Thursday, February 2, 2012
Busted You won't believe it, but the Rabbi who anointed Eddie Long is full of it
Posted by Gwynedd Stuart @gwynnstu on Thu, Feb 2, 2012 at 2:25 PM
- YouTube
- What? You've never heard of Birkendahl?
The video — which we posted yesterday evening — is good for a laugh. The ceremony itself is inherently ridiculous. On top of that, Messer repeatedly botches the pronunciation of Birkenau (maybe Buchenwald?), creating a word that sounds something like "Birkendahl." He misquotes scripture. He attempts to turn the Torah into that awful Jim Carrey movie "The Number 23." As someone on a religious forum put it, "Ralph Messer's no more a rabbi than my mom's a cat."
Worth considering, however, are the greater implications of a guy running around, claiming to be a Jewish holy man, and completely misrepresenting Judaism in front of thousands of people.
In a post on The Feminist Wire, religious scholar Wil Gafney was compelled to refute the "specious claims" made by Messer during the bogus ritual. It's worth reading in its entirety, but her are some highlights ...
Regarding Messer calling the Torah cover "a foreskin," which Gafney says was not only gross, but also inaccurate:
The Torah cover is not a “foreskin.” Hyper-masculine, hyper-sexualization of the Torah reduces the holy Torah to a problematic phallic symbol — God’s? or Long’s? — and categorizes the most destructive behaviors associated with New Birth ministries in recent years. Grammatically and symbolically, the Torah is feminine in Hebrew and is personified as “She,” as in “She is a Tree of Life,” in Prov. 3:18.
On the average Jew's relationship to Torah scrolls:
The claim that 90% of the Jews in the world have “never seen, approached or touched” Torah scrolls is utterly without foundation. The Torah is taken out of the Ark during Shabbat and other services; it is processed through the assembly twice where people reverence it (Her!) by touching and kissing it/Her.
On Messer's attempts at number symbology:
The frequent references to significant numbers may be an attempt to mimic the Jewish mystical tradition of Gematria that elicits meanings from numbers and their contexts. However, the speaker is devising his own system without reference to any of the classical texts in Judaism, frequently by simple free- and word-association.
Most important:
His address of Eddie Long as a biblical or Israelite king is without foundation in the scriptures or in reality.
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Comments (13)
Showing 1-13 of 13
I guess this guy can call himself a rabbi if Eddie Long can call himself a bishop.
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dislike
It's all fake. This guy is as "authentic" as any priest, rabbi, pope or imam on earth. Gods are imaginary, so it's all showbiz.
"Worth considering, however, are the greater implications of a guy running around, claiming to be a Jewish holy man, and completely misrepresenting Judaism in front of thousands of people. "
let's face it, it's not like the crowd at new birth or any other modern suburban megachurch is really concerned with scriptural accuracy or sound theology from any religious discipline
they're just looking for a reason to get fired up and partisan. they want god to be a coach, not a deity
"It's all fake. This guy is as "authentic" as any priest, rabbi, pope or imam on earth. Gods are imaginary, so it's all showbiz."
hey, religion is fake but it's valid if you treat it as philosophy, or as a venue for community bonding. the ritual aspect is important for human beings, flawed meatbags that we are
i agree though that when you treat it like a vegas floor show it loses a certain something
On the realz: how are the congregants at Eddie's church rationalizing all of this? While the scandal of Eddie's "trysts" was covered in detail in the media, how his followers coped with the situation was not explored as completely. Are they accepting him as a queer man? Because let us not mince words here - "Bishop" Eddie Long is a member of the queer community. Whether he's proud of it or not, once you take the shady iPhone Grindr self-photos (http://www.boxturtlebulletin.com/2010/09/22/26539) you become a member of the community.
So is this just rote denial on the part of the church attendees? Is it one of those awkward things that no one is ever really allowed to talk about in polite company? I'm seriously just so confused...
"So is this just rote denial on the part of the church attendees?"
yeah. the aggressively religious are pretty good at constructing their own reality, they'd have no problem shutting out all these facts
CL apparently posted the original story to showcase weirdness, but why did CL do anything to highlight the antics of Long and Messer? Aren't there enough weird stories without CL playing into the hands of buffoonish charlatans who pray at the altar of media attention?
"Are they accepting him as a queer man?"
I do think many of his congregants don't care what his sexual preference is.
Do they ignore his hypocrisy? yea.
But I bet many of the congregants at New Birth know a family member or friend who is gay and thus would fall in the camp of folks who sort of look at the New Birth's interpretation of the bible's words about gays similarly to the way the Catholics look at the pope's interpretation of the bible's view of Birth Control. Actually I wonder if Sermons these days touch on being gay.
I mean this is a congregation in Atlanta, and unlike many churches in rural areas these folks are a more open to the realities of life.
Then why attend? Well this isn't a weekly event there. They probably do appreciate the show. I can see how if you ignore the details and take it for what it is its uplifting. Its a shared experience with a religious or aspirational theme.
I've known people who go to New Birth, it is a community and Eddie Long while the boss is not the entirety of New Birth.
Lolz. I think you're giving New Birth WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY too much credit. See below link for details regarding New Birth's "Ex-Gay" Ministries, sexual "reorientation" classes, and "Out of The Wilderness" Ministry - all of which seek to "reorient" queer men and women to allow them to lead "heterosexual" lives.
Does everyone at the church agree with such practices? Definitely not. Are they all funding it via tithing? Probs.
http://www.renwl.org/watch-ex-gay-ministry-seminar-hosted-at-eddie-longs-church/8820/
Is every black dude in American a damn minister, rabbi, bishop, or snake handler?
Blacks need to send this loser a message.
PS this church should be called "After Birth of the great layer on of hands for young boys"
..."I mean this is a congregation in Atlanta, and unlike many churches in rural areas these folks are a more open to the realities of life..."
You're nuts. The New Birth congregation don't own up to Eddie Long being a Big Fag/Fag Hater.
"The claim that 90% of the Jews in the world have “never seen, approached or touched” Torah scrolls is utterly without foundation. "
Most of the Jews I know have never set foot in a synagogue so that actually sounds about right.
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