Anti-Semitic Catholics

The Southern Poverty Law Center has a new report out on a Catholic "sect" which is extremely anti-Semitic. Mel Gibson is affiliated with this group of wing-nuts who also want to return to the Latin Mass, etc. The 6 page report can be found at http://www.splcenter.org/intel/intelreport/article.jsp?aid=719. A selection from it follows:

Few Americans defended Mel Gibson's drunken rant about the evils of the Jews. But radical traditionalist Catholics did. A three-year investigation of this subculture by the Intelligence Report has found that these Catholic extremists, including the Gibsons, may well represent the largest population of anti-Semites in the United States. Organized into a network of more than a dozen organizations, scores of websites and several extremist churches and monasteries, radical traditionalists in the U.S. are preaching anti-Semitism to as many as 100,000 followers. A few, such as the lawyer for Terri Schiavo's family, Christopher Ferrara, are even movers and shakers in important right-wing Republican circles.

Your Brain on Religion

MSNBC has an interesting article on a new research center at U. Penn. It can be found at http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16842848/. The introductory paragraphs follow.

Religion and science can combine to create some thorny questions: Does God exist outside the human mind, or is God a creation of our brains? Why do we have faith in things that we cannot prove, whether it’s the afterlife or UFOs?

The new Center for Spirituality and the Mind at the University of Pennsylvania is using brain imaging technology to examine such questions, and to investigate how spiritual and secular beliefs affect our health and behavior.

If you follow the article's U. Penn link and then click the "Resources" link, you will find several articles available in PDF format. Tom, perhaps your MD son would find them worth reading, and then again, maybe not.

An Interesting Bible Blog

There is an interesting new series at Slate's website called "Blogging the Bible". The introduction to it can be found at http://www.slate.com/id/2141050/. The author is currently reading and commenting on Jeremiah (http://www.slate.com/id/2157587/).
Part of the series introduction follows. Note that he indicates which Hebrew translation he is reading. Do you know anything about this translation, Tom?

Blogging the Bible

What happens when an ignoramus reads the Good Book?

By David Plotz

I have always been a proud Jew, but never a terribly observant one. Several weeks ago, I made a rare visit to synagogue for a cousin's bat mitzvah and, as usual, found myself confused (and bored) by a Hebrew service I couldn't understand. During the second hour of what would be a ceremony of NFL-game-plus-overtime-length, I picked up the Torah in the pew-back, opened it at random, and started reading (the English translation, that is).
. . .

So, what can I possibly do? My goal is pretty simple. I want to find out what happens when an ignorant person actually reads the book on which his religion is based. I think I'm in the same position as many other lazy but faithful people (Christians, Jews, Moslems, Hindus). I love Judaism; I love (most of) the lessons it has taught me about how to live in the world; and yet I realized I am fundamentally ignorant about its foundation, its essential document. So, what will happen if I approach my Bible empty, unmediated by teachers or rabbis or parents? What will delight and horrify me? How will the Bible relate to the religion I practice, and the lessons I thought I learned in synagogue and Hebrew School?

I'll spend the next few weeks (or months) finding out. I'll begin with "in the beginning" and see how far I get. My wife, struck by my new biblical obsession, gave me a wonderful Torah translation and commentary for Hannukah, the Etz Hayim, which was prepared by conservative Jewish scholars. I'll read that and dip into the King James and other translations on occasion. (But I'll avoid most commentary, since the whole point is to read the Bible fresh.) I'm sure I'll repeat obvious points made by thousands of biblical commentators before; I'll misunderstand some passages and distort others—hey, that'll be part of the fun.

Bishop Gumbleton in Tucson

HOMOSEXUALITY AND THE CHURCH

Where are we Now? Where Should We Be?

Tuesday, February 6, 2007

7:00 PM

First Christian Church*

Tucson

Sponsored by Call to Action-Tucson

The Most Reverend Thomas J. Gumbleton

Retired Roman Catholic auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Detroit, Bishop Gumbleton has been a consistent prophetic voice in the Catholic Church. He has received numerous awards & honors for his peace & justice work, including his work for civil and church rights for the LGBT community. He is an active member of New Ways Ministry, a gay positive ministry for lesbian & gay Catholics and their families and has written extensively on the need to reconsider the Roman Catholic attitude towards homosexuality.

Who Should Attend?

● Anybody interested in understanding the Church’s position on homosexuality and its effect on our Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender family.

● Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transsexual Catholics, who want to reconcile their sexuality with the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church.

● Anybody who wants to hear a compassionate, pastoral and Christian message from a Roman Catholic bishop on the topic of homosexuality.

A free will offering will be taken

* 740 E. Speedway, SW corner of Speedway and Euclid

For more information contact Laurie Olson at (520) 615-0183 or Laurieaolson@yahoo.com

Privy at Qumran

Assuming we will be looking at the Dead Sea Scrolls this session, I thought this article might interest some of you. I found it at http://www.usatoday.com/tech/science/discoveries/2007-01-02-qumram-latrine_x.htm where the remainder of the article can be read.

Ancient latrine fuels debate at Qumran
Posted 1/2/2007 11:54 PM ET

By Matti Friedman, Associated Press

QUMRAN, West Bank — Researchers say their discovery of a 2,000-year-old toilet at one of the world's most important archaeological sites sheds new light on whether the ancient Essene community was home to the authors of many of the Dead Sea Scrolls.

In a new study, three researchers say they have discovered the outdoor latrine used by the ancient residents of Qumran, on the barren banks of the Dead Sea. They say the find proves the people living here two millennia ago were Essenes, an ascetic Jewish sect that left Jerusalem to seek proximity to God in the desert.

Qumran and its environs have already yielded many treasures: the remains of a settlement with an aqueduct and ritual baths, ancient sandals and pottery, and the Dead Sea Scrolls — perhaps the greatest archaeological find of the 20th century.