humble opinion, one of the most important of all verses in the Bible, and an exceptionally important lesson for anyone who makes their living as an elected official. For this verse makes crystal clear that those who place what we today call a “big lie” before the people, are committing a fundamental sin - not to mention breaking several Divine Commandments. Whether it be getting the public believing that that the last election was purposefully stolen; that the Holocaust was an invention of the Jews; that the COVID-19 pandemic was the intentional work of Dr. Anthony Fauci or that all those who broke into the the U.S. Capitol on January 6 were either “left-wing radical Marxists” or “peace-loving patriotic Americans” are knowingly driving a lethal wedge between neighbors and moving America ever closer to a second Civil War. And for what purpose? To put money in their pockets? To destroy the planet’s oldest and most successful democracy and replace it with a malevolent autocracy? To sell as many stumbling blocks as the market will bear?

An even more basic question has to be “Do the people spewing all this fraud and rhetorical deceit really believe what they are saying?” To be perfectly honest, I don’t know what is worse: believing with a full heart that the 2018 California wildfires were caused by Jewish space lasers (just ask Rep. Taylor-Greene) or knowing that they (the liars-in-chief) know full well that they are absolutely full of what Granny would call “canal water.”

My hope, prayer and dream is that come November 8, 2022, the public will give the likes of Reps. Clyde, Gosar, Gohmert, Greene and Boebert (not to mention Senator Ted Cruz and Florida’s own Matt Gaetz) their walking papers and replace them with ladies and gentlemen (of either party, but hopefully Democrats) who know that Congress is no place for bigots, racists, morons and habitual liars.

 There are 532 days left until November 8, 2022.

Copyright©2021 Kurt F. Stone

"If Biden Becomes President God Is in BIG Trouble". . . So Saith Donald J. Trump

After nearly 1,300 days in office, hardly anything DJT says is surprising. Or so I thought until this past Thursday, August 6, when Boss Tweet, speaking before a group in Ohio, accused former Vice President Joe Biden of “following the radical left agenda,” and claimed that were he to be elected in 2020, he - Biden that is -  would “hurt the Bible [and] hurt God.” Furthermore, ‘45  flatly accused the gentleman from Delaware of being “against God.” This from the man who, in 2015, could not name a single Biblical verse when asked which was his favorite, instead claiming it was “very personal.” Could this be the filthiest presidential election in all American history? Actually not . . . and by a long shot. In order to take first place, a presidential election would have to have perfidious untruths spewing forth from both sides . . . not just one. To the best of my recollection, Joe Biden has never been very been terribly skilled at “דוחף שטויות” (Hebrew for “the shoveling of b.s.”) No, if you’re looking for the nastiest, most underhanded of all presidential elections, you would likely have to go back 220 years . . . to the election of 1800, which pitted incumbent President John Adams versus incumbent Vice President Thomas Jefferson.

By 1798 - two years before the next presidential election, Adams and Jefferson - who at one point had been rather close and greatly admiring of one another - were the worst of enemies. Precisely why is a long story. If you are interested in knowing more, I heartily recommend reading Gordon Woods’ Friends Divided. As different in tone, appetite, and personality as any two highly literate gentlemen could be, Adams, Jefferson and their surrogates befouled the political air with the most lethally noxious fabrications and exaggerations in that long-ago presidential election.

At one point Jefferson's camp accused President Adams of having a "hideous hermaphroditical character, which has neither the force and firmness of a man, nor the gentleness and sensibility of a woman." In return, Adams' men called Vice President Jefferson "a mean-spirited, low-lived fellow, the son of a half-breed Indian squaw, sired by a Virginia mulatto father." As the slurs piled on, Adams was labeled a fool, a hypocrite, a criminal, and a tyrant, while Jefferson was branded a weakling, an atheist, a libertine, and a coward. Even Martha Washington succumbed to the propaganda, telling a clergyman that Jefferson was "one of the most detestable of mankind.”

On July 4, 1798, a revered congregational minister who was also president of Yale, delivered a ringing condemnation of Jefferson's supposed atheism. In a widely-reprinted sermon, Yale President Timothy Dwight, whom critics sarcastically called "His Holiness Pope Timothy," prophesied the likely consequence of a Jefferson victory: "[T]he Bible would be cast into a bonfire, our holy worship changed in a dance of Jacobin phrensy [sic], our wives and daughters dishonored, and our sons converted into the disciples of Voltaire and the dragoons of Marat." According to Dwight, "Murder, robbery, rape, adultery, and incest will be openly taught and practiced, the air will be rent with the cries of distress, the soil will be soaked with blood, the nation black with crimes.".

The fact of the matter was that Jefferson, far from being an “atheist,” was a Deist who could easily read the Bible in Hebrew, Latin and Greek, and even wrote and published a work still in print in 2020 known as The Jefferson Bible. (Deism by the way, holds that God does not intervene with the functioning of the natural world in any way, allowing it to run according to the laws of nature that co* ([he/she] configured when co* created all things.)

