Can a Jew Get into Heaven?

"There ought to be limits
to freedom..."

— George W. Bush,
commenting on the website
www.gwbush.com

QUOTE OF THE MONTH: "If you don't think it's a gamble to put a man in the White House who believes we should have guns in church, who thinks the Taliban is a rock band, who was such a failure as a businessman that his company was nicknamed "El-Busto," who wants to turn our Social Security system into a Wall Street boiler room, who can't name a single thing he disagrees with Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson on, who smeared a bona fide hero named John McCain, and whose principle policy proposal is to give America's surplus to the idle rich in the form of a $1.3 trillion tax cut, you're either nuts or a Republican."

... Equal Time co-host Paul Begala, shooting the bull.

IS HEAVEN ONLY FOR CHRISTIANS?

Can a Jew Get into Heaven? George W. Bush Answered "No" in 1994

"Until Bush backed off this position after Billy Graham told him it was a decision for God, not governors, it was unsettling news for Jews, Muslims, and believers in any
faiths other than the Christian — perhaps even for backsliding Christians." (more)

Bush joked to reporters about his '94 answer a year or so ago, prior to a trip to the Middle East.   According to stories in the Austin American-Statesman, he told reporters that he planned to stop in Israel and tell the Jews they were all going to hell.    An exchange of messages between Bush and the Jewish Anti-Defamation League followed.  While no one has accused Bush of anti-Semitism, there have been comments about his insensitivity, both toward the Jews and his own family. A Jewish reporter said Bush's remarks were quite upsetting to his son.   No one in the Bush family has commented, but there's little doubt that Bush has touched a sore spot in family history.

According to a story in the Albian Monitor,"Prescott Bush, the father of the former President and the grandfather of the current candidate, spent more than a decade helping his father-in-law George Herbert Walker finance Adolf Hitler from the Wall Street bank, Union Banking Corporation. (Union Banking Corp. was eventually seized under the Trading With The Enemy Act. See Office of Alien Property Custodian, Vesting Order No. 248; Filed, November 6, 1942, 11:31 A.M.; 7 Fed. Reg. 9097 (Nov. 7, 1942).) Walker was one of Hitler's most powerful supporters in the United States, and landed Prescott Bush a job as a director at the firm. From 1924 to 1936, Bush's bank invested heavily in Nazi Germany, selling $50 million of German bonds to American investors. In 1934, a congressional investigation believed that Walker's Hamburg-America Line subsidized a wide range of pro-Nazi efforts in both Germany and the United States. One of Walker's employees, Dan Harkins, delivered testimony to Congressional leaders regarding Walker's Nazi sympathies and business
transactions. According to US Government Vesting Order No. 248, many of Union Banking's assets had been operated on behalf of Nazi Germany and had been used to support the German war effort. The U.S. Alien Property Custodian vested the Union Banking Corp.'s stock shares and also issued two other Vesting Orders (nos. 259 and 261) to seize two other
Nazi-influenced organizations managed by Bush's bank: Holland American Trading Corporation and Seamless Steel Equipment Corporation. Many major firms had dealings with Nazis in the years leading up to World War II, but relatively few engaged in such extended cooperation with Hitler's Germany after Pearl Harbor. (The Secret War Against The Jews by John Loftus and Mark Aarons. New York; St. Martins Press, 1994.) "

More recently, both George W. Bush and his father, the former President, had been forced to deal with anti-Semitism in Poppy's campaign, according to the Albian Monitor story: "Nazism was more than a joke to George Bush when he was running for President.... In the fall of 1988, Vice President Bush had to fire several neo-Nazis and anti-Semites from his Presidential campaign. The scandal erupted when Washington Jewish Week and other media outlets discovered that the Bush campaign harbored well known neo-Nazis, including Jerome Brentar, a holocaust revisionist who claims that the Nazis never deliberately gassed victims of the Holocaust, and Akselis Mangulis, who was involved in the SS-influenced Latvian Legion during World War II.8 George W. Bush, the campaign's hatchet man, fired the Nazis.... After the election, four of these came back to work for the Republican Party according to USA Today. (Old Nazis, The New Right And The Republican Party by Russ Bellant. Boston, MA; South End Press, 1991.)...In September of 1999, when many Republicans were calling for Pat Buchanan to resign from the Party for his seeming affection for Hitler and criticism of the US actions during World War II, the presidential front-runner remained silent."

With George W. Bush's insensitive remarks and the Bush family history as background, one would hope that the Republican candidate for president will practice his newly-found maturity and be particularly wary of , in his words, the "soft prejudice" of callous remarks, wherever he may find them. --Politex, 8/8/00

NEXT SEE THE COUNCIL ON NATIONAL POLICY

BACK TO TABLE OF CONTENTS

DISCLAIMER: The Religious Freedom Coalition of the Southeast (RFCSE) is a non-advocacy Religious site paid for with volunteer labor and edited by Rebecca, a non-affiliated U.S. citizen.  The RFCSE site is being hosted by the Association of Cymry Wicca, a religious organization based in Marietta GA, the RFCSE Web site was published beginning on February 1, 1999.   No Permission is required by the RFCSE, for reprinting.  But permission by originating authors may be needed.  The duration of the working links are not under our control.  RFCSE has not reviewed all of the sites linked to our site and is not responsible for the content of any off-site pages or any other sites linked to our site. Your linking to any other off-site pages or other sites from our site is at your own risk.

Our Original Web Master, an associate died after a threat from a Hacker who did not appreciate Religious Freedom.  Before she died, she asked us to continue her Religious Freedom Page.  We will.  Even though we have been attacked by Right Wing extremists, we still exist because of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.  

Ben Franklin and Thomas Jefferson, who were deists (not Christians), helped frame the Constitution of The United States of American and placed language in the First Amendment to guarantee Religious Rights for all Americans.  We will uphold that tradition.