seiberwing

So while wandering the comments of the most recent Slacktivist post, I came up with this particular nugget of idiocy that required a bit of Jew rage.

Delivered with very little context.

Along the lines of prohibited foods, in the 9th LB book, Desecration, Nicky defiles the Temple in Jerusalem by riding atop an enormous pig. One of the thousands of onlookers wonders why.

"I don't get it," a man in front of Buck said, his accent German. "What's he doing?"

"Putting all previous religions in their places, Freidrich!" his wife said, her eyes glued to the scene. "Even Christianity. Especially Christianity."

"But what's with the pig?"

"Christianity has Jewish roots," she said, still not looking at him. "What's more offensive to a Jew than an animal he's not allowed to eat?"

As a Jew who observes the prohibition against eating pork, I don't find pigs or any other traif animals to be offensive. And I don't know any Jews who do. Among the things that I do find offensive false stereotypes of Jews -- especially by Christian religious leaders who think they have the slightest clue about what Jews actually think and believe.

In addition to the above, let me tally up what is wrong with this idiocy.

1. The Antichrist is riding on a pig. There is no way Mr. Carpathia can make that look dignified. I'm not sure anyone can make riding on a pig dignified, I don't care what kind of magic mind control powers they have.
2. We don't find pigs offensive because we can't eat them. In fact, we don't find the concept of 'pig' offensive at all, any more than most people would find the concept of 'cockroach' or 'rattlesnake' offensive just because they find eating them distasteful. We're forbidden from eating them or having much to do with them in general because they're unclean, much like shrimp, carrion birds, menstruating women, and people with skin diseases. Legion aside, pigs are not demonic entities.
2a. I've seen the word 'offensive' misused before in Christian propaganda before, usually in the context of nonChristian/atheist calling some tenet of the Christian religion (or in one case, some weird guy being a vampire until he was redeemed by Jesus) offensive. I don't think they quite understand that being offended is a far different thing than disagreeing or finding the idea completely idiotic. But since the word brings up images of people's delicate sensibilities being injured for no good reason, they keep using it.
3. Once again, although I shouldn't find it surprising in either this series or this section of the religion, everything comes back to Christianity. Defiling the Temple Antiochus-style? Totally a jab against the people who have no religious prohibition against pork or doctrinal tie to the Temple in Jerusalem. In these things, the Jews are never there just to be Jews. We're there to be the chosen people, to be the people God originally touched and therefore put on a pedestal or used to get themselves closer to God. It's like going to your boyfriend's ex for sex tips.
4. Ugh. I admit to not having the closest of emotional connections to Judaism, but I absolutely hate when people appropriate it for their own purposes, even in the most positive of senses. Yes, go ahead and support Israel all you like, but don't do it because enough Jews there will cast 'Summon Jesus' or because you have some kind of Jew fetish that means its existance is a universal positive no matter the consequences. The same goes for the Jews for Jesus dickwads who go around proclaiming themselves as Jews (but better!) despite the entirety of the actual Jewish race knowing that they're bloody posers.

*pauses for breath* Peh. So it's a hot button for me, I'm sorry. But it was a necessary rant. Here, have some entertainment.

A bit of education:

(Useless trivia of the day: The rabbis have already ruled on this subject. If the amount of traif is less than 1/60th of the total amount of food, then it's still considered kosher.)

And lulz:

One of my favorite podcasts is Best of the Left (http://www.bestoftheleftpodcast.com/). Their latest show, #265, features a segment from "This American Life" entitled "Trying to Kill Your Father." A young Jewish boy is told in Hebrew school that his sins may be visited on his father and may even cause his death. Since his father likes to get drunk and hit his kids, this sounds like a good deal to the kid, who goes out of his way to offend God by flipping light switches on the Sabbath and eating dairy with meat. (The kid is also preparing for a "Blessings Bee" where the students have to match the food to the proper blessing.)