Ironically, it was one of Jefferson’s closest friends - James Madison, the primary author of the Constitution - who, repulsed by the religious attack on the Sage of Monticello, created within Article VI which, after requiring all federal and state legislators and officers to swear or affirm to support the federal Constitution, specified that “no Religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States.” In a sense, it is this article - the “No religious test” text, that the current POTUS has so obviously, vulgarly and nastily ignored in attacking his political opponent. Unlike Adams, who was a self-confessed “church-going animal,” Mr. Trump is, without question, a religious illiterate. On the other hand, former Vice President Biden is a lifelong practicing Catholic who regularly attends Mass at St. Joseph’s on the Brandywine in Greenville, Delaware. He wears a rosary on his left wrist, a gift his younger son Hunter gave to his older son, the late Beau Biden, after a visit to the shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe. ‘45, on the other hand, has rarely been known to enter a church of any denomination. That ‘45 should aver that Biden is anti-religious and a threat to both the Bible and God is a clear indication that once again, Trump and his advisors are blithely speaking about that which they know nothing. By definition, God, who is both omnipotent and omniscient to those who believe, cannot be susceptible to “BIG trouble.” To place a heavy religious yoke astride the shoulders of his political opponent, POTUS is attempting to keep his Evangelical base firmly in his corner. For reasons not easily understood, Trump has been able to maintain a goodly percentage of that holier-than-thou base despite being a serial liar, an immoralist and a potty-mouthed boor.  And although Article VI only bans religious tests for those holding - and not merely running for - high office, one gets the overarching sense that  politics must be confined to the temporal - not spiritual or sectarian - realm; otherwise it makes of faith, morality and godlike acts little more than a sordid chapter from Elmer Gantry. As POTUS, ‘45 has surrounded himself with a tight-knit group of pastors and evangelical leaders who heap praise upon him for his socially conservative stances, his judicial appointments and his support for Israel’s government. Trump often invites these pastors to pray and seems to enjoy hearing their protestations of faith. Many of the pastors insist that Trump is a Christian believer. But they - and a vast percentage of their flock - seem not to care a fig that this man they call “a Christian believer” has a track record which falls far, far short of what the Bible preaches and teaches.  It  has never troubled them that the president has flat out disparaged two of the most religious politicians of our time . . . neither of whom are Evangelical Protestants: Speaker Nancy Pelosi (who is a fascinating admixture of ardent Catholic and yiddishe bubbe) and Utah  Senator Mitt Romney, who is a devote Mormon.  Neither has ever put their individual faith on public display.  Many recent presidents, once in office, put together an “ecumenical faith council.”  I have, over the years, known several rabbis who served on various presidential councils.  When it came Trump’s turn, his council was absolutely 100% devoid members from Catholic, mainline Protestant, Jewish, Muslim or other traditions. Although raised a mainline Presbyterian and married (the 3rd time around) in an Episcopalian Church to Melania, (who is a Catholic), Trump has no time for anyone who is not a born-again Evangelical.  Why?  Because Evangelicals are as good for his political campaigns as billionaires are for his political fundraising.  And by the way, once Rep. Nita Lowey (D-NY), Chair of the Powerful House Appropriations Committee retires from Congress in January 2021, guess who will once again presume the title of grandmother of the most Jewish grandchildren in the Congress of the United States?” Speaker Nancy Pelosi . . . the only Speaker who also has a soccer field named after her in the State of Israel. 

Dear God: may it be your will that all of  your children - whether Evangelical Christian, traditional Jew, Muslim, atheist, agnostic,  or Jeffersonian Deist, come to recognize that one’s religious faith has nothing to do with secular politics.  It is by real deeds - not our verbal creeds - that our real selves come to be known and trusted in the public square.  

84 days until November 3, 2020

Copyright©2020 Kurt F. Stone

Maria Isabel Bueso, MPS VI, and the Sin of 'Moral Albinism'

In the world of medicine, albinism (being an albino) refers to any of a number of rare, inherited genetic conditions in which the amount of melanin pigment (that which causes skin to tan in sunlight) is dangerously low. Albinism is characterized by almost dead-white skin and hair and - somewhat erroneously - pink eyes. Baby boomers will likely remember rock guitarists Johnny and Edgar Winter and are certainly familiar with journalist Anderson Cooper, all of whom suffer from the condition.

Maria Isabel Bueso: Amerca’s Most Prominent Victim of Trumpain Moral Ablinism

Thus, to be an albino - medically speaking - means to be without any color or shading. It is - without question - a genetic condition. Let’s posit for the nonce that albinism can extend beyond the body, and the term used to describe and define other kinds of human mutations and failings.  What I have in mind is what we might call “moral albinism” - an ethical code utterly devoid of conscience, coloration or nuance, and caused not by an inherited genetic mutation, but rather by intense psychological abnormality - which may or may not be a familial legacy. To my way of thinking ‘45 and most of what passes for his revolving-door, three-ring circus of an administration, suffer from collective moral albinism.  Let’s face it: anyone possessing even a scintilla of “moral melanin” would find it difficult - if not morally repugnant to the max - to lend support to white supremacists, neo-Nazis or racists; to find no problem with separating refugee or asylee children from their refugee or asylee parents; or from having little or no problem deporting children with life-threatening medical conditions to countries which are virtually incapable of treating, let alone saving their lives.   

