tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18968172.post8708129446193630583..comments2023-11-03T01:13:22.719-07:00Comments on The Rabbi Is IN with Rabbi Rami: Demonization in AmericaUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18968172.post-90376547426092716142008-08-07T10:23:00.000-07:002008-08-07T10:23:00.000-07:00Phew...good thing you are just busy working. I can...Phew...good thing you are just busy working. I can now call off the National Guard and Cleetus with his smell hounds. ;0)Pattihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06099273924537238106noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18968172.post-86840243777015849792008-08-07T04:58:00.000-07:002008-08-07T04:58:00.000-07:00I just want to thank you all for these incredibly ...I just want to thank you all for these incredibly thoughtful comments. I have been so busy with book deadlines and the start of the fall semester at MTSU that I haven't had the time to add to the discussion myself. And, quite honestly, you are all saying it so well, I don't know what I could add anyway. It is just comforting to know I am not alone.Mike Smith and Rami Shapirohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12797108504119005047noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18968172.post-35625418691417196252008-08-05T12:44:00.000-07:002008-08-05T12:44:00.000-07:00Rabbi, "demonizing" can also be a symptom of menta...Rabbi, "demonizing" can also be a symptom of mental illness. It seems to me that those who knew this man personally had to have recognized that he was spiraling. A better explanation for this man's actions may be paranoid Schizophrenia. I do not say this to excuse his actions but clearly in this country we are swift to recognize physical illness and slow to admit that our loved ones may not have a broken body but a broken brain.Vaniahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03088501057477798952noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18968172.post-22799573130040759112008-08-04T13:52:00.000-07:002008-08-04T13:52:00.000-07:00Karen,Your post is strong and well worded. I am so...Karen,<BR/>Your post is strong and well worded. I am so with ya on the difficulty of having these kind of conversations with people! <BR/><BR/>I found that if I just listened and stopped trying to get my point across, eventually, one by one they started listening to me. It is an itty bitty miracle for damn sure. It has to start somewhere...so let it be with us.Pattihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06099273924537238106noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18968172.post-13115825348888052402008-08-04T13:25:00.000-07:002008-08-04T13:25:00.000-07:00Beautiful, Rabbi Rami. Thank you for sharing this....Beautiful, Rabbi Rami. Thank you for sharing this. And Judy's frustration echoes in the corridors of my mind as well.<BR/><BR/>Before reading this posting, I was (and still am) thinking about your post last week about interfaith gatherings and my response to it. "Demonization in America" feeds right into this. <BR/><BR/>I'm not sure it's possible to have productive conversation with those sitting across the aisle, so to speak. We all might hope for this, but in actuality -- because of fear -- because of the need to be right -- it's near impossible to achieve. <BR/><BR/>Just in my own realm of existence, I have a difficult time conversing with those to whom I'm close. I love talking about God, religion, spirituality, and all ideas stemming for these, but I'm quickly stonewalled. By the mother-in-law who believes that ANY church outside of her own is "dead of faith." By the born-again friend who has no desire to talk about or be questioned about anything outside of her box of "being saved through Jesus." By nonreligious family members who don't want to talk about anything except everyday occurrences for fear of causing some sort of rift in the family, being considered an outcast, who knows?<BR/><BR/>To break down demonization, we must start at the beginning and break down depluralization. Which means we would need to break free from our fears of exploring something new, from our need to be right. It means we have to be able to reach out to other groups and find the common ground and embrace it and focus on it and nurture it. And be willing to accept that our hearts will break a little because we are right and we can't get them to come completely across the aisle. But we can still hold hands across that aisle through our common ground link.<BR/><BR/>We don't need new ideas and new conflicts to fuel our fledgling conversations. We are still dealing with all the freakin' baggage from old ideas and old conflicts. But if we can quit focusing on the fears, the negatives, the opposites, and just keep our focus on the common ground, the love, the positives -- and not get distracted so easily -- we have a chance.<BR/><BR/>I know I ended this weakly, but my mind is scattered in a million different directions, as often happens when I start thinking about this stuff!<BR/><BR/>P.S. - just quickly read Soldiermom's take, and I agree with you about recognizing the divine in all!Karenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16585472329507632766noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18968172.post-60407097144747437272008-08-04T13:13:00.000-07:002008-08-04T13:13:00.000-07:00I too applaud and believe that this talk must have...I too applaud and believe that this talk must have come at just the right time for the folks in Murfreesboro. They were fortunate to hear it and experience a bit of healing amongst them. <BR/><BR/>Rami, I go back to your teaching about the divine in all of us. It is so easy to demonize what hurts or scares us. You, however, have called us to better options...for which there are no words. It is interesting we can "demonize", but how about "godize" or "divinize"? If there is a similar word, meaning to see the divine in all people, I don't know what it is. But we somehow need to do that with the Jim Askissons of the world. Don't we?<BR/><BR/>If I am off base here, let me have it!! Part of me thinks it fair that he be the head that continually gets his scalp devoured by the Jeffrey Dahmer look alike in our Hieronymus Bosch hell-scape. But there is a greater part of me that wants to see God in all of us, even the ones who don't seem to deserve it. For deep inside, I know I don’t deserve mercy or grace much either. <BR/><BR/>It pleases me to look for the divine, to trust that it is there in all of us, even if I don’t see it and even when our experience seems to tell us differently. Maybe I am just fought out. It is so much wiser to open are doors than to keep up the fight that only exacerbates the hate.Pattihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06099273924537238106noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18968172.post-962557418015467522008-08-04T11:33:00.000-07:002008-08-04T11:33:00.000-07:00I jumped up, applauded, said "right on brother Ram...I jumped up, applauded, said "right on brother Rami," and sent this posting to friends. When I sat down and checked my email there was one from a long-standing acquaintance warning me of the dangers of Muslims, immigrants, gays, and baby killers - telling me how "they" are the new generation of terrorists - and lamenting the fact that I just didn't understand the danger they each and collectively posed. <BR/>I am so tired of hearing this. I don't think I have the energy to invite folks like that in for dialogue because there is never dialogue - only diatribe. <BR/>I am losing faith in this country and in this world. The Yetzer HaRah has assumed the forms of Venus and Adonis and the world is flocking to embrace it unquestioningly. <BR/>Where is the blessing in this?Judyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00077690417475724041noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18968172.post-46756002585252854612008-08-03T09:55:00.000-07:002008-08-03T09:55:00.000-07:00Insofar as we can imagine the victims as heterosex...Insofar as we can imagine the victims as heterosexuals, it might be the first documented moment of straights dying as martyrs for gays.<BR/><BR/>I am deeply humbled by their faith.Peter Schogolhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17881506847856345905noreply@blogger.com