Friday, January 16, 2009

Why mocking Joe the Plumber is hashkofically valid

On my post about the towering stupidity of Joe (not his real name) the (illegal) Plumber, some incorrectly pious Jew commented that I was wrong to mock Joe for claiming Christians enjoy special divine protection: He wrote:
It's sad to see how little faith as a Yid you have in Hashem.

Your brand of Judaism is to strip all Emunah and Bitachon out of Yiddishkeit.

He believes he's protected because he's religious, as Yidden we think the same thing.

We daven and say Tehilim when someone is sick. Why do we think Hashem will do MORE for us just because we pray or do a mitzvah or say tehilim?

But we do! Because we have faith and we believe in Hashem. To make fun of him for saying he feels protected because of his faith is to make fun of all frum yidden.

Wake up!!"
This is a both a serious, and stupid philosophical error. First the stupid part: Not all faith is created equal, and Jews are not required to pretend otherwise. Why should I applaud Joe for thinking his faith in Jesus is valuable? As both a Jew and rational human being, I reject Jesus, just as I reject lucky pennies or magic underwear. If it would be okay to mock Joe for putting his faith in the saving power of his tightie-whities, why is it wrong to mock him for believing in something similarly useless?

Now for the more serious philosophical error: Joe believes he's protected simply because he's Christian. That may be valid Christian thinking, but it doesn't work for Jews. We don't think that God guards of from harm simply because we're Jews. Rather, we believe that our deeds and prayers change us, and make us better receptors for divine blessing, as I explain in greater detail here.

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