What do you think of when I say BM? No, I’m not talking about what a baby does in a diaper… I’m talking about the OTHER BM, that every kid born of Jewish parents seems to suffer through — Bar Mitzvahs. Today, is the anniversary of mine, so I thought I’d share a few thoughts on the subject.I was born into a Reform Jewish household, the only boy, and I was an Atheist at age six (as much as one can be an ANYTHING at that age). Suffice it to say that I knew how much of my BM was BS. Yes, I told my parents, but they would have no part in their only boy not getting the whole Jew-treatment, so I went through all the lessons, did what my parents told me to do, and said what they told me to say. Let’s see if I can remember…
“Let us declare the greatness of our god and render honor onto the Torah which god gave through Moses and a heritage to the congregation of Israel. A study of its precepts imparts hope and joy to life, The observance of its commandments insures peace and security.”
Yes, I remember the rest — I won’t bore you with it.We had a bigger-than-the-Jones’ party, I got lots of gifts, and it was over. And it was all a farce. I didn’t believe a word I’d said, and I felt guilty for having lied to my friends and family, and even the Rabbi, about my “faith in God”.So today I remember when my parents basically forced me to lie to everyone I knew, ignoring several of the blessed Commandments in the process. My daughter doesn’t want a Bat Mitzvah, so she’s done with Hebrew School (remember I am in a mixed marriage). I have decided not to teach my kid to lie in order to make me look Jewy to the Jonses.
A wise choice leaving that up to her for good of ill. I’m not even remotely Jewish, but I see parallels in the BSA (funny how the BS creeps in there, too). One of the biggest tenets of the Boy Scouts is honesty and integrity, but at the same time they expect you to recite all sorts of crap about god — and you just know the BSA has just as many atheists in its ranks as the general population by percentage. I was a boy scout and I felt dirty after all that crap too. If I thought then what I think now, I would have quit. And that is, ultimately, the real shame in all this.
I was also BM’ed though an atheist since able to understand what that meant.
I think Bar-Mitzvahs are similar to funerals in that they are really for everyone OTHER THAN the person its about. Funerals are to comfort those left behind and Bar-Mitzvahs are for the benefit of the family elders who everyone is afraid to disappoint.
Actually I thought of Bill Maher as I was telling someone about Religilous and abbreviated his name.
If I had jewish parents I would be a lot more pissed at having my genitals mutilated without my consent in the name of god over having to lie in front of my family and a rabbi.
Since we only see criticism of xianity and islam on this blog here are a few examples from recent news about those poor powerless perpetual victims, the jews:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/oct/10/israelandthepalestinians-judaism
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/sep/21/israelandthepalestinians.middleeast1
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6584661.stm
Oh believe me Godless, I am. I want those 40K nerve endings back! No, I don’t remember it, but I’m sure it hurt and left lasting psychological damage.
heh heh heh. pissed.
Dave:
I grew up FLDS. So consider yourself lucky to be Jewish…
Happy Anniversary David!
Here’s my gift to you, a video of Frasier, blessing his son at his Bar Mitzvah…in Klingon!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SGZV6fsotYo
Muzzleoff!
Happy Anniversary David! I’ve never been a Jewish Atheist but I was a homosexual Boy Scout and at the same time a non-fundamentalist Christian. (I didn’t become a confirmed Atheist until 7 years after college) Being a homosexual agnostic Boy Scout is also lying to family and elders.
I went through Confirmation even though I told my mother that I didn’t believe any of the fantasy.
Godless
Israeli Jews stoning an Israeli Arab because he was driving his car on theer holy day.
http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSTRE49A47U20081011
Why isn’t Dave making such posts?
Paul Krugman won the Economics Nobel Prize! It could happen to a nicer and smarter guy.
I’ve been reading Krugman’s NYTimes Op-Eds for years. If the world had listened to Paul and his disciples (I like to count myself as one) then we would not be in this housing-ponzi-scheme-fueled recession.
Bristol Palin’s baby daddy is dropping out of school. A first family of this caliber could only happen in da movies.
What,
Well of course he is dropping out of school. He has to get a job so he can support the new family he doesn’t want.
Dropping out of school… I see he’s still traveling the road of brilliant choices.
What a F$#*ing embarrassment that Sarah Palin and her “kin” are so close to the White House.
Statistics are not on Bristol Palins side. She will most certainly be a divorced mom without an education within a few years. But its what gawd wants!
Let’s see…Levi Johnston got his girlfriend pregnant, and instead of planning on living off of welfare or mom a dad, he dropped out of high school to get a job as an electrical apprentice on the North Slope of Alaska…
Hmmm…taking responsibility for his actions…no wonder “What do I know” doesn’t understand this type of behavior…
The CBS/TIMES poll was released today stating that NObama is leading by 14 points…
How can such “respected” news organizations present such statistics as fact, knowing that they skewed the results?
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/10/14/opinion/polls/main4522273.shtml
phreedm,
Skewed the results? LMFAO!! Can you show me a single national poll that shows your guy in the lead?
One would have to be a complete idiot to think that quitting high school, let alone forgoing a college education, is a good idea for an expectant parent. Nevertheless, that’s exactly what the Palin campaign is pushing on Bristol’s baby daddy and touting as responsible behavior. Oh well that’s what white trash does so well – short-sighted stupidity.
