Merry Christmas is NOT Offensive

I really enjoy Rabbi Daniel Lapin’s commentaries, and I highly respect his work at Toward Tradition, which is linked below in this email that I’m forwarding to my blog. I think on of the primary reasons why Jews and Christians don’t get along is because we each overlook some pretty important parts of the Bible. They seem not to realize that they were to be a light to all nations and that all nations would be blessed by them. We tend to forget that we are grafted into their branch and without the promises to Abraham, there would be no church and no Christians. I think that both sides need to learn to take the Scripture a little more seriously.
Rabbi, Happy Thanksgiving, and may the Lord continue to bless your efforts to unify His sheep of both folds.

Joh 10:16 And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold, [and] one shepherd.

Merry Christmas is NOT Offensive—Jews Should Protect Religious Freedom for Everyone.
Rabbi Daniel Lapin
Toward Tradition
Well, December is nearly here which means the dreaded “C word” is upon us. Put politely, “the holiday season” is nearly here. We shall all hear those “Happy Chanukahs” and “Happy holidays,” but rarely a “Merry Christmas.” Secular fundamentalism has successfully injected into American culture the notion that the word “Christmas” is deeply offensive. I think we Jews may be making a grievous mistake in allowing them to banish Christmas without challenge.
We see obsequious regard for faiths like Judaism and even Islam, while Christianity is treated with contempt. I don’t want Judaism treated with less respect. I want Christianity to be treated with as much respect.
Step up to the greeting card racks in your local drug store and see what I mean. Virtually every Chanukah card is respectful. Similarly, every Kwanza card is a paper paean to this rootless, recent invention. You won’t find many cards taking vulgar shots at those holidays.
You will, however, find tasteless cards that mock Christmas. You’ll find off-color risqué Christmas cards that you’d be embarrassed to be caught looking at. Few even mention Christmas, almost as if the word is so offensive that casual card browsers should be protected from accidental contamination. Secularism is saying, if we can’t completely banish Christmas, let’s at least turn it into a bad joke.
Our self-appointed “leaders” in the Jewish community do us no favor by denouncing every public expression of Christian faith as if it were a ham sandwich at a barmitzvah. Anti-Christianism is unhealthy for all Americans; but I warn my brethren that it will prove particularly destructive for Jews to be leading the extirpation of all signs of Christian fervor from the village square. Just look at France. Only a religion can stand up to another religion. Christianity could have defended France, but secularism wiped pushed Christianity into retreat. Now, Islamic fundamentalism has its way because there is nobody with moral fervor to resist. Secularism promotes cowardice, not courage and that is bad for everyone.
Nearer home, Palm Beach prohibited a Christian group from placing a Christian manger scene alongside a menorah on public property. One of the plaintiffs, a Christian woman named Maureen Donnell, told Fox News, “They’ve discriminated against us, they allow the menorahs but they have absolutely no interest in these Nativity scenes.”
Although Palm Beach didn’t always welcome Jews, today it is a city with a large Jewish population. It would have done wonders for Jewish Christian friendship if Palm Beach’s Jews would have valiantly defended religious rights for everyone, not just for Jews. Too bad they missed this opportunity. Remember, friendship is a two-way street.
This I can promise all Jewish parents—trying to prevent your children from awareness of Christianity is not enough to fill them with a love for Judaism. That takes dedication. You should not allow your children to listen to rap music’s obscene lyrics. But neither should you recoil in horror when your kids hear Christmas carols. It is invariably a local Reform rabbi who teams up with the ACLU to file a lawsuit against the school singing carols. Christianizing the culture is not the problem for Jews, secularizing it is.
A music teacher in a Washington school removed Christmas from the lyrics in Dale Wood’s “Carol from an Irish Cabin” to read: “The harsh wind blows down from the mountains and blows a white winter to me.”
Parent Darla Dowell, whose 7-year-old daughter sang the song, called the decision “absurd.” “I think the most important thing that angers me is that they sent a message to my child that there’s something wrong with Christmas and saying Christmas and celebrating it and performing it at her school with her peers,” Dowell told Fox News. She couldn’t understand why it’s okay to exclude Christmas when her daughter was forced to sing Hanukkah tunes that included lyrics about the “mighty miracle” of Israel’s ancient days. In that song, there were at least six mentions of the Jewish holiday.

