Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Michael Barnett's latest kvetch

A reader has brought to our attention the whiny, kvetchy letter sent by Michael Barnett (of the Jewish homosexual one-man-band ‘Aleph’) to his local member, Bob Stensholt MP for Burwood, (with ccs to Rob Hulls, Attorney General, Michael Danby, MP for Melbourne Ports, Scott Davis, Victoria Police Gay & Lesbian Advisory Unit and John Searle, president, JCCV).

(Read it here:
http://aleph.org.au/docs/20090822_Letter_to_Bob_Stensholt_and_Rob_Hulls.pdf )

Poor discriminated-against Michael is still upset about being refused membership to the JCCV 10 years ago and that orthodox rabbis still quote the Torah’s harsh views about homosexuality.
Into the mix he brings our blog as additional proof of the community’s ‘intolerance’ to those of his persuasion.
On August 1 in Tel Aviv there was the horrific shooting in the gay community centre where two people were killed and 15 people injured. The Australian Jewish News covered this event comprehensively. As a direct result of this coverage an anonymous Melbourne Orthodox Jewish blogger posted on AJNWatch some of the most hurtful language directed at gay people that I have ever read.
His letter goes on:
As a man with a Catholic upbringing you will be fully aware of the sections of the Old Testament in the book of Leviticus that describe the prohibition against men having intercourse with other men and the penalties they must face if they transgress this prohibition. This prohibition forms a tenet of Orthodox Jewish dogma and is more fervently upheld than just about any other biblical commandment. The prohibition against homosexual intercourse (and effectively anything relating to any expression of homosexuality) permeates the teachings of Orthodox Judaism at all levels, through schools, colleges, synagogues and every other aspect of Orthdox Jewish life. I challenge you to find an Orthodox Rabbi in Australia who will not denounce practicing homosexuals as sinners and who will not refer to us alongside people who have committed sins of the gravity as murder, adultery, incest or bestiality.
I am not sure what Barnett wants. Should orthodox Shuls be banned from reading those parts of the Torah that describe the sin of this perversion and its punishment?
We have no idea if he belongs to a synagogue or not, but if he feels the need his type of welcoming religion, who is stopping him from joining one of the Reform/Progressive/ Conservative temples where the prohibition on homosexuality and indeed most of the Torah’s tenets – have long been discarded?
In those circles Michael may even be lucky enough to find a clergyman with similar tendencies to himself.

13 comments:

  1. Nice to know I'm being talked about. Your readers are a little slow off the mark though. Wait until you read the next instalment. It just gets better.

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  2. Oh, and you've got your own label. That's very impressive.

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  3. Have you found my latest missive yet?

    Michael (the noisy Jewish homo).

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  4. I certainly did. And your best line there (albeit you are quoting some unknown):
    "homosexuals are perverted and depraved dreck (shit)"

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  5. Thanks for that nice take Gary. I was actually quoting the language of the author of this blog site.

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  6. MB, I checked - and those words were not used by this blog.

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  7. Gary, perhaps a case of selective blindness?

    To quote this blog:

    "The last thing their readers are interested in is what is happening in Tel Aviv snakepits of dreck and perversion"

    "Your pride and delight that Israel has become a world-leader in depravity and debasement says much about you and your publication".

    So unless I have taken the blog writer out of context, my claim stands.

    Why are you so intolerant?

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  8. "One-man-band"? Aleph is actually composed of several hundred members, both male and female. More evidence of your complete imbecility.

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  9. While discussion on this topic is now closed, we decided to allow that last comment as we would like to be convinced that Aleph is indeed anything more than a one-(or maybe 10-)man-band.

    'Several hundred' is quite a broad figure. Can you give us an exact number of JEWISH members of Aleph and where a list of these members can be perused?

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  10. Aleph - several hundred members!!!

    The can't put together a dozen at their parades and otehr public get togethers. And then - half of those attending are not even Jewish

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  11. The reason why so many of the members of Aleph are invisible is because they are fearful to be identified in the community due to the intolerant attitudes such as that espoused in this blog.

    There are members of Aleph from the most orthodox sections of the community along with those from all other sections as well. So many of the people who attend our private functions, functions that celebrate chagim and Yiddishkeit, are plain scared because of what you do to them.

    You would be surprised if you knew who our members were. In any case, the membership remains strictly confidential.

    Michael.

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  12. Mikey one needs a lot of faith in you to believe that Aleph actually has more than a handful of followers. Your public gatherings and parades attract very few people and that would include non-Jews as well. To claim that there are 8 or 9 phantom members for each open one sounds like a fantasy.

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  13. granpa, would you like to come along to one of our functions and meet the members?

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