That's a long pew, and there's barely enough room for Jews.
Posted on 12/02/2009 6:14:27 PM PST by massmike
When you get that kind of history (all accurate) as a kid growing up, distrust of religious Christians can be hard to overcome. Of course, that history ignores that the Christians of today, for the most part, aren't the Christians of the past 1700 years or so. The Catholic Church has grown tolerant, if not outright accepting, of Jews. And much of American Protestantism and Mormonism is downright philo-semetic.
I’m Jewish, and I agree with everything you said. Good post, very accurate IMO.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
I am certain that what I saw ( as a gentile) was merely the tip of the iceberg. I could not even possibly begin to know or understand the full measure of what it was like to be Jewish.
I dated a very kind Jewish man for about a year. One evening during the Christmas season we went out to dinner at a restaurant. We were given a seat next to a full white and gold Christmas tree. I could just tell from his look that it was just too much. He’d had enough of all the “Ho! Ho! Ho!”
He wanted to marry me very much, but I had been divorced and had a 5 year old son. Culturally, I just didn’t think it would work for my son and me. No matter how many times this man assured me, “My parents will **love** your son!”, I wasn’t entirely convinced. As it turned out, I married a man of my religious denomination and we have been happily married for 27 years.
Unless we understand the Jewish experience we will NOT be able to persuade them that conservatism is in their best interest.
Intolerant posts like yours above are NOT about to convince any liberal Jew to change his mind about either Christians or conservatism.
That's a long pew, and there's barely enough room for Jews.
So you are one of those that has been snuffing out American culture for 40 years, making us stop celebrating our holidays and changing events from Christmas events to Festival of lights and so on, no thanks, I love America and my countrymen too much to join your club.
If you have followed my posts you will know that I am staunch supporter of the complete abolishment of government K-12 schools.
If we wish to preserve and strengthen true Christian values the best way to do this is for our children to receive a thoroughly Christian education in **private** Christian settings. Our nation would also be far stronger morally and spiritually if Jewish children received a thoroughly integrated **Jewish** education in Jewish private schools.
Government schools are destroying Christian values. Why? Because they can NOT be thoroughly Christian and if they were whose brand of Christianity? How would we prevent forcing our values on others. Gee! The last I checked forcing our brand of Christianity on other people is NOT a Christian value.
If we wish to preserve our moral, ethical, and spiritual foundation we **must** abolish government K-12 schools. We must reduce government to most minimum level necessary to preserve life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
Here join one of these antiAmerican groups in this article.
You can join the discussion and continue your anti-American food fest that some of you started on this thread.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2399063/posts
Christians should not show timidity in cultural disputes over traditional Christmas songs, displays and Nativity scenes, the head of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights says. He charges such disputes are contrived by a small set of “mean-spirited people” who wrongly insinuate that many non-Christians are offended by Christmas. Many reports surface each year regarding local governments putting restrictions on traditional Christmas displays, and Christmas 2009 is no exception.
A life-sized crèche was displayed for about 50 years in the public square of Chambersburg, Pennsylvania. However, this year the display has been banned because one man said he wanted to have a sign which read “Celebrating Solstice – Honoring Atheist War Veterans” to accompany the manger. Leesburg, Virginia has banned its traditional display of a crèche, menorah and a Christmas tree. A Nativity scene which since World War II has been displayed on the grounds of the Manitowoc County Courthouse in Wisconsin will also be absent.
A Manchester, Massachusetts woman was told she could not have a live nativity scene outside her church because it sits on the town commons. A menorah in a Nashville park was approved by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) but the crèche in Clarksville, Tennessee was not because the city paid $200 for the animals used in the scene. The Capitol building in Olympia, Washington has barred all holiday displays. Catholic League President Bill Donohue particularly noted that the West Chester, Pennsylvania Court House has created new rules allowing four holiday displays for a limited period of time if they are “content-netural” in their message.
“But symbols—religious or secular—are by their very nature content-specific, thus making the request positively oxymoronic,” Donohue said in a Monday press release. CNA spoke with Donohue in a Tuesday phone interview. He said that the “War on Christmas” largely began with the Catholic League’s successful efforts to place a Nativity scene in the same New York City public park which hosted the world’s largest menorah.
The Catholic League also sued the City of New York because miniature menorahs were displayed in public schools but Christian symbols were not.
The hostility towards Christmas is no longer only from the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), Donohue said. Rather, the ACLU has been “eclipsed” by the Freedom from Religion Foundation. He charged that the group is “increasingly aggressive” in trying to “neuter the meaning of Christmas by putting up anti-religious (read: anti-Christian) posters and displays.”
