Would Jesus be “other” in the Cayman census?
If Jesus, the Jewish man, were living in the Cayman Islands today, do you think he would have a problem being subjected to the “Other” category of religion on the Cayman Islands Census form? When the census taker came to our home last night, we found it most surprising that Judaism was not listed among the 14 entries of religions in the Cayman Islands.
It is embarrassing and shameful for educated Caymanians to note that a religion that has been around for 5771 years – long before most of the fourteen religions that are noted on the census form – was omitted, especially since several of those religions are newcomers to the Cayman Islands.
It is awkward and strange that a country that purports to be educated and a part of the modern world would omit a significant portion of its own population that has contributed greatly to these islands’ historic culture, development and sustenance from the earliest of times. Not only are Jews a vital presence in these islands today, but many Caymanians can find their Jewish ancestral roots deeply buried in the soil of the Cayman Islands. From its inception to this present day, Jews have contributed, and continue to contribute, significantly to the social, cultural, economic and religious fabric of these islands and have earned a place to be respectfully recognized on our census form.
We do not pretend to speak for the total Diaspora of practicing Jews in the Cayman Islands community, but we, as individuals, are extremely disappointed with the way the Cayman Islands census was developed and released to the public for response, especially after the lengthy travail the Cayman Islands recently experienced in writing our current Constitution and the Bill of Rights.
While we have the highest regards for Christianity and all peoples, regardless of their religions, Judaism did not come from Christianity, but Christianity had and has its roots in Judaism and the Old Testament. To be subjected to the “Other” category in the census questioning of religion is distasteful, considering that this census asks such personal and vital questions about financial status, ethnicity, education, family structure, possessions, etc. As members of the Cayman Islands Jewish community, we found having to respond as “Other” to the Cayman Islands Census not only perplexing and shocking, but disappointing and shameful.
Here on Cayman Brac, Temple Beth Shalom stands out as a beacon of light and humanity that Judaism has been, is, and will be an integral part of the Cayman Islands that honors God and proclaims justice for all of God’s people.
Anonymity and omission can be an awful way of discounting and ignoring. Was this an innocent act of omission, or ignorance on the part of the census questionnaire writers, or a blatant act of ommission, that the Jewish community of the Cayman Islands is relegated to the “Other” category on this vital census document? We are hopeful that it is the first and not the last and hope to see an amended census questionnaire provided by the Cayman Islands Government.
Category: Viewpoint
Shalom Shalom!
Ironic how Jews are bailing the Islands out of trouble isn’t it-may be we have a voice now? Or at least a spot on the Census?
Li’hithraót.
I think Jesus would have said: am not about religion, but about faith – I am the way the truth and light; he who believes in me, though he shall die, shall live again. Now go and render to ceasar that which is ceasar’s.
Mr. & Mrs. Walton, I know and respect you both. As a christian, who identifies with and even called myself a jew at times, because the word tells me I am grafted in the vine of the jews, I understand your argument.
I would only add: the sum total of you and your faith is not measured by our census count. Yes it is nice to be validated. I would say, the important validation comes from on hi.
God bless you…shilom shilom.
What a big to-do about nothing.
This census wont change a darn thing in the Cayman Islands. He who has will get more and he who hasn’t will …… well, whatever.
I too am saddened that in a day and age such as this, Jews are still not recognized. I had the priveldge some weeks back to visit Temple Beth Shalom. It was very small, personal and beautiful to say the least. I was surprised that about 8 people attend shabbat services.
I had a youngman looking into some work for us and recognized him and knew his mom. I could tell he had Jewish business skills, that’s a good thing. After learning of his grandma’s death, and recognzing here name I asked the question. Are you Jewish? I could see some hesitation on his face when he replied that yes-her family was Jewish. He admitted to attending temple beth Shalom and how his family never really spoke about it but were SDA Christians. How many more are like this? How many Muslims, Hindu etc? I think that’s what the census is about-knowing the full truth.
Until then, mere speculation.
Maybe Jesus would have said,
"O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often Ihave longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing!
Today Israel is one of the most violent countries. You never miss a day when something happens there. Talk about peace loving godly promise-land’ people… try going to Israel and talking peace with all including Arabs and it won’t be too long, you are an object of hate
The words, Ignorant, Racist and Arrogant spring to mind when I read your nonsense.
