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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsSantorum slammed by Jewish groups as "religiously exclusionist" for 'Jesus' remark
01/07/2012 18:37
US Republican presidential candidate criticized as "religiously exclusionist" for saying, "We always need a Jesus candidate."
BOSTON Jewish groups slammed Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum on Friday for telling listeners of a Boston radio show that we always need a Jesus guy in the campaign.
Santorum, formerly a Pennsylvania senator and the second-place winner of the Iowa caucus, made the remark Thursday after being asked about a listeners comment that we dont need a Jesus guy this election. We need an economics guy this election.
Santorum continued, Do you stand up and say, God bless America? Do you mean it? Are you just saying it? The idea that we dont need someone with a moral compass, is that what weve come to? Is that what the Republican party is? No, it isnt.
The candidate, who then went on to campaign in New Hampshire, which will hold its first-in-the-nation primary on Tuesday, reportedly repeated the conversation later in the day, relating that he had said, We always need a Jesus candidate.
Anti-Defamation League Abraham Foxman told The Jerusalem Post that Santorums remarks were totally inappropriate. Its crossing the line. It says to Jews, to Muslims, to Buddhists, to non-believers, youre not part of this country.
read: http://www.jpost.com/International/Article.aspx?id=252595
Fumesucker
(45,851 posts)bigtree
(85,920 posts). . .or even the belief that Christians invest in the man. It's mostly about whether you need Jesus' sacrifice to atone for sins or if you can just appeal to (God) directly. At any rate, it's about different beliefs and the apparent exclusion of the others that Santorum's elevation and promotion of Jesus (Christianity) suggests.
Fumesucker
(45,851 posts)That's why I put the on my post..
Indeed, I'm a member of the group in the USA that has the highest score on a test of general religious knowledge.
http://www.pewforum.org/U-S-Religious-Knowledge-Survey-Who-Knows-What-About-Religion.aspx
bigtree
(85,920 posts)I think the best I can do is acknowledge that there are lots and lots of religions and religious beliefs.
Your joke was a perfect opportunity to try and make the distinction and apply that understanding to the inference Santorum was making. It's probably best to take your responses on my threads seriously.
Fumesucker
(45,851 posts)That many of us did a lot of soul searching and learning before we rejected religion as implausible and some of us even tried multiple religions in our quest for truth.
The impetus for a lot of atheists deconverting is that they have questions that no religious person can give a good answer for, "it's a mystery" just isn't intellectually satisfying to most of us.
Kurmudgeon
(1,751 posts)I find Christ's Testimony believable, so I believe.
I can't do that for you, no one can. Each person is responsible for what they each decide to believe or disbelieve.
You have to go the source, asking a "person" isn't sufficient.
boppers
(16,588 posts)Hence, the problem.
oh08dem
(339 posts)is lecturing about moral compasses?
PCIntern
(25,347 posts)as a Jew, I react poorly when someone says to me, knowing that I'm a Yid: "...so that was your come-to-Jesus moment." I want to say to them, "Actually, the two greatest carpenters of all time were Jewish: Jesus and Norm Abrams of This Old House, and right now, I don't need anything built, so I won't be calling either of them."
Two of my employees are hyper-religious Baptists, and I'm very very careful around them although their sects' dogmas prohibited them from attending my kid's Bat Mitzvah, since they're not allowed in' heathen' houses of worship which don't believe in Jesus as the Christ. But i'm the one who has to be careful, right?
I DO have a little fun around Xmas time, saying that Jesus was circumcised on New Years Day and stuff like that. Petty and childish, but WTH...
boppers
(16,588 posts)They can't attend a Bat Mitzvah?
I grew up Mormon, and *that* seems freaky to me.
PCIntern
(25,347 posts)they came up with the most ridiculous excuses...and then later confessed. They're nice people, really, but just couldn't do it. I did NOT take it personally, BTW.
Fumesucker
(45,851 posts)boppers
(16,588 posts)The ideal of Jesus has no limits.
COLGATE4
(14,732 posts)The female equivalent to a Bar Mitzvah was unknown at that time, and I doubt he would have approved of it.
boppers
(16,588 posts)People who cannot, or do not, read the religious texts they quote? Yeah, they make me cranky.
Even worse?
Christians have *hundreds* of translations. They don't have a decent argument and commentary in the books yet, they're still shooting each other over it.
Behind the Aegis
(53,833 posts)PCIntern
(25,347 posts)it's like throwing chum in the water....
"We're gonna need a bigger boat."
boppers
(16,588 posts)...If the real thing wasn't already so messed up.
Response to bigtree (Original post)
bigtree This message was self-deleted by its author.
no_hypocrisy
(45,786 posts)You have the "Jewish vote" that can ride shotgun with the biggest, baddest conservative, religiously fundamentalist (read, bigoted) republican as long as s/he is stalwartly devoted to Israel. Throw in Jesus as an equation, the vote is suddenly lost. The vote doesn't want to go to democrats but can't stay with republicans when they do Jesus talk.
PCIntern
(25,347 posts)most adhere to the famous line about us:
Jews live like WASPS, but vote like Puerto Ricans
the vast majority of us are not fooled by this stuff spewed by the RW. We KNOW why they 'support' Israel and what they REALLY think of us.
bigtree
(85,920 posts)well stated, no_hypocrisy
Chemisse
(30,793 posts)About every other RW fundie candidate who spouts out about his religion as though it is the one and only in this country.
They should all be called on this exclusionary crap.
madrchsod
(58,162 posts)would that be a kind`a guy who`s mother was an outcast in her village for being preggers and not married? the same guy who grew up watching the 1% and the their lackeys demand more and more taxes? the same guy who watched children die because of starvation and disease? the guy with the help of a few friends challenged the might of the roman empire and the corrupt jewish priests? then to get rid of this trouble maker they decide to kill him?
wow rickie i did`t know you were a jesus kind of guy...remember the beatitudes? better go back and read the entire first few books of the new testament.
CanonRay
(14,038 posts)Which is exactly how Rick Santorum and his followers feel about the rest of us non-Christians.
justiceischeap
(14,040 posts)Never mind that not all Christians (or Catholics) can agree on the interpretation of the bible (just look at all the different versions of the bible). While railing against sharia law he wants to institute... a Christian version of sharia law and historically, we can see how well that has turned out for fundamentalist Middle Eastern countries.
As a lesbian, I don't want the country I live in that follows Santorum's version of god's law. As a woman, I don't want to live in a country that follows Santorum's version of god's law. As a "mystic" atheist, I don't want to live in a country that follows Santorum's version of god's law. As an American, I don't want to live in a country that follow's any persons version of god's law because I know I won't be represented as a lesbian, as a woman or as a non-believer.