Sunday, October 18, 2015

Where Religion and Politics Are Interwoven; What's the Difference?

Nadene Goldfoot                                                                                

The goal of this 4,000 year old religion of Judaism has  been used  to control a population's behavior by laying down standards that improve their morality.  Yet we do not use any policing.  It's up to the individual.   We have the story of Abraham's nephew, Lot, who lived in Sodom, inhabited by people who had no morals at all. If they had a religion, it had nothing to do with their morals.   A mob outside his home  wanted to sodomize the strangers in Lot's house.

We also feel that all will be good when we die and trust in what G-d has in store for us if we have tried to follow the Torah and 10 Commandments.  The orthodox believe in the resurrection of the dead at the end of time.  Judaism places its emphasis on practical religion instead of dogma.  The essence of this religion is the Golden Rule, do not do to others what you do not want done to you.  We do not think about being saved by anyone or thing except by our own actions.  NO one can do that for us.  So when people accuse us of some horrid act that we would not want done to us, we cringe at the idea of people thinking we could do such things.  Leftist thinking has been led by Jews committed to saving the world from itself, and in doing good deeds (mitzvot).  This has happened so often that Jews themselves forget that they also have rights, only recently received-mainly since immigrating to the USA and in Israel.

One can say that G-d will protect us, the people who took the responsibility of all 10 Commandments, but G-d also helps those who help themselves, so we must use our brains and work very hard to stay alive in a hostile world; especially in our neighborhood.  We have the whole world judging our every move while they ignore the serious deadly acts of others.

   The morality of the people is part of the service and worship of G-d or the supernatural, a higher power.  It's a commitment or devotion to their religious faith or observance system of religious attitudes, beliefs, and practices.  Religion is a cause, a principle, or system of beliefs held to with ardor and faith.  A religion's morality should be an improvement of behavior designed to bring about peace; something good for the people as well as the planet.  Morality evolves with different groups of people.  Human sacrifice has been part of many religious people over the centuries.  Isaac, Abraham's son, was asked by G-d to sacrifice his son, Jacob, but was stopped and thus brought about human sacrifice to an end.  The Incas sacrificed people at a much later date.  Cannibalism has been found in Africa, less than 100 years ago.
USA 1933-1945 President Franklin Delano Roosevelt , where religion and politics are not to mix being the country is made up of many religions and standards.
                                                                           
King Solomon of Israel (961-920 BCE)  The government
must follow the laws of Judaism.


The goal of politics is the art or science of governing.  It is concerned with guiding or influencing governmental policy.  Those involved are concerned with winning and holding control over a government..  It includes the political actions and policies and business.  There is competition between competing interest groups or individuals for power and leadership in a government.  Political activities  are characterized by artful and often dishonest practices.  It includes the total complex of relations between men in society.  Saddam Hussein ruled with an iron hand.  So did the Romans.  Any infringement whatsoever and the Judeans were crucified, left hanging with rotting bodies as a lesson to the people to be subordinate.  .
                                                                           
Hammurabi, an Amorite, King of Babylon 1725-1686 BCE and the sun god, Shamash-god of justice.  Hammurabi is known for the set of laws called Hammurabi's Code, which constitute one of the earliest surviving codes of law in recorded history
Moses came along later in 1391-1271 BCE from tribe of Levi and received the 10 Commandments
Hammurabi stele
The Law Code of King Hammurabi found on a stele is quite similar to the 10 Commandments of Moses.  This stele was found in Shusan, capital of Persia (Iran).  "Shushan, which lies 200 miles east of Babylon, was the capital of ancient Elam (Susiana), and later the winter palace of the Persian kings. It was the scene of many biblical events in the time of Daniel, Nehemiah, Queen Esther and King Ahasuerus (Xerxes).  It's what the king used to govern.  Judaism made improvements on these laws, found to be somewhat similar. 

 "Both state that stealing would not be tolerated and was looked down upon. Murder was also looked down upon and adultery was a grave offense. These are where the likeness stops."  "Both the Ten Commandments and Hammurabi’s Code served as the bases for criminal justice system in the Hebrew and Babylonian people and set the base line for people to strive to be truthful and do no harm to one another.  "

It looks like many fail to even live up to the Hammurabi Code today let alone the Mosaic Law.  
                                                                             
Abraham of 2nd millennium BCE
As I wrote before, religion created the state of Israel in the beginning.  Judaism was depending on its population to be living in a particular area, which was  Canaan.  The Israelites were a group who had already become monotheistic through their originator and father, Abraham, who is also father of the Arabs through his first son,  Ishmael.  Before his revelations of a oneness of G-d, his people had been idol worshippers and his father, Terah,  was an idol maker.  Moses, a child of Israelites, had been brought up as an Egyptian Prince, but was tapped by G-d at age 80 to lead the Israelite slaves out of Egypt and into Canaan to be the future priests of the concepts he was to receive.
                                                                         
1917 French soldiers in Syria when Ottoman Empire and Germany lost the war against the West 
All throughout history, countries have been coveting others' land and have killed for it, 2 things listed on the 10 Commandments of what not to do.  So they have thought very little of these 10 Commandments brought by Moses for the world.  The list of  10 are even kept out of public places in the USA as something walking over other religion's rights.  They are not evidently seen as something for all.  Think what the world could have been like if everyone was able to follow all 10 laws.  The first 5 are about man's duties to G-d.  The second 5 are about man responsibilities to his fellow-man.
                                                                         
2015 and bloody ISIS slayers acting like Medieval killers cutting off heads The shock and awe of this group is that they actually attract like people and many join up with them from other countries.  Evidently there are a lot of meshugenas in the world who have no moral conduct.  
ISIS is doing it again, coveting Syria and Iraq and the rest of the Middle East.  They want the Levant and then plan on more.  They are acting out their religious beliefs as Salafists are the extreme group of Islamists.