Will Mrs. Dowell think better of Jews on account of their yanking Christmas? How exactly does this aggressively applied double standard help to maintain the mutual respect that used to characterize relations between American Jews and Christians?
A 1989 Supreme Court decision found a Nativity scene on city property to be unconstitutional. The court emphasized that the privately owned crèche was indisputably religious. In the same case, however, a five-judge majority found that a nearby display, featuring an 18-foot Hanukkah menorah did not violate the Establishment Clause. In the interests of fairness and friendship, we Jews ought to protest the court’s anti-Christian bias. Nationwide, Christmas Nativity scenes are banned from city halls and shopping malls but Chanukah menorah’s are frequently permitted.
I know the court’s distinction but I reject the legal fiction that a menorah, over which I say a blessing invoking God’s name, is merely a cultural symbol. I think most Christian’s also find that distinction meaningless and offensive.
As an Orthodox rabbi with an unquenchable passion for teaching Torah and devoting myself to the long term interests of Judaism and America’s Jewish community, I believe we Jews must turn our backs on the secularism that will sink us all. An act of friendship would be welcome. Let us all go out of our way to wish our many wonderful Christian friends—a very merry Christmas. Just remember, America’s Bible belt is our safety belt.
Rabbi Daniel Lapin, an Orthodox Rabbi in Seattle, Washington, is author of Thou Shall Prosper, America’s Real War and Buried Treasure ,is President of Toward Tradition and hosts his own television and radio shows.
To support Toward Tradition please visit http://s123030713.onlinehome.us/news/lt/t_go.php?i=48&e=Njc4Ng==&l=http://www.towardtradition.org/donate.htm Toward Tradition is America’s leading bridge-builder between Jewish and Christian communities; spanning the divide between Christians and Jews by sculpting ancient solutions to modern problems in areas of family, faith, and fortune. Visit us on the web at: http://s123030713.onlinehome.us/news/lt/t_go.php?i=48&e=Njc4Ng==&l=http://www.towardtradition.org
To schedule an interview with Rabbi Daniel Lapin, contact Rachael Whaley at (800) 591-7579For free and unrestricted use with attribution

Chuck Muth’s Brushfire Alert – November 13, 2005- Anysoldier

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BRUSHFIRE ALERT
NOVEMBER 13, 2005
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ANY SOLDIER

As the Veterans Day weekend wraps up, a letter-to-the-editor published in today’s Nevada Appeal tells about a wonderful program called “Any Soldier” in which all of us across the country can do something a little more substantive than slapping a “I Support Our Troops” bumper sticker on the backs of our cars.

“www.anysoldier.com is a Website with a huge database of troop names and units where one may read their messages and choose whomever you would like to adopt,” Jessi Winchester notes. “The contact person for each unit has agreed to accept mail and packages for distribution to those in their unit who get little or no mail. Adopting a unit is such a small thing to do and
can bring such happiness – especially with the holidays just around the corner.

“Our brave military men and women can’t run to the store for items needed to make their lives easier, but we can. They need medicated foot powder, baby wipes (to get the sand off their FACES!), lip balm, hand lotion, toothbrushes, moisturizing soap, body wash, shampoo, room deodorizers (they sleep several to a room in nasty temperatures), Crystal Lite powdered
lemonade mix (to mix with their water) Little Debby snack cakes (nothing that will melt), protein or breakfast bars, trail mix, crackers, microwave popcorn, canned tuna (a frequent request), gum, black socks, phone cards, games of any kind, paperback books, magazines (sports, physical fitness, cars), rechargeable batteries (and charger), DVDs (most units try to have a movie night to help the troops forget where they are), post cards to decorate their walls (anything green – no sand!) and remind them of home – and the ultimate luxury … pillows. Be sure to include your name and return address as many recipients will write back.”

Although the website is known as “Any Soldier,” once there you can choose to “adopt” a soldier, a Marine, an airman, a sailor or a Coast Guardsman.

Folks, let’s make this Veterans Day weekend more than just a three-day holiday. And let’s make “support” for our troops something more than a cheap slogan. Do what our family is doing today: Adopting a trooper and heading down to the local drug store to fill up a care package. Just go to www.anysoldier.com for additional information and a list of potential “adoptees.”

And, pssssst. Spread the word.

Chuck Muth
Citizen Outreach

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Removal? Click this link:

http://www.worldprofit.com/dlremove.cfm?em=emuelle1@gmail.com&dlsid=5937

Labels: Socio/Political

FW: Puff Daddy Bush

The following is from an email that I recieved. I thought it was funny.

http://www.americancomedynetwork.com/FLASH/soldiers.htm

Labels: Misc comments

So You Can’t Bring Yourself To Vote?

Here in New Jersey, we just had an election day. On Tuesday, 8 November 2005 some of us headed to the polls to vote. As I was getting dressed that morning, I heard on the news that polls open at 0600. Since that’s the time I normally leave the house anyway, and the polling station is only a couple of streets over, I decided to just take care of it on my way to work. Because of some jerk tailgating me all the way up to 80 miles an hour on the highway, I was at work at my normal time anyway.

