From: dlv@bwalk.dm.com (Dr.Dimitri Vulis KOTM)
Date: Sat, 5 Oct 1996 05:51:22 +0800
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Re: Utah as a Religious Police State [RANT]
In-Reply-To: <3254976E.7F3@gte.net>
Message-ID: <4Ly0uD38w165w@bwalk.dm.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


Dale Thorn <dthorn@gte.net> writes:

> Deana Holmes wrote:
> > On  2 Oct 96 at 8:47, John C. Randolph wrote:
> > > Moroni says:
> > > >I never cease to be surprised by the interest that gentiles show
> > > >in working mormon communities while totally neglecting their own
> > > >failing areas.
>
> > > I don't do a lot of nit-picking on this mailing list, but:
> > > I am a Jew. *You* are a gentile. So are all the rest of the mormons.
> > > Get this point straight.
>
> > Uh, in Utah, Jews are Gentiles. No lie.
>
> I hope I can add something useful to this:
>
> There are quite a few religious groups which claim Zionist spinoff
> beliefs.  Rastafarians (spelling OK?), Mormons, Jews, Christians, and
> probably a host of others.  Some of these groups specifically exclude
> others who make similar claims.  There is good evidence that the Jews,
> to name one example, did not originally (whenever that was) make claim
> to being a Chosen People, etc., but added it later.  Certainly Mormons
> and other Christians "added it later", no question about that.
>
> St. Paul in the Christian "new testament" makes it quite clear that, at
> least from his time onward, the value of being a Jew is in the spirit,
> not in the flesh.  Deep stuff, indeed.
>
> Then there's the question of how one obtains the "right to exist" as an
> ethnic identity, hopefully without having to exterminate someone else.
> I for one was raised in a very conservative Christian culture, and we
> were taught that God "gave" Canaan (later Israel) to the Israelis, when
> it was already occupied.  Refer to Dick Gregory's comments about
> Columbus "discovering" America, and how he should be able to go downtown
> and "discover" himself a Cadillac.
>
> BTW, in a review of HP products I once read (they made the first
> personal computers, circa 1966 I believe), it said that HP people, in
> their main plants in Corvallis OR and Ft. Collins CO, had a really great
> "work ethic", and that they were almost all Mormons and "born again"
> Christians.  That probably says more about homogenous culture than about
> any particular culture, I would guess.
>
> Bottom line for me is, I sincerely appreciate a lot of the good values
> some of these religions bring to their followers, but let's be serious,
> if any of these groups get too much power, look the *hell* out!
>
> P.S.  I cringe every time I hear one of the CNN bozos pronounce Israel
>       as in real estate, or get real.  I think they all have to attend
>       the Rick Dees school of broadcasting, so it's a standard, like
>       GAK or something is going to be the standard.
>
>

What is the crypto-relevance of the above-quoted passage?

---

Dr.Dimitri Vulis KOTM
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