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July 18, 2008

Rabbi Nathan Lopes Cardozo: The Sanctification and Importance of Time

Caroline B. Glick: US wants it absolutely clear it has no intention of attacking Iran's nuclear installations

Mona Charen: What can you say about a people who welcome a child murderer as a hero?

JWisdom:: Living a dog's life, dawg? by Rabbi Dovid Gross

July 17, 2008

Steven Emerson: Deals with devils

Libby Lazewnik: One Step at a Time

JWisdom:: Leader the follower? by Rabbi Sroy Levitansky

July 16, 2008

The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Poaching humans

The Kosher Gourmet by Linda Gassenheimer: Meaty pasta salad with summer berries perfect for warm evenings

JWisdom:: Keeping A Secret by Rabbi Mordechai Becher

July 15, 2008

Dennis Prager: False Equation: Opposing Same-Sex Marriage and Opposing Interracial Marriage

Joel Greenberg: Researchers look to Israeli circumcision program to help combat AIDS 'Alternatives' to Logic Won't Work

JWisdom:: Re-Jew-venating prayer, Part V: Why Judaism ISN'T Spiritual by Rabbi David Aaron

July 14, 2008

Jonathan Rosenblum: A warning from Canada to those who value life

Jonathan Tobin: 'Alternatives' to Logic Won't Work

JWisdom:: Holocaust in the Perspective of Faith by Rabbi Nosson Scherman: Poland's Unique Antisemitism, Part II

July 11, 2008

Rabbi Francis Nataf: It's hard to be humble when you're great

Caroline B. Glick: A tale of two hostages

JWisdom:: Profane for Prophet by Rabbi Sroy Levitansky

July 8, 2008

The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Q. Duty to save gullible from themselves?

Frank J. Gaffney, Jr.: Islamists have the West just where they want us

JWisdom:: Putting the Spirit Back into Spirituality, Part 3: The Fully Loaded Human Being by Rabbi Dovid Gross

July 3, 2008

Rabbi Dr. Abraham J. Twerski: A spiritual budget (TOUCHING!)

Jeff Jacoby: Israel still paying for its defeat

JWisdom:: Re-Jew-venating prayer, Part IV by Rabbi David Aaron

JWisdom:: The Moses Method by Rabbi Sroy Levitansky

July 2, 2008

Jonathan Tobin: Appeasers Make Poor Patriots

The Kosher Gourmet By Kathleen Purvis: Slaw, y'all: For BBQs or Sabbath dinner, these southern recipes are something else!

JWisdom:: Rabbi Mordechai Becher: Jewish Rx for A Simpler Life

July 1, 2008

The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Q. I think it's important to leave a legacy to my children. How much should I save towards this end?

Paul Greenberg:A President who is history deficient?

JWisdom:: Holocaust in the Perspective of Faith by Rabbi Nosson Scherman: Poland's Unique Antisemitism

June 30, 2008

Jonathan Rosenblum: Remembering the architect of Torah Judaism for the modern world

Abe Novick: Hulk: Still a Jew?

JWisdom: : Putting the Spirit Back into Spirituality, Part 2: The Abandoned Child

June 26, 2008

Rabbi Abraham J. Twerski: Quantum leap to evil

Caroline B. Glick: Victimized families must not be allowed to dictate policy

June 25, 2008

Rabbi Yonason Goldson: Today in Biblical History: King Jeroboam of Israel prevents pilgrimage to Jerusalem

Jonathan Tobin: Real Friends and Real Enemies

JWisdom: Raping of reason By Rabbi Sroy Levitansky

June 25, 2008

Steven Emerson: Kristof: Never Mind the Terrorists

Stratfor Intelligence Briefing: Mediterranean Flyover: Telegraphing an Israeli Punch?

JWisdom: Rabbi David Aaron: Re-Jew-venating prayer, Part III

June 24, 2008

Caroline B. Glick: What were they thinking!?

Frank J. Gaffney, Jr.: Guilty knowledge

JWisdom: Holocaust in the Perspective of Faith by Rabbi Nosson Scherman: Warping Innocence

June 23, 2008

The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Diploma dilemma

Jeff Jacoby: A world without children

JWisdom: Rabbi Dovid Gross: Putting the Spirit Back into Spirituality --- Introduction

June 20, 2008

Rabbi A. Henach Leibowitz: Man: The Crowning Glory of Creation

Caroline B. Glick: Israel's darkest week

JWisdom: We aren't worthy? by Rabbi Sroy Levitansky

June 19, 2008

Rabbi Elazar Meisels: The saints who don't come marchin' in

Chris Christoff: Muslim woman demands an apology from Obama after camera snub

June 18, 2008

Jonathan Tobin: Still Dancing Around Jerusalem

The Kosher Gourmet by Steve Petusevsky: Chilled fruit and vegetable soups

JWisdom: Souls Need A Check Up? by Rabbi Mordechai Becher

June 17, 2008

Rabbi Avi Shafran: Baby Einstein

Caroline B. Glick: Bush's rhetoric, Bush's policies

JWisdom: Re-Jew-venating prayer, Part II by Rabbi David Aaron

June 16, 2008

Varda Branfman: Bob Dylan, won't you please come home?

