Keillor is a family friend of a friend of mine - as in her parents hung out with him 40 years ago and were still friends 20 years ago, but they aren’t good enough for him now that he is famous. He won’t talk to her or acknowledge when they run into each other.
Interestingly my religion holds all the Jews are going to hell, including all the ones wronged by Martin Luther and later anti-semites. As a Catholic I’ve never been a huge fan of Luther even aside from his anti-semitism (which to be honest doesn’t concern me in the least, most Europeans hated the Jews, they were a minority that was very different and historically that has always lead to hatred), but I think he was an ultimate force for good in the Catholic church in the long term even though he is the father of Protestantism.
Just out of curiosity, what’s jerkish about Roethlisberger?
I was never taught as a Catholic that all Jews were going to Hell.
Didn’t the Pope say recently that Jews aren’t necessarily all going to Hell?
Seriously? He’s one of the few celebrities I have met and I certainly didn’t find him to be assholish. But then, it was over 30 years ago - maybe he didn’t age well.
On the other hand - whipping you with a belt? I can’t but feel I’ve just been whooshed.
I heard Martin Lawrence doesn’t grant wishes with make a wish kids. Thats a jerk move in my opinion.
You were definitly whooshed by the belt whipping part, but Ellison is particularly infamous as being a gigantic jerk, and has been for more than thirty years. Here’s a recent thread about him.
Music often tolerates, maybe even cultivates, harsh personalities. The list of tyrannical symphony conductors is as long as it is venerated. If it produces great results, the profession stands by it.
There’s a tradition, also, that an instrumentalist shows loyalty to his teachers, and the harshest teachers often inspired the highest loyalty.
Music, like dance, is an abstract art as well as a performing art. It is, finally, not about anything human, and it has long been assumed that humans have to put something of their humanity aside and become its “instruments.” For better or worse, that’s how dedication is understood at the highest levels.
As someone stated below about Lawrence, he refuses to participate in “Make a Wish” type events with children. My cousin’s fiance is a pediatric oncologist here in Pittsburgh. One of her patients had one wish-to meet “Big Ben”, and he absolutely refused. Eventually, they had to tell the poor kid he was just a jerk.
The Steelers visit the kids on a regular basis-he never bothers to come. (Troy Polamalu, on the other hand, is a total sweetie, she says) He’s known for being rude and obnoxious.
I also learned that Coach Cowher had a habit of spitting during games-and didn’t give a shit who he hit.
Actually, Martin, I believe I’ve been taught that only God alone knows who goes to Heaven and Hell. Catholicism is the best WAY, but Jews going to Hell is NOT a belief in the Catholic Church. I’d like a cite for that being a modern church teaching.
Of the celebrities I’ve met the rudest (if the word celebrity still applies to him), that most people would have heard of anyway, is Gallagher (the watermelon smashing comedian). Obnoxious, whiney, stuck-up little shit, and his wife at the time (imagine Fran Drescher with a buzz cut and in motorcycle leathers) gave every indication of being either stoned or drunk. (They’ve since divorced I believe.) I’ve read in other sources (tabloids and web sites admittedly, but also in court records that have been published from legal papers) that he’s generally regarded as thoroughly obnoxious.
There was an AMC host whose name I cannot remember- I could google it but I’ll spare him- who was actually nice but kept on trying to pick me and every other guy under 30 (at the time) up. He was then in his 50s I’d guess- not a bad looking “in his 50s”, but “in his 50s”, and wouldn’t leave us the hell alone. Even in Alabama an AMC host doesn’t qualify you for a starfucker patch.
A friend who was backstage during a speaking engagement of Al Franken in B’ham, AL a few years ago said he was a colossal prick. No personal experience to go on though.
Huge asshole is rather too strong, but I was very disappointed with Pete Seeger and lost a lot of respect for him.
The date was, IIRC, Feb. 25, 1993. Memorable because the first World Trade Center bombing was the next day, so you can look it up. My daughter sang with a group called The Streetsingers that had been organized by Seeger. On that night, the group was to sing at a black history month celebration in a HS in Brooklyn. (I don’t recall which one, but it is not important.) My wife and I accompanied our daughter to the HS and sat in the audience. This was the height of black anti-semitism. So Seeger introduced the evening with a speech in celebration of the diversity found in NYC and mentioned “all” the various groups that had gone into making NYC great. He mentioned the Dutch, the English, the Germans, the Italians, the blacks, the Hispanics,…, omitting the people who made up 25% of the city, obviously in deference to black sensibility. It was a disgusting performance.
Bigotry. It’s what’s for dinner.
Growing up Lutheran (btw, the anti-Luther stuff doesn’t totally bother me since I know very little of the man, and if I was taught it, it was prolly propaganda) I was simply told the key to going to Heaven was believing that Jesus was our savior, and that he died and rose for our sins. Since Jews do not believe that Jesus was the Messiah, and don’t believe in his death and resurrection, than they are NOT going to heaven.
The Nazi thing was a smear by those against him. In the 30s he went to Germany and was wined and dined. His unstated mission was to report to the US Government about the capabilities of the Luftwaffe. Partially because it was far superior and partially because he was tricked into thinking it was even more superior than it was, Lindbergh came to the conclusion that war with Germany was suicide. He also had an isolationist view of America. He became involved in the America First movement. Not a Nazi support group, a group which advocated keeping America out of European conflicts. When war broke out he attempted to reactivate his commission but was denied. Instead he became a civilian consultant who taught pilots in the Pacific to fly with greater loads and to fly longer distances. As a civilian and completely unpublicized he flew multiple combat missions including bombing runs and shoot down at least one enemy plane.
I believe that when we see Christians saying that “the Jews are going go heaven,” we’re usually looking at “dual covenant theory”.
I’m reasonably certain that the official Catholic position includes dual covenant theology. I have no clue how Lutheran theology handles this.
Wikiquote:
Dual-covenant theology is primarily found in Christian theology and teaches that Jews can go to Heaven simply by keeping the Law of Moses, because of the “everlasting covenant”[1] between Abraham and God expressed in the Hebrew Bible (the Christian Old Testament), whereas Gentiles (those not Jews or Jewish proselytes) must convert to Christianity.
Wikicite: Dual-covenant theology - Wikipedia
Then you probably weren’t taught that A*B = AB, it’s the only real logical conclusion. AKA, while no one ever told me “the Jews are going to burn”, for that to be untrue a huge portion of the faith would make no sense whatsoever. What are my beliefs on it? My beliefs exactly echo the ones later expressed: it’s not my place to know or speculate.
While Jews don’t have a similar concept of after life I still think it quite presumptuous (especially from a guy who claimed only Jews were literate in the middle ages) for anyone to assume they know factually what the post-life fate of a given historical figure happens to be.
I only brought it up to illustrate a point, that whatever your religion one should probably be careful about speaking as though you know factually what happens to anyone when they die (especially since the only verifiable evidence we have points to oblivion–and I say that as a fully believing Catholic.)
They even allowed him to fly the Messerschmitt 109 (as did Major Al Williams, correspondent for Colonel McCormick’s Chicago Daily Tribune who reported the war in Spain from a pro-Nationalist viewpoint)
Did’nt Anne have an affair with her doctor in the early 50’s, which is what led Lindhburgh to his extra marital activities. A decade earlier, J. Edgar Hoover had investigated Lindhburghs personal life and found nothing.
You are a post Vatican II Catholic. The “softer” church.
However, if you have to believe in Jesus to get to heaven (a belief I was taught as a post Vatican II Catholic) the best non-Christians are going to do is purgatory. At least the Catholics have purgatory, which the nuns assured me was not a bad place for Jews…