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Ben Stein


justloafing
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> The following was written by Ben Stein and recited by him on

> CBS Sunday Morning Commentary, Sunday, 12/18/05.

>

> Herewith at this happy time of year, a few confessions from my

beating heart: I have no freaking clue who Nick and Jessica are.

> I see them on the cover of People and Us constantly when I am buying

my dog biscuits and kitty litter. I often ask the checkers

> at the grocery stores. They never know who Nick and Jessica are

either. Who are they? Will it change my life if I know who they

> are and why they have broken up? Why are they so important?

>

> I don't know who Lindsay Lohan is either, and I do not care at

> all about Tom Cruise's wife.

>

> Am I going to be called before a Senate committee and asked

> if I am a subversive? Maybe, but I just have no clue who Nick

> and Jessica are.

>

> If this is what it means to be no longer young. It's not so bad.

>

> Next confession:

> I am a Jew, and every single one of my ancestors was Jewish.

> And it does not bother me even a little bit when people call

> those beautiful lit up, bejeweled trees Christmas trees. I don't

> feel threatened. I don't feel discriminated against. That's what

> they are: Christmas trees.

>

> It doesn't bother me a bit when people say, "Merry Christmas"

> to me. I don't think they are slighting me or getting ready to

> put me in a ghetto. In fact, I kind of like it. It shows that we are

> all brothers and sisters celebrating this happy time of year. It

doesn't bother me at all that there is a manger scene on display

> at a key intersection near my beach house in Malibu. If people want

a creche, it's just as fine with me as is the Menorah a few hundred

yards away.

>

> I don't like getting pushed around for being a Jew, and I don't

> think Christians like getting pushed around for being Christians.

> I think people who believe in God are sick and tired of getting

pushed around, period. I have no idea where the concept

> came from that America is an explicitly atheist country. I can't

> find it in the Constitution, and I don't like it being shoved down

> my throat.

>

> Or maybe I can put it another way: where did the idea come

> from that we should worship Nick and Jessica and we aren't allowed to

worship God as we understand Him?

>

> I guess that's a sign that I'm getting old, too.

>

> But there are a lot of us who are wondering where Nick and

> Jessica came from and where the America we knew went to.

>

> In light of the many jokes we send to one another for a laugh,

> this is a little different: This is not intended to be a joke; it's

not funny, it's intended to get you thinking.

>

> Billy Graham's daughter was interviewed on the Early Show

> and Jane Clayson asked her "How could God let something like

> this Happen?" (regarding Katrina)

>

> Anne Graham gave an extremely profound and insightful

> response. She said, "I believe God is deeply saddened by this,

> just as we are, but for years we've been telling God to get out

> of our schools, to get out of our government and to get out of

> our lives.

>

> And being the gentleman He is, I believe He has calmly backed

> out. How can we expect God to give us His blessing and His protection

if we demand He leave us alone?"

>

> In light of recent events...terrorists attack, school shootings,

> etc. I think it started when Madeleine Murray O'Hare (she was

murdered, her body found recently) complained she didn't

> want prayer in our schools, and we said OK.

>

> Then someone said you better not read the Bible in school .

> The Bible says thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not steal, and

> love your neighbor as yourself. And we said OK.

>

> Then Dr. Benjamin Spock said we shouldn't spank our children

> when they misbehave because their little personalities would

> be warped and we might damage their self-esteem (Dr. Spock's son

committed suicide). We said an expert should know what

> he's talking about. And we said OK.

>

> Now we're asking ourselves why our children have no

> conscience, why they don't know right from wrong, and why

> it doesn't bother them to kill strangers, their classmates,

> and themselves.

>

> Probably, if we think about it long and hard enough, we can

> figure it out. I think it has a great deal to do with "WE REAP

> WHAT WE SOW."

>

> Funny how simple it is for people to trash God and then

> wonder why the world's going to hell.

>

> Funny how we believe what the newspapers say,

> but question what the Bible says.

>

> Funny how you can send 'jokes' through e-mail and they

> spread like wildfire but when you start sending messages

> regarding the Lord, people think twice about sharing.

>

> Funny how lewd, crude, vulgar and obscene articles pass

> freely through cyberspace, but public discussion of God is suppressed

in the school and workplace.

>

> Are you laughing?

>

> Funny how when you forward this message, you will not send

> it to many on your address list because you're not sure what

> they believe, or what they will think of you for sending it.

>

> Funny how we can be more worried about what other people

> think of us than what God thinks of us.

