Um, what?

Now, I don't usually get into domestic politics here; values? Yes. Internal politics of the Jewish community? Sadly, yes. Israel? You betcha. And I find that most Reform rabbis do the same; rare is the rabbi these days that preaches on specific political agenda. But, apparently, according to Glen Beck, I am (or at least, 'reformed' rabbis are) members of a political, not religious organization, akin to radicalized Islamists.

Huh.

To be fair, he does try to walk back from that line, realizing the comparison was probably faulty. However, I'm pretty sure I'm in the God business, or at least the spiritual meaning business. And, like most religious institutions, that business has a community engagement component. No different than, say, The Church of Latter Day Saints. Or the Catholic Church. Or African American Churches. Just happens that our community engagement is more progressive/liberal than the first two examples.

Does that mean that LDS and the Catholic church are political? Or African American churches? I mean, they would never, say, endorse a candidate or a specific position to vote for from the pulpit, would they? I mean, I know I would never do that...

Huh.

Now, if only he would call us "Reform" consistently...

Full text below:

PAT GRAY (co-host): And now remember, this is all fueled by an organization that Soros funds, that has a bunch of progressive rabbis that came out against Glenn and said --

BECK: OK, you have to -- hang on just a second. When you talk about rabbis, understand that most -- most people who not Jewish don't understand that there are the Orthodox rabbis, and then there are the reformed rabbis. Reformed rabbis are generally political in nature. It's almost like Islam, radicalized Islam in a way, to where it is just -- radicalized Islam is less about religion than it is about politics. When you look at the reform Judaism, it is more about politics. I'm not saying that they're the same on --

GRAY: No, obviously not.

BECK: -- and they're going to take it at that, but -- stand in line.

GRAY: "Glenn Beck says --"

BECK: It's not about terror or anything else, it's about politics, and so it becomes more about politics than it does about faith. Orthodox rabbis -- that is about faith. There's not a single orthodox rabbi on this list. This is all reformed rabbis that were -- that made this list.

STU BURGURIERE (executive producer): Yeah, I don't know that for a fact. I know that certainly this organization is a progressive political organization. And that's fine.

BECK: Totally fine.

BURGURIERE: They, you know, just attack and it's ridiculous.