The state of Israel is home to hundreds of thousands of Arabs, Christians, Druze as well as Jews (who make up about 75% of the population), all of whom are part of a democracy where religious freedom is enshrined in the constitution and where most of the population live in peace with one another.
It is obvious that you have never been there and you have no understanding of the Israeli people, or you would not have made such an outrageous statement
Your pointless observation is offensive and incorrect, please "put a sock in it" before you are accused of inciting religious hatred.
12:26 Funny enough, Jesus forgave his crucifiers and you fail to forgive them. That is plain unadulterated hate for a group of people because of their religious, ethnic, or national origin. In Hitler’s Germany one of the means used to wip up "anti-Jewish sentiments" in that country was to blame them for crucifying the Christ. The "simple man" anchored unto this propoganda and helped the Establishment in persicuting the Jews.The result was the slaughter of 6,000,000 Jews. IF you are a christian or even belives in the bible you will know that love is the greatest commandment. If you anticipate going to Heaven you are going to be surprised to see the different nationalities that will be there including Jews.You will have to "love your neighbour" as your self if you are going there.Our people here will not be given any special place over and above that given to Jews or any othe people there.
Similarly you will be surprised if you plan to go to Hell
Reality check: Judiasm is not the "major" religion many believe it is. Sure it gets a lot of attention, helped in large part by the madness in Middle East, but it’s only 12th or so in global number of followers. Far behind many others that were not included on the CI Census.
By the way, the people at the Census office apparently don’t even know what "denomination" means.
The sample census form asks: "To which religious denomination does xxx belong?" The options include a variety of Christian denominations with Islam and Hinduism tossed in too.
Huh?
"Denominations" are subgroups within a given religion. Islam and Hinduism are not denominations. Doesn’t somebody check these questions?
Anyway, until the people who write the CI Census list include Juche, Sikhism, primal indigenous, spiritism, atheists, Buddhism, and Chinese traditional religion, Jews shouldn’t feel picked on. All of those rank ahead of Judiasm in number of followers globally and are not on the Census form. I wouldn’t be surprised if Buddhists outnumber Jews in Cayman and yet they are not listed.
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For reasons neither necessary or appropriate to list here, I consider myself to be non-religious. That doesn’t make me an atheist or an agnostic. Since I haven’t had the pleasure of welcoming a census worker into my home yet, where does that leave me – also in the other category? If so, that’s fine… being non-religious is pretty uncommon (but no less important) here anyway.
One more question, is there space next to "Other" that allows you to specify your religion?
The census felt a little "homemade."
There are many religions, such as Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, and Judaism to name a few. Therefore the question about religion should have offered these choices. Instead it asked what church the respondent attended, i.e. Catholic, 7th Day Adventist, Anglican etc, which I believe are all Christian churches. Since most of the population is likely Christian, listing the name of churches seems somewhat redundant when the purpose of the census is to measure the percentage of people of different religions that make up the national population. I can just see Cayman’s religious statistics listed on a United Nation’s fact sheet: XXX Adventist, XXX Church of God, XXX Catholic. X None- (with explanation).
I also found the questions on income and employment skewed towards the various government bodies, that info should already be available from government records, whereas information on self employment, household income and economic activity not related to employment was not requested at all. If one of the purposes was to establish average household or per capita income for national statistics I would have thought that those data were much more important than wanting to know how many Adventists resided in Cayman.
Given how much money we spend on the thousands of people that work in the civil service you would think that someone there would have a better idea of the data that was needed and why. It feels like we missed an opportunity to gather more useful information.
Can I just once and for all ask, could everyone PLEASE stop thinking of Buddhism as a RELIGION?? We Buddhists do not worship ANYONE…Buddhism is a philosphy…NOT a religion…Buddhist seek Enlightenment through knowledge…knowledge of others and knowledge of self..Please stop lumping us Buddhists in with eveyone else…
Thank you,
NAMASTE….
Slow down there Rorschach. You don’t speak for all Buddhists. Buddhism’s roots in Hindiusm injected it with many gods originally and some forms of it still maintain that gods are real. It is correct that mainstream Buddhism does not include a personal diety but some versions of Buddhism do include gods. Traditional Tibetan Buddhism does, for example.
