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From: trb@floyd.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.religion
Subject: Re: Holy Land
Message-ID: <1694@floyd.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 28-Jun-83 15:11:51 EDT
Article-I.D.: floyd.1694
Posted: Tue Jun 28 15:11:51 1983
Date-Received: Tue, 28-Jun-83 22:19:53 EDT
Lines: 28

In response to my comment about people (usually the Christian mass
media) who call Israel "the Holy Land" rather than Israel, Larry
Kolodney (grkermit!larry) asks:

	Why is it offensive, and why is it more offensive than saying
	that Jesus is the messiah and that we have it all wrong?

To answer the relevant question ("Why is it offensive?"), it is
offensive because the country has a name, and it naturally wants to be
called by that name, and to not call it by that name is a show of
disrespect.  If you always addressed me as "the hacker who works at BTL
Whippany," when I wanted to be called "Andy," I would be offended, and
I would take it as a display of your disrespect.

Larry, I don't understand what relevance your question about Jesus and
the messiah has to this discussion at all.  If you are asking about the
offensiveness of you believing in Jesus as the messiah, yes, I would
find it offensive if those beliefs were forced upon me, but I don't
find it offensive that you believe in them.  Again, I don't see the
relevance of that to this discussion.

I didn't mean to offend anyone by using the spelling "Cristian" in my
first note, it was an honest phonetic mispelling.

Also, Larry, the proper spelling of my last name is not Tennenbaum,
it's Tannenbaum (was that in retaliation?)

	Andy Tannenbaum   Bell Labs  Whippany, NJ   (201) 386-6491