A baby is sent to a strange land by victims of a dying civilization to become a champion of good. A man possessed of incredible strength shirks his responsibility and dedicates himself to righting wrongs no matter what the odds. A princess uses her wits to take down one bad hombre and a femme fatale and becomes a shining example for her people and women everywhere.
Scripture? Pop culture? If you guessed either the stories of A) Moses, B) Samson, and C) Esther or the stories of A) Superman, B) Spider-Man, and C) Wonder Woman, you're right. That's how much of an impact Scripture has on our culture, our politics, OUR LIVES. That's the general idea behind the Museum of the Bible, one of the top tourist attractions in Washington, DC,and one boasting the largest collections of Torahs and New Testament Bibles in the United States, a Broadway-quality auditorium equipped with the latest tech,(The musical on the writing of "Amazing Grace" had an out-of-town tryout there.)a Kosher cafe,a Nazarene village inspired by Colonial Williamsburg,even a ride through American history inspired by "Soarin' Over California" at Disneyland. Your Obedient Servant and his Dear Old Mom are scheduled to make Amtraks (A nod to the late, great Guardian of the Grammatical Galaxy, NBC News correspondent Edwin Newman.) to the aforementioned Washington,where the Union of Reform Judaism is holding its first in-person conference since the Pandemic. I thought it would be cool if I broadcast one of the Daily Sunset Services I conduct for GORGEOUS Congregation Emanu-El in the City of New York (Sunday-Thursday at 5:30 PM Eastern on http://emanuelnyc.org/broadcast and search emanuelnyc on Facebook Watch and YouTube,no purchase necessary,your mileage may vary.) live from the Museum (In the interest of fair,balanced, impartial journalism, here's a link to their site: http://www.museumofthebible.org .) with a sermon on the topic of Judaism's role in American history and a heads-up on upcoming Museum events with one of the "villagers", but our fearless leader Jonathan Slaff regretted to inform me it was financially,if not technologically (or so I thought) impossible. I still thought it was a great Museum (or,at least, idea for a Museum in the right hands. More on that in just a few.) and the idea of a self-produced TikTok that I could send to the Rabbis and my fellow Emanu-El members kicked around in my head,but Mom had seen an article in the New York Times, not exactly the newspaper of choice for the likes of Marjorie Taylor Greene,Lauren Bobert,Ron (deSanctimonious) deSantis,outgoing (And the quicker going out, the better!) Speaker of the House, Kevin McCarthy,or attempted President Tronald Dump ,(Thank you, Chris Christie, for calling him Donald DUCK, although I believe a word that rhymes with that, which I will refrain from using because I love my audience, is more appropriate.) laser-focusing on the Museum's connection to people who subscribe to that school of thought,particularly its founder Steven Greene, its principal sponsor Hobby Lobby (which Greene founded), and members of the board of directors including Dump-era Secretary of (Under)Education Betsy DeVos (Google her!) and expressly forbade me from visiting that particular institution. (Truth be told, given the reams of information available on that institution, anybody who really wants to visit that institution oughta visit another kind of institution, as in Bellevue.) I can't honestly say I blame her! True, a museum of the Bible and its influence on the world is a noble idea and one worth supporting,buuuuuuuut as long as it's led by a consortium of legitimate governing bodies for the world's religions (INCLUDING the Muslim faith, to address a major criticism of the Museum) and not by a blustering battalion of blowhard buttheads who get their news from the alt-right press and obviously don't get the whole concept of "separation of Church and State". It has been said, the saddest words are "what might have been",but, in this instance, I'm happy what "might have been" never was! My feelings about this kinda crowd could be best summed up in a classic scene from Norman Lear's GOOD TIMES when a preacher who almost fleeced the Evans family was knocked off the air by technical difficulties and Florida (the incredible Esther Rolle) made a power fist and said, "RIGHT ON, LORD!"
For now, friends, the Blog is over. GO IN PEACE!
Steve
