'...not what Jews with an identity crisis have floating around in their heads' - perfectly stated. Or, again, 'a thing is what it does, not what people say it is'.

On a tangent, I think this is really what bothers me about the spate of people converting to Christianity lately. I wouldn't mind so much if they tried to wrestle with the historical legacy of the religion in forced conversion, opening up societies to imperial plunder through missionising, terrifying people with visions of hell and pacifying them with promises of heaven, thereby siding with the powerful who don't want them to revolt and seek redress in this life. Or every attempt made to dress up genocidal or imperial actions with religious justifications. Or the attempt to divert peoples' attention away from the real, physical world and focus it instead on abstractions and the unprovable assertions of religious authorities. Etc etc. But none of this seems to give them pause for a second, the likes of Paul Kingsnorth, Martin Shaw, Russell Brand and others I can't think of right now. This makes me think that they will gladly line up with the religion's next attempts to justify & facilitate atrocities and attack those who oppose them. Kingsnorth already did it re: Gaza: https://members5.boardhost.com/xxxxx/msg/archive/1753137387.html and we know about Brand's courting of the far right, including 'Tel Aviv Tommy'.

The Greens are busy supplying us with another classic example. Look at how people act, and less at what they say. Or as a certain philosopher put it: 'by their fruits you shall know them'.

Cheers,
I