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What follows is a skit poking fun at a certain political party’s propensity to leave women out of conversations about what should be done with women’s bodies.

To view, click here.

Easter does not belong to the Christian church. It is a timeless insight that life is born out of death. How we celebrate such holy days is very important. We must remember that we set aside one day as holy only so we can remember that time itself is sacred. We set aside one cave as holy only so we can remember the entire earth is sacred. We celebrate one human life as divine only so we can remember that every human being is an offspring of the sacred.

Everyone outside the U.S. knows that Iran was a peaceful democracy undermined by the U.S. so a puppet leader could be installed to their funnel oil to the West. Recent accusations by the U.S. that Iran is fomenting violence in Afghanistan is ironic to those who see our bombs falling on that nation, but now Glenn Greenwald writes about an even deeper level of double speak. In spite our pious claims, we have been training terrorists within that nation for years.

To read article, click here.

Religion is not really a personal matter. Just as good religion fills the world with compassion, bad religion fills the world with desire fear. This clip of a talk by Rick Santorum is a case study in bad religion. His belief in demons allows him to express his own paranoia without a chance of catching himself at it. In this clip he sees Satan at work in those more educated than himself. He sees Satan at work in other religions that challenge his own views. His followers are being asked to view any alternative worldview as a plot by Satan, which would make critical thought impossible. The fact that this frightened little mind that might as well be coming from the middle ages is taken seriously for our highest office reveals more about us as a nation than him.

To view video, click here.

The biblical story is one of liberation. Even after we escape actual enslavement, we must constantly disentangle ourselves from habits and addictions. What follows is a great passover essay by Rabbi Joshua Levine Grater reflectiog on what enslaves us today.

Top 10 List of Enslavements
Posted: 04/ 4/2012 4:42 pm

David Letterman has his Top 10, Sports Center has its Top 10, Time has its Top 100 and lots of others have lists too. So, rather than write another article on slavery and the serious issues facing our world, as the Jewish community approaches Passover and as the Christian community approaches Easter, here is my Top 10 List of Enslavements, areas that I think are crucial to look at and explore.

This is my list, which by its nature is incomplete. Feel free to make your own! And unlike the other lists, these are not in value judgement order. In fact, number 10, to me, is the most crushing and most important.

1. We are enslaved to the notion that capitalism and money are an excuse to do anything we want in the name of freedom.

2. We are enslaved to oil and the oil industry thereby being forced to not pursue other sources of energy that are healthier, safer and much more sustainable for our world.

3. We are enslaved to convenience, thereby refusing commonsense changes to our societal system that would make our lives healthier, safer and more sustainable. Think plastic bags, fast food and SUVs.

4. We are enslaved to societal blindness on race, sexual orientation and gender thereby allowing ourselves to ignore the horrible ills that people endure each and every day just for being who they are, human beings created in the image of God.

5. We are enslaved, particularly here in America, to the idea of exceptionalism, which blinds us to learning from other nations and cultures in areas where they may be succeeding better than us.

6. We are enslaved to war as the sole way to solve our greatest challenges.

7. We are enslaved to fear, which in turn closes our hearts and minds, similar to the darkness experienced as the ninth plague in the Bible.

8. We are enslaved to our media, social networks and 24/7 news feed that prohibits us from thinking and analyzing issues in a deep way, thereby affecting our politics, policies and decision making process on many levels.

9. We are enslaved to greed, which lead us to not share our resources with others, particularly food, thereby leaving billions of people hungry in a world that has enough resources to feed everyone.

10. 27 million human beings are physically enslaved today in our world, more people than ever in human history. We are all enslaved by their enslavement.

I welcome you to use these 10 as conversation starters, add to them, discuss them at your holiday tables if you are celebrating this week, and at your dinner tables on any given night. May we all have the courage and strength to work on freeing ourselves from any one of the above, thereby healing and bringing more freedom to our world.

