It would be nice if reporters actually reported...

I see that ABC recently had a story on JuBus...

On the one hand, Judaism bans idol worship yet followers find no problem in placing a statue of Buddha in a family shrine along with Jewish relics. My favorite quote in the article comes from Marc Lieberman, a San Francisco ophthalmologist who set up a historic dialogue between the Dalai Lama and Jewish leaders in 1989. "I'm a healthy mosaic of Judaism and Buddhism," Lieberman told the LA Times. "Is that fair to either religion? Fair schmair! It's what I am."

Hahahahaha...those funny JuBus...don't they know their god is a jealous god?

They don't know "how many" JuBus there are...so this is newsworthy because you found a couple of 'em...? (OK, I know a few myself. And...?)

Understanding anyone's religious beliefs — or their combination of beliefs —requires a suspension of analysis that reporters are supposed to be known for. Still, there are a few clues.

Bill Redeker, you flatter yourself and your profession...

Buddhism is one of the most forgiving and accepting religions on earth. I remember being told by my friend Hisayo Sakata in Tokyo, "In Japan, we are born Shinto but die Buddhist. Our belief is not founded on guilt or any supreme being but on acceptance and the belief that we should help the poor, treat others with compassion, and essentially follow the golden rule." How does that square with the customs and tribalism of Judaism? "We accept everyone," Hisayo said as she and I threw a couple of coins into the donation box at a temple (or was it a Shinto shrine?) and clapped our hands twice.

Dude, if it's got orange arches, it's a shrine, and if you clapped at a temple it's not considered polite...you'd think this guy would have taken the time to get up to speed in Japan enough to know one from the other...

You would have think that the guy would have at least gone to the trouble to go to the Tricycle website to find Bernie Glassman and get a quote from him...but I guess Redeker's content reading what was in the LA Times first.

As for myself, I don't really parse JuBus very well. This whole thing of comparing religious traditions is pretty much hot air, although as a Buddhist, I think eventually there's something lacking in explicitly theistic traditions.