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Tuesday, December 19, 2006

Goldy is Not Amused

posted by on December 19 at 14:25 PM

At Pastor Joe Fuiten’s advice to Jews who were alarmed by the Christmas tree controversy at SeaTac Airport. Goldy quotes the Pastor as having said, on KING 5 TV:

The reason the airports are packed is because of Christmas — they’re not traveling for Hannukah for sure. […] Even Jewish merchants ought’a be gathered around their cash registers singing `what a friend we have in Jesus.’

I’ll have a few things to say about the SeaTac Christmas tree controversy, and the general problem of being Jewish in Seattle, in tomorrow’s Stranger.

RSS icon Comments

1

Apparently being an Evangelical Christian® means not only never having to say you’re sorry (hello Mark Driscoll, master pastor/asshole in chief), it also means being completely ignorant of the fact that you’re an awful person.

Posted by Original Andrew | December 19, 2006 2:43 PM
2

That bible thumper's statment is some clever racist entendre complete with an escape clause. Had to be accidental.

Posted by Solve For Xmas | December 19, 2006 2:50 PM
3

Now damn it, every time I think we queers top the list of acceptable bigotry of the 21st century, Jews can always show a more mainstream bigot spouting off about the iron grip their cabal of merchants has on the planet.

I mean, Phelps is just some fuckwad in Kansas with a smattering of mouth breathing snakehandlers answering to him. This Fuiten guy has a mega church in Bothel, right? I mean, guy with a large congregation in a major metro area says: "let the Jews gather around their cash registers and praise Jesus for the profits."

I'd laugh it off if I could.

Posted by David Summerlin | December 19, 2006 2:53 PM
4

Remember the days when Christians used to only talk about what a shame it was that Christmas was so commercialized? At the time I thought it was tiresome to hear but now I long to return to those simpler, better times.

What happened to the fundamentalists that they are the ones most pleased that Christmas is a big fat retail jackpot? They want Jesus in the shopping malls, now. They used to want Jesus and Santa and everything else to do with the holiday as far as possible from the world of profit and commerce.

But even in the old days, they still were saying The Jews only love money. At least some things never change.

Posted by elenchos | December 19, 2006 3:00 PM
5

Fruiten just needs to come out and admit that he thinks America is a Christian (read: evangelical Christian) nation and that all those pesky "minority" religions + athiests should shut up and go away. You can see it in the increased frequency people like Fruiten claim "separation of church and state is a myth" or how "put upon" they act or how much they talk about being "under attack".

I'm not trying to tar all Christians, but judging by voting patterns there appears to be 15-25% of American Christians that are agitated and right-wing enough to believe there's a war on Christmas and Christians, and that Jews, Muslims, Queers, Feminists and Athiests should be be, at best, ignored and more importantly, told that they're "not American" and are "going to hell". Any attempt to prevent the government or military from promoting of evangelical ideas is somehow "intolerance".

I say fuck em. Who gives a fuck if Santorum and O'Reilly blow a gasket. Let's make 'em angry and see how the other 75-80% of America reacts to learning what America's Taliban really wants.

Posted by jcricket | December 19, 2006 3:23 PM
6

and the general problem of being Jewish in Seattle, in tomorrow’s Stranger.
.

Golly, I hope your problems are mitigated by having 13 Jewish Senators and 30 in the House of Representatives. Could some of those folks have been elected by non-biased Christians?

Posted by Keb | December 19, 2006 3:34 PM
7

Eli, your article sounds interesting, but I hope you resist the temptation to generalize about an entire city based on a bunch of hand-picked anti-semitic comments.

BTW, this guy's church is in Bothell, which is not a part of Seattle.

Posted by Sean | December 19, 2006 3:50 PM
8

My favorite quote, after the fake snow had settled, from the director at Sea-Tac was: What's the big deal- "they're just holiday trees."

Posted by Barak | December 19, 2006 4:53 PM
9

You know, if someone hadn't raised a fuss, I wouldn't have even noticed there WERE Holiday Trees at SeaTac - usually I'm not wandering around looking at trees.

Posted by Will in Seattle | December 19, 2006 5:24 PM
10

Keb, you haven't even read Eli's story yet, what the fuck are you talking about?

Posted by Bek | December 19, 2006 7:59 PM
11

remember when people used to be capped for saying stupid sh*t like that? and i thought violent crime was on the rise...

Posted by redux | December 20, 2006 5:30 PM

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