Irwin Kula

Irwin Kula

Rabbi, author, commentator

Rabbi Irwin Kula is the President of CLAL-The National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership, a leadership training institute, think tank and resource center in New York. The “On Faith” panelist has served as rabbi of congregations in St. Louis, New York City and Jerusalem. He is author of “Yearnings: Embracing the Sacred Messiness of Life” (Hyperion, Sept. 2006)  winner of a “Books for a Better Life Award,” and selected by Spirituality & Health magazine as one the “10 Best Spiritual Book of 2006.” He is a regular guest on NBC-TV’s “The Today Show,” and co-host of the popular weekly radio show, Hirschfield and Kula, airing on KXL in Portland, Ore. In 2007 he was identified as one of the “Top 50 Rabbis in America,” by Newsweek. He is co-founder of the Aitz Hayim Center for Jewish Living in Chicago. He received his B.A. in Philosophy from Columbia Univ., his B.H.L. from the Jewish Theological Seminary of America (JTSA) in NY, and his M.A. in Rabbinics and Rabbinic Ordination from JTSA. He has served as rabbi of congregations in St. Louis, MO; Queens, NY; and Jerusalem, Israel. Close.

Irwin Kula

Rabbi, author, commentator

Rabbi Irwin Kula is the President of CLAL-The National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership in New York. He has served congregations in St. Louis, New York and Jerusalem. more »

Main Page | Irwin Kula Archives | On Faith Archives


Just Another Deflection

The real question is to us regular Americans. What do we do when our religious leaders preach hate and divisiveness?

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All Comments (25)

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Anonymous:


YOU are Under Planet Arrest!

Ye are O.U.R. PRiSONER(s) on SPACE-SHiP Earth! Until

Ye reach “i.Q. Maximum,” thence ye will Truly be Freed by Us! IT is the Promise!
.
Good Riddence To ALL "iMPORTED" & Competing 'Old Time religion(s) in Sweet AMERiCA, that tends to Sour Us!!
Good Bye MECCA!
Good Bye JERUSALEM!
Good Bye VATICAN/CANTURBERY!
Good Bye NEPAL/TIBET!
Good Bye ARMISTAR/DELi!
Good Bye HELLENICS!
Good Bye CAVE/DESERT//JUNGLE/ISLAND “BiO-MENTALiTY!” AND say instead,

Gideon:

Silence can be just as damning as reckless rhetoric.

George W. attends church services regularly. These services are ostensibly Christian, but has that pastor ever preached the truth about Jesus Christ? Jesus never killed anyone, neither did he advocate killing anyone, nor did he sanction killing anyone. He laid down his life rather than kill and commanded his disciples to follow his example, which Christians, by definition, do.

Evidently nothing George W. heard in his pastor's sermons dissuaded him from lying to the American public to justify an illegal, unnecessary war, and committing horrific war crimes.

Either we ignore all ignorant clergy, or condemn them all. Question is, by whose standard shall we hold them accountable for the sins of omission or commission?

Garyd:

McCain Did not flop on Capital punishment. He has as far as I know always been pro capital punishment.

Prove separation of Church and state? Being on the same dais with the misquoted Parsley scarcely implies that he has changed his opinion regarding Church and state. What ever it was. What treatment of veterans sorry but whenever it's come up he and Bush have acted to redress the problem as expeditiously as possible given a Democratic congress that thinks most of them are little more than baby killers.

Did he actively seek that endorsement? I don't know.
All I can find is that he was at the same campaign stop as parsley.

Paganplace:

And I will tell you this, Gary.


I considered McCain a respectable candidate, when, as a man who'd *been* tortured, stood up against it, among all Rebublican candidates.

Till he flopped on it.

Wasn't even a flip-flop.

Just a flop.

Forget about it.

Paganplace:

Just for some perspective, GaryD.... people say that cause I'm with another woman, now, that I'm having elective abortions right and left, and that our government should apply the Bible literally, while it it happens to say (according to some who would like to take a Bible verse as relating to *me*) ....that I shall not be suffered to *live,* while of course claiming oppression if it takes some *paperwork* to get hold of *automatic weapons.*

Few weeks ago, everyone was claiming Obama wasn't Christian *enough,* now he was apparently 'programmed' by one Youtube video.... While, of course, McCain publicly shifting his positions to appeal to a radial Christian base as is a matter of public record, ...well, that's just the 'liberal media,' right?

Paganplace:

You know, ...little things, like our Fundie-oriented Presidenbeing asked, 'Do you believe our assault on Iraq, a la Babylon, is a sign of the 'End Times?'


Bush said, 'No comment.'


Gah! I don't wanna hear 'No comment!' I wanna hear *'No!.'*


I do have this pet peeve about Fundamentalist Christians who'll put a bumpersticker on their three ton truck, 'Warning, when I get raptured, this might plow into your house and kill your children, haha.'


I'm like, 'Stop freaking out about your notion substandard health care will rearrange my hypothalamus and take the *bus,* true-believer!'

But hey. I'm a liberal. We freak out about the darndest things, don't we?

Paganplace:

" garyd:

What Positions would that be?"

Oh, ...torture, capital punishment, separation of church and state... treatment of veterans... Nothing big, you understand.

Election and campaign finance reform. Right.

Unlike, of course, Obama actually giving an hour long oration about *his* pastor saying, 'Ok, I don't agree with that youtube clip, and here's *why.*

Picky, picky, picky, we Americans.

andrew:

From an Emo Phillips routine...


Two men meet.

"Christian or Jew?" asks the first man.

"Christian" says the second.

"Me too ! Protestant or Catholic?"

"Protestant."

"Me too," crows the first man.

And so the questioning continues, until the two men discover
they are both not only Baptists, but Northern, Conservative,
Fundamentalist Baptists of the the Great Lakes Region.

When the first man finally inquires, "Council of 1879 or Council of 1912?

the reply is "1912."

So he cries "Die Heretic!"


That's religion!

garyd:

What Positions would that be?

Serena:

Rabbi:

I'm having a hard time with this Parsley as spiritual guide smear, which I hope McCain's staff gets wind of althugh he is not my candidate. Obama claimed that Wright was his "spiritual mentor." Search NY Times. And he said this more than once.

McCain needed and got the support of right-wing loon clerics to get right-wing loon votes.

Rabbi, your answer to the question is commendable except for that part which treats slander as if it were fact. We simply are losing any and all interest in facts, substance, reason. Quite frankly, as a black Jewish woman that scares me.

Paganplace:

McCain. Shifted his positions. To appeal. To the Religious Right. This was well-observed.

garyd :

And your proof for that statement is precisely what?
That McCain was campaigning in Ohio and Parsley was on the stage with him? Half the time the Candidate doesn't get much say so in whose on the stage with him as that is taken care of by the State Republican Party apparatus whose chief goal is to not offend the base of which Parley's flock is a part whether anyone likes it or not.

Paganplace:

"Why should McCain repudiate some one he barely even knows?"

Cause he actively sought that pastor's support and has in fact shifted his policy positions in order to appeal to that radical 'base,' ...who will of course be expecting to get their way in return, if he were elected?

There's a difference between being *subjected* to these smears and paranoias, and actually going to seek out a supporter of it.

But the rabbi is right. There are much more important things to addess, and we should demand better of the media.

garyd:

Sorry Parsley isn't McCain's pastor. They don't even live in the same freaking state. Why should McCain repudiate some one he barely even knows?

I've got plenty of problems with McCain starting with McCain-Feingold but this out and out lie needs to die now.

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