Catholicism, the official religion of the State of New York, just ask Joseph Zwilling why the OTBs, public benefit corporations, are closed ONLY on Roman Catholic holy days.
NY Const. Art 1, Sec. 3 is just another piece of edible chocolate.
As religious questions go, it is a relatively small one.
But, inevitably, it must be asked: Is it O.K. to eat a chocolate statuette of your favorite holy figure?
The matter arose recently at Bond Street Chocolate,
a bite-size East Village boutique that traffics in intricately detailed
figurines of Jesus, Moses, the Buddha, and the elephant-headed Hindu
god Ganesh.
Last week, an organization called Universal Society of Hinduism issued a demand:
“Upset Hindus urge withdrawal of Lord Ganesh-shaped edible chocolate,” read the society’s Feb. 1 news release.
The
owner of the store, Lynda Stern, was puzzled. For more than five years,
she has been selling the gold-dusted Ganesh and his shelfmates, beside
passion fruit bonbons and chocolate-coated wasabi peas, with barely a
whiff of controversy.
In the release, the society’s president, Rajan Zed,
wrote that Ganesh, the remover of obstacles, was “highly revered in
Hinduism and was meant to be worshiped in temples or home shrines and
not to be eaten casually.” The chocolate statues, he wrote, were an
insult to Hindus.
Mr.
Zed, a former Postal Service supervisor in Reno, Nev., and the
society’s only full-time staff member, is a frequent critic of the
nonreligious use of Hindu imagery.
He has taken on an Australian brewery whose ginger beer label shows Ganesh and the goddess Lakshmi; challenged the Brooklyn Museum over a mural depicting the deity Kali; and persuaded Urban Outfitters to stop selling a Ganesh duvet cover.
But Ms. Stern, whose 3-inch-tall Ganesh sells for $15, has no intention of desisting.
“All spiritual icons are treated equally in my shop,” she said, “with honor and respect to the religion.”
And it turns out that whether the statues offend the devout depends on whom you ask.
“We Hindus look at the universe as eternal and god almighty as one,” said Uma Mysorekar, president of the Hindu Temple Society of North America,
in Queens, which says it is the country’s largest Hindu temple. “So we
would not say that the lord resides only in that little piece of
chocolate. It’s more like when they eat it, the lord comes back to us —
he is within us.”
She added, “Our own Indian children would love to have some candies like this.”
The store’s Divine Collection also includes a 4-inch-high Virgin of Guadalupe, which sells for $18. The Rev. Santiago Rubio, pastor of the Church of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Chelsea, was not pleased to hear this.
“We
consider statues and images as sacred objects that help connect with
the divine or the supernatural,” Mr. Rubio said. “So to transform them
into merchandise, candy to eat, I don’t think it’s the best way to go.
It’s just business for these people.”
But
a spokesman for the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York, Joseph
Zwilling, recalled a Catholic organization’s dinner at which guests were
given white chocolate Virgin Marys.
“I
don’t think there’s anything inherently sacrilegious about it,” Mr.
Zwilling said of Ms. Stern’s Jesus treat, which is cast from a dashboard
ornament. “It’s the intention of the person making it that matters.”
Ms. Stern said that after an article
about the chocolate statuettes appeared in 2009, she got a call from a
representative of a Buddhist community in Chinatown who threatened a
boycott of the store. She chose to ignore it — “That’s not my
demographic,” she said — and it ended there.
Since
then, she said, her figurines had been purchased “non-ironically” by
many religious customers. (In case anyone was wondering, Ms. Stern does
not make figures of the Prophet Muhammad.)
Hun Lye, a Tibetan Buddhist lama who last year helped make a sand mandala
at the Asia Society in Manhattan to demonstrate impermanence, said that
for many Buddhists, eating the Buddha’s likeness “would be considered
disrespectful and it would be believed that it would result in negative
karma being created.”
On
the other hand, he said, a famous ancient Buddhist text, “A Guide to
the Bodhisattva Way of Life,” “says that those who get upset when the
Buddha is being insulted should not call themselves disciples of the
Buddha.”
“It’s the Dalai Lama’s favorite text,” he said. “But probably you wouldn’t see the Dalai Lama buying the statue and chomping on it.”
Correction: February 8, 2015
An earlier version of this article misstated the title for an ancient Buddhist text. It is “A Guide to the Bodhisattva Way of Life,” not “The Boddhisattva Way of Living.” It also misstated when that text originated. It was the eighth century, not the ninth century.
Stop scratching on holidays
Off Track Betting in New York State has been racing into a crisis called shrinking revenue. Some people have spitballed a solution: Don’t close on holidays.
New York State Racing Law bars racing on Christmas, Easter and Palm Sunday, and the state has ruled OTBs can’t handle action on those days, even though they could easily broadcast races from out of state.
“You should be able to bet whenever you want,” said Jackson Leeds, a Nassau OTB employee who makes an occasional bet. He added some irrefutable logic: “How is the business going to make money if you’re not open to take people’s bets?”
