The-Ave.US

Imagine if I, as a UW Professor, told my students that I felt differently toward the Jews in my class than toward the Baptists.

I would be fired.
Well,  read what Gov.-elect Robert Bentley of Alabama said:  from Alabama  Al.com

“There may be some people here today who do not have living within them the Holy Spirit,”….. ”But if you have been adopted in God’s family like I have, and like you have if you’re a Christian and if you’re saved, and the Holy Spirit lives within you just like the Holy Spirit lives within me, then you know what that makes? It makes you and me brothers. And it makes you and me brother and sister.”    ”Now I will have to say that, if we don’t have the same daddy, we’re not brothers and sisters. So anybody here today who has not accepted Jesus Christ as their savior, I’m telling you, you’re not my brother and you’re not my sister, and I want to be your brother.”

I am pretty sure that Mr. Bentley is not a bigot. He must get a lot out of his faith. The fellowship he feels with others who go through the same rituals is no doubt real. All that says to me, however, is that his  ignorance of the rest of us  is truly chilling.

The worst of it is that Christians like Governor Bentley are all too willing to forgive themselves, and especially their church, for their and its past crimes.  Guilt, especially communal guilt is central to any culture developing itself morally.  As Americans we should be proud of how we have overcome much of the damage we, our society, did to the slaves.

As a Jew and a Zionist, I know that we must find a moral way to live with our Arab brothers and sisters and the ocst they have paid for the existance of our state..  Of course that reflects my belief that as a Jew, Arabs are my brothers and sisters.

I suspect that Mr. Bentley feels no need for forgiveness for the sins of his church.