Cidu Bill on Sep 3rd 2010
Many Jewish leaders are angry about the Mormon practice of posthumous baptism by proxy — specifically, ceremonies in which the names of Jewish Holocaust victims are used to offer the departed a chance to convert in the afterlife.
Now, I can understand calling people who participate in these ceremonies arrogant, insensitive and disrespectful — but beyond that, who really cares? In the end it’s meaningless. Nobody’s forcing anybody to convert and the jokes on them anyway because Jews don’t believe in a Christian-style afterlife. By making a big deal out of this, Jewish leaders only seem to be acknowledging that there’s some validity in all this.
Personally, I’d rather have Mormons try to convert me after I’m dead than have Jehovah’s Witnesses wake me up by ringing my doorbell on Sunday mornings when I’m alive.
Filed in Bill Bickel, Judaism, Mormons, afterlife, posthumous baptism by proxy, religion | 16 responses so far
Cidu Bill on Aug 11th 2010
New Yorkers, opportunistic politicians, and the ignorant and intolerant are up in arms over plans to build a multi-story mosque just blocks from the site of the World Trade Center. Well, not a multi-story mosque exactly, more like a community center open to the public (sort of a YMMA), which includes a prayer room, but let’s not let facts get in the way of hysteria.
The two Egyptian men behind the plan say it’s meant as a statement against extremism, to bridge the gap between Muslims and non-Muslims. A Tea Party spokesman calls it a memorial to the 9/11 hijackers.
An upcoming ad campaign, to appear on New York City buses, will demand that the city prohibit the building from being constructed. The ads will show pictures of one of the planes hitting the World Trade Center.
A spokesperson for the group paying for the ads said that being allowed to run the ads is a victory for free speech and tolerance.
A victory for free speech and tolerance.
The sound you hear is George Orwell turning over in his grave.
As an American, this all disgusts me. And it’s stupid as well as wrong, because what we’re telling the Muslim world that we think of every Muslim as our enemy.
As a Jew, the fact that so many Jewish groups are joining the hysteria troubles me. And it’s stupid as well, because traditionally, when a government looks for excuses to single out and discriminate against a religious group, it tends to be the Jews. Letting hysteria decide where Muslims can’t build… is that a precedent we really want to support? Hatred of Muslims is just the flavor of the week: anti-Semitism endures.
Filed in Bill Bickel, Islam, Judaism, Muslims, New York City, discrimination, media, mosques, politics, religion | 83 responses so far
Cidu Bill on Dec 29th 2008
- Where would you find more Jews: in temple on Yom Kippur, or in Chinese restaurants on Christmas?
Filed in Bill Bickel, Christmas, Judaism | 23 responses so far
Cidu Bill on Aug 27th 2008
That’s a mezuzah, which Jewish families place next to their doorways (sometimes next to the doorways of each room inside the house or apartment, as well). There’s a scroll inside the mezuzah, on which is written the Shema, an important Jewish prayer.
The comic is portraying it very accurately, right down to the angle at which the mezuzah is supposed to be positioned.
Knowing all this, however, doesn’t explain the actual joke (though the concept itself is pretty funny, if a bit obscure to many of the non-Chosen).
Filed in Bill Bickel, CIDU, Judaism, cats, comic strips, comics, humor, mezuzahs, mice | 27 responses so far
Cidu Bill on May 20th 2008
In the Muslim faith, anybody born to a Muslim father, regardless of the mother’s religion, is a Muslim (which might have implications in the case of Barack Obama); while Judaism uses the opposite rule, that a child is Jewish or non-Jewish depending on the mother — under the logic that you can be 100% certain who the mother is, but…
(None of this is to say, of course, that parents can’t and don’t raise their children however they see fit; but this is what Muslim and Jewish law dictate)
Filed in Barack Obama, Bill Bickel, Islam, Judaism, Muslims, religion, trivia | 13 responses so far
Cidu Bill on Jan 1st 2000
God: And remember, Moses, in the laws of keeping Kosher, never cook a calf in its mother’s milk. It is cruel.
Moses: “So you are saying we should never eat milk and meat together.”
God: “No, what I’m saying is, never cook a calf in its mother’s milk.”
Moses: “Oh Lord, forgive my ignorance! What you are really saying is we should wait six hours after eating meat to eat milk so the two are not in our stomachs.”
God: “No, Moses, listen to me. I am saying, don’t cook a calf in its mother’s milk!!!”
Moses: “Oh, Lord! Please don’t strike me down for my stupidity! What you mean is we should have a separate set of dishes for milk and a separate set for meat and if we make a mistake we have to bury that dish outside….”
God: “Moses, do whatever you want……….”
Filed in Bill Bickel, Judaism, Moses, jokes, kosher | No responses yet