>

> Pass it on if you think it has merit. If not then just discard it...

> no one will know you did. But, if you discard this thought

> process, don't sit back and complain about what bad shape

> the world is in.

>

> My Best Regards .. honestly and respectfully,

> Ben Stein

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True and false. Ben Stein wrote everything up to "But there are a lot of us who are wondering where Nick and Jessica came from and where the America we knew went to." The rest was appended to forwarded e-mails.

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Funny how a concept like keeping the public schools and teachers from getting involved in a private thing like prayer is seen as government forbidding you to pray.

Funny how a 1962 Supreme Court ruling banning said government sponsered and teacher led prayer is directly and invariably linked with the skyrocketing crime & trauncy, and dropping grades in our schools, even when NO link of any kind has been proven nor found.

Funny how religious people feel 'pushed around' (persecuted? ;)) even when its a religious man that *always* sits in the Oval Office (why even Joe Lieberman has a arguable chance at getting in that chair, ... as opposed to say, someone who doesn't believe in a god, who has about as much chance at getting in as there is a chance of Ann Coulter voting for Hillary Clinton!), there are official religious holidays 'round the year (yet no official atheist or non-believer holidays), there is In God We Trust printed on our money and you know and I know there is no way that it will ever be taken off, churches and ministries have hundreds, no, make that thousands of times the money, resources, willing & devoted people, etc., than us 'immoral/amoral' unbelievers, and at least 70-80% of the populace in this country are religious (and of some Abrahamic faith such as Judaism or Christianity) in one denomination or another.

Pushed around? Persecuted?? ... Please! Christians who were thrown to the lions in the 2nd century and Jews who were subject to the Holocaust in the 20th were pushed around and persecuted! They knew what it was like! :realmad: ... We here in this country view ourselves as 'pushed around' when our candidates do not support our own political platforms 100%. We get into a tizz when Walmart puts up Kwanzaa decorations as well as Xmas (a word itself that indicates Yet Another Sign of being 'Pushed Around' I daresay?), or when they have enough of those complaints, then takes them all down, thus bringing in The Great Tribulation of Persecution. :o If our 10 Commandments aren't prominantly displayed in tax payer supported government buildings across the country, we think the Anti-Christ is taking over himself. :evildenk:

What verse was that in the Bible that talked about "You haven't resisted unto blood, striving against sin?" :huh:

So Mr. Stein (and Billy Graham's daughter), relax! Nobody's 'pushing you around' ((snif)). Now if you really want to know what its like to be pushed around, .... try playing atheist for a while. Now while its true, no atheist has been thrown to the lions, nor shot and thrown into the ovens/gas chambers for being atheist/unbelievers, I'd be willing to bet that the crap that we go through goes a lot farther than the minor things you have put with that you put into the 'Pushed Around' category. Ever have your car keyed because you were religious? Ever have some LARGE (and muscular) guy come up to you and scream in your face because of your believing POV? Or even have a similar LARGE (and muscular) guy come up to you when you are teaching a college class and smack you in the face because you had the audacity for saying that you were Jewish/Christian? How about even being afraid of telling your own family that you turned Jewish/believer lest they yell and scream and throw you out of the house? Even lost your job or denied one?

..... No? Well, all of these things (and a lot of times a lot *worse*) have happened to many of us unbelievers because we were/turned to being atheist/agnostic/other form of unbeliever. I've seen it myself. I've read about it myself. Stuff that I never heard about while I was in church or when I was religious. (Hhhmmmm, I wonder why?)

Frankly, I liked your performance better when you were on Ben Stein's Money. <_<

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Wow Garth. I did not read it that way at all. I read it as what he thinks and not to wrong others because of what they are. I just liked the moral of the story.

I read it as "you are what you are". As far as Ben Stein and what he said was that the morals of this country has gone to crap and what has become important in this country. I don't really think he cares what you believe but it is the character of a person. He may see and say things about religion here but I think it is based more upon character and how morals really have slipped. JMHO

Edited by justloafing
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Well, I thought it was kinda cute up until the revisionist emailer took over.

It seems there must be a cadre of frustrated, dweebish little Republicans hiding behind their computers, feverishly cranking out mediocre diatribes against supposed ills of our society. You'd think at least they could take the time to keep the writing consistant with the original author's, or - horrors!- claim ownership of their pathetic little screeds themselves.

The only constants in all of such drivel that I get emailed to me is that it's so small in it's thinking, so ignorant in their view of history, and - most damning IMHO - so UNfunny...

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