Diana West: Academic dares to question the 'religion of peace'

JWisdom: Holocaust in the Perspective of Faith by Rabbi Nosson Scherman: Positive Backfire

March 22, 2007

J-Rhythms with Avraham Rosenblum: JWR's cutting-edge music program showcasing performers -- singers, song writers, musicians, and bands -- who learn and live the Torah lifestyle (OUR NEWEST IGODCAST !)

Oct. 29, 2003
Mortimer B. Zuckerman: Graffiti On History's Walls (MUST-READ!)

Jewish World Review August 27, 2007 / 13 Elul, 5767

The sinful use of religion in politics

By Kathryn Lopez


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http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | If public opinion isn't on your side, hit your opponent below the belt. This seemed to be the game plan for some Louisiana Democrats, who recently used religion to try and derail Republican rising star Congressman Bobby Jindal's run for the governorship.


In a commercial that debuted in mid-August, sponsored by the state's official Democratic Party, the Catholic Jindal is accused of being "anti-Protestant."


The unholy ads have run only in the Protestant-heavier north — to play on Protestant fears without irritating the papists. According to the Almanac of American Politics 2006, "Catholic Cajun parishes (Louisiana has parishes rather than counties) cast about 30 percent of the state's vote, the New Orleans area casts around 25 percent or so, and about 45 percent are cast in Protestant parishes from Baton Rouge on north."


For a country that was founded by folks escaping religious persecution, the existence and exploitation of religious bigotry is ugly and unfortunate. We've seen it in the presidential race, with observers predicting that Mitt Romney's Mormonism will ultimately do in his campaign. And we're seeing it in Louisiana.


The accusation against Jindal is based on articles he wrote for New Oxford Review — a politically conservative, Catholic traditionalist magazine — in the 1990s as a young convert from Hinduism. The Indian-American Jindal was writing about religion for a Catholic audience, addressing religious topics, some of relatively parochial concern. And the Louisiana Democrats' reading of the articles is completely disingenuous: For instance, they accuse Jindal of having stated that non-Catholics are "utterly depraved."


Patricia Schroeder had it all wrong when she recently stated that Republicans don't read: It is apparently Louisiana Dems who can't read. Jindal did, in fact, use the words "utterly depraved" — but in quotation marks, quoting John Calvin, a Protestant, who argued that all men are born "utterly depraved." (Jindal disagreed with the contention.)


Furthermore, Jindal wrote that "the Catholic Church must live up to her name by incorporating the many Spirit-led movements found outside her walls. ...


"I am thrilled by the recent ecumenical discussions that have resulted in Catholics and Evangelicals discovering what they have in common, in terms of both theology and morality, and as exemplified by joining to oppose abortion and other fruits of an increasingly secular society, but I do not want our Evangelical friends to overlook those beliefs that make Catholicism unique. The challenge is for all Christians to follow Jesus wherever He leads; one significant part of that challenge is to consider seriously the claims of the Catholic Church."


How is any of that even remotely anti-Protestant? It's not, of course. But the temptation to string a few lies together to play on long-simmering hostilities and bigotries is apparently too tempting for Louisiana Democrats to resist.


Louisiana, just two years after Katrina, has much more important things to worry about than articles a gubernatorial candidate wrote more than a decade ago. But priorities and appropriateness seem not to be the concerns of the Democratic Party in Louisiana.


Politically, though, is the party's strategy smart? Can it work? If Romney becomes the Republican nominee for president, would hitting Mormonism be a smart strategy for Hillary Clinton (who, unless Al Gore enters at the last minute, will be the nominee)?


Philip Jenkins, author of The New Anti-Catholicism, worries it might be. He predicts: "I hate to say it but ... in Louisiana, that large territory located just south of the United States, these ads could be much more effective than someone living elsewhere might suspect. ... What prevents appropriate anger about the Jindal ads is that most Americans don't realize how uniquely bitter religious relations still are in Louisiana, and why such rhetoric is so poisonous."


And as for the presidential race, Jenkins — who is no ideological ally of Romney — worries: "Mormons are still fair game, usually because most Americans, even those of benevolent disposition, don't have real, breathing Mormon neighbors against whom they can test the charges. Historically, what defused anti-Semitism was the sense of 'But that can't be true. Just think of the Cohens down the road.'"


Jenkins says, ominously, that watching "the outright denunciations of Mormonism" he's seen aimed at Romney, "takes us right back to the halcyon days of 1840s anti-Catholicism."


Calling Baton Rouge to put an end to the intolerance. Let us pray, anyway.

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