Donohue contrasted this behavior with the actions of the American Humanist Association, which in his view puts up more positive signs that do not denigrate religion. He described a number of different tactics being used to suppress Christian symbols at Christmastime. The legal strategy to bar Nativity scenes from public property was prominent in the 1980s and early 1990s but has now “exhausted itself.”
Asked by CNA about whether anti-Christmas incidents have increased or decreased, Donohue reported that biggest change is not the volume but “the diversity of tactics.” This shift to a “cultural strategy” has generated a “contrived competition” with Christmas that takes place every December.
Disputes about Christmas displays, he charged, are “contrived by elitists of a secular mindset.” They are “bringing forth every possible secular holiday that might fall in December and trying to give it equal billing with Christmas.” According to Donohue, many Jews will acknowledge that Hanukkah is a minor holiday. He added that the Hindus he knows celebrate Christmas as part of being Americans.
“Now in the workplace, in the schools, we have to be ever-conscious of offending people who are not Christians,” he charged. Donohue blamed this situation on the “language police” and diversity consultants, whom he claimed to be part of a $1 billion industry active in the private and public workplace.
“These people are the ones selling the propaganda that non-Christians are offended by Christian symbols in December. There is no evidence to this,” he said, reporting that about 96 percent of Americans do not object to Christmas displays or greetings.
He blamed Christmas disputes on “a very small percentage of mean-spirited people year after year.” He suggested Catholics respond to the suppression of Christmas displays by filing lawsuits or showing up at town hall meetings and school board meetings when the displays become an issue.
“Christians should not be accepting of a secular symbol for Christmas, the tree, when religious symbols, like the star and crescent or menorah are allowed in the same setting,” he commented. “Christians have been far too timid and shown far too much reticence. The problem is with the objectors, not those celebrating.”
In the Catholic League’s press release Donohue also pointed out positive signs. The Christmas Boat Parade in Patchogue, Long Island undid last year’s name change to a Holiday Boat Parade. The Capitol’s Christmas tree this year will not be a generically named Holiday Tree. And a Colorado sheriff is allowing crèches and menorahs and selling shirts reading “Lighten Up. Just say ‘Merry Christmas’.”
Dear Kirkwood ...... The Catholic Threads on Freerepublic are the only religious threads I AM not welcome on. Why? Because I'm not Catholic. I've never commented on even ONE thread, but in reading posts, I see that non-Catholics are told in no uncertain terms that their comments are not welcome.
As a result, I simply avoid Catholic threads. Redhead, myself and many others, I'm sure, weren't ASLEEP, we are not welcome on your threads.
Redhead....I appreciate the openness of Jewish Freepers.
Nam Vet
I think that a big part of it is the high value that Jewish families have historically placed on education. The fact that most institutes of "higher learning" are infested with leftists, the more time spent with them, the greater chance that it will rub off.
Another possibility is the string belief in charity and "Tikkun Olam," AKA "Heal the World." Both have often been misunderstood (in my personal belief) by well meaning Jews. They often believe that if one person can do good, then a bunch working together can do better. So why not just have the government take care of it, since that way EVERYBODY is helping out.
Mark
It wasn’t bad enough that Stalin killed 20,000,000 of their brethren. No, they still love Marx and communism.
You've hit the nail on the head when it comes to LEFTISTS in general. They are so invested in their lofty ideals and purity of beliefs, that they can never admit it when their ideas and beliefs are not only wrong, but devastatingly horrific. When their programs fail, it's never the fault of bad ideas or beliefs: The problem is always that "the wrong people tried to implement those ideas." And invariably, we have people step up to the plate and tell us that they're the right person, the one who can make it all work. Hubris is one of the hallmarks of a leftist.
That's one of the reasons that over and over again, leftist governments have spiraled out of control, yet people keep trying to implement them over and over again.
Mark
Remember also that while many Christians have been in the US for generations, many Jews have only been here for a generation or two.
I grew up in a household with both my mother and grandfather. We both learned of his early life from a very young age. While I wouldn't say he hated Christians, he certainly distrusted them (he made no distinction, but I believe that his anger would have been directed at Catholics and Russian Orthodox). He grew up in Western Poland, living through a number of pograms in his village. He managed to escape to Russia, making boots for the Czar's army, and learned to hate the Russians in general.
When you wonder why it seems that so many Jews don't like or trust Christians, remember that many of the wounds haven't had much time to heal.
Mark
Lighten up, Francis!
Mark
Oops, that should have been Eastern Poland.
Mark
I didn't describe conservatism as a cult. It's what used to be mainstream American values. We're still true to them while the left has eroded our culture.
LOL!
You can try and change the subject but you have made clear which side you are on in the culture war and you have already made clear how much you dislike the pre-left America.
That post 30 is a nasty piece of business.
Let's just say that you missed your point by a mile then.
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