Time To Disband The Congressional Black Caucus?

buck --

The line you are talking about -- with religion being a choice, not something you're born into -- is not there in judaism and, to a lesser extent, also not there in catholicism.

Race and religion are both social constructs, and subject to the same blurry distinctions.

 

But in Buck's defense, you CAN choose to be any religion. Yes, you can be born into Judaism as a heritage, but I could go to the synagogue down the street and become a Jew. Most people get their religion from their upbringing, but I can't think of any mainline religions that only let you in if you're a legacy.

 

Orthodox Judaism -- I thought. Your mother has to be Jewish, or that's the ballgame.

21 will correct me if I'm wrong.

In Israel, there are people who never, ever go to church but very much consider themselves Jewish, by virtue of living in Israel.

Likewise, being Catholic in Ireland can be as much a political or ethnic expression as a religious one.

 

Nope -- you can go through an Orthodox conversion.

You're only Jewish by virtue of BIRTH if your mother is Jewish (that's for Orthodox and Conservative denominations. Not for reform -- they recognize patrilineal descent). Either way, you're still ETHNICALLY half Jewish even if not recognized as such (and even if you identify as something else). That was certainly more than enough to satisfy Hitler's idea of who was a Jew.

 

It seems like the same could be said about being muslim in the middle east. In fact in this day and age being muslim seems more political than religious. Of all the religions it seems to be the most militant.

 

Anyway -- all of which only goes to prove my point.

Some places, it has to be mom. Some places, mom or dad.

Social construct. Same as race. Getting blurrier by the day.

I mean, in two generations, how many Americans are going to be able to identify their heritage to any reliable degree of certainty?

It will all end up as a matter of what you identify yourself with. So if the white dude wants into the black caucus, you have to let him in.

My opinion, anyway.

Boom --

Strike your last sentence and I agree. At least in the context of the middle east.

 

thats the result of allowing same sex marriages. Everyone will be related to David Crosby.

 

Does that mean we'll need a lot more weed?

Maybe it is time to add Mexico as a state...

 

By the news reports I've read, this "disban the black caucus" movement was initiated by this idiot from Colorado, the same doofus who proposed building a fence along the Canada/US border as part of his anti-immigration campaign.

Caucuses are merely subgroups of political parties. You have black, Hispanic, women's, Christian and probably gay caucuses. They're merely groups of people who have special concerns and want to address these concerns politically. Old as politics itself.

 

Yes, but if CBC exists to deal with issues facing black Americans, then shouldn't they welcome a white Congressman from a predominantly black district with open arms?

 

Try growing up non-protestant in the deep South. I had people coming up to me on a weekly basis telling me I was going to hell because I was Catholic. I shit you not. No, no one threatened to kill me or blow me up because of it, but it was an overtly aggressive attitude.

As far as Muslim seeming to be the most militant and political, remember that everything you see on TV is not a true representation of the millions of Muslims around the world.

And are Evangelicals not political? Oh my Allah! They're arguably more political than Muslims. Again, maybe it's a product of growing up in the South, but where I grew up Christian=Republican.

But we were talking about the black caucus...

 

Pope, Wingman was playing devil's advocate but I think he has pretty much explained the rationale--and a lot better than I could.

Personally, I think it's a little disingenuous of this congressman. It's like a male congressman wanting to join the women's caucus because the majority of his constitutents are women.