Follow Rabbi Joshua Levine Grater on Twitter: www.twitter.com/rabbijoshua

original article here

According to this Gallup poll, the racial divide is alive and well in the Treyvon Martin case. Blacks, who the study shows are actually paying more attention to the case, believe the shooting was racially motivated. They believe, had the victim been white he would have been arrested. Nonblacks are paying less attention and are less like to view race as a factor in the shooting.

I’m not one who believes in trying cases in the court of public opinion, but I do think this case has been particularly revelatory on the subject of racism in America. Setting aside the guilt or innocence of the accused, the apathy of non-blacks toward what appears to be a coldblooded killing of an unarmed man is nothing short of stunning. The eagerness to find excuses that would justify what looks like murder has bordered on complicity with the crime.

To read article, click here

Florida seems intent on returning to the thrilling days of the wild west. Lawmakers in that state have placed the handgun in a sacred status that any endangered species would envy. This New York Times article is about those strange laws and the preparations of that state to host the Republican convention.

“The City Council is sensibly preparing tight security precautions for the downtown area by temporarily banningclubs, hatchets, switchblades, pepper spray, slingshots, chains, shovels and all manner of guns that shoot water, paint or air.

But not handguns that shoot actual bullets. In other words, someone outside the convention hall will be entitled to pack a handgun, but not a squirt gun.”

To read article, click here

If we think of religion as whatever it is we bet our life on, then it isn’t a question of whether we will be religious, but only if our religion will be kind or cruel, scientific or magical.

I determined long ago that I was only interested in a religion that was true for all people and for all times. Of course every religion has particularities, but I was no longer interested in a God who loved some but not others, or a truth that worked in one place but not another. In other words, if I was going to bet my life on something, it needed to be both fundamental and universal.

I also determined not to be a skeptic. It became clear that when I waited on the sidelines for the smoke to clear while I gained absolute clarity, the battle was always over before I found courage to act. Still, I resolved not to make my fundamental decisions out of guilt or shame or because I wanted something to be true.

These determinations have acted like a filter or talisman. I still had selfish and foolish moments, but I intuitively knew not to lose awareness by repeating words over and over. I intuitively knew not to ever surrender responsibility to the church or state for how I would treat my fellow human beings. If religion is whatever we bet our life on, there is no easy or safe path. Still,we cannot go as far wrong if we hold the talisman to serve only that which is fundamentally true and universally helpful.

It’s probably because my grandparents were morticians, but  the idea of a body getting up at Easter has never been  particularly inspiring to me. I much prefer to believe that the  disciples discovered something bigger than a resuscitated  cadaver at Easter. I want to believe they experienced the secret  of life itself.

By getting hung up on the details of the story we can easily  miss the whole point of the Easter narrative. The stories of religion are not  records of particular miracles, but are symbolic illustrations of  the mysterious principles that give us life and being. Biblical  stories illustrate the mysterious lattice work of intelligence which is invisible to our dim senses but which underlies our  very existence.

In the Christmas story, a child is born in the bleak midwinter. This image remind us that the light of life shines out of what seems like  dark emptiness. The point of the symbol is to remind us that  painful or lonely events are still important parts of our larger  life.

Easter is Christianity’s version of a story found all over the world where a  beloved child is taken from a loving parent and carried to the  underworld. The story was told at the vernal equinox  (beginning of spring) so people could remember, even as they  celebrated the beauty of spring, that everything  will be given back to the one larger life.

I realize that many people become religious so they won’t  have to think this deeply about life. Some people get so  wounded or frightened by life that they just want to be reassured. But  closing our eyes to reality will not comfort us for long. At some  point, we must turn to face our own mortality. When we die, our  bodies will not get up again, they will be recycled. Our only  honest consolation at that point is to love the whole circle of  life. Our true happiness is the common happiness.

I believe that the “Christ” people experienced at Easter was not  a walking cadaver. I believe the resurrection stories illustrate a more universal truth. The spirit of life the disciples first saw  in Jesus, they now saw in each other. “Resurrection” is awakening to our common life. Easter is not the property of one sectarian religion. When the risen Christ calls  us, we are not being called to the Christian Church, but to the  one life of us all.

(From Church Newsletter April, 2009)