At this point we introduce one and all to Maria Isabel Bueso, potentially America’s most prominent victim of Trumpian Moral Albinism.  Maria Isabel (called mostly by her middle name, “Isabel”) was born in Guatemala. At age 7, she was diagnosed with  MPS-VI, also called “Maroteaux-Lamy Syndrome” and mucopolysaccharidosis type VI, a rare and fatal genetic disorder. Permit me a sentence or two as a medical ethicist who is not unaware of compassionate use studies involving MPS VI. This rare condition involves the deficiency or absence of an enzyme called arylsulfatase B which leads to the accumulation of complex carbohydrates. It can easily cause life-threatening complications including coarse facial features, corneal clouding, joint abnormalities, skeletal malformations, an abnormally enlarged liver and/or spleen, hearing loss and death, generally by age 20.  This is the disorder  Isabel was diagnosed as having at age 7.  Without treatment (which was all but nonexistent in 2002) there was little hope she could live another decade.

In 2002, Dr. Paul Harmatz, a pediatric gastroenterologist who practices at UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital Oakland, Calif. learned about Isabel and inquired as to  her interest in coming to California in order to partake in a clinical trial of a new drug (Naglazyme®), a first-of-its-kind enzyme-replacement therapy that extends patients’ lives by more than a decade, on average. Isabel and her family’s willingness to relocate to support her - and armed with a V-2 Visa, helped make it possible for the trial to move forward. Two years later, Dr. Harmatz’s trial led to FDA approval of Naglazyme. For the past 16  years, Isabel has been receiving 6-hour weekly infusions.  Not only that; during these sixteen years she has stabilized, graduated summa cum laude from California State University, East Bay, and made other contributions, including the establishment of a scholarship for students with disabilities. Meanwhile, her family members have forged new careers and new connections in their church and community here in the United States.  For the past 16 years Isabel, her family, and tens of dozens of other children having life-threatening diseases and disorders, have continued receiving medical care under a government program that defers action on deportations in order to seek medical treatment.

Then Isabel - and so many other children and families - ran headlong into Trumpian Moral Albinism: the program which permitted them to remain in the United States was about to be discontinued and they all had one month to leave the country or face deportation.  For Isabel and the other children - whose participation in these clinical trials has led to major medical breakthroughs - deportation was tantamount to a death sentence.  Last week Isabel testified before the House Oversight Committee - alongside Jonathan Sanchez, a young Honduran suffering from Cystic Fibrosis - telling them that being forced out of the United States was signing their death warrants.  

For its part, the Trump administration has wavered back and forth as to what indeed they are going to do.  First, the administration, in a statement from the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), announced an abrupt end to the program which permits non-citizens seeking medical treatment in the U.S.  Then, after Isabel’s congressional testimony brought this sinful, inhumane situation to overall public attention, USCIS backtracked a bit and said they would reexamine Isabel’s deferred action application.  As of today (September 15, 2019) no one knows what the outcome will be.  The one thing the administration has done is to transfer the entire issue from USCIS to ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement), whose mandate has nothing - I repeat NOTHING - to do with these sort of deferrals. 

So far, the administration has been absolutely closed-mouth about what motivated them to deny medical attention to some of the most vulnerable people on earth.  Trump’s legion of moral albinos have taken to social media and charged that these deathly ill human beings are “milking American taxpayers out of their hard-earned dollars” and that “we should take care of Americans first.”  Of course many of those making these kinds of charges steadfastly favor eliminating Obamacare, cutting funding for Medicaid and mental health services and deporting any and all who “take” so much as a dime in government services.  Then too, they have no idea that most compassionate use studies are paid for by pharmaceutical companies, philanthropic organizations, the National Institutes for Health or national groups devoted to raising funds for  and awareness of various medical conditions, diseases and disorders.  

This sinful act of moral albinism - larded over with good old-fashioned stupidity and abject meanness - is, quite likely, the POTUS’s attempt to keep his political base happy . . . to show them how terribly tough he can be when it comes to and all non-citizens. Although I find this strategy far more than detestable, I nonetheless can understand it . . . as a political strategy; do anything and everything to keep your political base happy. Again, this I understand. But what mystifies and sickens me the most is that this base is made up largely of Evangelical Christians - people who carry a Bible in one hand and the sword of puritanical moral judgement in the other. For reasons which totally elude me, they find no inconsistency in decrying the moral degradation of modern society while supporting the least moral president in history; of urging “In God We Trust” signs and the Ten Commandments (which include the words “Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor” in every classroom all the while cheering on a man who never goes to church, tells a minimum of a dozen lies a day and doesn’t even know that “Corinthians II” is called “Second Corinthians” rather than “Two Corinthians,” His base contains millions of people who can quote Scripture from here to Tristan Da Cuna but conveniently become deaf, dumb and blind when it comes to verses which implore us to clothe the naked, feed the hungry and care for the sick and the strangers amongst us.

I guess that when it comes to choosing between appointing conservative Supreme Court justices, restricting abortion access and LGBT rights, supporting the right to own and carry automatic weapons and turning a blind eye to the sin of moral albinism, the choice is easy.

Let’s pray that one day, someone will engage in a clinical trial for creating a successful method of moral melanin replacement therapy. Goodness knows we need it.

421 days until the next election.

Copyright©2019 Kurt F. Stone

Shades of Dr. Max

Dr. Max Rafferty

Way back in 1968, California had a real barn-burner of a senate election pitting Democrat Alan Cranston (the former state Comptroller) versus Republican Dr. Max Rafferty (that’s him in the photo), the then state Superintendent of Public Instruction. Dr. Max was such a “far right reactionary” that many California Democrats actually changed their voter registration to Republican for the sole purpose of voting for the incumbent, the much-admired and respected liberal Republican Thomas Kuchel. Despite the influx of new Republican primary voters, Dr. Max defeated Senator Kuchel, and then went on to lose the general election to Cranston by more than 340,000 votes. (Of course, a vast majority of the Democrats who had re-registered as Republicans, returned to the fold for the general election.)