My wife was so sick that day that she could barely get out of bed. I had to come home and take care of the kids. And yet, she still managed to drag herself out to the polls to cast her vote.

I know that a lot of people get discouraged by election turn out and candidates. Personally, I wish that we’d had a “None of the above” box on our ballot. We had a full cast of unknown 3rd party candidates including the “New Jersey Weedman”, but primarily the race was between a Democrat and a Democrat running on the Republican ticket. That’s great news if you’re a Democrat and you’re somehow afraid that the governor of New Jersey somehow has the power to outlaw abortian and stem cell research. These are such non-issues that I am amazed at the ignorance of voters.

I don’t believe the the problem is the candidates. The problem in our country is the voters. Few of you take any real time to educate yourselves about the candidates, issues and current events. You vote based on emotionally charged yet essentially meaningless political buzzwords, and the parties know it and play to it. You want better candidates? Then become a better voter. Turn off “Survivor” and go looking for your news. Stop taking the fluff that the networks spoon feed you. If you become a better voter, then just maybe the parties will run better candidates.

Labels: Socio/Political

Message to Doug Forrester- Why You Lost My Vote

The following is an email that I sent to Doug Forrester this morning. Yes, the typos snuck through even though I checked it several times. I will leave it that way. Maybe they’re too busy to care.

To whom it may concern:

I attempted to send the text below through the contact section of the campaign website, but I was met with an internal server error:

Sir, I felt that I should give you the courtesy of notifying you as to why my vote will not be cast for you tomorrow. No doubt you are very busy, but if this note contributes to your after action review I will be glad to have helped.

Prior to last Friday, the only compelling reason that I had to vote for you is the fact that you are not Senator Corzine. You really don’t have any outstanding credentials as a fiscal conservative or a civil libertarian. Like all campaigns, this one has been wages along the lines of attack ads and emotionally charged yet essentially meaningless political buzzwords such as “anti-choice” “getting illegal guns off our streets”.

You probably pay people a lot of money to inform you that some voters will vote Republican because they have always voted Republican. You could show up on stage the day of your election in an ugly oversized dress and praise Joseph Stalin’s leadership over the USSR, and these people would still vote for you because you are a Republican. Likewise, some voters will vote Democrat for no other reason than they have always voted Democrat. I happen to be one of the few who actually takes a few minutes to study the issues and the candidates. I have long since written the RNC and told them that I do not support them any longer, yet I still lean Republican in some cases. I will not in yours, however.

On Friday, after you did a terrible job on NJ 101.5 of trying to convince listeners that you have never been unfaithful to your wife (a trivial issue anyway after the Clinton years), I saw a commercial on TV featuring your wife assuring voters that you are basically for the same campaign issues that Senator Corzine is. I suddenly realized that if I am voting against Senator Corzine, then I have absolutely no reason to vote for you as you have become a political clone of the Senator. At least Senator Corzine has the grace to be true to his position rather than pander to the other side like a child on the playground trying to prove to the popular kids that he can be one of them.

Let me take a moment to try to reasonably explain my positions on what have become the three main issues in the final days of this campaign. First, regarding abortion, I am smart enough to realize that this issue will not go away. I am, however, not of the opinion that it needs to be legitimatized, funded, and sanctioned at all levels of government. I do not appreciate my money being forcibly taken from in the form of taxes that are then distributed to abortion programs. I would not want my money taken from me by force to fund church pregnancy programs either. Let me keep my money and I’ll decide which one I prefer to spend it on. Likewise, anyone who finds abortion a worthwhile contribution can fund it out of their own income. I would also like to note that I resent being called “anti-choice”, and I resent your legitimatizing of that phrase by your recent campaign commercial. I will segway into embryonic stem cell research as an extension of the same topic. Citizens who like it should certainly be able to donate to the cause, but I disagree with my money being taken by force to fund such morally and scientifically questionable research.

I will close with my position on “taking illegal guns off our streets”. Sir, do you have any clue how difficult it is for a LAW ABIDING CITIZEN in New Jersey to acquire a gun? The problem is not the guns, it is the criminals. There is no evidence that “gun control” is effective, as you can see from Washington DC which has the strictest gun control in the nation and yet the highest rate of gun related crime.

I will not vote for you now or ever in the future. The Republican Party of today has completely lost its direction. George Washington was right to warn this nation against political parties, as the party line mentality causes group think rather than a climate of freedom and personal responsibility. I hope you have attracted enough of Senator Corzine’s voters to make up for those of your own that you have lost. May the citizens of this blue state choose wisely, though I have little faith that they actually will.

Sincerely, Eric S. Mueller, Lindenwold, NJ.

Labels: Socio/Political