Wednesday, September 21, 2005

Other Views on Gaza Pullout

"About Disengagement"
  • The Anti-Defamation League

  • "The Disengagement That Isn't"
  • Iviews.com

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  • Friday, September 16, 2005

    Synagogue Burnings Compared to Nazi Pogrom

    Read Paula Stern's article "The Face of Islamic Religious Intolerance."
  • Israpundit.com

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  • Palestinian Speak Out About Gaza Burnings

    Varied views from Arabs are expressed in this Al Jazeera news account:
  • Aljazeera

  • Official Palestinian positions and policies:
  • Palestinian National Authority

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  • Tuesday, September 13, 2005

    Anti-Gay Preacher Pickets Soldiers’ Funerals


    The Rev. Fred Phelps displaying signs at a funeral protest.

    By Lisa Haddock
    NJ Faith Forum Editor

    The Rev. Fred Phelps, head of Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kan., is known for in-your-face, no-holds-barred protests against homosexuality. His latest tactic is to protest at the funerals of soldiers killed in Iraq.

    On a flyer distributed at an Army sergeant’s funeral, Phelps states: “Thank God for IEDs (Improvised Explosive Devices).” These weapons are used to attack coalition forces in Iraq.

    Phelps’ flyer states that because a bomber attacked his church, God is now punishing American soldiers in the field. “God Himself has become America’s terrorist, killing Americans in strange lands.”

    Ultimately, God is targeting the U.S. because of its tolerance of homosexuality, Phelps states.

    To learn more about Phelps and his church, click below. (Warning: This site contains language and images that might be considered crude and offensive.)
  • Phelps’ site
    To read Anti-Defamation League’s opinion of Phelps, click below:
  • ADL
    To read Topeka Capital-Journal articles about Phelps, click below:
  • Capital-Journal
    To read Southern Baptist statement on Phelps, click below:
  • Baptist Press

    Note: Phelps' church is not affiliated with the Southern Baptist denomination.

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  • Monday, September 12, 2005

    Palestinians in Gaza Torch Synagogues


    By Lisa Haddock
    NJ Faith Forum Editor

    After the pullout of Israeli troops on Monday (Sept.12), Palestinians flooded into abandoned Jewish settlements and set synagogues on fire, the Associated Press reported.

    Palestinian police stood by as crowds wrecked the buildings and fired guns into the air in celebration of Israel’s withdrawal. One officer was quoted as saying that the people had a right to do what they were doing.

    The houses of worship were the only buildings left standing after the pullout. The Israeli government had bulldozed houses and other structures and had intended to raze the synagogues. But rabbis pressed the government not to do so; the rabbis sought international or Palestinian protection for the buildings. The Palestinian Authority refused.

    The U.S. criticized the Israelis for failing to demolish the synagogues themselves; failure to destroy the buildings would make the Palestinians look bad, no matter what they did, the U.S. said.

    Meanwhile, the Guardian, a British paper, reported that Hamas is claiming that their terrorist measures forced the Israeli departure. One Hamas poster in Gaza proclaimed: "We are celebrating the victory of the bomb."

    To read the Associated Press story, click below:
  • AP Report, Seattle Post-Intelligencer

  • To read the Guardian story, click below:
  • The Guardian

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  • Wednesday, September 07, 2005

    Should Jerusalem Temple Be Rebuilt?


    By Rabbi Stephen M. Wylen
    Aug. 30, 2005
    Temple Beth Tikvah, Wayne, N.J.

    TORAH PORTION: RE’EH
    TORAH:
    Look only to the place that Ad-nai your God will choose amidst all your tribes to reside, to establish God’s name there. There you are to go, and there you are to bring your burnt offerings and other sacrifices ... (Deut. 12:4b-5a)

    COMMENTARY:
    It is a mitzvah from the Torah to build God’s Temple in Jerusalem. Why, then, don’t we rebuild the Temple? The law is that we only need fulfill this mitzvah when the majority of the Jewish people are living in the Land of Israel. But if that is so then why did our ancestors build the Second Temple in the time of the Persian Empire? We are taught that the righteous bring salvation to themselves and to others as well. Those righteous Jews who returned from exile in Babylon fulfilled the mitzvah for their brothers and sisters scattered amongst the nations. We do not consider ourselves to be so righteous, however, and so we leave our Temple unbuilt. - based on the Yeshuot Malko, quoted in Itturei Torah 6:85

    LESSON:
    Will there ever be a third Temple in Jerusalem? The traditional Jewish belief is that when the Messiah comes he will rebuild the Temple. Until that time, the Jews are not to take matters into our own hands. Some Jews believe that there will never be another Temple, that prayer, Torah study and mitzvah have replaced sacrifice forever, and this pleases God more. Some Jews believe that the modern State of Israel is, so to speak, the Third Temple. I am one of these Jews.

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    Thursday, September 01, 2005

    Students Should Be Taught "a Lot of Science"


    By Gregory J. Rummo
    (Copyright Greg Rummo, All Rights Reserved)

    This appeared in the Sunday New Jersey Herald on July 17, 2005. It also appears on the American Family Association Web site.
  • American Family Association


  • Earlier this year, the issue of teaching alternate theories for the origins of life in the public schools in the state of Kansas bobbed to the surface once again.

    The crux of the controversy was explained in the school board’s Recommendations for Further Revision to the Second Draft of Kansas Science Education Standards: “…[A] disagreement continues to exist within the Science Writing Committee with respect to very substantive issues relating to the inherently controversial issue of teaching students about the origin of life and its diversity. There is general agreement that standard biological evolutionary theory must be presented. However, Draft 2 continues to implicitly discourages (sic) any critical analysis of the theory that would ‘weaken’ it. This implication is reinforced by the absence of any learning objective that would inform students of important evidence inconsistent with evolution’s critical assumptions and historical narratives. This is in spite of agreed upon standards that explicitly state that students should critically analyze all scientific theories and consider competing alternatives.”

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  • Grappling With the Problem of Evil


    By Mark D.R. Stern
    Public School Educator

    Many people believe that God is simultaneously omniscient, omnipotent, omnipresent, and compassionate. If all of these are true, then why would God let bad things happen to good people?

    This is a question that has forever captured the imaginations of philosophers, theologians, and thinking people in general. The rational conclusion is: God is not omnipotent or God does not care. You have to abandon one to keep the faith.

    In the 1939 novel “As a Driven Leaf” by Rabbi Milton Steinberg (1903-1950), the book’s protagonist concludes God does not care. In the 1981 book “When Bad Things Happen to Good People,” Rabbi Harold S. Kushner (born Brooklyn, N.Y., mid-1930s) chose a caring God who is not omnipotent. Fundamentalists say that when God lets the faithful down, it is a test: hence the book of Job (the oldest confrontation of the paradox). If you are wrestling with these issues, these two books are a great place to examine the problem of evil.

    For more information about “As a Driven Leaf,” click below:
  • Steinberg

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  • Kushner

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