I do not think that Scott Walker or Jeb Bush are particularly electable, at least not compared to someone like John Kasich. The latter is by far the most dangerous candidate from my perspective (being a lefty), because he could easily win against Clinton or another Democrat. Walker is, I'm...
Indeed. But dressing up with the intent to represent a rabbi or other religious leader, however prone it is to stereotyping, is a different enterprise than attempting to dress up as a member of a cultural/ethnic group.
Right. The problem is, we do allow for priests, evangelical pastors, monks, etc. to be the subject of Halloween costuming. I think that is qualitatively different than dressing as a member of an ethnic group (at least, an extant ethnic group; if someone wants to claim that they are an ancient...
If you want the opinions of Jews and Gentiles, you can't really put it in the DIR. In any event, the DIR seems rather limited in its capacity to respond to questions from outsiders. The only DIRs that seem to be relatively open are the non-Abrahamic minority positions, based on my experience.
Oh I don't know. With adults, I think that they often choose costumes that represent things that they do not aspire to. Even as a kid, I never wanted to go as something I aspired to as much as, say, something that was scary. Dinosaur, vampire, warlock, Pennywise the Clown, scary demon mask...
Here is a toddler version. Here is an adult version. Of course, there's nothing necessarily distinctive about it. But if you are going as a rabbi, it seems functionally equivalent, to me, as going as a priest or other religious leader.
I think that going as a member of an ethnic group (or ethnoreligious group in this case) is kind of odd. This Gawker article addresses the dos and don'ts of racial, ethnic and national costuming for Halloween, but gives no guidance on Jewish costumes.
These costumes can only work if you are...
Jack Jenkins over at ThinkProgress says yes. Today, as Russell Moore, head of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission or ERLC, interviewed two Republican political candidates. That's not the interesting part; the interesting part is who was invited, and who...
The problem is that the teacher also subjected the school to potential liability for a constitutional violation. The facts, if true, are fairly egregious examples of religious bigotry. I would recommend probation pending investigation and possible termination.
Why isn't this bigotry? Per the complaint:
During a discussion with classmates on the playground he responded to a question by indicating that he did not go to church because he did not believe in God. This resulted in his teacher interrogating the child as to his beliefs and requiring the...
Do you really think that "Black Lives Matter" is a confusing message? I think it is only confusing if you assume that saying that black lives matter implies that Latino lives, white lives, etcetera do not matter. Indeed, how does adding "too" clarify things? Perhaps that would only mean that...
Yes, I suppose if you ignore the Christian persecution of heretics and the Reformation wars, the faith looks less appalling and barbaric than if they are included. Of course, you still have to deal with the persecution of pagans, Christian anti-Semitism as a matter of doctrine, the Crusades...
I am sure that people who believe in Thor can point to his actions. We know that Muslims heap praise on Allah for miracles. Here is an article describing personal visions of Norse gods. Billy Graham says that Yahweh can appear to people in visions and dreams today. I see no reason to accept...
For some strange reason, he was released early. If Israel has a supervised release system, he can be recommitted for whatever period the law allows, just based on a violation of his terms of early release. But I doubt the trial on new offenses will be lengthy: He had previously confessed when...