David Griffin wrote:
>
> In a message dated 3/23/2 5:55:58 AM, you wrote:
>
> >You haven't answered the question though, why did you claim it was
> >"anti-Semitic" to observe that Judaism is a religion?
>
> We are not writing a book of definitions here; we are considering them in the
> context of the violence that's occuring in the Middle East. (I kind of spoke
> to this all in my previous post, but I wanted to answer your question
> directly.) You wrote that Judaism was a religion and not an ethnicity.

No, Alister wrote: "Further, Judaism is a religion rather than a
'race'."  In fact, an 'ism' cannot refer to a race.  A race is a genetic
thing, and an 'ism' is not.  Neither Alister nor Bartlett tried to imply
that religion doesn't involve ethnicity.

> But to
> assign a mutual exclusivity to the term Judaism is, today, here and now, to
> simply aid the United States and the ultra-Zionists in their claim that
> "Jewish=Israeli". How could one be Jewish, they exclaim, and not support the
> state of Israel?

But we're not supporting that claim.  We're saying the opposite, that
the Jewishness of Israel should not be a reason for anyboy to support
Israel.  The Jewishness of Israel ought to be irrelevent to whether
Israel should exist.

> Judaism is a religion, AMONG OTHER THINGS.

Yes, but race is not AMONG THOSE OTHER THINGS.

> How would it be to say that the United States is a Christian state? It is,
> for all intents and purposes, isn't it?

Not for *all* intents and purposes, but, yes, the US does not fully
implement the strong interpretation of the principle of separation of
church and state.

> Why do *all* Congresspeople and the
> President get Christmas off, and not Chanukah, Rosh Hashanah, and Eid? And
> why is it that Christians have a far larger chance of becoming citizens of
> the United States than any others? (Do you see the pitfalls of this
> reasoning?)

No.  The reasoning is correct.  The US state is insufficiently secular,
for the reasons you list and others.  If President Bush is sincere about
his exhortations that we should lead by example, then let's set a few
good examples.  Cleaning the secular house should be one of them.

martin

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