{"id":35731,"date":"2024-02-26T11:00:48","date_gmt":"2024-02-26T19:00:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/?p=35731"},"modified":"2024-02-27T08:14:05","modified_gmt":"2024-02-27T16:14:05","slug":"have-you-heard-the-one-about","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/have-you-heard-the-one-about\/","title":{"rendered":"Have you Heard the One About…?"},"content":{"rendered":"

I have been to the Holy Land of Israel nine times. I started touring there when I was in my mid-20’s and my most recent trip was leading 40+ people on what was called “Moses to The Messiah” – a journey beginning in Egypt, then crossing the Sinai desert, up into the Wadi Rum of Jordan, moving north like the children of Israel did (minus the wandering), and finally crossing over the Jordan River into the “Promised Land” of Israel. Our group then spent the final week walking where Jesus walked. Actually, it was more like running where Jesus walked, <\/em>because we had a lot to cover in a short amount of time.<\/p>\n

I love the land of Israel. I love the terrain, the food, the architecture, the combination of old and new, the smells of spice and fresh baked bread, and more than anything, the people.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

So, for a number of reasons I am grieved by the current war involving Israel and Hamas, and like so many, I am holding my breath as other entities enter the fray, such as the likes of Iran, Syria, Iraq, Yemen, and Hezbollah in Lebanon. The Middle East is a virtual powder keg, and has been for a very long time.<\/p>\n

Now, I understand that Middle East relations are precarious, and far from simplistic. I also understand that folks can have varying opinions regarding what<\/span> is happening there, why<\/span> it is happening, and who<\/span> is a fault. I also understand that world politics it is like playing a game of “Operation” – remember that game? With a shaky grip you use a tweezer to remove plastic body parts from an electrically charged operating table. Like world politics, it takes a very steady hand to not get shocked which ever way you move. And now, with the proliferation of social media, every one has a public opinion regarding the Middle East, in support of either Israel or Hamas. I guess I shouldn’t be “shocked,” but down deep I was, when I posted online about my support for Israel to defend itself against the attack of Hamas, only to discover others (some within my own congregation) that openly hold to the opposite narrative. They support Hamas, and believe Israel is committing genocide.<\/p>\n

NOTE<\/strong>: \u00a0I want to pause and say (and I appreciate Kally Elliot engaging with me on this)…that I love the Palestinian people, and actually have a couple of dear Palestinian friends that I have been in contact with during this war. So, my post in support of Israel is in no way ‘against’ the innocent, loved by the Father, dear, dear people.<\/em><\/p>\n

Therefore I resonate when Kenan Malik, in Not So Black and White<\/em>, wrote: \u00a0“Central London. 22 March 2021. A march in support of Palestinian rights, following a week of Israeli bombing of Gaza in retaliation for Hamas firing rockets into Israel. And, on the march, a demonstrator holding a placard depicting Jesus carrying the cross on the way to crucifixion. Accompanied by the slogan “Do not let them [a reference to Jews] do the same thing again.” It was, as I [Malik] wrote on Twitter at the time, a ‘What the hell?’ moment” (Malik, 95).<\/p>\n

That paragraph, from 2021, feels like it was ripped right out of the pages of 2024. Malik, in quoting comedian David Baddiel, goes on to highlight myths about the Jewish people, that they are ‘Christ-killers,’ and ‘murderers of all that is good and innocent an sacred in the world.’<\/p>\n

Malik, and comedian David Baddiel agree in saying “antisemitism is the oldest racism in the world” (Malik, 95). And racism\/bigotry can take on many forms, including that of humor.<\/em><\/p>\n

In a 2022 article in The Jerusalem Post, author Aaron Reich<\/a> explains that “Jokes about Jews have been found throughout history, many made by Jews themselves, who are no strangers to self-deprecating humor. However, antisemitism in comedy is alive and well.”<\/p>\n

Jokes about Jews have been a part of comedy as far back as anyone can remember. Sure, Jews are often the ones making many of those jokes about themselves, and yet, far too often, jokes told about Jews can be offensive and harmful. Malik, spotlighting pre-eminent scholar of Jewish history, Salo Baron, when asked in 1961 how he would explain the ‘negative attitude which had existed for so many hundreds of years…against the Jewish people,’ replied: \u00a0‘dislike of the unlike’ (Malik, 96).<\/p>\n

Let that sink in. \u00a0Dislike of the unlike.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

How often we joke about those we don’t understand or are “unlike” us.<\/p>\n

That may include but not be limited to (and I apologize at the onset if I am inaccurate in any of the following descriptions…) people of color, Jews, people with disabilities, gay\/lesbian\/transgender people, southerners, homeless\/impoverished, prisoners, the elderly, etc. etc. \u00a0Martyn Percy calls these “Others.” Pragya Agarwal in\u00a0Sway<\/em> mentions ‘otherness’ as an explanation for why “we might create stereotypes, and why we take cognitive shortcuts” (Agarwal, 64).<\/p>\n

Often times what we joke about is what we deeply hold within our heart and mind. Perhaps it’s (seemingly harmless) jokes about Jews being stingy and obsessed with money. Or the pendulum swings far to the other side with stinging attempts to negate the established facts of the Nazi genocide of European Jews.<\/p>\n

Where is the line? Is it at Kanye West and his recent tirades against Jews in Hollywood? Is it at pretty much anything said by Dave Chappelle? Is it British-Irish comedian Jimmy Carr’s 2008 joke: \u00a0“They say there is safety in numbers. Tell that to six million Jews.” \u00a0Ouch.<\/strong> In 2021’s Netflix show Carr told another Holocaust joke: \u00a0“When people talk about the Holocaust, they talk about the tragedy and horror of six million Jewish lives being lost to the Nazi war machine. But they never mention the thousands of G*psies that were killed by the Nazis. No one ever wants to talk about that, because no one ever wants to talk about the positives.”<\/p>\n

Ouch. <\/strong><\/p>\n

Was that a joke or dislike of the unlike?<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/section>\n
<\/section>\n

My wife and I are currently binging the Disney\/National Geographic miniseries “A Small Light”<\/a> which spotlights Miep Gies in her efforts to help her Jewish employer Otto Frank, father of Anne Frank, as they go into a hiding place during World War II after the German invasion of the Netherlands. It’s a beautiful, and yes, even humorous, portrayal of Jewish people, and those that supported them during Hitler’s reign of terror. And that’s exactly what it was: \u00a0terror<\/strong>. No joke. The Holocaust was real, and jokes about it can hurt real bad. But where is the line between a joke and a jab? Between free speech and hate speech?\u00a0<\/sup><\/p>\n

I don’t know. But what I do know is that Jesus said in Matthew 12:34 that “the mouth speaks what the heart is full of.”<\/p>\n

Speaking of being full…have you heard the one about<\/em><\/strong> the mountain lion, after eating an entire bull, he felt so good that he started roaring. He kept it up until a hunter came along and shot him. The moral is: when you’re full of bull, keep your mouth shut.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I have been to the Holy Land of Israel nine times. I started touring there when I was in my mid-20’s and my most recent trip was leading 40+ people on what was called “Moses to The Messiah” – a journey beginning in Egypt, then crossing the Sinai desert, up into the Wadi Rum of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":172,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2310],"tags":[3050,3051,3049,2012,1502],"class_list":["post-35731","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-doctor-of-leadership-3","tag-jew","tag-jokes","tag-malik","tag-black","tag-white","cohort-dlgp02"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35731","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/172"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35731"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35731\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36170,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35731\/revisions\/36170"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35731"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35731"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35731"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}