Furthermore, there are claims of powerful supernatural elements in most forms of Buddhism. Reincarnation, for example, is as far-fetched and unproven as anything the Christian, Jews and Muslims claim.
That said, Buddhism is clearly the least batshit crazy religion of them all. If only they were the dominant force in the world…
Something about Abrahamic religions seems to make people mean and stupid.
More on Buddhism and gods:
"In Mahayana Buddhism, however, the universe is populated with celestial buddhas and bodhisattvas who are worshipped as gods and goddesses. The historical Buddha is honored in this way, but most other Buddhist deities are adapted from the cultures Buddhism has encountered — from the pantheon of Hinduism to the indigenous religions of Tibet, China and Thailand. Among the most popular Buddhist deities are Kuan Yin, the Medicine Buddha, the Laughing Buddha and the Green and White Taras."
http://www.religionfacts.com/buddhism/deities.htm
and
http://www.buddhist-tourism.com/countries/tibet/deities/
Smart move: be an atheist who incorporates some of the very good reality based advice and wisdom from Buddhism.
Not to worry – on the day of Jesus’ return as the Cayman and western world masses are scanning the heavens for Brad Pitt – they will surely be dealt a great shock when Osama Bin Laden / Haile Sellassie comes swooping down upon them.
I wonder if that last minute shock, discrimination and resentment will count towards their marks in "the book"?
Ah boy … this Christian minded, Euro-centric, western world in which we live – more hypocrisies, inconsistencies, and plain ol’ bullcrap have never before been so well organized, centralized and enforced.
Sorry – posted in wrong place.
What I’m enjoying about these comments is that most are quite intelligent and articulate…pointing towards an interest in the topic by, Jews? I’m not a Jew, a Christian by conviction and not upbringing, but prone to stereotyping of Jews and appreciaters of the "race" non the less. Wish I was so smart!
My guess is it’s innocent ignorance. Nonetheless, a place for explanation should always follow "other" for a thorough census. I just had my Caymanian DNA done and it turns out that Serbian/Romani plays heavily into the equation. Go figure. NOW what do I do for that "other" next to race? I need a Jew to help me answer that. Seriously.
If a company told you that your DNA reads "Serbian", you wasted your money. Serbia is a nation. Nations are not encoded on DNA.
You may be surprised how many Jews there are in the islands. They may not speak of their faith too often because of fear, but more than meets the eye had fast to Judaism.
Let’s see on Grand Cayman, you are going to have about 50 Jews or about 1% of the population. Cayman Brac you have how many Jews again? 12?thats going to be about1% of the population. Little cayman I’ll bet 5?-or 2% of island population.
That brings us to a Grand total of 4% of a Major World religion, which seems sad that it is missing. Not only does it sound like ignorance but plain ole stupidity. Some of he Jews are prominant business people, and Civil workers in the Civil services-from medical-to glass house.
I am afraid you are mathematically challenged. Obviously you cannot simply ADD UP your guesstimates of percentages in EACH Island to reach a grand total of 4% for ALL THREE. That is simply nonsense. If you are looking for the % in all three Islands then must take the total raw NUMBER of Jews in all three Islands as a % of the total population in all three Islands.
I know and respect the Waltons but I am afraid this article is way over the top. XXXXX It may be that Judaism should have been specifically named but at best it is an honest oversight.
I don’t want to go all Mel Gibson on you but do you really see Judaism as a "a beacon of light and humanity"?
Seriously?
This is the religion that spawned both Christianity and Islam.
Consider all the pain, suffering, death, and stupidity that those two religions have inflicted on the world for centuries and continue to do so today.
And their roots of origin trace straight back to Judaism.
That fact ought to inspire a little humility in your assessment of Judaism’s gifts to humanity.
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Clearly you haven’t been paying attention. Don’t you listen to our politicians and preachers? Cayman is a Christian Nation. Why are you even here? This is the land of Baby Jesus. All others get to the back of the line and hold your tongue.
