We are more than one faith in America - another view of faith-based values in our society - October 14, 2019

Addressed to two national leaders who have recently spoken in public about their faith in relation to leadership and society: 

     When I was the site council chair for the elementary school where our son attended, I, a Reform Rabbi, related to the principal on certain values because she was an active member of her church and a Sunday school teacher.    We knew about teaching time-honored principles and trying to build community.   It was somewhat about my Judaism and her Christianity, but it was really about taking the best values of our respective faiths and applying them to a community that was secular in its foundation but still based on values that we both prized:  respect, decency, guidance, acceptance, nurturing, passing on knowledge, cooperation, and fellowship.   It was not about her IMPOSING her Christianity or me IMPOSING my Judaism on anyone.   It was about the tenets of our religious heritages that could inform community life, in this case, in a school. 

     But you - both of you - don’t seem to believe that at all.  You wield your faith as if it is superior to any other idea, and just because you say “Judeo-Christian,” you are pretending to include me.  You are not.  You are saying that my Judaism is nothing, and only valuable because of your faith, which you believe is the only standard to be applied to leadership.   I don’t even understand what you mean by “Christian leadership,” or what you mean by secularism attacking religion.   Do you mean to  delegitimize people who are religious who treat with respect and acceptance people of diverse ethnic and racial backgrounds and people of various sexual orientations and gender identities?    I think you are doing just that. 

     So....have you heard of a teaching that all people were created in the divine image?  That is part of Judaism and Christianity.   Do you believe it?   That biblical principle was meant to bring us together, not drive us apart.      

       There are ways to co-exist among people with different religious beliefs or no religious belief.   In the end, it’s about what we do with our beliefs.   Are we kind?  Are we generous?  Are we welcoming?  Are we compassionate?    Are we open to discussing ideas with others to come to some sort of understanding?  

      Jews around the world are observing Sukkot, when we build fragile booths/shelters and decorate them with symbols of nature to remind us of the vulnerable Israelites in the wilderness, learning to be a community based on respect and a common vision. 

       Maybe that is what we need to work on in our fragile world.   I challenge you join in that enterprise and effort.