Defeated for reelection to his state education post two years later, Dr. Max moved to Alabama, where he took a job as Chancellor of Troy State University. Upon learning of Rafferty’s planned move, the beloved San Francisco Chronicle columnist Herb Caen wrote “In leaving California and moving to Alabama, Dr. Max is raising the IQ of both states simultaneously.” (Dr. Max would continue living in Alabama, and actually became a surrogate for George Wallace. On June 13, 1982, Dr. Max died when his car plunged off an earthen dam into a pond near Troy. He was 65.) 

This now half-century old memory fought its way back to my frontal lobes while I was in the process of reading various Tweets and Facebook postings from ardent “pro-life” (or rather, “pro-birth”) supporters of the nation’s newest and cruelest total abortion ban - the one just signed into law by Alabama Governor Kay Ivey. Many of these Tweets and postings were aglow with the joy of knowing that as of this coming November, physicians who conduct abortions in Alabama could be sentenced to 99 years in prison, and women undergoing abortions could be held legally liable for their actions. And, as a result, many of these Tweeters were now half-seriously considering moving to Alabama, where “morality is back in style." I responded to several of them that in leaving their home states and moving to the land of Ivey, they would - like Dr. Max - be raising the IQ of two states simultaneously. Not knowing the historic context behind my tweets, they were, to say the least, perplexed. Now, Georgia, Louisiana, Missouri, Ohio and other states are in competition with one another to pass their own pro-birth, anti-woman bans ASAP.

Truth to tell, for many of these state legislatures, rushing to pass regressive anti-abortion ”fetal heartbeat” legislation, the reason for turning back the clock to pre-Roe v. Wade days hasn’t got all that much to do with religion or morality. Rather, it has lots to do with putting a powerful emotional wedge issue squarely on the 2020 ballot. To their way of thinking, this issue will help 45’s reelection bid. But already, there are signs that Republicans themselves - including the POTUS himself - are becoming political contortionists; pols who, while seeking to convince their base that they are still adamantly pro-birth, are also attempting to distance themselves from the cruelest, most testosterone-driven aspects of the newest pieces of legislation.

One might think Alabama legislators and their base would be more concerned about paying attention to the state of their state than whether or not women and their physicians are going to be enjoined and even imprisoned for making decisions about their bodies and lives. If the Republican politicians and citizens of Alabama were really, truly concerned about life - rather than merely birth - they would be appalled at what is going on in the Yellowhammer State. For in poll after poll, Alabama rates dead last - or close to it - in just about every economic and social category. According to recent state rankings by U.S. News & World Report, Alabama is:

• 50th in education;

• 46th in health care;

• 45th in economy;

• 45th in opportunity and

• 45th in crime and corrections.

• Alabama’s overall rating among the 50 states is 49 . . . Louisiana - another state spending the lion’s share of its legislative time on banning abortions - comes in dead last, while on the other end of the scale:

• Washington is number 1. New Hampshire number 2, and Minnesota number 3.

In passing their worst-in-the-nation anti-abortion bill, Alabama’s Republican legislators and Republican governor are clearly doing everything in their power to ensure continued support from their party’s (read: Trump’s) political base. This is unbelievably myopic. In order to go beyond maintaining their base - let alone expanding it - they are going to need to attract more suburban women and educated urbanites. With passage of this bill - and all the attendant negative press and their increasingly riven party - they are going to lose even more potential voters. If the myopic pols, in turn, say “All we need to do is repeatedly warn our constituents about all the pre-born lives that will be destroyed if we are not reelected, and how we are truly doing God’s will” - they are going to find themselves in even worse shape. For, as bad as education, job growth, farming, infrastructure and healthcare are in Alabama (and Louisiana, Missouri, Georgia and Ohio) right now, things are going to get even worse. How so? Economic boycotting by individuals and corporations who otherwise might visit, build, hold conventions or invest in these hyper pro-birth states. This will give more rational candidates the ability to engage in issues of even greater day-to-day concern.

In last week’s post (“The Death of Biodiversity”) we mentioned the many conservative politicians who refuse to join the growing legions of folks who see climate change as an issue of paramount importance. Their rationale? The “I’m not a scientist” excuse. Why is it that the vast majority of politicians who use this tactic act like board-certified OB-GYNs when it comes to abortion? Why is it that those who argue adamantly against any and all gun safety measures (“It’s an encroachment on personal liberty!”) have no problem with government involvement in - and regulation of - a woman’s right to choose? Could it be that they are too dense to recognize radical inconsistency? Or are there simply more campaign dollars to be had from the likes of pro-gun and anti-abortion PACS than teachers’ unions, Planned Parenthood and the National Organization for Women?  

I bet even a Luddite like Dr. Max would have known the answer.

536 days until the next election.

Copyright©2019 Kurt F. Stone

Be Careful What You Wish For

By now, it should be pretty obvious that few Democrats are using the "i" word in the run-up to November's midterm election. Savvy Democratic politicians avoid the word for a couple of good and obvious reasons . . . and a single, terrifyingly not so obvious one.  The first good and obvious reason is that making impeachment a central Democratic issue is both strategically dicey and, from a practical point of view, utterly rudderless. 

