Eddie Long Apologizes for Ralph Messer's Coronation

[Buzzard]

http://youtu.be/AVkoQHCXSK8

So I'm not even going to mention that he JUST settled a sexual lawsuit involving boys for an undisclosed sum, or that his wife left him. He is named "King", wrapped (actually touching) a holocaust Torah, wrapped in a shawl and hoisted on a chair.

I think I'm going to be sick.

Edited because I wasnt thinking clearly - too pissed off. The "Rabbi" is one of our friendly messianics. The "good part" starts around 3 minutes.

edited again to include names

[GryffindorFTW]

What the actual fuck.

I just can't... I wouldn't even know where to start.

Just what the fuck no. No.

Fuck.

[ladypuglover]

Oh wow, I would not want to be him, not for all the money on earth.

[emmiedahl]

GryffindorFTW, that was my reaction as well.

Why are they doing this? What religion will they be stealing next week? And some of what the "Jew" said was untrue. I question his credentials.

It looked like there were thousands of people in that room, and not one of them stood up and asked what the fuck they were doing.

[nimerha]

Holy shit. What...?

I... what? What is the purpose of this? Did they just wake up this morning and say, hey, what can we do that will royally piss off the greatest amount of people without actually landing us in jail, and came up with this?

The mind, it boggles.

When I was in junior high, we went on a field trip to the Jewish Quarter of our capital. A very tiny lady who looked about a hundred years old guided us around the synagogues, museums and the Cemetery, talking to us about the history, culture and worship of the Jewish community here. It took the entire day, a good ten hours excluding meal breaks and the such, by the end we were completely exhausted - not the guide lady, of course - and not all the kids were exactly polite or appreciative of the experience.

I would pay good fucking money to see that lady confront these asshats and teach them some fucking respect, just as she delivered it to us back then. On the other hand, I don't think any Jew deserves to be subjected to seeing this shit.

[Sola]

What is this? I don't even...

[Sunnichick31]

What is this? I don't even...

You stole what I was going to say.

Don't they realize that wrapping someone up in a Torah that is incredibly offensive? Don't treat religious books like toys! ANd second, I call lies. If that was really as old as he said it was and if it really was from Auswitz, wouldn't it be in a museum somewhere? I doubt either one of those things is true.

[Buzzard]

The "dust" of aushwitz-birkenau is the bodies of murdered human beings you stupid fuckwad.

New birth is a "mega church", there were likely 5k people there and yes, not one screamed "stop." in fact, they had a particular moron on the news tonight named lakeisha Harvey who was there and thought it was awesome because "we're all high and lifted up with god." Wrapping long up in the Torah "protects" him from all the bad shit in the past (like fucking his congregants?)

I wonder how much that "Rabbi" was paid for this little show!

[FlorenceHamilton]

It was Hitler himself who ordered the collection and preservation of the torahs. Jewish people who were taken to concentration camps were stripped naked. They would not have been able to carry them to these locations. In a 2010 article in the British Newspaper, "The Independent", it is stated:

This was extermination on an industrial scale and it involved huge numbers of people. Neighbors and employers reported Jews to the Gestapo. Bureaucrats processed notices of deportation. Postmen served them. Railway staff marshalled their departure. Others drove the trains and manned the signals. It was all logically and legally planned in an inversion of all the values on which human civilisation had been built.

So perverse was it that Hitler ordered the collection of 200,000 Jewish artefacts, which were photographed and catalogued to be displayed at the end of the war as a trophy case of archaeological remains. It was to be called The Museum of an Extinct Race.

There are thousands of "Holocaust torahs" in existence. Many Jewish congregations have donated large amounts of money to have one of these scrolls in their collection. They are so treasured that when the arc is opened, these scrolls are not taken out and routinely opened for prayers. However they are opened on special occasions and only by people who are trained to handle them. All Torahs are made the same way, on the same type of parchment, prepared in a very particular way. The ink is of a specific type. There are trained Torah calligraphers who maintain all Torahs. They are preserved and repaired with painstaking attention to detail. Holocaust Torahs are only handled by the very best of the best of these men (And yes, it is only men. Patriarchy rules here too.)

