October 19, 2004

The Sanhedrin

Religiously and historically this is very interesting:

A unique ceremony - probably only the second of its kind in the past 1,600 years - is taking place in Tiberias today: The launching of a Sanhedrin, the highest Jewish-legal tribunal in the Land of Israel.

The Sanhedrin, a religious assembly that convened in one of the Holy Temple chambers in Jerusalem, comprised 71 sages and existed during the Tannaitic period, from several decades before the Common Era until roughly 425 C.E. Details of today's ceremony are still sketchy, but the organizers' announced their intention to convene 71 rabbis who have received special rabbinic ordination as specified by Maimonides.

Very interesting indeed.

(ht: La Shawn Barber)

Comments:

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this isn't entirely related (although i'm certain the creation of an "islamic democracy" in Iraq would create yet another state bent on killing Jews), but it is a good illustration of the President's flip-flopping:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/3755850.stm

has he ever heard of Iran? this settles it for me - the Bush administration does not believe in Women's Rights ...

Posted by: jakec at October 20, 2004 11:04 AM

and before I have to listen to anyone else bemoan france, germany, russia, the UN, etc. for doing business with Iraq (and skirting sanctions), read this:

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=694&e=6&u=/ap/20041019/ap_on_el_pr/axis_of_evil_campaign_2

i'm glad both parties are supported by groups supporting terrorism ...

Posted by: jakec at October 20, 2004 11:06 AM

IRAN ENDORSES THE CHIMP!

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=694&ncid=696&e=2&u=/ap/20041019/ap_on_el_pr/iran_us_elections

TEHRAN, Iran - The head of Iran's security council said Tuesday that the re-election of President Bush (news - web sites) was in Tehran's best interests, despite the administration's axis of evil label, accusations that Iran harbors al-Qaida terrorists and threats of sanctions over the country's nuclear ambitions.

Historically, Democrats have harmed Iran more than Republicans, said Hasan Rowhani, head of the Supreme National Security Council, Iran's top security decision-making body.

"We haven't seen anything good from Democrats," Rowhani told state-run television in remarks that, for the first time in recent decades, saw Iran openly supporting one U.S. presidential candidate over another.

Though Iran generally does not publicly wade into U.S. presidential politics, it has a history of preferring Republicans over Democrats, who tend to press human rights issues.

"We do not desire to see Democrats take over," Rowhani said when asked if Iran was supporting Democratic Sen. John Kerry (news - web sites) against Bush.

Posted by: The Token Librul at October 20, 2004 11:45 AM

Wacko Moonies love the chimp, too

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2004/10/03/MNG4M936HP1.DTL

President Bush has some new troops in his crusade to promote "healthy marriage" and teen celibacy with federal funds -- followers of the Rev. Sun Myung Moon, the controversial Korean evangelist and self-proclaimed new world messiah.

At least four longtime operatives of Moon's Unification Church are on the federal payroll or getting government grants in the administration's Healthy Marriage Initiative and other "faith-based" programs.

Two of those Moon associates were in Oakland last week leading dozens of local pastors and social workers enrolled in a "Certified Marriage Education Training Seminar" at the Holiday Inn next to the Coliseum.

In some ways, Moon is an unlikely ally for President Bush's crusade to promote traditional family values.

The 85-year-old Korean is perhaps best known for purchasing a dozen Russian nuclear submarines and giving them to North Korea.

Posted by: The Token Librul at October 20, 2004 11:47 AM

A NEW LOW, EVEN FOR THE FASCIST CHIMPANISTAS

Vatican Says Anti-Kerry Lawyer Hoodwinked Them

http://reuters.myway.com/article/20041020/2004-10-20T151709Z_01_L20123025_RTRIDST_0_NEWS-CAMPAIGN-KERRY-VATICAN-DC.html

(Why don't they care about corporate pirates and warmongers?)

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - A conservative U.S. lawyer's attempt to enlist the Vatican in his drive to declare Senator John Kerry a heretic over his abortion views backfired Wednesday when the Holy See said it had been hoodwinked.

Marc Balestrieri, head of a conservative Catholic group called De Fide, has been pushing for the Church to rule that the Democratic presidential candidate has inflicted excommunication on himself because he supports a woman's right to an abortion.

Balestrieri caused a stir in the United States this week when he asserted in interviews and on his Web site that he had won an unofficial and indirect green light from the Vatican.

But Wednesday, the Vatican denied his assertions, which received widespread coverage in major U.S. media.

The controversy emerges less than two weeks before an election in which abortion has become a hot-button issue.

Kerry, a Roman Catholic, says he is "pro-choice but not pro-abortion" and that he cannot impose his views on those who do not share his faith. Bush, a Methodist, is against abortion except in certain circumstances.

Balestrieri told Reuters he wanted to point out "the growing misunderstanding by Catholics that they can publicly call themselves Catholics and support the right to choose abortion."

He said U.S. Catholic leaders were afraid of strictly applying doctrine for "fear of reprisals from politicians, loss of donations from pro-choice Catholics and lack of backbone."

Father Augustine Di Noia, third-ranking official in the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the Vatican's doctrinal office, told Reuters that Balestrieri had hoodwinked the Church by misrepresenting himself.

AUTOMATIC EXCOMMUNICATION?

Balestrieri submitted a query to the Congregation several months ago, asking if someone who publicly supported abortion rights would be guilty of heresy and incur what the Church calls "automatic excommunication."

Di Noia, the Congregation's undersecretary, referred the request to Father Basil Cole, a canon lawyer in Washington.

Cole provided a response which said that if a Catholic "publicly and obstinately" supports the civil right to abortion despite knowledge of the Church's teaching, that person commits heresy and "is automatically excommunicated."

Balestrieri asserted that Cole's letter was proof that the Vatican was on his side. But Di Noia said: "His claim that the private letter he received from Father Basil Cole is a Vatican response has no merit whatsoever."

"I thought I was advising a student who was working on a project. I referred him to a reliable theologian on the matter. I was acting in my capacity as a theologian trying to be helpful to a young person," he told Reuters.

"I had no idea his aim was actually to build a heresy case against John Kerry or against anyone else. I feel that we have been instrumentalized," Di Noia told Reuters.

Di Noia told Reuters that Balestrieri did not identify himself as head of De Fide and did not disclose that he had already filed a heresy suit against the Massachusetts senator with the Archdiocese of Boston.

Balestrieri called on U.S. Catholic bishops to petition the Vatican for an official clarification of the abortion-heresy issue as specifically applied to Kerry.

Posted by: The Token Librul at October 20, 2004 11:51 AM