Secondly, trying to convince Democrats, Independents and disenchanted Republicans that a "Blue Wave" is all that stands between a strong, small-d democratic republic and a treacherous autocracy is likely a fool's errand. To anyone who's not part of the staunchly Democratic base, it sounds and feels like nothing more than an extension of cable news.  Simply stated, it isn't all that motivating.  Thirdly, the unspoken message becomes "We're going to spend a majority of the next 2 years issuing a ton of subpoenas, holding tens of dozens of investigative hearings and generally putting such issues as education, comprehensive immigration reform, gun safety, the opioid pandemic and climate change - to name but a few - on the back burner."  This is no way to convince the American voting public to put Congress back in the hands of Democrats.

Then there is that terrifyingly not-so-obvious reason why savvy Democrats aren't spending much time talking about indictment . . . let alone impeachment: it might just work.  "How's that?" you ask.  "And what's so all-fired wrong with that?  At least we'd be rid of the most crassly incompetent, most boorishly narcissistic POTUS in history."  Well yes, but wishing, working and praying for such a thing carries with it an even graver, more dangerous reality: Vice President Mike Pence would then become the 46th POTUS.

Famously, John Nance ("Cactus Jack") Garner, FDR's first V.P. described his office as "not worth a bucket of warm piss." Constitutionally, the Vice President could, in less graphic terms, be called "The Waiter-in-Chief." He waits for the chance to fulfill one of two duties prescribed by the Constitution: to break tie votes in the Senate, or to succeed presidents who, for whatever reason, cannot finish a term in office.  Vice President Mike Pence has already fulfilled the former.  After Paul Manafort’s guilty verdict, Michael Cohen’s guilty plea and the immunity deals worked out for the president's longtime CFO Allen Weisselberg and National Enquirer publisher David Pecker, (all within a single tumultuous week), it seems that Mr. Pence may fulfill the latter prescribed duty as well. And if it comes to pass, in the words of a recent piece by Los Angeles Times op-ed writers Michael D'Antonio and Peter Eisner, ". . . no one will be less surprised than Pence."  

From where I sit, the mere possibility of Mike Pence becoming POTUS scares me one whole hell of a lot more than the reality of his boss continuing to occupy the nation's highest office.  Why?  Well, where '45 can be counted on to be inconsistent, incompetent, frequently incoherent and largely lacking a moral compass, Mike Pence is dangerously consistent and tethered to an absolutist moral compass which sees  his presidency as preordained by God and the mass of humanity as enemies of the Divine Plan.  Pence has frequently described himself as “a Christian, a conservative, and a Republican," in that order. While it may at first blush trouble people that this very, very moral man has amicably stood by and lent sycophantic support to the nation's immoralist-in-chief, once one gets to know the underpinnings of his belief structure, this seeming inconsistency makes perfectly good sense.  To understand Pence, one must first get to know his favorite Biblical verse (Jeremiah 29:11) which is on proud display at the Vice President's residence.  In Hebrew, the verse reads: 

     כִּי֩ אָֽנֹכִ֨י יָדַ֜עְתִּי אֶת־הַמַּֽחֲשָׁבֹ֗ת אֲשֶׁ֧ר אָנֹכִ֛י חֹשֵׁ֥ב עֲלֵיכֶ֖ם נְאֻם־יְהֹוָ֑ה מַחְשְׁב֚וֹת שָׁלוֹם֙ וְלֹ֣א לְרָעָ֔ה לָתֵ֥ת לָכֶ֖ם אַֽחֲרִ֥ית וְתִקְוָֽה

Literally translated as "For I know the thoughts that I think about you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope."  To Vice President Pence and those, like him, who were raised in the Calvinist tradition, everything, which happens - both the seemingly good and the wicked, the moral and immoral are predestined.  To those of us who were not raised or schooled in this translation, the actual meaning of Jeremiah 29:11 is somewhat different:

 “For I know the plans I have for you, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”  In other words, to Mike Pence's way of thinking the Lord has ordained the V.P. to lend support to the grossly immoral Donald Trump so that Mike Pence can become POTUS.  It's sort of like the Bible’s story of Cyrus, a pagan king who served God by protecting the Jews. In this case,  '45 plays the role of Cyrus, who is serving G-d by protecting conservative, Evangelical Christians, who believe themselves to be under mortal attack.  I don't know about you, but this scenario scares the daylights out of me.  In other words, Pence believes that God has a plan for him, and if that plan requires him to temporarily abandon his principles as well as his dignity, so be it.

Pence is regarded by some as the modern version of another Old Testament figure, Daniel, who safeguarded his fellow Jews while functioning as counselor to another pagan ruler, Nebuchadnezzar. Daniel aided the Israelites by appearing to abandon his Jewishness in Nebuchadnezzar’s court. Pence, the argument goes, sets aside his moral standards to retain access to Trump. From his insider's perch, he can do more good for religious conservatives than from the outside. And if he were to take that final step to the Oval Office, then the ends would justify the means.

Pence, unlike his boss, is not heeding the counsel of billionaires who ordain things to be done in the name of future riches. Rather, he heeds Biblical imperatives which ultimately lead to both a Christian nation and an "end-time" which will bring about the so-called "Second Coming" of the Messiah. (For Jewish people, please understand that in order for this "second coming" to come about, it will require all of us to return to Israel where we will be presented with one of two choices: conversion or annihilation.)  I don't know about you, but to my way of thinking, this is no way to run a government.  