All of that said, the torah scroll in the video looks like a modern torah. I have seen the Holocaust scrolls in several congregations. The coverings and adornments on the holocaust scrolls are also historic heirlooms and are not as vibrant and bright as the covered scroll shown in the video.

There have also been several hundred scrolls found that were hidden by Jewish congregations throughout Europe. Often they were hidden in vaults by sympathetic gentiles in various communities or they were buried or hidden in attics.

Everything about that video is offensive. It is offensive that they are playing with religious artifacts like toys. It is offensive that they are honoring a known pedophile. It is offensive that they are lying to the congregation about the origins and nature of Holocaust Torahs. The true story of each of these documents is much richer and deeper than the convenient and incorrect story that they were found in concentration camps. The real truth is that the human beings that were sent to concentration camps were stripped of human dignity way before they arrived at the camps. They had already been stripped of their culture, of their ritual objects, of their control over their bodies long before. In fact, perhaps knowing that their precious Torah was buried deep or hidden away may have been the only source of human dignity that they could keep.

[Buzzard]

Let's show rabbi fuckwad some fj love

https://www.facebook.com/RabbiRalphMesser

The Torah Principles produce LIFE! If you have been undecided, unfocused, and unexcited, then start learning about Principles of God. You can Succeed! You have been Redeemed! Yeshua (Jesus) has a plan for your life! It is called the Torah. You have been Redeemed to walk out a Redeemed Lifestyle. You can learn more about your Hebrew Roots by calling, 1-866-867-2488 or by emailing us at Support@STBM.org. You can also visit us online at www.STBM.org. Remember, a Torah Principle applied accurately will cause you to prosper Financially, Emotionally, Physically and Spiritually. ~Rabbi Messer

It's all about $$$$$$

[Witsec7]

Admittedly I read the spoiler and knew it couldn't be good if FastFingers Eddie was the star. This is so wrong on so many counts. I suspect that Torah will need to be buried now.

My head almost exploded when the first minister was asking his gofers to remove the mantle from the Torah and he called it a foreskin. :angry-screaming:

Then to hear that Fastfingers Eddie was a Kohen, well I plotzed.

This is so over the top, and just so wrong.

riffles

[Deleted05]

I get that being wrapped in it is tacky beyond all humanity, but is touching a Torah forbidden? I've never known.

[nimerha]

Let's show rabbi fuckwad some fj love

https://www.facebook.com/RabbiRalphMesser

It's all about $$$$$$

Thank you for that. Dude better spend some of that $$$$$$ on some spam filters, because I suddenly see subscribing to a lot of penis enlargement, personal enlightment, and explicit pornography in his future.

[Witsec7]

Ah some reaction from local Jewish leaders.

http://www.ajc.com/news/dekalb/new-birt ... 28502.html

A Torah's use in a ceremony ordaining Long as "a king" is offensive to many Jews, said Bill Nigut, Southeast Regional Director of the Anti-Defamation League.

The ceremony at Long's Lithonia church, viewed more than 139,000 times on YouTube, "in no way represents any Jewish ritual that I'm familiar with," Nigut said. "We do not proclaim individuals to be kings."

More from the Huffpo:

The unidentified man who, (in the YouTube video to which I had access he is identified subsequently as Ralph Messer), represents himself as a Jew. He may well be some sort of Messianic Jew, a person who claims Jewish heritage and recognizes Jesus as the Son of God, but who is not part of one of the major Jewish movements: Orthodox, Reform, Conservative, Reconstructionist, Reform, Renewal. He does not, however, represent recognizable Jewish thought or practice in his (mis-) representations of the Torah and other Jewish sancta -- or for that matter, New Testament and Christian biblical interpretation and theology.

The Huffpo takes Messer and Long apart point by point.

[ladyamylynn]

Admittedly I read the spoiler and knew it couldn't be good if FastFingers Eddie was the star. This is so wrong on so many counts. I suspect that Torah will need to be buried now.

My head almost exploded when the first minister was asking his gofers to remove the mantle from the Torah and he called it a foreskin.

Then to hear that Fastfingers Eddie was a Kohen, well I plotzed.

This is so over the top, and just so wrong.

riffles

OMG I laughed so hard at the foreskin part. Is he implying that the Torah is god's dick? Too much fail for one video.

