No Soul Left to Sell - A Rabbi Speaks About America

Beliefnet ^ | June 2004 | Rabbi Shmuley Boteach

[NYer]

Catholic Ping - let me know if you want on/off this list

[NYer]

Ping!

[laconic]

Isn't this character the close friend and supporter of Michael Jackson? He should KNOW what part of the culture is in the sewer, he's jumped in it himself.

[Just mythoughts]

"For many centuries Christians were warned that Satan would come to them as a seducer and offer them the world’s bounty—prosperity, beauty, fame—in return for their immortal soul."


Sounds like the "seducer" has showed up according to the rest of his story.

[veronica]

No, he used to be. He is as appalled with Jackson now as we all are.

[Archangelsk]

I'd like to hear this sermon in shul.

[rageaholic]

Excuse me? Go tell the thousands Americans fighting for their country that they are sell-outs to materialism.

[Tax-chick]

Boteach is on a roll the last few days. Sometimes his stuff is drivel, but recently he's been very good.

I think just about all of us, even if we are diligent religious people, struggle with the distraction of all the *stuff* in our culture that takes us away from what we know is Real Life.

[alwaysconservative]

What terrific, politically incorrect statements! I wonder how long it will be before he is denounced as "intolerant". A nanosecond if he is a conservative, but his words will be ignored if he is a liberal.

[lepton]

Maybe there's something readable after the second paragraph, but the second paragraphs definitions of "freedom" (or lack thereof) are just loopy.

[lepton]

[Oops...]

Maybe there's something readable after the fifth paragraph, but the fifth paragraphs definitions of "freedom" (or lack thereof) are just loopy.

[Desdemona]

re the militaryYes, they have to take orders from superiors, and yes, they have to dress according to a strict regimen. But compared to us, they are truly free because they are liberated from the most incarcerating and soul-destroying cage of all: the prison of the ego.

With all due respect to the good Rabbi who has some very important and lovely things to say - he can't have met many fighter pilots.

[Piers-the-Ploughman]

don't mean to be a wet blanket, but while a statement that "America is a sell-out to materialism" is no doubt a generalizaton, it is sadly becoming more and more of the truth, at least at the political and dominant cultural level.

so, yes, our strong idealistic boys are spilling their guts for a culture and a nation that is in the process of losing its soul. No way my sons will ever fight in this Iraqi war. It is only "working" for now for Bush because it's all volunteer army.

when will the average Joe and Jane realize that its silly for them to send their sons (and daughters) to spill their guts to preserve and increasingly corrupt American culture?

Rage, this is how nations fall. Corruption in the government and culture. All our masters telling us lies and many of us believing them. Divorce greed abortion homo behavior poor social manners all rampant--people who want this kind of society will be glad to ask other people to go and die for it in name of "patriotism"

No we haven't hit bottom yet, things can still and will get much worse because very few recognize the cure: a society based on true Christian ethics of hard work and self-sacrifice of true charity. And that means not ditching the wife of one's youth for a trophy wife, killing your own babies or accepting such abominations as homo behavior, as well as working your hardest either for your boss or for your clients or the employees under you.

[The Wizard]

I thought this was about the democrats

[Thinkin' Gal]

America, the only country in the world to have G-d stamped on its money...

Babylon bump.

[oblomov]

Near the end of the essay, he says exactly the opposite about those in the military.

[bad company]

While he does raise a few good points; it does get lost in the constant barrage of "Christian lecturing" I have been subject to most of my life. Maybe,....just maybe someone should be lecturing the muslims that BLOWING PEOPLE UP IS A BAD THING TO DO>

[Desdemona]

The fact that we have an all volunteer military is testament to the fact that all is not lost yet.

And once your children reach a majority, you can't stop them. My brother joined up over parental objections.

The materialism and greed are where the soulessness starts. People just aren't satisfied with what they have. The Rabbi is correct about that. He is also correct that it feeds into the mentality of a culture that kills its own children in the womb by the millions.

[Desdemona]

Maybe,....just maybe someone should be lecturing the muslims that BLOWING PEOPLE UP IS A BAD THING TO DO>

Yes, but do you honestly think they'll listen?

I think there are plenty who do and they are very much afraid of the terrorists.