Be careful about what you wish or pray for.  A Trumpless White House means the presidency of a man who firmly believes he has taken over the office because it is God's will that America become a nation devoted to Jesus.  We're all better off with at least one of the two houses of Congress being in the hands of the Democrats; not because we want to specialize in impeachment, but because we want to get on with making American work for us . . . the non-so-rich men, women and children who have the humility to know what they do not know, the strength to overcome their worst traits and the worth to see worth in everyone.  Better than Jeremiah 29:11, is the wisdom of an ancient sage named "ben Zoma," who, in an ancient work entitled פִּרְקֵי אָבוֹת  (pirkei avot - "The ethics of the fathers") we learn the following:

הַבְּרִיּוֹתאֵיזֶהוּ חָכָם? הַלּוֹמֵד מִכָּל אָדָם.  אֵיזֶהוּ גִבּוֹר? הַכּוֹבֵשׁ אֶת יִצְרוֹ.  אֵיזֶהוּ עָשִׁיר הַשָמֵחַ בְּחֶלְקוֹ. אֵיזֶהוּ מְכֻבָּד? הַמְכַבֵּד אֶת הַבְּרִיּוֹת      

Roughly translated: Who is truly wise?  The one who can learn from anyone.  Who is truly powerful?  The one who can curb their inclinations.  Who is truly wealthy?  The one who is happy with what they have.  Who is truly honorable?  The one who honors all humanity."

Make what you wish for and/or pray for truly count.

583 days down,
894 days to go,
70 days until the Midterm election.

MAKE SURE YOU VOTE!!

Copyright©2018 Kurt F. Stone

 

 

The Odd Couple

From this humble writer's perspective, the president's week-long - and as yet ongoing - jaunt to Europe has been a disastrous embarrassment.  From giving terribly mixed messages about America's future relationship with its NATO allies to making the ludicrous claim  that "Germany is a captive of Russia," giving distinctly bipolar  opinions of British P.M. Teresa May and actually keeping the Queen of England waiting and then walking in front of her, '45's time in Europe has, so far, been more risible than Monsieur Hulot's Holiday.  . . . And mind you this is even before his sit-down with that satanic old pro Vladimir Putin. You can bet your bottom dollar (or ruble) that Putin will be as fully prepared and disciplined as a Trappist Monk, while the POTUS likely be just winging it, seeking to rely on his country club charm . . . which will likely be as potent or useful as a Pomeranian at a dog fight.  One would think - and indeed, might hope - that the week's blunders,  buffoonery,  lies and utter mortifications (added to so many others over the past year-and-a-half) might result in a demonstrable erosion of his vaunted political base.  But no; as of earlier today - 48 hours after a dozen Russian intelligence agents were indicted by the Justice Department for cyber-hacking in the 2016 presidential election - 45's standing with his base is holding steady . . . and with one group in particular: deeply conservative white fundamentalists and Christian evangelicals the two are not synonymous). 

         Prosperity Gospelers Cheering On  Their Messiah

Despite 3 marriages and numerous affairs, an all but total lack of religiosity (beyond the rhetorical), ignoring the Biblical dictum to "Do justice, love mercy and walk humbly with God," and  gleefully embodying all seven deadly sins  '45  is still supported and lionized by better than 80% of white American Evangelicals men . . . and women as well.  Talk about an "Odd Couple!"  In light of how stridently united America’s white Evangelical Christians are in their abhorrence of the Clintons and Barack Obama for their “immorality" and "hatred of all things Christian," this critical subset of the president's political base has all but defied Donald John Trump and actually thank Jesus for his being elected. The question is "How can this be?  What do white Evangelicals see in him that causes them to utterly ignore his sins and vulgar language, his lies, hard-hardheartedness and braggadocio ("I am a very stable genius") his utter disregard for anything but wealth . . .?" 

It certainly is not his religiosity.  For despite having some notable evangelicals  and fundamentalists in his employ - V.P. Mike Pence, A.G. Jeff Sessions and Press Sec. Sarah Huckabee Sanders spring to mind - the POTUS has shown himself to be a religious illiterate . . . both in word and in deed. Back during the 2016 campaign, CNN's Chris Cuomo asked Trump about his being audited by the I.R.S.  Unbelievably, the Republican nominee responded, “I’m always being audited by the IRS, which I think is very unfair… maybe because of the fact that I’m a strong Christian and I feel strongly about it.”  His evangelical supporters likely stood up before their television sets and cheered; their man had "come out" as a 'strong Christian'!  And yet, this was the same guy who bragged about the size of his genitals during a presidential debate and once said he would date his then 24-year-old daughter if they weren’t related.  Then too, there was the time '45 was asked whether he was "more of an Old Testament guy or a New Testament guy?"  His answer?  “Probably equal, I think. It just an incredible…the whole Bible is an incredible…”  At this point, he started talking about how he jokes that his own book The Art of the Deal is only his second favorite book.

So what is it about '45 and his white evangelical/fundamentalist base?  What is it they see in him that keeps them so thoroughly in thrall?  Could it be his full-throated opposition to abortion?  His support for unfettered access to guns?  His opposition to same-sex marriage or permitting Muslims - and other non-Christians and people of color - from entering the United States? His support for funding charter (read: religious) schools at the expense of public schools?  His disbelief in the findings of climate scientists or his unwavering support for Israel (a.k.a. "The Holy Land" in evangelical parlance)?  How about his historic tax cuts which will put millions into the pockets of multi-millionaires and ultimately add trillions to the federal deficit?

