Did God really send Katrina or the latest earthquake in Pakistan? According to many Muslims and some Jews, the answer is yes to the American disaster and no on the earthquake, but for very different reasons; while some Christian fanatics say yes on both.
The pulpits throughout the Arab and Muslim world ring with Allah's praise for bringing this natural disaster to the infidel occupiers of Iraq. Not to be outdone, there is a Jewish Taliban leader in Israel, Rabbi Ovadia Yosef who used the same wisdom (sic) to explain the reason God sent the hurricane to Louisiana and Mississippi--as payback for American support of the Gaza disengagement.
At the same time, there are some Christian extremist groups who have actually shown that the hurricane was shaped like a fetus, thus being the Lord's punishment for abortion in America. It is no wonder so many young people are turned off to religion today, after hearing religious crackpots spew out some of the stupidest ideas currently on the planet.
These so called "Representatives of God" make fools of themselves when they spout this type of nonsense. So how do we know this is all baloney? According to the song, "I'll tell you how we know. The Bible tells me so. That's how I know it!"
Any Rabbi, Priest, Minister, Imam, Cleric or Pastor who dares to blame God publicly for a natural disaster is committing a very serious sin. He or she is breaking at least 2 of the 10 Commandments with such accusations.
Why does the very first commandment in The Old Testament immediately begin with, "I am The Lord your God who took you out of Egypt." After all, when the commandments were given 3350 years ago, those same people who were given these commandments had just been taken out of Egypt, and already knew Who did it.
And why is this statement of fact as important as, "Thou Shall Not Murder?" Simply, because it teaches us that unless God spells out what He has done in written form, do not necessarily assume that He did it. That is the reason why one of the most important themes in Judaism is "Remembering the exodus from Egypt," because Jews know for certain that God was involved. After all, He specifically admits to His role in this particular event.
The third commandment is even more relevant to this matter in stating, "Do not take the Lord's name in vain." How does this pronouncement pertain to what the clergy has done recently? The reason many people are probably scratching their head right now is that the translation above, which is found in most Jewish and Christian Bibles, is a totally incorrect translation of the sentence.
Most individuals who read the translation, understand it to mean that we should never mention God's name without a good reason. For instance, it is wrong to say, "Oh God. I missed the bus and I am going to be late for work." This commandment has absolutely nothing to do with mentioning God's name "in vain." In fact, why would that even be so important as to make it into The (big) 10 Commandments? So let us go to the original source for clarification and a truly eye-opening experience.
The original Hebrew says, "Lo Tisah Ess Shaim Adoshem L'shav." The key word is "Tisah" which does not mean "to take" or "to say" God's name. Tisah is Hebrew for "to carry," which means the commandment is telling us, "Do not CARRY God's name in vain." Who carries God's name in vain? Religious people who wear the garb and claim religiosity, but act despicably in what they do or say.
Whether it is the Ayatollahs in Iran, Osama bin Laden, The antisemitic Neturai Karta extremist Jewish sect or the so-called leaders of the Presbyterian and Episcopalian churches who have singled out Israel as the most evil country in the world, suggesting financial strangulation.
When a secular person breaks the law, he dishonors himself and possibly his family. However, when religious people and leaders act foolishly, they bring shame and dishonor to God and to other religious people. They represent God and are embarrassing Him and His followers. As a Jew, I am ashamed of this idiotic Rabbi and the minority of other Rabbis who pinned The Holocaust on God, for the very sick reason that Jews were not religious enough in pre WWII Europe.
Imagine, one and a half million Jewish babies were put into gas chambers because someone from my father's little town in Dobromil, Poland ate pork. To even think that way is the ultimate in arrogance and stupidity. I blame The Holocaust on Nazis. God created the world just like General Motors made the automobile. Yet, one cannot simply blame GM for all the automobile accidents. That is how we are supposed to think.
Many religious leaders become full of themselves and actually begin to believe they are prophets, when all they are actually doing is generating "false profits." It is up to religious lay people who take their religion seriously, to cut these people down to size and remove them from power.
There is bad religion and good religion, just like there are bad medical practices/practitioners and good medical practices/practitioners. When human beings are involved, virtually every discipline will have flaws. Yet, it seems like religion is the only one where perfection is expected; so that when one priest molests a choir boy or a rabbi is involved in a crime, it somehow shows that everyone in that religion is horrible.
Religion is not only what the various Bibles say and profess. It is more often what its adherents do with those verses to bring honor to their religion and goodness to the world. Ethics and morality are what the whole thing is all about, within the framework of identifying, fighting and destroying evil. The line between a decent civilization and barbarity is a very thin one, which is why good religion is absolutely necessary in this world.
Every religion has verses that, if taken out of context, can be misconstrued as evil and used as evil. Just like we can use or abuse The Constitution and the Declaration of Independence in a similar manner. There are lawyers who can prove The Constitution has a pro choice position and lawyers who can show an anti-abortion status.
There is no doubt that every human beings needs religion, just like we need oxygen, food and sex. When people drop religion, they make secular ideologies into their new religion like liberalism, environmentalism, marxism, communism, feminism, etc., generally becoming somewhat fanatical without the balance of religion.
It was the great Jewish scholar, the Vilna Gaon who said that, "Religion is like rain. It can make beautiful flowers grow and poisonous weeds sprout." We are seeing that happen today in all religions, but especially in the Muslim world. It is our job as serious religious people to pick those weeds out of our own religious gardens.
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