[Buzzard]

I get that being wrapped in it is tacky beyond all humanity, but is touching a Torah forbidden? I've never known.

Yes, touching it with your hand is a no no. The only time any MAN may touch it (women shouldnt in all but reform congregations) is during Purim and only after they've washed and done a ritual that I've never understood.

The Torah itself is sacred. Prayers are said when you open its "ark" where it is stored and when its closed. Taking the covering off is a great honor, and prayers are said at every step. Everything about this video is disrespectful from the way they hold it, to the way its addressed, to the way Long carries it.

This whole "show" is of Duggar level media whoredom. Its no doubt brought thousands of hits to both sheister's pages an where the sheeple land so goes the money.

The foreskin thing was another jewishlawfail... we cut that shit off, remember rabbi fucknut?

[Witsec7]

OMG I laughed so hard at the foreskin part. Is he implying that the Torah is god's dick? Too much fail for one video

That was a major fail, IRRC torah is feminine.

[Buzzard]

Reading twitter is interesting. "Eddie Long" is trending up and its overwhelmingly negative... but for the wrong reason. They're hung up on the "king" thing.

[treemom]

I am just flabbergasted.

[fundifugee]

Let's show rabbi fuckwad some fj love

https://www.facebook.com/RabbiRalphMesser

It's all about $$$$$$

Aw, fuck, Messianic Jewish Prosperity Gospel. I am disgusted by those prosperity gospelites (Long, Dollar, Paulk to name just a few with 5,000+ congregants in Atlanta) even more than fundies. Fundies have toxic, oppressive beliefs but they are a small minority. I suspect, at least in Atlanta and possible across the US, Prosperity Gospel Christians are a majority of devout religionists.

Eddie Long and his ilk--not only seducing boys and young men, inventing 'spiritual marriages' for them to excuse his assaults--but convincing thousands to give him money hand-over-fist if they want to be blessed by the Lord. Many of his congregation are quite poor yet they are harrangued every Sunday for double tithing and special gifts and the like. I attended his church for a month or so when I was on my way out of fundy-dom but not ready to ditch religion. I got sick to death of the calls for money and seeing all these minimum wage workers and even unemployed believe his crap about if they give him their last dime God with bless them with thousands.

Edited for grammar having been defeated by temper tantrum.

[GeoBQn]

And if he was actually Jewish, he'd realize how offensive it would be to tell people that following the Torah will make you "prosper financially." It's 2012 and there are still people who believe awful conspiracies about Jews controlling the world's money.

[pomology]

Okay, did he just say Birkendall instead of Birkenau? What a fucking idiot.

He doesn't have a clue what he's talking about. It's just like... so utterly wrong.

You're not a fucking Jew, you turd. Stop... just stop. Just stop treating my religion like a piece of shit. Please.

Mostly I just want to puke. This is so fucked up. What the fuck is wrong with these people?

I don't believe in God, but I believe in human dignity, and these people are spitting on the dead of Auschwitz-Birkenau. Fuck them.

[Beeks]

Okay, did he just say Birkendall instead of Birkenau? What a fucking idiot.

He doesn't have a clue what he's talking about. It's just like... so utterly wrong.

You're not a fucking Jew, you turd. Stop... just stop. Just stop treating my religion like a piece of shit. Please.

Mostly I just want to puke. This is so fucked up. What the fuck is wrong with these people?

I don't believe in God, but I believe in human dignity, and these people are spitting on the dead of Auschwitz-Birkenau. Fuck them.

Me too. this will probably sound stupid to a lot of people here, but I started crying watching this video and had to shut it off. I don't even have words.

[Kitchen Princess]

Can someone describe why they're called Holocaust Torah? What distinguishes them from regular Torah?

[pomology]

Can someone describe why they're called Holocaust Torah? What distinguishes them from regular Torah?

A Holocaust Torah is a Torah that was confiscated (that's probably not the right word, but I can't think of a better one right now) by the Nazis during the Holocaust. Basically, they are Torahs that belonged to communities that were otherwise destroyed (both physically and population-wise) A lot of synagogues today have them. Mine does--we keep it in a glass display case though.