K
KyivAndrew
Guest
While I might not agree with everything the good Rabbi writes (i.e. hinting that the Cambridge 5 Communist spy-ring evinced some idealism), I believe the Rabbi is on the mark on as to what he believes ails Europe - similar to our Pope’s concerns on the DeChristianization of Europe. Here I quote from him at some length so one gets the gist:
But most importantly, the influence and power of Christianity — which had been extremely strong in Europe and the regions connected with it — are disappearing. To be more precise, they have already disappeared. Indeed, it has been noted that the Western world is now living in the void that Christianity has left behind. I think this is a very good definition of contemporary Western culture. Does this mean that there are no Christians any more or that there is no Pope in Rome? No. There is also an Archbishop in Canterbury, but what power or influence does he have over England? Christianity as an essence — as a power, as a meaningful factor — is disappearing. The number of churchgoers is dwindling, and the Church is selling property in order to survive.
Good or bad, this is a fact, a part of contemporary life. Christianity has left behind lots of memories, ways of expression and numerous superstitions, which tend to remain long after faith has disappeared. Someone once said that people still hate the Jews for having killed a God they do not believe in. We are now living in a world that is empty of Christianity or Judeo-Christianity. And this void is now being filled with something else and that something else is paganism.
Yes, contemporary Western culture is a pagan culture. It is ruled by the gods of olden time, only with new names and different images. The first is the god of power — formerly known as Baal (literally, “owner”) — who sometimes appears in a slightly different form as Mammon, the god of money. Another such god is Ashtoreth (Astarte or Ishtar), the goddess of sex and fertility. In our time, though, it is no longer the goddess of fertility but only of pure sex.
Yet another god, perhaps promoted from a mere muse to a full-fledged deity, is Calliope, who is now the ruler of the craving for fame. People may want money in order to obtain material goods. They may want sex for amusement, sometimes even for procreation. But Fame is now a thing in itself — it is an addiction. What does the relatively new term “celebrity” mean? It means that one is a well-known nobody. And the better one is well known, the less people care who and what one is. Indeed, many young girls and boys want to be film stars — not because they wish to be beautiful or powerful, but because they want to be known all over the world.
One may ask: where are all the temples of these gods? Well, the temples of Jupiter-Mammon are in almost every other building in the City of London and in Geneva — only they are called banks and their priests and high priests are called managers and executives. The temples (as well as the images) of Astarte are everywhere. And Calliope has little shrines in almost every household, in the form of television sets.
What does Jewish culture have to say about all this? In regard to the pagan gods, however, Judaism is very clear: we are totally against them. In that sense, we are standing in the very same place as our father Abraham stood. In Abraham’s time, the pagan world had a very high culture. Not only did it have its own poets and philosophers — some of them very great — it even had international banking, enabling the transfer of funds in clay envelopes containing clay letters for distances of 2,000 kilometres and more. Abraham was considered — rightly or wrongly — as the lonely madman of Ur (then, the lonely madman of Haran, and finally, the lonely madman of Canaan) because he was against the prevailing religious culture. Judaism has a clear stand on this issue, even if it is not so very popular.
Judaism had many disagreements with the former Christian culture of Europe, but we agreed with some of its basic notions: faith in God; the belief that our human needs are not supreme; and the understanding that man is not only a master, he is also a servant.
standpointmag.co.uk/node/2196/full
Thoughts?
But most importantly, the influence and power of Christianity — which had been extremely strong in Europe and the regions connected with it — are disappearing. To be more precise, they have already disappeared. Indeed, it has been noted that the Western world is now living in the void that Christianity has left behind. I think this is a very good definition of contemporary Western culture. Does this mean that there are no Christians any more or that there is no Pope in Rome? No. There is also an Archbishop in Canterbury, but what power or influence does he have over England? Christianity as an essence — as a power, as a meaningful factor — is disappearing. The number of churchgoers is dwindling, and the Church is selling property in order to survive.
Good or bad, this is a fact, a part of contemporary life. Christianity has left behind lots of memories, ways of expression and numerous superstitions, which tend to remain long after faith has disappeared. Someone once said that people still hate the Jews for having killed a God they do not believe in. We are now living in a world that is empty of Christianity or Judeo-Christianity. And this void is now being filled with something else and that something else is paganism.
Yes, contemporary Western culture is a pagan culture. It is ruled by the gods of olden time, only with new names and different images. The first is the god of power — formerly known as Baal (literally, “owner”) — who sometimes appears in a slightly different form as Mammon, the god of money. Another such god is Ashtoreth (Astarte or Ishtar), the goddess of sex and fertility. In our time, though, it is no longer the goddess of fertility but only of pure sex.
Yet another god, perhaps promoted from a mere muse to a full-fledged deity, is Calliope, who is now the ruler of the craving for fame. People may want money in order to obtain material goods. They may want sex for amusement, sometimes even for procreation. But Fame is now a thing in itself — it is an addiction. What does the relatively new term “celebrity” mean? It means that one is a well-known nobody. And the better one is well known, the less people care who and what one is. Indeed, many young girls and boys want to be film stars — not because they wish to be beautiful or powerful, but because they want to be known all over the world.
One may ask: where are all the temples of these gods? Well, the temples of Jupiter-Mammon are in almost every other building in the City of London and in Geneva — only they are called banks and their priests and high priests are called managers and executives. The temples (as well as the images) of Astarte are everywhere. And Calliope has little shrines in almost every household, in the form of television sets.
What does Jewish culture have to say about all this? In regard to the pagan gods, however, Judaism is very clear: we are totally against them. In that sense, we are standing in the very same place as our father Abraham stood. In Abraham’s time, the pagan world had a very high culture. Not only did it have its own poets and philosophers — some of them very great — it even had international banking, enabling the transfer of funds in clay envelopes containing clay letters for distances of 2,000 kilometres and more. Abraham was considered — rightly or wrongly — as the lonely madman of Ur (then, the lonely madman of Haran, and finally, the lonely madman of Canaan) because he was against the prevailing religious culture. Judaism has a clear stand on this issue, even if it is not so very popular.
Judaism had many disagreements with the former Christian culture of Europe, but we agreed with some of its basic notions: faith in God; the belief that our human needs are not supreme; and the understanding that man is not only a master, he is also a servant.
standpointmag.co.uk/node/2196/full
Thoughts?
so we need to inform him that the Catholic Church will always exist, until the end of the world. So please, don’t bury us yet Mr Rabbi. We have the Holy Spirit - the giver of life, you don’t.