Comments | galadhelsul: Religion and Fundamentalism

galadhelsul

Religion and Fundamentalism

Oct 02, 2006 14:40

Behold, I have set before you today life and good, and death and evil. Choose life, so that you and your offspring will live (Deut 30:15,19)

( My Views on Fundamentalism )

religion

Comments 13

stuff you already know, but I thought I'd comment anyway miraclaire October 2 2006, 20:37:28 UTC

What I liked about Sam Graham-Felson's dvar at Rosh Hashanah was that you can't just ignore fundamentalists and need to at least try to enter a dialogue. The Israel issue is the main reason my parents weren't willing to attend a mainstream synagogue and instead we went to the Workmen's Circle. I feel awkward sometimes around other Jews, especially around this time of year with all the reminders to speak up about things one feels are unjust or perpetuating injustice. Anyway, I'll see you in a few minutes for services.

ilai October 2 2006, 21:09:21 UTC

Thanks for the interesting and informative post. I have mostly shied away from discussing politics in the Middle East because I've seen so many people attacked for simply disagreeing with or criticizing Israel's policies. I had never really thought of it as a form of fundamentalism though, which seems somewhat obvious in retrospect.

mollishka October 2 2006, 21:47:22 UTC

UU?

timeslayer October 2 2006, 22:25:47 UTC

unitarian universalist

minkrose October 2 2006, 22:43:26 UTC

unitarian universalism.
used to be more christian than it is now (generally) but most congregations choose their own leaning. I attended a mostly jewish and buddhist congregation when I was younger. Their sunday school education focuses on teaching about all kinds of religions and why they're nifty.

I've always summed up the basic principle as follows: You dont have to agree with other people, but you must accept and promote their right to believe whatever they want.

bluefaith October 2 2006, 22:16:18 UTC

Yeah... the "because I/God say so" rational is kinda what's been turning me off to organized Catholicism lately.
I wish I could have realized this earlier and not been so upset at you for seeming to abandon religion. Even if I never told you how sad I was for you, I want to apologize for being blind-sighted by my own fundamentalisms.
But I'm glad you know where you are now.
I've occasionally thought UU might be the way to go, but this little version of my mom always pops up in my head and makes me feel guilty for wanting to be anything but Catholic. I can't escape her. I need to stop thinking about this now or I'm going to start crying in the middle of the Student Union and I dont want to have to deal with that.
Maybe we can talk/email/etc. later.

okosut October 3 2006, 00:34:47 UTC

Yeah, I've definitely experienced the "Israel can do no wrong" attitude. I stayed with my grandmother for a night a couple of months ago, and she talked a lot about how she was appalled at how much people don't respect Israel. I didn't feel like I knew enough about the situation to argue with her, but I do think that my Jewish heritage doesn't impact my thoughts about Middle East conflicts, as it probably does for her. Of course, I suspect it's difficult to be objective on such things if you were alive and Jewish during World War II.

My dad once said that, after WW2, a lot of misplaced Jews needed a place to go, and they ended up in what was recently Palestine. They should have gone to Iowa.

lauradi7 October 3 2006, 01:00:08 UTC

movie recommendations
Yidl in the Middle - Growing Up Jewish in Iowa (1998)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0185026/

"Postville" (which doesn't seem to be available. It was produced by Iowa Public TV, based on Stephen Bloom's book of the same name, but neither the IMDb nor Netflix lists it)

luckylefty October 3 2006, 18:04:26 UTC

But the US Government did not allow them to go to Iowa. Are you saying that the Holocaust survivors should be blamed for the US's immigration policies, or that they should be blamed for not managing to evade US immigration law and smuggle themselves into Iowa?

okosut October 3 2006, 18:51:39 UTC

Neither. "They should have..." was perhaps misleading. It's not that they did something wrong, it's that the whole system did something wrong. As in "the book shouldn't fall off the shelf." It's more likely to be the shelf's fault than the book's fault, but really it's a problem with the book-shelf system.

The world failed to find the Holocaust survivors a place to live (e.g. Iowa) that wouldn't end up causing a lot of trouble. So I guess I'm blaming the US for having the imigration policies that it did. But I'm really not doing that either, because I don't know that anyone could have predicted the trouble it's caused, so I'm blaming the whole world for failing to have a crystal ball. This is, you know, an unreasonable position.