Cry me a river. You think it’s tough being Jewish in Cayman? Try being an atheist for one day in this Christian-fundie paradise. They only say you killed Jesus. That’s nothing. The rocket scientists who run Cayman think we are Satan worshipers and communists.
That’s not a joke. Ask Dep. Premier Juliana Occoner-Connolly-Connelly-Oconner. She will be happy to explain how God ranks humanity. Apparently he talks to her daily.
If I was you, I wouldn’t get too bent out of shape about being left off a census form. Just be thankful these Christian-fundie lunatics are too busy watching Fox News and downloading internet porn to get up to any real mischief.
Oh, by the way, I heard Mel Gibson will be the keynote speaker at the next Young Cayman Leadership Award banquet. No surprise there.
Don’t worry my Jewish friends, when the rapture happens we’ll have Cayman all to ourselves and then we can run it properly.
Interestingly enough, the census didn’t count atheists or agnostics either. Probably a fairly important question for modern Cayman. Guess they didn’t want to know the answer.
LMAO!!
You got jokes!
🙂
The question about religion should not be on the census form in the first place. It can serve no practical purpose.
Isn’t the point of a census to garner statistics? Look at the CIA World Factbook – Religion stats are listed under the "People" section… right between HIV & Language stats.
Since the question asked was hypothetical… Jesus was homeless so, as an adult, would not have been included in the census in the first place. (He might have made it into the census that his ‘father’ was travelling to take part in when they ended up lodging in the barn.)
Better question… Would Jesus have been rolled over or would he have made key employee?
The bible says nothing of Jesus having a "religion", in fact he was crucified for not adhering to what the religious leaders of his time felt necessary for him as a Jew to adhere to. Jesus publicly spoke AGAINST the religious leaders of his time and named them HYPOCRITES. Please refer to the books of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John in the Holy Bible if you require verification of what I say here.
Jesus spoke nothing of "religion" he spoke only of peace and unity, that was his message, their is nothing peacful or unifying with religion, as you can see by this article!
He wanted all masses to gather TOGETHER, not several thousands in the Baptist church and several in the muslim church and then several in the Catholic church etc, Jesus spoke of everyone coming together under the Law of God, which was his message.
It does not matter if you are catholic or baptist or seventh day adventist, muslim, etc etc etc, we are to love one another and have no other gods before GOD. It does not matter what you wear or even if you go to church it is how you observe the laws of God and put them into action in your daily life!
What a bizarre omission by the creators of the census. One can only surmise that the various branches within the Christian religion were listed and this was probably a power struggle within the Christian groups for recognition.
What a glaring omission which would serve as an embarassment for any thinking person.
Big deal
My goodness – who knew that ticking a box called "other" could cause such distress? It is not brilliant that they didn’t include Judaism but this reaction seems wildly out of proportion. In a world where there is poverty, abuse and hardships, if ticking a box called "other" is your biggest concern, then you have a very blessed life.
While I respect your religeon, your feelings and your right to feel ruffled about this, it is not really show stoppingly critical. Noone is hurling stones at you, verbally abusing you or your religeon, tormenting you in any way, I am sure the censor person didn’t tut and roll their eyes when you said your religeon was Judaism. So tick the other box and file a complaint, XXXXX.
I empathise – but being the ‘other’ is kinda theological apt don’t you think? As a liberal Christian who does not ascribe to denominations and cannot find a non-fundamentalist church in Cayman I too had to be ‘other’ – wasn’t that exactly where Jesus, the Jew was, in terms of his own faith…
Can I just ask if Judaism is considered to be one of the predominant religions here in the Cayman Islands? If it is not, then that may be your answer as to why you were subjected to other. Not because it isn’t equally important but because it is not a predominant religion in this area (even though Christianity did come from it). I think it should have said Christianity/Judaism as one derives from the other.
My thoughts!
It’s kind of hard to tell if Judiasm is a predominant religion in any district if they’re not counted. In my opinion, it’s not a matter of being inclusive just to make the Jewish community feel included, but because it’s one of the major religions in the entire world and there is a Jewish community to be counted. From a strictly statistical viewpoint, it should be on the census. That said, creating an amended census form at this point would be absurd. Just make sure it’s on the next one.
