Joshua Rosenau spends his days defending the teaching of evolution at 
Tommy Thompson, former Bush HHS secretary and current presidential candidate, told the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism:
"I’m in the private sector and for the first time in my life I’m earning money. You know that’s sort of part of the Jewish tradition and I do not find anything wrong with that."After this comment "caused a stir," Thompson stuck the other foot in his mouth:
What I was referring to, ladies and gentlemen, is the accomplishments of the Jewish religion. You've been outstanding business people and I compliment you for that.Oy vey iz mir. The "accomplishments of the Jewish religion" are not commercial. creating a culture of literacy and learning that persisted unbroken for thousands of years is an accomplishment. Producing one of the earliest traditions of written laws is an accomplishment. Surviving in exile for centuries was an accomplishment.
Teaching America that Jews do not have horns, and that Jewish noses are not specially attuned to the smell of money is something I thought we accomplished as well. Apparently that lesson has yet to penetrate the Republican party.
And they wonder why this doesn't work.
Comments
It's all part of his "religious accomplishments" tour. Tomorrow, he's off to Bethel AME to praise their natural sense of rhythm, and on Thursday, he'll be visiting a Korean Christian Church to stress math skills.
Posted by: HP | April 16, 2007 5:30 PM
Hey, let's not forget another impressive accomplishment of this religious tradition: coming up with an idea so catchy that it's been become well-entrenched all over the world thousands of years after it was invented: persecution of homosexuals. (I'm just saying)
Posted by: anonymous | April 16, 2007 6:14 PM
Saying what, exactly? Or are you just trolling?
Posted by: Josh | April 16, 2007 9:22 PM
I only wrote this comment because of our other conversation about religion. Sorry, it's not my intention to be a troll. However, I can see that my comments on this blog are unwelcome, so I will respectfully stop posting them once the other conversation is finished. After leaving comments on your other post, I saw this post which seemed to be highlighting only the positive side of religion, so I just thought I'd point out that not all things about religion are great.
Posted by: anonymous | April 16, 2007 9:44 PM
You comments aren't unwelcome, I just didn't see where homosexuality entered the discussion (or any basis for the claim that homophobia is novel to Judaism).
This post is about antisemitic stereotypes.
Posted by: Josh | April 16, 2007 9:50 PM
Sorry, you're right that my comment is off topic. It's overflow from the other post really.
Homosexuality was accepted as a natural part of life across Africa, East Asia, North America, and Europe before Christianity and Islam spread their hatred of homosexuals around the world. The homophobia of Christianity is derived from the Old Testament (and from St. Paul, who probably got it from the old testament) and the Koran got much of its teaching and storylines from Christianity and Judaism (the Mecca of Muhammad's time had no problem with it until he persuaded them). Ancient Judaism is the original source of most of the homophobia in the world today, but Christianity and Islam were the vectors for spreading it.
Posted by: anonymous | April 16, 2007 10:05 PM
I was there when TT was talking. The thing is, his comments were naive, not anti-Semitic. At the end of his talk, one of the moderators pulled him back, and whispered in his ear. He seemed to be telling TT what he had done wrong. The look on TT's face showed that he felt embarrassed, contrite, and confused. He honestly did not understand what he had done wrong. That was when he came out with his equally naive apology.
Mind you, I am not excusing his comments: that kind of naivete in a presidential candidate is utterly unacceptable! But his comments were a sign of prejudice (not malevolent, just narrow minded) and ignorance of the Jewish people, Israel (his "Jewish bonds" comment a couple minutes after the making money comment sealed that), and the histories of either/both.
He said other things in that speech that were equally, perhaps more naive and ignorant, like suggesting Iraqis should do a profit sharing program with their oil, similar to what they do in Alaska, doling out the money to all the citizens. Had they let him stay for questions, I was going to ask him how he planned on carrying out that idea (considering the political, social, and infrastructural problems in Iraq). But the organizers could see that a Q & A wouldn't have gone well at that point, and whisked TT away.
TT's utter lack of international, multi-cultural, or ecumenical knowledge and understanding are so striking, all the more because it is clear that he doesn't even know he suffers from these lacks. It takes a bit of knowledge in a field to be able to recognize how much you DON'T know. TT doesn't even know enough to understand that he is ignorant. I conjecture that he will therefore remain utterly incapable of understanding what actually went wrong when he was speaking to us; and that is why he will not come out with a satisfactory apology.
Posted by: S | April 24, 2007 8:07 AM
"TT's utter lack of international, multi-cultural, or ecumenical knowledge and understanding are so striking, all the more because it is clear that he doesn't even know he suffers from these lacks."
Right. It's not a malicious anti-semitism, it's the casual belief that stereotypes are correct that is very disturbing.
Posted by: Josh Rosenau | April 24, 2007 10:29 PM
"Right. It's not a malicious anti-semitism, it's the casual belief that stereotypes are correct that is very disturbing."
Yes. I do agree. The look on his face proved beyond any doubt for me, that he really had no clue. Shallow man. And I've seen many posts from Wisconsin of people who are embarrassed that other people will think he represents how folks from that part of the country think. Ironic?
S
Posted by: S | April 25, 2007 8:42 AM