The above story appears in the Globe today and is an extension of two others stories by the Globe surrounding the resignation of a
Rabbi Starr from a conservative temple in Sharon, MA. allegedly for sexual and
monetary improprieties. I place the article here
or below for your review.
Someone asked me as a Jew do I feel shame. My answer: 150% NO absolutely not. It simply reinforces the thoughts I already
have of the inherent nature of corrupt religion and that applies across the
board as we see so well in the scandal of the Catholic Church which has been
hurt, perhaps in some ways, critically for a long time and maybe forever. It has cost the Church billions. But it is
not only the Catholic Church as we know so well. Sexual and monetary moral indiscretions exist
in all denominations ultra-orthodox, orthodox, conservative and even liberally
religious ones where a congregation can be taken for a Disneyland-like
ride. Why? Because people need what religion is selling
and it sells well.
How much money does one think it takes to run
something like the Crystal Cathedral or support the right wing religious Bob
Jones University or Joel Olsteen's Lakewood Church? Google all of them and you can be taken to a
site that says "Give" "God Multiplies What We Give." It takes a ton of bucks to support organized
religion and they are counting on you the congregants and believers that you
will need them so much to escape and explain the vicissitudes of life that you
will support them seldom questioning a thing when it comes to the money one is
handing over to them. Rabbis, priests, and ministers, are not saints they are
men and subject to the frailties of all men.
The first time, the very first time Rabbi Starr gave
Zeimetus $100 bucks to keep his silence for the sexual liaisons the rabbi was
allegedly having, the rabbi was a doomed man.
More money would follow to the tune of nearly $500,000 to pay not only
for silence but to allegedly pay several bills for the extortionist, including $148.54 to
T-Mobile, $540.63 to Progressive Direct Insurance, and $537.32 to even
NStar. The rabbi if all is to be
believed even took money from an 87 year old Holocaust survivor! How is this possible? I must move on before
my head explodes.
Both are guilty if all is true of one of the most
egregious crimes perpetrated in part by a clergyman whom I assume has taken
many courses in ethics. But in no way am
I ashamed to be a Jew. I am ashamed that
members of the human race do things that hurt, deceive, defame and dupe the
innocent among us (including the rabbi's family) and, in the final analysis,
bring dishonor to themselves and most everything for which they stand.
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