Many of us filling out official forms in the US, have had to deal with ‘Other’ or even creating new boxes when it comes to Race.
And I had to deal with being *clearly* subservient to my husband, since he was listed as the "Head" (not my capitals) of the household. I tried to list us both as spouse/partners, since that is what we are, but was questioned and questioned about it. What is this, 1955?
The point is that a census will only measure what it is designed to measure. This one is not designed to count Jews, and it is not designed to "see" egalitarian families. It is only designed to count Heads of Households in the Christian tradition. Everybody else is "other." That is, we don’t matter much.
More fool you
I the female of the house simply said I am the Head and answered the questions as such, filling in the bit for my spouse for him. He wasn’t in anyway lol
Hey, don’t knock 1955, it was a good year!!!::))
Judaism is not special in my books of religions – thank God! I understand there are other religions exempted from the Census form as well. Seriously, what is the big deal with "other"?
I was also shocked that when i responded to the question as "Chrsitian" i was then told i had to give a more detailed answer. I was then read a list of options or denominations (i dont recall all of them) so i just picked the church that i attend occassionally.
What is the great need to know this level of detail? i guess its so politicians can see which churches have the biggest following and cater to them accordingly. More to the point i am sure, the reason is to know when we have reached critical mass to amend the Sunday Sabath Trading Law.
But i agree with you Judaism certainly should have been listed as one of the major religions.
Jesus was a black man
If by black you mean Arab…
Aramaic
Aramaic was and is the name of the language. The people were called Aramaeans, from the region identified in the Bible as Aram – what is now southern Syria. If Jesus’s family came from Nazareth in northern Palestine, they could well havebeen Aramaeans. Wikipedia is a good source of information. JC’s skin would more likely have been swarthy than white – much like the natives of the area today. As a matter of historical interest, he and his family would have dressed much like the natives there do today, too. That’s something to think about, when they are dismissed as "rag-heads" by ignorant Westerners…
I disagree. Every image I have seen of Jesus shows him to be caucasian with long golden hair. Are you saying I have been fooled for the past 67 years.??????
Does his colour matter?
Yes, unless you are relying on RCIP to find him.
Is it just my imagination or does it seem that the Economics and Statistics Office has gone out of their way to make sure no one is happy about the census questionaire?
I hope you are being sarcastic. Can’t please everyone all of the time. I am sure the ESO office knows what kind of information they require for forward planning and policy and unfortunately perhaps the religion Judaism didn’t pop up on the radar as being predominant hence why it isn’t specified.
I agree, and what about us Jedis? Why must we too be "others"?
Jews and Jedis are people too.
"being subjected to the “Other” category of religion on the Cayman Islands Census form? When the census taker came to our home last night, we found it most surprising that Judaism was not listed among the 14 entries of religions in the Cayman Islands"
And I say with many Caymanians…
SO WHAT???
THERE ARE MANY "OTHER" faiths not mentioned on the form as well. Am I crying about it?
I mean… I can’t believe you would make this such an issue!
Please spare us! 🙂
This was done because Jews are simply unconscious Christians….read the "Unconscious Christians" article byBadir Awe on this website.
Although I personally have a high regard for your religion, please tell me what is the percentage of Jewish people in this country? If members of the community of other religions were to feel the way you do and insisted that their religion be stated on the next census questionaire then there would have to be a whole page or at least half of one allocated to religions. I am sure that the most commonly practiced ones are stated there and due to lack of space the minority is just listed under "other".
Questions that must be asked on a census must be condensed to the shortest form while still intending to collect the most relevant information that pertains to the population. If every single thing that would like to be known by the GOVT and ESO was listed in a very detailed description then the survey would take longer than the current estimated time therefore taking up more of the households time.
Only one month is given to collect this information by the enumerators and it must be collected as accurately BUT as SWIFTLY as possible.
You couldn’t have said it better! What people need to realize is that when questionaires such as the one for the Census is done, they do not look up every conceivable religion known to man or even those that are supposedly the most popular or well known but they more likely put those that are relevant here. I don’t know where the authors got their statistics from in order to make the bold statement that a significant amount of the population was ommitted when they didn’t include Judiasm on as a religion. Really? Where are all these people?
