When U.S. Representative and possible presidential candidate Michele Bachmann spoke to the Republican Jewish Coalition she exposed a profound flaw in the religious right which has virtually unlimited potential for mayhem. She let the world know that she and the religious right believe in such unreasonable nonsense as curses. She said, "I am convinced in my heart and in my mind that if the United States fails to stand with Israel, that is the end of the United States . . . [W]e have to show that we are inextricably entwined, that as a nation we have been blessed because of our relationship with Israel, and if we reject Israel, then there is a curse that comes into play. And my husband and I are both Christians, and we believe very strongly the verse from Genesis [Genesis 12:3], we believe very strongly that nations also receive blessings as they bless Israel. It is a strong and beautiful principle."
Objectively looking at how putting Israel's interests before America's interests for the last 50 years or so shows us we were not "blessed" by any stretch of the imagination unless you consider the 9/11 attacks and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and all of the suffering and misery they brought us and still bring us blessings. Add to these the accompanying huge debt the United States currently has due in a very large part to the two unnecessary wars and it becomes obvious Genesis 12:3 is false and Michele Bachmann and the religious right are wrong to believe in such ancient claims which, in reality, are probably part of a psychological warfare operation conducted by the ancient Israelis and which still provided dividends for Israel today.
This nonsense of believing in curses and hexes not only infects the religious right in the U.S. but also in Israel. It is believed that a Kabbalistic prayer known as the Pulsa diNura was used to bring about the 1995 assassination of Yitzhak Rabin.
Bachmann is not the only member of Congress suffering from the delusion that God will curse those who curse Israel and that God favors Israel over all nations and intervenes on Israel's behalf. U.S. Senator Chuck Schumer believes God has appointed him to be Israel's protector in the U.S. Senate. He said, "You know, my name .... comes from the word shomer, guardian, watcher. My ancestors were guardians of the ghetto wall in Chortkov. And I believe Hashem actually gave me that name. One of my roles, very important in the United States senate, is to be a shomer -- to be a or the shomer Yisrael. And I will continue to be that with every bone in my body ... "
It's not only the politicians in the religious right who have such ungodly superstitions. Pat Robertson openly says that Israel is a gift from God to the Jewish people. And that it's not just the Israel with its current borders. Pat's and the Bible's Israel stretches from Egypt to Iraq as Pat made clear in his article The Land of Israel: A Gift From God . To have an Israel of this size is going to require much more war, bloodshed and suffering.
Pat also said in a speech to the Herzliya Conference (this is considered the Woodstock of the warmongering neoconservative movement which is currently conspiring to undermine the democracy movement known as the Arab Spring ) "You must realize that the God who spoke to Moses on Mount Sinai is our God. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are our spiritual Patriarchs . . . The continuation of Jewish sovereignty over the Holy Land is a further bulwark to us that the God of the Bible exists and that His Word is true.
"And we should clearly take note that evangelical Christians serve a Jew that we believe was the divine Messiah of Israel spoken of by the ancient prophets, to whom He entrusted the worldwide dissemination of His message to twelve Jewish apostles." The Christian superstition that God wants Christians to serve the Jew known as Jesus who is their savior can only help to pave the way for more religious violence and bloodshed in the Middle East.
Not only are the superstitions of the religious right causing a very skewed and harmful Middle East foreign policy for the U.S., they are causing the deaths of innocent children right here in America by promoting the Bible as the word of God and, therefore, its teachings that promote physical healing through faith. Currently the bulk of state laws have exemptions for withholding medical care for sick and/or injured children if it is done for a religious "reason." This is causing the deaths of an estimated 1-5 children every month. Thankfully, since there is not a powerful lobby comparable to the Israeli lobby supporting these deadly superstition based exemptions, bills were recently passed in the Oregon legislature which would remove these faith-healing exemptions. The bills had bi-partisan support.
As we get deeper into the 21st century we need to free ourselves and society from the dark fear and superstition based past. One powerful way to do this is to promote the Deistic thinking of Albert Einstein. One quote about miracles attributed to Einstein and which is very Deistic is, "There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle." This, coupled with the Deistic belief of Leonardo da Vinci who made it clear we need to work for a better world and progress when he wrote, "Thou, O God, dost sell unto us all good things at the price of labor." Deism has within it the power and ability to bring about a true revolution in religion which will put the world and billions of individuals on a much better path.
1
1
1