Elias Tsekerides, president of the Federation of Hellenic Societies of Greater New York, said OTB is open on Greek Orthodox Easter and Palm Sunday.
“I don’t want discrimination,” Tsekerides said. “They close for the Catholics, but open for the Greek Orthodox? It’s either open for all or not open.”
OTB officials have said they lose millions by closing on Palm Sunday alone, with tracks such as Gulfstream, Santa Anita, Turf Paradise and Hawthorne running.
One option: OTBs could just stay open and face the consequences. New York City OTB did just that back in 2003. The handle was about $1.5 million – and OTB was fined $5,000.
Easy money.
Stop scratching on holidays
Off Track Betting in New York State has been racing into a crisis called shrinking revenue. Some people have spitballed a solution: Don’t close on holidays.
New York State Racing Law bars racing on Christmas, Easter and Palm Sunday, and the state has ruled OTBs can’t handle action on those days, even though they could easily broadcast races from out of state.
“You should be able to bet whenever you want,” said Jackson Leeds, a Nassau OTB employee who makes an occasional bet. He added some irrefutable logic: “How is the business going to make money if you’re not open to take people’s bets?”
Elias Tsekerides, president of the Federation of Hellenic Societies of Greater New York, said OTB is open on Greek Orthodox Easter and Palm Sunday.
“I don’t want discrimination,” Tsekerides said. “They close for the Catholics, but open for the Greek Orthodox? It’s either open for all or not open.”
OTB officials have said they lose millions by closing on Palm Sunday alone, with tracks such as Gulfstream, Santa Anita, Turf Paradise and Hawthorne running.
One option: OTBs could just stay open and face the consequences. New York City OTB did just that back in 2003. The handle was about $1.5 million – and OTB was fined $5,000.
Easy money.
An earlier version of this article misstated the title for an ancient Buddhist text. It is “A Guide to the Bodhisattva Way of Life,” not “The Boddhisattva Way of Living.” It also misstated when that text originated. It was the eighth century, not the ninth century.
HI-
Thanks for
the help. The item’s below. I’d be happy to mail you a copy,
if you give me a mailing address.
Claude
Solnik
(631)
913-4244
Long
Island
Business News
2150
Smithtown Ave.
Ronkonkoma, NY 11779-7348
Home > LI
Confidential > Stop
scratching on holidays
Stop scratching on holidays
Published: June 1, 2012
Off Track Betting in New York State has been racing into a crisis called shrinking revenue. Some people have spitballed a solution: Don’t close on holidays.
New York State Racing Law bars racing on Christmas, Easter and Palm Sunday, and the state has ruled OTBs can’t handle action on those days, even though they could easily broadcast races from out of state.
“You should be able to bet whenever you want,” said Jackson Leeds, a Nassau OTB employee who makes an occasional bet. He added some irrefutable logic: “How is the business going to make money if you’re not open to take people’s bets?”
Elias Tsekerides, president of the Federation of Hellenic Societies of Greater New York, said OTB is open on Greek Orthodox Easter and Palm Sunday.
“I don’t want discrimination,” Tsekerides said. “They close for the Catholics, but open for the Greek Orthodox? It’s either open for all or not open.”
OTB officials have said they lose millions by closing on Palm Sunday alone, with tracks such as Gulfstream, Santa Anita, Turf Paradise and Hawthorne running.
One option: OTBs could just stay open and face the consequences. New York City OTB did just that back in 2003. The handle was about $1.5 million – and OTB was fined $5,000.
Easy money.
HI-
Thanks for
the help. The item’s below. I’d be happy to mail you a copy,
if you give me a mailing address.
Claude
Solnik
(631)
913-4244
Long
Island
Business News
2150
Smithtown Ave.
Ronkonkoma, NY 11779-7348
Home > LI
Confidential > Stop
scratching on holidays
Stop scratching on holidays
Published: June 1, 2012
Off Track Betting in New York State has been racing into a crisis called shrinking revenue. Some people have spitballed a solution: Don’t close on holidays.
New York State Racing Law bars racing on Christmas, Easter and Palm Sunday, and the state has ruled OTBs can’t handle action on those days, even though they could easily broadcast races from out of state.
“You should be able to bet whenever you want,” said Jackson Leeds, a Nassau OTB employee who makes an occasional bet. He added some irrefutable logic: “How is the business going to make money if you’re not open to take people’s bets?”
Elias Tsekerides, president of the Federation of Hellenic Societies of Greater New York, said OTB is open on Greek Orthodox Easter and Palm Sunday.
“I don’t want discrimination,” Tsekerides said. “They close for the Catholics, but open for the Greek Orthodox? It’s either open for all or not open.”
OTB officials have said they lose millions by closing on Palm Sunday alone, with tracks such as Gulfstream, Santa Anita, Turf Paradise and Hawthorne running.
One option: OTBs could just stay open and face the consequences. New York City OTB did just that back in 2003. The handle was about $1.5 million – and OTB was fined $5,000.
Easy money.
No comments:
Post a Comment