Like another commenter stated, what is the big deal about being classed as other? What does a bi-racial person consider themselves when on a form the ethicinity only refers to "Caucasian" "African American" "Asian" "Other"?
XXXXXX
I am a of a relatively complex ethnic mix. Well beyond bi-racial. I find that being forced to accept the classification "Other" to be the height of insults.
Since you asked here is my beef with "Other": it speaks of ignorance or at the very least a severely limited outlook and an even more severely limited vocabulary. Judging by your response you would seem to fit one or all of these categories very nicely.
When it comes to race on stupidly-draughted forms, my solution is to ignore the insulting term "Other" and write-in "Human" and let them figure it out. Why should I be forced to make a statement I consider to be inaccurate? It is my statement and often it may be my signature at the bottom and so the form damn well will be filled out to my satisfaction, thank-you-very-much!
I have found intelligently and thoughtfully produced forms that have a blank by "Other" with words like "Please specify". Now that I can work with – barely. And I have seen options like "Multiracial" or Multi-ethnic". I can work with these quite happily as they give a more accurate option. But I refuse to be a part of a nameless "Other" race!! (Have you ever seen what this Other race looks like or where they come from? Beats me!)
With many applications, forms, etc, it seems as if only the main "important" races have any significance and the rest can be lumped into a nameless and unrecognised lump. Nope! Sorry dude! Not good enough for me!
My opinion and that of modern enlightened anthropologists is that the whole concept of "race" is artificial, ambiguous, arbitrary and divisive. Some people are so multi-ethnic they cannot be classified under any one race with any certainty; what of them?
To me: race is a concept perpetuated by dumbasses.
So there you have it.
My race, you ask? Count me in as "Human", ok?
Oh, I have another beef with ya: Your statement about religions ending with "…but they more likely put those that are relevant here." So only those popular religions are "relevant"? So then, "relevance" in respect of religion is related to mere numbers? Now that is both insulting and ignorant.
Thank you for so eloquently stating my point all along. Questionnaires, forms, whatever are always made up to get information relevant to the person asking the questions. Obviously to them Judaism is not relevant, I was personally saying it was not relevant. Just as Americans have long considered African Americans irrelevant, Hitler considered the Jews irrelevant…..they are ethnic makeup and religions that are considered irrelevant to these people making up the Census. My point was simply answering their questions, the choices you have are limited so if you are not one of those specifically listed, simply put the only other option: "Other". Of course you are insulted and don’t consider yourself as "Other" but your other option is to then refuse to answer the question, which they have now indicated they can fine you for so my comment to you is to pick your battles wisely, only things that are relevant to you and you taking a stand to argue loudly about being classified about being counted as "other" in this Census will mean absolutely nothing to the Census personnel. They have already decided what information they require for whatever purpose.
So you can have all the "beef" you want with me, doesn’t change my point…..ticking "other" in this instance is truly not a big deal! I know I am not an "other" but you tell me oh great and intelligent one, what to do?
They were obviously not irrelevant as they were treated differently….
Doesn’t irrelevance and "being treated differently" go hand in hand? If something is not relevant to you, more than likely you would ignore it and have no comment, no interaction which is interpreted by others as "being treated differently."
The Great and Intelligent One now has an answer for ya:
My option was what everyone who takes exception to a question should have done, I passed on responding to questions I deemed silly, or invasive, and those with what I deemed to have a poor selection of choices. The census person could then tick off that I did not respond and everyone was happy.
If enough people refused to answer stupid questions or refused to respond to inaccurate choices, come next census the dudes who come up with the questions might be a bit more thoughtful in framing the questions.
I am happy that my principles have not been compromised and I penalised the askers of stupid stuff by degrading the accuracy of their poll. That might mean something to the dudes needing information, huh?
There…The Great and Intelligent One has spoken.
The Census was still ill-informed on this issue – it should have listed the 6 major religions of the world, then put ‘other’ and a space for what ‘other’ meant – simple – Hinduism, Judaism, Buddhism, Christianity, Islam, Sikhism and Other plus space – that way people could have put none or their denomination or another world religion or another belief system – remember this for next time, Cayman
Um, that’s the point. We don’t *know* what the percentage of Jewish people is, because they weren’t counted.