Is Judaism a racist religion?

[ughaibu]

One of my cousins became jewish. I dont remember her having any difficulties, maybe she had to study some texts and pass an oral exam, I dont know. On the other hand, if a person feels jewish, I dont suppose there are bouncers on the synagogue doors, and come to that, I had a friend expelled from his church, does that make christianity a "racist" religion?
If a person wants to follow a particular religion, how can anybody stop them?

[Boerseun]

This is me speaking, so if I offend anybody in saying this, don't blame Hypo.

Any religion that you'd care to mention is based on a flawed premise. But the scope of what they stand for, and the 'benefits' of believing in any specific religion and the 'penalties' in not doing so is eternal, and all-encompassing. Or so they say.

What they fight for are the souls and loyalties of believers, to gain new ones and to retain those that they already have. They simply have to describe those outside their specific religion as of being of a lower class, or even as being slightly less human, if only to retain those believers (income base) that they already have.

In this specific sense, you can probably describe religions as exclusive, and discriminating, but clearly not racist. Racism is discrimination based on race, a physical quality. But I know Jews of all colours, Muslims of all colours, and Christians of all colours.

These religions are all ridiculous and based on false premises. But in order to hide their own failures, be it of the logical or consistency kind, they tend to focus more on the failures and discrepancies of other religions and beliefs. So, eventually (as in the Torah quotes above) you'll start asking yourself: "Right, I'm a Jew, and there are lots of faults and problems with my religion that my rabbi can't or won't discuss with me, but at least I am human! Imagine - I could've been a Christian or a Muslim, and then I would forfeit my soul and become nothing more than a mere animal!"

This is discriminating, but it is definitely and clearly not racist.

Good quote I heard the other day: (slightly off topic)
"Before asking me why I dismiss your religion, ask yourself first why are you dismissing so many?"

[C1ay]

Originally Posted by ughaibu

What does that mean? There are no religions without people.

It is people that make religion though so a racist religion is only racist because of it's followers.

[ughaibu]

In short, there is a "racist religion".

[Southtown]

Might I suggest Karaite Judaism? They adhere to the non-racist ancient scriptures and refrain from whimsically adding to or subtracting from it. And might I also suggest not submitting to any religion that is subject to whimsical altercation?

[Igby]

Originally posted by ughaibu:
I dont suppose there are bouncers on the synagogue doors

Larger synagogues often have bouncers on Shabbat. The Great Synagogue in Sydney has bouncers outside the main entrance during Synagogue, and the Friday night Passover services are members only. This is annoying and seems elitist, but it's just to prevent over-crowding in the synagogue, which is in the center of the CBD.

I'd be interested to know which kind of Judaism Rebiu thinks is racist? All of them? Just Orthodox? Reform? Liberal? Hasidic? Conservative?

Our Torah and Talmud were written by men, and hence are bound to contain prejudicial idiosyncracies of some form. The Torah, Talmud, Bible and Koran all contain xenophobic, sexist, homophobic sentiments. Chinese Buddhism paints homosexuality as a cardinal sin, and the Catholic church hates condoms. It's patently ignorant to attempt to define a religion by the intolerance of some. People generally do not join a religion so they can have an excuse for their intolerance. Bigotry is human, and religion is man-made. But the fact that these two things are human does not necessarily imply that they are tied together.

For most of the Jews I know, these batshit insane notions are ignored. None of them think menstruating women are unclean, and have no place within the synagogue. None of them call their collegues beasts by virtue of the fact that they're a gentile. None of them are in favour of murdering dirty heathens, and nor are they apathetic whenever they hear of dead gentiles.

All religious texts have hateful elements. Rebiu, why single out Judaism?

[HydrogenBond]

I going to walk on eggshells with this one but here goes. If religion is manmade, as many aetheist and scientists believe, and the Jews consider themselves the chosen people because of the bible, then a manmade claim is being used for racist superiority. On other other hand, if the bible is the word of God, the Jews are merely going along with a choice that was made by God.

[sanctus]

Originally Posted by Igby

Larger synagogues often have bouncers on Shabbat. The Great Synagogue in Sydney has bouncers outside the main entrance during Synagogue, and the Friday night Passover services are members only. This is annoying and seems elitist, but it's just to prevent over-crowding in the synagogue, which is in the center of the CBD.

Actually I was in Copenhagen a couple of years ago and then there were security guards in front of the synagogue, which surprised me quite much!

[sanctus]

Originally Posted by Igby

All religious texts have hateful elements. Rebiu, why single out Judaism?

I'm curious too rebiu?

[ughaibu]

Igby and Sanctus: Thanks.