Some of the most dangerous people in the world today it seems are clerics. For some reason we still expect them to give us moral guidance, which gives a few of them way more influence than they deserve. Rabbi Lerner is a case in point. It is breathtaking that he describes himself as an agnostic over whether the US government conspired to murder thousands of people on 9/11, and that it wasn't really al Qaeda.
He explains: "I do not doubt that the official story is possible, and so, after reading the evidence amassed by 9/11 doubters, is their alternative story." Can he not use his intelligence and his years of training to form an opinion one way or another? After all, Richard Dawkins has a far more compelling argument that God does not exist, so is Rabbi Lerner an agnostic on that question too? If he is not, he is simply illogical.
The doubtful rabbi then goes on to put the numbers of those killed on 9/11 into perspective: "I do know that on 9/11 some 20,000-30,000 children under the age of five died of malnutrition and inadequate health care around the world, because every day the global economic system we set up and from which we benefit results in that many dead, or about twelve million children a year!" He really should know better. First of all, somebody, and the rabbi isn't sure who, deliberately set out to murder 3,000 people. That cannot be compared with the deaths of all those children because nobody set out to kill them, or are even complicit in their deaths because many people put a significant amount of effort into saving them.
But what does he imagine would be the plight of those children, and countless millions more, if it wasn't for our "global economic system"? Let's say it, yes, capitalism. Does Rabbi Lerner believe that communism would have done a better job for them? The Chinese certainly don't think so, they have used capitalism to lift millions of their own people out of poverty and give them a better life, although there's still a way to go. Or perhaps the rabbi thinks Robert Mugabe would be a better steward for the world's poor? It is an alternative, after all, and no matter how bonkers, it seems the rabbi will give it credence.
On a positive note, Rabbi Lerner offers the suggestion that a massive Marshall Plan could solve the problem of poverty as well as the Middle East problem. Certainly the appalling conditions Palestinians must live under are a breeding ground for Hamas and other extremists and we must give them aid without making it conditional on any peace settlement. The reality the rabbi seems oblivious of, and which will not be changed by any Marshall Plan, is that there is a determination amongst a significant part of the Arab world to see Israel wiped off the face of the earth. They are supplying Hamas with money and the missiles that are being fired into Israel. And the clerics are supplying the justification, just a they did for 9/11, and just as they are still doing for jihaddists everywhere.
What would help is all clerics speaking out against untrammelled greed and corruption, against the tide of smut and porn washing over us, against governments that lie to the people and ignore their wishes, and of course against terrorism. Please climb own off the fence, Rabbi Lerner, there was no 9/11 conspiracy, it was an act of terror, so say so.
Rabbi Lerner's full statement, from which the above quotes have been taken, can be read here:
http://timesonline.typepad.com/oliver_kamm/2009/01/rabbi-lerner-re.html