 What is Putin acting out of besides coveting more land of Ukraine and Crimea and taking it?  His religion and politics come from atheism which disavows the existence of any higher power to govern our lives. Atheism is the disbelief in the existence of a deity.  It's ungodliness.  They will not even believe in one unseen G-d as we do.  For them there is no higher power.  Things just happen, evidently. They do not question how the universe got here, or rely strictly on scientific interpretation, which leaves some holes in their theory, like the power behind it all that got it started.  They do not need a code or set of laws to know what is right and what is wrong.  For them they go by their instincts.  We hope most people would know instinctively what is right and what is wrong, but then ask the police why they have so many in jails and prisons?  Evidently there are those who either don't know or don't care. A little guidance helps. Children need to be taught.    
                                                                                   
Iran's President Hassan Rouhani, -head of government- puppet of Ayatollah who rules the realm. 
Neda Agha Soltan, Iranian student killed in Arab Spring Demonstration, a girl just watching.  

Ayatollah Khamenei b: July 16, 1939, Supreme Religious leader of Iran-Head of State
"The 1979 Constitution designated the Supreme Leader of Iran as the head of state and the President and Prime Minister as the heads of government. The post of Prime Minister was abolished in 1989."

The Shi'ite religion of the Ayatollah threatens Israel verbally with extinction.  Now their government has finagled methods of which to get their hands on atomic power and threaten that in a few years, Israel will be no more.  They call themselves a people of religion.  What kind of religion is this whose chief motivation in the world it to destroy Israel?  Coveting, killing are but 2 of the 10 commandments they break in this. 
                                                                           
 In the beginning of the Arab Spring a movement heading towards democratic power, the Iranian government mowed down anyone acting out in the crowd and punished them quickly.  It was like being doused with cold water.  It ended.  They rule with a strong and deadly hand. They do not worry about political correctness in the way Americans do. 
                                                                       
1. Many states are Islamic states.  Pakistan, Iran, Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Somalia-which is threatening Kenya and Mauritania belong to this group. Palestine, if and when created, will be one.  They have stated that no Jews will be able to live in their state.  
2. Islam is the state religion of Bangladesh, Egypt, Algeria, Morocco, Malaysia, Tunisia, Tajikistan, Libya, Jordan, United Arab Emirates, Oman, Bahrain, Comoros, Qatar, Brunei and Maldives. 

3. Announcing NO religion is Indonesia, Sudan, Syria, Sierra Leone, Lebanon and  Albania.  These are states who are Muslim majority in population. This means the government does not get involved in the religion of the people.
4. Some states are secular such as:  Nigeria, Turkey, Iraq, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Niger, Burkina, Mali,  Senegal, Guinea, Azerbaijan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, Chad, Kosovo, The Gambia, Djibouti, and the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus.  All these are of Muslim majority states as well.  Secular means: indifference, or rejection or exclusion of religion and religious consideration.  These governments are saying they do not mix in with religion or use religion in their governmental decisions. Turkey has become more religious with their present president.  A lot depends on what beliefs the leaders have as to how much seeps into the governmental decisions.  
The USA is a secular state.  There  is Separation of church and state.  

The state religion of Israel is Judaism. It is the ONLY Jewish state in the world.   When Israel was more secular under the last king, King Solomon, and was more involved with other states and such, it divided when Solomon died so that they could follow their own way of governing and the southern part became Judah.  Being a small state to begin with compared to empires, they became vulnerable to the attacking Assyrians and then later the Babylonians.  Today, Jews have become  almost extinct through the Holocaust, down to only 14 million people worldwide-6 million only in Israel, a very tiny country.  The religion, in order to survive, is again thriving in their  Jewish state run with Jewish values and must remain this way.  Don't worry.  Judaism may be 4,000 years old, but it updates constantly and keeps up with the times.  It is not a medieval religion.  
                                                                      
 It cannot become  another Lebanon where Christians who were the government were overpowered by their Muslim majority population. Today, Israel is 75-80% Jewish and 20-25 % Muslim.  


Resource:  Webster's 7th New Collegiate Dictionary.
The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia
http://jewishbubba.blogspot.com/2015/10/khazarians-karaites-tatars-and-jews-of.html
https://www.gci.org/bible/torah/steal10
https://www.google.com/?gws_rd=ssl#q=Hammurabi
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/President_of_Iran
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secular_state
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Muslim-majority_countries
http://notsoscholarly.notsogeeky.info/compare-and-contrasting-hammurabis-code-and-ten-commandments/

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