Rabbi Dr Shimon Cowen, expert on anti-bullying research
Rabbi Dr Shimon Cowen says he’s sorry for the little gay boys and girls who are bashed on a daily basis at school, enduring routine taunts of “poof” and “dyke”. However he knows that it’s more important that little Jewish boys and girls are protected and has cleared his conscience for suggesting that programs like the Safe Schools Coalition Victoria be disbanded, with the funding diverted to the needy Jewish community, with poor funding options and barely adequate safety at their schools.
Cowen’s pièce de résistance from his research is the finding that the problem of homosexual bullying will eventually go away because, he says, if the gay boys and girls are bullied sufficently, they’ll eventually kill themselves due to self-loathing and depression. He sees this as a win-win situation.
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[This article was first published in 2012 however in correcting a broken link it has has somehow acquired a publication date of 2014]
major ‘dislike’ for this ‘man’s’ thinking!
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Disgusting.
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I thought Hitler was dead.
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I read this and found myself having a hard time believing this man believes what he says. That ANYONE should be considered expendable is just so far beyond wrong, I can’t even come up with a word for it. Rabbi, your reasoning sounds so much like the reasoning used back in the 40s. That you, a Jewish man, could say it is despicable. No child of God is ever expendable. NONE. How dare you even think it, let alone say it out loud. May you rot forever for your words.
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What a complete and utter twat!
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hmm the nazis thought the same thing about the jewish once. looks like the jewish forget their past and didn’t learn anything from what their people went through. how sad that he’s turned into this type of person. Who thinks persecution of a minority is ok, as long as it’s not his.
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Seriously? What an outrage!
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I’m not saying that Cowan’s theory is right, but i actually read the article where you got your information from, and it is not mentioned ANYWHERE that he hopes the situation will go away because all the gay kids will commit suicide. Maybe that is YOUR conclusion, but the way you wrote it makes it look like its his quote.
Again, I’m not saying he’s right, but you aren’t right either by misquoting people.
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Aussie Jew, never let the truth get in the way of a good story. I’m sure that’s the good rabbi’s philosophy. 😀
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It’s satire.
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It’s posted under a category that leaves no doubt it’s satire. I can’t help if people don’t read that.
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And you’re supporting the good rabbi’s stance are you? Hiding cowardly behind your anonymity. I have the courage to fight the hate from people like this rabbi. What are you doing to fight the religious bigotry, or are you party to it as well?
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Aussie Jew. The rabbi’s polemic is filled with lies, half truths and wishful thinking. There is no evidence that counselling or therapy changes sexual orientation, quite the reverse, it causes severe trauma. Contrary to his assertion, there is plenty of scientific evidence that sexual orientation is fixed in the womb, as firmly as eye colour. There is evidence from the USA that allowing the bullying of gays, by insisting it is a choice, doubles, the rate of gay youth suicide. Why do you support the rabbi’s right to lie, but don’t think anyone else has the right to draw conclusions from them? If the fellow has thought through his arguments, then he will know that his advice will cause many more deaths, just as every homophobic pronouncement by Pell and Jensen do the same thing. They just don’t care about the consequences… gays are expendable- useful scapegoats!
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Very funny, Mikey Bear… Well done.
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I’m glad you can see the humour.
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There have been a number of times throughout history that people have thought that Jews were expendable… Perhaps the Rabbi needs to remember that before he puts another group of people of the extermination block… Be careful Rabbi
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What a disgrace. If it was a jew being bullies you would be screeming blue murder. For a man of letters you are remarbably unlearned. Your father would be ashamed of you. Hitler in ringlets and a black hat. Shame, shame,shame
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Hatred, wrapped up in religion, is …hatred.
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Does coercing young boys into having bits of their penises chopped off count as bullying, I wonder? Perhaps the Rabbi is worried the course might lose him some Bar Mitzvah candidates.
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Rabbi Cowen is not an “expert” on bullying. He is a director of Religious Studies at Monash University. As a JD student at the university, I sat down with him to factually correct his article. I blogged about it here: http://sophistintraining.wordpress.com/2012/02/22/with-rabbi-coen/
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[…] absolutely mad Rabbi’s who think that the solution to bullying of gay kids is the victims committing suicide, DLP pro-lifers, homophobic fatherhood rights activists, Bill Heffernan’s sister and a […]
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