Just remember
It’s not over until the last votes not counted
How many people will they have to disenfranchise to win
Here in Virginia there already complaining about not being able to handle the expected 20% voter increase. If they screw up in Florida again ,and its a tight race ,I dont want to think about what could happen.Maybe they should go back to paper ballots.
Comment from: rainbows4dinosaurs
r4d…how appropriate that you’d claim my statement was bogus…
Here’s proof positive that one needs to look for the man behind the curtain instead of believing everything they see…
Take a look at the internals of this poll. Scroll to the last page. You tell me why they had to poll over 20% more Dems and 10% more Independents to come up with their results….
Gee…what are the true poll numbers if all 3 groups were equally represented…?
http://www.cbsnews.com/htdocs/pdf/oct08b-politics.pdf
What other Truths of life are you missing…?
phreedm,
Okay goofball, from the survey report:
So they do a random sample and come up with more democrats and independents than republicans – what does that tell us? THAT OUR ‘SAVIOR’ HAS PARTED THE ‘RED SEA’.
All kidding aside, what these polls are really telling us is that the political dynamics of this country are rapidly changing. Maybe, just maybe, that so called permanent majority that was so touted four years ago was an illusion. Maybe your boys have done such a poor job governing these last eight years that fewer people are willing to call themselves republicans. And maybe Obama has run a more inspiring (and more disciplined) campaign; I mean it’s pretty obvious that the dems have a better brand this year.
From what I can tell by the tone of your posts, it sounds like you just can’t bring yourself to believe all that is happening. Of course the election isn’t over yet, but it’s less than three weeks to go and republicans are losing across the board, badly. But you can’t bring yourself to face these facts because it goes against all the political dogma that permeates your favorite echo chambers (worldnetdaily, american thinker, fox, roanoke virginia, your church, etc.) So from your skewed perspective, it must be some sort of vast conspiracy. How typical.
So if the current trend continues and Obama wins in a landslide, are you going to cry fowl and claim he ‘stole’ the election (It was ACORN! Those commie bastards!), or are you going to man up and admit that conservatives have no one to blame but themselves?
( Anyone want to take bets? )
The answer to that question is “intentionally skewed.”
A poll like that would be based on the assumption that the USA is 33% democrat, 33% republican, and 33% independent. I think it’s plain what the problem is.
Yup. 5 to 1 Phreedm will NEVER hold his chosen leaders accountable for their performance over the last 8 years. Never. Doing so would be a reflection of his own poor judgment.
He certainly doesn’t hold his sky fairy responsible for all the calamities, incompetent creation and cruelty that he believes it visits up on all humanity.
We all know his politics and his religion are all mixed together, so yes, it won’t be his or his god’s or the current administration’s fault.
Isn’t it nice to contemplate that neither he nor any of us will survive death. An eternity shared with him would be worse than hell.
Wanna bet he’s looking forward to going “Neener, neener, told ya”?
r4d…
I guess you’ve never studied statistics and polling…
Do you honestly think they only called 972 households? If you do I have a bridge to sell you…
Phreedm,
Um… no, they called 1070, “randomly selected by a computer from a complete list of more than 42,000 active residential exchanges across the country.”
http://tinyurl.com/4eoegd
But yeah, it’s only one poll, which is why I only pay attention to composites and the prediction market. All say that McCain is in serious trouble.
Is it to Nowhere Alaska?
My son had his BM last week (I am divorced from his mother who is religious and in the divorce agreement – I agreed to letting the kids go through it). Fortunately, everything is in Hebrew so no-one understands any of it. I attended and actually got up and said some generic words about how each culture has a right of passage ceremony, without uttering the g-word. My son gave a nice speech where he stressed the importance of doing things rather than just praying (I tried to get him to do the joke about the old man praying for world peace at the “wall” in Israel). The Rabbi (married to an atheist!), gave her sermon and stressed social action. My family thought it was directed at me out of respect for my lack of beliefs.
Anyway, it ended up being an enjoyable weekend spent with family. I guess I could have sent my son out into the wilderness for three days to see if he could survive like some tribes do. And I do think it was better that I attended and participated, than not. Everyone knows my beliefs and by attending, my views were upfront. Also, he is my son and it was an important day for him. He and my daughter are pretty much agnostic and I presume with a little more science education, they will lose their beliefs altogether.
One funny thing my son did: After he was told last year what his reading was going to be, he came to me and said with a straight face that it was “Numbers 31″ which he knows I think is the worst section in the Bible – about genocide and rape of young virgin girls. He was kidding.
I am interested in what others do regarding family religious celebrations. Do you simply not attend? Do you attend and continuously attack what they are doing? I think a more subtle approach is more effective.
I, personally, attended a secular humanist course, leading up to an entirely non-godly ceremony set in a theatre, stressing secular values, ethics, and responsibility for your own actions. After having been raised specifically in order to choose my faith for myself by my parents, I chose at that point to commit myself to atheism. The Christian members of my family, of course, attended, and no negative comments were uttered as far as I know, before, after or during. In return, I attend the Christian ceremonies of the religious half of my family. Family ties are more important than creed or lack thereof.
It’s worth noting, at this point, that I live in Norway, and have a mother, father, grandfather and grandmother who are also atheists, with one Christian grandmother and one grandfather I’ve never really managed to place. It’s a credit to them that they managed to keep from preaching secularism, especially when both my father and grandfather are blessed with acid tongues and a deep loathing of religion and other forms of superstition.