                                                Joel Osteen and D.J.T.

Believe it or not, the answer may just have something to with the latter issue: tax cuts.  Although the Christian Bible (Matthew: 19:23-24) states "Truly I say to you, it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. And again I say unto you, It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God,"  despite this, there are millions upon millions of God-fearing, Trump-supporting Christians who live, act and vote as if Jesus' words had never been given voice. Strange, no?  Welcome to the world of the prosperity gospel which gives '45 a sort of diplomatic immunity regardless of his many, many carnal sins and transgressions. The "Prosperity Gospel" teaches that the rich are rich because God has blessed them and the poor are poor because God is punishing their immorality.  Prosperity theology is common among white Pentecostal fundamentalists; Pastor Joel Osteen, for example, is a strong proponent. Although the Houston, Texas-based evangelical never officially endorsed his presidential campaign in 2016, Osteen described Trump as a “friend of our ministry” and “a good man.” (BTW: Osteen's Houston-based Lakewood Church has nearly 45,000 members.  His services are seen in more than 100 countries; his net worth is in the neighborhood of $50 million and he and his wife Victoria live in a 17,000 square foot mansion. I don’t hold any of this against him . . . just wanted to let you know that preaching the Prosperity Gospel does pay pretty well.) Osteen is certainly not the only person preaching this gospel; other "superstars" include  Benny Hinn, T.D. Jakes, Kenneth Copeland, Rick Warren  and Paula White, to name but a few.)

Sometimes people equate right-wing libertarians with right-wing evangelicals.  In point of fact, they have very different views in some respects. While many libertarians combine extreme fiscal conservatism with socially liberal views on abortion, porn, marijuana and same-sex marriage, the prosperity gospel crowd combines extreme fiscal conservatism with a disdain for all those things—although the ultra-rich are so adored in prosperity theology circles that Trump’s evangelical supporters are quite prepared to overlook his sexual history. To prosperity theologisers, Trump wouldn’t be so rich if he didn’t enjoy God’s stamp of approval. 

During the eight years of his presidency, Barack Obama was detested by the Christian right and proponents of the Prosperity Gospel, despite the fact that he had a much longer history of attending church and obviously knew a lot more about the Bible than his successor. Obama had obviously led a much more clean-cut life than Trump, but to the Christian Right and proponents of prosperity theology, none of this mattered one iota.  Right-wing white evangelicals equate Donald Trump with money and power—and therefore, their understanding of Christian morality— while equating Barack Obama (and indeed, very nearly all Democrats) with socialism and giveaways for poor Americans they consider freeloaders . . . people whose very poverty shows what God thinks about them.

Prosperity gospelers seem to have found their messiah in '45.

I have to wonder what  the good Lord has to say about it.

Perhaps "הזוג המוזר" ("The odd couple")

543 days down, 930 days to go.

Copyright©2018 Kurt F. Stone

WWJD?

One must admit that when stripped of their varying rituals, practices, and fringe crazies, the three great monotheistic religions - Judaism, Christianity and Islam - have an awful lot in common.  And not just because the latter two are "daughters" of the first. At base. all three teach love and tenderness; humility and the importance of extending a helping hand to those in need; of "Doing justice, loving mercy and walking humbly with G-d." To be certain, there are are innumerable differences when it comes to specifics: kashrut (kosher) versus halal; the nature of Sabbath observance; the question of whether to proselylize or to keep things "in house"; the relationship between deed and creed.

This last point - the relationship between deed and creed - is of major concern.  Judaism, as opposed to Christianity (and Islam) is remarkably free (although not entirely so) of doctrine. Ask a group of rabbis or scholars a question beginning with the words "What do Jews believe about . . .?" and what you'll likely get is first a profound silence, and second, something like "Well, some Jews believe 'X' while others believe 'Y' or 'Z.'" (I long ago concluded somewhat in jest that we (male) rabbis wear beards so that when faced with a question about belief, we can stroke our beards and look thoughtfully introspective when we really don't know the answer.)  However, ask the same group of rabbis or scholars a question beginning with "What do Jews do in situation 'X' or 'Y'? and you will likely get a pretty swift response . . . even if the various answers are somewhat variegated.  Then too, as mentioned above, Jews - unlike members of most Christian sects - do not go out of their way to seek converts. It has long been our understanding that Judaism is the best religion on the planet . . . for Jews and those who seek to convert of their own free will.  Indeed, classically, a rabbi's initial response to one seeking conversion is supposed to be rejection - and not once but twice . . . in order to make sure that the potential convert is sincere.

When it comes to secular politics, there are some similarities - and many, many differences - between Jews and Christians. For many Jewish voters the issue par excellent in figuring out who to support is, not surprisingly, Israel.  But though Israel may serve as a political litmus test for many, the specific position a candidate takes may in the long run gain or lose the support of an individual voter. Some Jews (and many on the so-called "Christian Right"), will only support and vote for people who take a hawkish "single state" position. (And mind you, Jews and fundamental Christians don't necessarily express all-out support for Israel for the same reason . . . but that is a subject for another essay.)  Many Jews and Christians will tell you that '45 is ". . . the best friend Israel ever had in the Oval Office."  They base this largely on two things: bellicose rhetoric and moving the American Embassy to Jerusalem.

