- Super Mario Galaxy is different from any other game I've ever played. It's to other games what the Wii is to other systems.
- On a related note, I learned tonight that Wii Sports bowling does not, in fact, prepare you better for real bowling.
- Even MSNBC has begun hyping episodes of "To Catch A Predator" with comedy. You have to laugh because to take it completely seriously would be to doom any future children to live locked in a room in the basement like they were Sloth in The Goonies.
- My friend wrote on her Shtetl Fabulous blog on Tuesday that Hollywood is putting out progressively more pro-life messages in its movies. It may be true, but it's certainly tied hand-in-hand with the fact that Hollywood is also showing (promoting? celebrating?) promiscuity more and more.
- Bailey is like the Post Office -- neither rain nor snow nor thirty-freaking-five-degree weather will stop him from making his "deliveries."
- Lewis Black touched on this briefly in his brilliant "Red, White, and Screwed", but I don't think most people realize how inherently insulting it is to refer to the main text of Judaism as the "Old Testament." It a) assumes that everyone believes that the New Testament is sacred and b) dismisses the original as outdated.
- You're a lousy f***ing softball player Jack. (Sorry, can't think of the title of this entry without thinking of this quote.)
Friday, November 23, 2007
...And They Are Indisputable
These are the facts:
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6 comments:
Not understanding your references to Lewis Black or his "Red, White and Screwed"...are you saying it's offensive to call the Jewish Bible the Old Testament or to call the first half of the Christian Bible the Old Testament (or both)?
angie
Calling the Jewish Bible the Old Testament... Christians can call their Bible whatever they want, it's when they discuss the "Old Testament" with Jews that it bugs me.
Your answer seems to actually be saying "both". As I understand it, the Jewish Bible and the Christian Old Testament are composed of the same books/words. So, I would understand the insensitivity/offense of saying something like "the Jewish religion uses the Old Testament as its text" (although I certainly don't think it's generally intended that way; it's just the easiest reference for people/Christians who aren't particularly knowledgeable about Judaism). But as for Christians discussing the Old Testament "WITH" Jews...if you and I were discussing it, what is it you'd want me to call it? I'm not going to call it simply "the Bible", because it's not the entirety of the Bible of my faith. Would you expect me to refer to it as the Jewish Bible? even though I know it as the Old Testament? Why would your belief take precedence over mine? I wouldn't be offended by you calling it the Bible or the Jewish Bible, because I know that that's what it is to you. So where's the offense in me referring to it as the Old Testament?
ang
That's true, I see your point... I didn't think that all the way through. It is the general frame of reference, so it makes sense to call it that if Christians and Jews are discussing it.
However, I will say (and this was actually the basis of the joke that Lewis Black used in his special) that it easily can lead to difficulties or confusion because of the Christian frame of reference seeing the Old Testament through the "eyes" of the New Testament. It inherently means that we'll read some passages differently. But that's the fun of it, I guess.
The Lewis Black joke:
I heard [Bush] say ‘When it comes to evolution, the jury’s still out.’
What jury, where? The Scopes trial is over. I never thought, during the course of my life, that a president who didn’t believe in evolution would be elected, or at least in the ball park, thought, ummmmm, MAYBE IT’S GOT SOME MERIT. But NO! He believes the earth was created, in seven days. Hoo! Takes my breath away.
And why does he believe that? Because he read it in the Old Testament, which is the book, of my people. The Jewish people. And that book…wasn’t good enough…for you Christians. Was it? No, we’ve got a BETTER book, with ANOTHER character, you’re gonna LOVE HIM! And you called your book NEW, and said OUR book was OLD!
And yet, every Sunday, I turn on the television set. And there’s a priest, or a pastor, reading from MY book. And interpreting it. And, their interpretations, I have to tell you, are usually wrong. It’s not their fault, because it’s not their book.
You never see a rabbi on TV interpreting the New Testament, do you?
If you want, to truly understand, the Old Testament, if there is something you don’t quite get, there are Jews who walk among you. And THEY, I promise you this, will take time out their VERY jewy, JEWY day, and interpret for you anything you have trouble understanding, and we will do that, of course, if the price is right.
Wait a minute, you reference a joke that tries to say I'm not allowed to interpret half of my religious text because it was yours first in order to try to argue that it's insulting to refer to your religious text as the Old Testament? I'll admit I get the humor of the joke if you admit the irony of your reference.
ang
:) That's the best part of having a blog -- being as ironic as you want.
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