By Rabbi Daniel Lapin, Mar 1, 1999
My Comments: Rabbi Lapin does not mention this directly, but the destruction of religious freedom in the United States, especially our Judeo-Christian principles, is the goal of the liberals because to do would destroy our freedoms. Once religion is removed from our country, the State becomes the new omnipresent and oppressive "God". This, and banning of civilian firearms, is the common tactic that communists and fascists have used throughout history to oppress the people and conquer other nations.
AS last year's holidays fade into Kodak moments, must we once again banish religion back to America's basement? Must we rescind the special dispensation granted every December allowing Americans openly and publicly to embrace the religious values upon which this country was built? While secular humanists dismiss what's left of public religiosity during the holidays as mere superficiality, religious Americans (the vast majority) recognize the holiday season as something much more. It is the last vestige of a public embrace of religion.As an Orthodox rabbi, I can state, with neither equivocation nor trepidation, that America is a nation founded by believing Christians and based upon broad Judeo-Christian principles. On July 4, 1776, there was no debate among our Founding Fathers over the phrase "endowed by their Creator."
But today's reader, media watcher and certainly the university student could easily be led to believe that our Founding Fathers were concerned with freedom from religion rather than with religious freedom. I have had a graduate student tell me that the phrase from the First Amendment, "no law respecting an establishment of religion," meant that no religious establishment should be respected! How ignorant can one be and still get a degree in higher education?
Our Founding Fathers considered religion the bedrock upon which the nation stood. Declaring in the Constitution that "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof," was a necessity for the various Christian denominations that made up the United States to be able to live together. The idea that religious beliefs were meant to be excluded from public dialogue is historically insupportable. Yet that is how the establishment clause is interpreted today, to the point where religious men and women are told that they must check their beliefs at the door when they enter the public arena, especially should they seek to hold public office. Just ask George W. Bush, governor of Texas.
Five years ago, Gov. Bush stated his belief that people who do not accept Jesus Christ as a personal savior cannot go to heaven. Since that day, he has been in the crosshairs of the Anti-Defamation League, accused of promoting intolerance toward Jews and other non-Christians, if not being guilty of it himself. As late as November, the ADL was still demanding an apology from Gov. Bush.
But America is based upon a simple premise: Worship as you will, as long as your behavior reflects basic Judeo-Christian values. By condemning Gov. Bush, the ADL is guilty of violating a cornerstone of our republic: freedom of religion. And that means freedom to believe that which you wish regardless of how others may feel about those beliefs. America's promise is that you may not always be allowed to act in accordance with your beliefs; however, you may certainly believe as you choose.
Why should Jews care what Gov. Bush believes anyhow? Ever since the Torah was given on Mount Sinai 3,300 years ago, Jewish emphasis has been on deed, not thought. We believe that only God knows what is in man's mind. Indeed, all too often we barely understand what is in our own mind let alone someone else's mind. For this reason, we leave it to God to judge motivation; we are instructed to judge one another purely on the basis of actions.
In the book The Hiding Place, Corrie ten Boom relates how she and her family hid Jews during the Holocaust because they fervently believed that their Christian faith demanded nothing less. Upon being arrested by the Nazis, Mr. Caspar ten Boom, a revered Dutch citizen well into his 80s during the Holocaust, was told that he would be released if he would promise to stop his activities in sheltering Jews. He responded, "If I go home today, tomorrow I will open my door again to any man in need who knocks." Shortly thereafter Caspar ten Boom died, isolated from his family in a Gestapo prison. Every other member of the ten Boom family died in the death camps, except for Corrie. As Jews, we should not care that the source of the ten Boom family's bravery was their belief in Jesus nor that The Hiding Place celebrates this strong belief.
(Unfortunately, many Jews do care, since this moving and beautiful book is tragically banished from the Holocaust Museum.) As the Torah instructs us, the only way to judge the ten Booms is by their heroic actions.
The only way to judge Christian politicians and religious Christians is by their actions. Jews should not only accept the basic Christian nature of this nation, but thank God for it. Jews have never been welcomed anywhere as we are welcomed here, and it is only the religiosity of Christian Americans that can ensure this warm welcome continues.
The American Jewish community has lived for a historically unparalleled length of time with no pogroms or massacres, with no official government sanctions, without even a special Jewish tax levied against us. A cursory overview of Jewish history will reveal this peaceful state to be highly unusual. I am convinced that Jewish safety and prosperity in our nation is due to the uniquely American combination of firm Christian belief without a specific church's reigning hand.
The majority of mainstream, heartland Americans hold a deep commitment to Judeo-Christian morals. The graciousness extended by most religious Christians toward their Jewish friends is not the result of having been intimidated by those friends into a mood of sullen acceptance. Rather, it is a wholehearted embrace based on belief in God's words to Abraham: "I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curse you I will curse" (Genesis 12:3). Many Americans revere those words because they revere God Almighty who spoke them. American Jews have always been the beneficiaries of that reverence.
I wholeheartedly believe that the joyous serenity of living as an American Jew is safe not because of governmental secularism but only for as long as most Americans continue to subscribe to that biblical belief. It is only due to this belief on the part of so many Americans that I could easily imagine any anti-Semitic governmental decree being widely flouted by a majority of Americans.
In America today, I have access to everything I require in order to observe my religion fully. Not only can I follow all the tenets of my faith, but I can even wear my kippah (religious head covering) when addressing Congress because of a deep respect for religious practice in this country. Most Americans, particularly religious Christians, go out of their way to accommodate religious needs. On the other hand, there are many secular leftists who find things such as ritual slaughter of animals for meat in accordance with the biblical rules for Kashruth -- the Jewish dietary laws -- or circumcision by a mohel (Jewish circumcisers) highly offensive. Throughout Jewish history, though never in America, each of these religious practices has been outlawed at one or more times.
As a Jew, I am extremely grateful to be living in a country that, though founded without one Jewish signature on its Declaration of Independence, has legally granted me full religious expression. I am worried that my grandchildren may not have the same freedoms, not because of Christians, but because of a removal of Judeo- Christian values from this country.
This is why, as an Orthodox rabbi, I have no trepidation in noting that America is based on the Christian faith of its founders. As a Jew living in America, I need it to remain that way.
Knight Ridder/Tribune News Service
 |
|
|
|
 |
