By Bernard Starr / HuffPost.com
When I interview Christians and Jews, I repeatedly hear “everyone knows Jesus was
Jewish.” But when I dig deeper, I discover that “everyone knows Jesus was Jewish”
really means “He used to be Jewish.”
Many believe that Jesus was born Christian and that He launched a new religion. For example, Jane, educated in Catholic school, agreed that Jesus was Jewish. But when I followed up with, “Did He remain Jewish throughout his life?” she answered, “Oh, no. He became a Christian and started Christianity.”
“When did that happen?” I asked. “When He was baptized by John the Baptist,” she answered confidently. “It says so right in the Bible.”
Noah, a young Jewish student at a small New England college, asked his Christian
fraternity brothers, “What was Jesus’ religion?” They stared at him as if he were an idiot.
After he pressed for an answer, they declared, “Christian, of course.” In fact, Jesus was born into a family of practicing Jews dedicated to Judaism. As prescribed in the Torah, He was circumcised on the eighth day after His birth. Throughout His life He was thoroughly committed to Judaism, the Torah, and Jewish practices.
He prayed in synagogues and taught Torah to “multitudes” of fellow Jews. And John the Baptist only baptized Jews to purify them for the expected arrival of the Jewish Messiah.
All this is stated clearly in the Gospels; Jane’s quote is not. To address the crucial question “Did the Jews kill Jesus?”—a charge that has echoed with deadly consequences since the crucifixion—we look at the Gospels’ accounts of Jesus’ arrest, trial and the events leading up to them.
The Gospels state explicitly who killed Jesus (John 10:17–18). Have you ever wondered what Jesus might say about virulent and enduring anti-Semitism? Indeed, what would the thoroughly Jewish Jesus have said to Church leaders, monarchs, and others who launched murderous acts such as the Crusades, the Inquisition, and genocides in His name?
Christians today, especially evangelicals, are eager to let go of long-standing
antagonisms and are reaching out to Jews in a spirit of reconciliation. But
memories of unspeakable persecution over many centuries are a barrier for
Jews to participate fully in the healing process.
Given this new environment, I appeal to my fellow Jews to drop the “Jesus”-phobia and accept Jesus as a faithful Jew—without having to embrace the claim that He was the Messiah.
To encourage this mindset, I point to the pantheon of false Jewish Messiahs
throughout history, many of whom were destructive to Judaism but are still
revered for their teachings, while Jesus is rejected. (Click to Source)
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DEA tracked every opioid pill sold in the US.
And the results are horrific.
Between 2006 and 2012, 3 opioid drug makers and 6 distributors flooded the country with 76 billion pills of oxycodone and hydrocodone.
These highly addictive opioid pain medications that sparked the epidemic of abuse and overdoses that killed nearly 100,000 people in that time period.
As the epidemic surged over the seven-year period, so did the supply. The companies increased distribution from 8.4 billion in 2006 to 12.6 billion in 2012, a jump of roughly 50%.
In all, the deluge of pills was enough to supply every adult and child in the country with around 36 opioid pills per year.
Just a 10-day supply can hook 1 in 5 people into being long-term users, researchers have determined.
The stunning supply figures were first reported by the Washington Post and come from part of a database compiled by the Drug Enforcement Administration that tracked the fate of every opioid pill sold in America, from manufacturers to individual pharmacies.
A federal court in Ohio released the data this week as part of a massive consolidated court case against nearly two-dozen opioid makers and distributors, brought by nearly 2,000 cities, towns, and counties. The local governments allege that the opioid companies conspired to saturate the country with the potent painkillers to soak up billions in profits. The companies deny the allegations, arguing generally that they were serving the needs of patients.
According to an analysis of the data by the Post, just three companies made 88% of the opioid pills: SpecGx, Actavis Pharma, and Par Pharmaceutical, a subsidiary of Endo Pharmaceuticals. Purdue Pharma ranked fourth, making 3% of the pills. Just six companies distributed 75% of the pills: McKesson Corp., Walgreens, Cardinal Health, AmerisourceBergen, CVS, and Walmart.
The Post also noted that the distribution was concentrated in certain places, finding that West Virginia, Kentucky, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Nevada had the top pill-per-person-per-year rates of all states, ranging from 66.5 to 54.7. West Virginia, which had the highest distribution rate, also had the highest opioid death rate during this period.
But certain rural areas were also hard hit, with Norton, Virginia, receiving 306 pills per person per year and Mingo County, West Virginia, receiving 203.
While the local governments suing the companies have had access to this data during the litigation, it was only released to the public after the Washington Post and HD Media, publisher of the Charleston Gazette-Mail of West Virginia, sued and waged a year-long legal battle. The drug companies had fought to keep the data hidden from the public, arguing that it revealed “transactional data” that could be used by competitors. The Department of Justice also argued against the release, saying it could compromise investigations.
A three-judge panel sided with the media organizations last month. This past Monday, US District Judge Dan Polster removed a protective order allowing the release of part of the DEA’s database, called Automation of Reports and Consolidated Order System, or ARCOS. Data from years beyond 2012 are still being withheld to protect the companies and DOJ investigations.
From 1999 to 2017, nearly 400,000 people in the US died from an opioid overdose, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Just three drug makers and six distributors were behind the flood. And I am sure you know people that were dramatically hurt by this epidemic. Killing for billions of dollars. A terrifying evidence of today’s pharmaceutical companies. (Click to Source)