Conservative rabbi is really a liberal atheist promoting war against Christmas!

I expect my subject line will be the rationale used by the Freepers. :rofl:



Article continues at http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061210/ap_on_re_us/airport_christmas_trees_2

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lubavitch_Chabad">Chabad Lubavitch is one of the principle schools of the Hasidic movement of Judaism and has traditionally followed an ultra-orthodox interpretation of Jewish scriptures. Thus, the joke in the subject line.

some other group wanted something else added, they could ask for it. And it could be added. What's the big whoop? You replace the tree with whatever is being requested.

Oy vey! Some people prefer to cut their nose to spite their face.

On the news this morning, a spokesperson for the Port of Seattle (which runs the airport) said that it would have cost about $200,000 in materials and labor to comply with the request for the menorahs, and by complying, there was a high chance that further costs would be incurred if another group demanded equal representation. The spokesperson also mentioned the near certainty of litigation if the menorahs went up and the matter became the use of public money and public property to display religious symbols. (While the courts have usually held that decorated trees are "sufficiently secular" in and of themselves, display with religious symbols, such as a creche or a menorah, turned them into Christian religious symbols.)

Right now, the Port is under considerable public scrutiny of its finances as a result of expenditure "irregularities" and very high salaries paid to Port commissioners who basically do nothing. I can understand very well the desire of the Port to minimize costs and avoid if possible further public review of the Port's finances.

bill. Next!

I'm so full of myself sometimes.)

on the Christmas trees in the shape of menorahs? And then if any other group wanted to be represented, ornaments for that group could be put on the trees as well-I'm saying this because the courts ruled the trees "secular".

I mean if it isn't your religion, so what? Why are people now becoming so intolerant of Jews, when we opened our arms to them for years in this country and had Menorahs on television spots and everything else. We should also open our arms to all religions. I say put them up everywhere anybody asks, and if someone asks to put a big question mark, do that also. This is America, we have freedom here. Guys here in Virginia 300 years ago understood that.

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Um, no. MAJOR difference is that there is no NEW TESTAMENT (Bible) in the Torah. Or did I miss something in 4 years of Comparative Religions?

This from the Freeper thread on all elected officials must swear on the Bible, or why a Jew wouldn't mind swearing on the Bible. It is the same book as this Freeper said.

Actually, the Torah is even smaller than the "old testament". It only contains the first five books of the "old testament".

To a Jew, only the scroll of the Torah in its original Hebrew counts. An English translation of the entire Bible means jack shit to a Jew. :-)

is to ignore ALL religions.

They are staved by people. But they have different motivating factors and a completely different rule set that governs their behaviour. Law suits are a primary motivator of corporations. Even if the Rabbi didn't mean for this to happen once exposed to the idea of it the Corporation really doesn't have a choice in the matter.

The fact of the matter is that a corporation wants everyone's money. It has to find the right balance between the rocky sholes our society offers. Show too much inclusion and the Bill O'Reilly's of the world declare them hostiles in the war on Christmas. Shut out all other forms of expression and they risk law suits.

The real enemy here is of course the War on Christmas crowd which is of course better titled the War on Tolerance. There are some people out there that just don't get that "We The People" means all the people. Not just the people like them.

...being forced to acknowledge that other religions exist and have validity.
Fucking arrogant pricks.

You don't have to believe in any particular gods, or any gods at all, to notice that the sun starts to spend more time in the sky after December 21. Let's just make Solstice the public holiday and everyone can acknowledge their own gods in the privacy of their own homes. I'm growing tired of all this back-and-forth.

Lighted trees would fit perfectly with the renewal theme of a solstice celebration; candles would work well, too. We could keep a lot of the current imagery, but nobody would be asked to believe in anyone else's gods.