Other voters will only support candidates who favor a "two-state solution."  For many Jews, there are other issues of equally great - or even greater import - such as climate change, a woman's right to choose, education, healthcare, the need to keep an imprenetrable wall of separation between "church and state" - which will help determine whether or not they can in good conscience support a particular candidate.  Frequently, the positions political actors take find their basis in the more humanistic aspects of Judaism. The same can be said of many Christians, except that the positions they hold near and dear are frequently the bipolar opposites of their Jewish neighbors.

Interestingly, evangelical and fundamentalist Christians are relatively new to secular politics. The biggest boost to getting conservative Christians into politics was the Supreme Court's 1973 Roe v. Wade decision, which made abortion legal in the United States.  With that fateful decision, a sleeping giant came awake and began, in the words of one commentator, ". . . adding grievance to grievance [and] aligning themselves with the Republican Party and its Teapot wing." In other words, the mass entry of evangelical and fundamentalist Christians (now referred to as "values voters") into the realm of secular politics has been at full strength only in the past four decades.  Generally speaking, the Christian Right has thrown its support behind men and women who tend to be pro-life (I prefer "pro-birth"), pro-gun, anti-science, anti Planned Parenthood, and favor money for charter schools.  To their way of thinking these are among the positions Jesus would take.  (Precisely how they know this evades me.) They also support people who talk up their Christian bona fides, are unafraid to tell us of their great devotion and faithfulness, and truly believe that America's creation was and is based on Christian principles; in short, that America is a Christian nation.

The Christian Right's influence on the 2016 election of Donald Trump was and is, to say the least, noteworthy.  It was and is also a high point of hypocrisy on their part. As writer Jay Parini noted in a recent op-ed,  "It didn’t matter that Trump was an unhinged philanderer, a braggart whose own life and example was a mockery of Christian values—as long as he delivered a reliably anti-abortion and anti-gay rights judge to replace Antonin Scalia.  Neil Gorsuch was their man, and Trump delivered."    During the 2016 campaign - and since entering office - '45 has hyperbolically proclaimed "No one loves the Bible like I do." Those who are willing to take him at his word have also heard him state such absurdities as:

• "Nobody respects women more than I do"
•  "I have one of the great temperaments"
•  "I understand legislation better than any president that’s ever been in office."
• "Never has there been a president who passed more legislation with the exception of FDR"
• That he knows more about the Islamic State than the generals, and that
• Nobody “in the history of the world” knows more about taxes.

Then too, the Christian right was thrilled when the newly-inaugurated president, speaking at the National Prayer Breakfast, vowed to ". . . get rid of and totally destroy the Johnson Amendment.” (n.b.: The Johnson Amendment which has been in the federal tax code for more than 60 years, protects the integrity of tax-exempt organizations like houses of worship by ensuring they do not endorse or oppose political candidates.) On May 4, 2017, '45 signed an executive order "to defend the freedom of religion and speech" for the purpose of easing the Johnson Amendment's restrictions. In announcing his executive order, he described his goal of eliminating the prohibition on election activity as potentially his “greatest contribution to Christianity — and other religions.” As it turns out, the repeal of the Johnson Act, which was included in the House version of the infamous tax bill, was removed during the reconciliation process with the Senate version, which did not include repeal.  Nonetheless, fundamental Christians still give '45 high marks for attempting if not succeeding - to get rid of it.

Many have been wondering aloud how in the world so many intensely religious people can continue supporting this man who, by any reasonably objective yardstick, is the bipolar opposite of a humble, moral, honest Christian. 

WWJD? ("What would Jesus do?")

It just might be that Jesus would seek a meeting with the POTUS and pose the question Magister praeses, quo vadis?  -  namely, "Mr. President, where in the hell are you going?"  It just might bet there will be a gathering - and soon - at the White House where the lofiest, most supportive fundamentalist Christian leaders will be asking him to explain himself.  Really.

According to a recent story on National Public Radio (a favorite bugbear of the Christian Right), As allegations continue to swirl about the president and a payout to a porn star to cover up a sexual encounter, evangelical leaders are organizing a sit-down with President Trump in June. One prominent ministry leader who is organizing the session said "The president's tone and personal life remain a concern for many evangelicals . . . .There's things that are like fingernails on the chalkboard to people of faith. That's not who we are; that's not a 'fruit of the Spirit'; that's not leading with humility," This meeting if it actually happens - could be attended by nearly 1,000 religious leaders.  (Family Research Council President Tony Perkins told Fox News' Todd Starnes "It  is not going to be a confrontational meeting, that is absolutely not true. So many evangelicals are frustrated with Congress and they are likely not to show up to vote in the fall. That's really the focus of our gathering."  In other words, according to Perkins, the "values voters" he and his colleagues claim to represent are not concerned about '45's values.  

So WWJD?  Would he attend the meeting?  Would he tell the POTUS to start acting like the fervent man of G-d he proclaims himself to be or else step aside and repent?  Will '45 begin losing the support of the most perfervid members of his political base? Will it finally be revealed to his vaunted "values voters" that the emperor has no clothes?

Truly, only G-d knows . . .

445 days down, 1,016 days to go.

Copyright©2018 Kurt F. Stone