Lift Us - November 16, 2020

LIFT US - NOVEMBER 16, 2020

Eternal God,

Creator, Sustainer, Protector, Guide

Lift our eyes to the heights of the mountaintops

So that we can gain a broader perspective 

On the current moment. 

Lift our minds above the rhetoric 

That depicts some of us as Satan

In the opinion of accusers who designate themselves as righteous. 

Lift our spirits so that our souls can rise

Towards hope,

So that our aspirations can bend toward justice, 

So that our actions can enter into the realm of kindness,

So that our hearts will reach out in compassion

To people who are mired in fear

And to those affected by a pandemic 

That spreads without knowing rage,

That creates obstacles to our lives 

With no sense of remorse.

Lift our hands to our fellow human beings

So that we will be overcome by a desire to give and to share

So that we will fashion an imaginary circle of humanity

That may, at times, seem unachievable 

But is still imaginable among those who would begin to show

Even a small measure of Your divine, loving care. 

Remind us that we are all connected within You

And that those bonds that bring us together 

Are always accessible, there for the taking 

If only we would lift

Our eyes, 

Our minds,

Our spirits, 

And our hands.  

Be with us as we find our way back

To where we need to be:

United

Optimistic

Faithful and honest with ourselves, 

With others, 

And with You.

A message to “stop the steal”

Dear “Stop the Steal” movement....

Stop the Steal that YOU are now trying to perpetrate based on lies and rumors.  Your efforts are not patriotic.   

Patriotism is casting a vote. 

Patriotism is supporting your fellow citizens who have cast their votes. 

Patriotism is counting votes and allowing vote counts by diligent citizen volunteers to proceed. 

Patriotism is accepting election results. 

Patriotism is making your voice heard (some of us might actually understand how you feel, but from a very different place.  Your opponents are human beings, just like you, who want to subsist and, hopefully, thrive).  

Just do all that. 

Don’t listen to baseless claims about the election and try to act on them. 

That’s against the Bible (read Leviticus Chapter 19 please).   

Don’t listen even if your leader, or leaders, 

tell you to try to overturn the election result.  

We don’t need your chaos anymore.  

If you want to peacefully protest, that’s patriotic. 

Remember what it means to be an American.  

So, stop YOUR steal that you are trying to perpetrate for an election that has been, is being, decided with the counting of votes cast by the end of Election Day.

Say NO to the Big Lie - November 5, 2020 (Facebook Post)

     When I was involved in a city-wide program in Topeka, Kansas in January of 1994 called “Love Thy Neighbor,” which was intended to counter the appearance of the KKK at the Capitol that day, I walked into White Concert Hall of Washburn University through the gauntlet of the Westboro Baptist Church picketers.   I heard them shouting at people walking by, “Don’t go in there!  There are f*gs in there!  And Jews, too!”  

    The WBC perpetrated a steady stream of ridicule, intimidation, lawsuits, taking liens out on the homes of people they opposed.   They spread a big lie, over and over, about the “homosexual agenda” taking over every minute corner of our national life.  

     Now, I listen to our national leader making baseless claims about voter fraud, which he has been doing for months, dividing between legal and illegal ballots. 

     People voted.  LEGALLY.  They sent in ballots.  LEGALLY.  They voted early, LEGALLY. 

     When he says, “Stop the fraud,” I think what he is doing is giving a battle cry to people who see right through him and his subterfuge and deceit and spreading of a new “Big Lie” about the elections.  He might as well say that people like me did it.   It would fit right into the mood that he is generating for his followers.    In the 1930s, Father Charles Coughlin, in his radio addresses, talked about “Good Jews” and “Bad Jews,” with the “bad Jews” being the ones not following his line if prejudice and isolationism.   This is like a new McCarthyism related to voting, which goes along with accusations, during recent rallies, of people being “communists” when they are most certainly not.   Father Coughlin, McCarthy and our current leader were using fear all too effectively.  We can’t buy into to anything like that anymore.

     And for the followers of this leader, I am not going to call you names.  I am only going to say that I am disappointed in you, including those of you who might be in the web of my relationships.    Maybe some of you don’t buy these falsehoods.  Some of you, I know, do go along with exactly what I just heard on television from this man. 

    If you do accept what he said, you have insulted me and my vote, and insulted an entire country.  

   

Our Shared Humanity - Column for Las Cruces Bulletin - November 6, 2020

         The members of my family - locally and in a major city on the eastern seaboard - voted in person.   It is our duty as American citizens. 

      It is, moreover, our responsibility as community members who care about the welfare of other community members, where community can mean our neighborhood, organizations (including religious congregations) to which we belong, our state, our nation and the entire human family. 

     I have served as a rabbi in six states.  I have voted in all of them.   I am still a student of the political scenes in every one of those states.  I have had the opportunity to meet and, in some cases, to get to know congressional representatives, senators, governors and presidential candidates from both major political parties.  Whether we agreed or not, those ties created connections that I valued.   

     I served on the Kansas State Holocaust Commission for 19 years (most of those years as Commission chair).   Leaders of both major political parties shared a concern about educating people of all ages about the tragic events of the Holocaust, so that such cruelty would not happen again.  Some values should, in fact, transcend our differences.    

      One of the most impactful books I have read in recent years was written by Ariel Burger, who served as a teaching assistant at Boston University to Elie Wiesel, a renowned author, humanitarian, Nobel laureate and Holocaust survivor.  In his book, Witness: Lessons from Elie Wiesel’s Classroom, Burger offered readers an opportunity to enter into the presence of Wiesel as a moral guide and spiritual mentor.   

   In one of my favorite passages in the book, Wiesel explained to his students how we can approach each other with respect and empathy: “To be human is to share a common origin. And if we share a common origin, our destinies are entwined. What happens to me will eventually happen to you; what happened to my people is a foreshadowing of what will threaten the world....Therefore the most important biblical commandment is ‘Thou shall not stand idly by the shedding of the blood of thy fellow human being.’  ‘Fellow human being’ is universal. Anyone who is suffering, anyone who is threatened becomes your responsibility. If you can feel this and act with even a little bit more humanity, more sensitivity, as a result, that is the beginning. It is not the end—I do not know how to end hatred, I truly wish I did—but recognizing our shared humanity is a good beginning.”

      Hatred, dehumanization, demonization, blaming, bullying, and abuse of power have not disappeared from the human family. The beliefs that one’s view is necessarily better than any other perspective, and that there is no room for other opinions, are still with us.   

      In contrast, the Talmud, the Jewish compendium of stories and legal discussions of rabbis who lived 1500-2000 years ago, preserved both majority and minority views expressed in their discussions and deliberations.  The United States Supreme Court does the same with majority and minority opinions, so as not to lose the insights or wisdom coming from either side 

     I heard Ariel Burger speak about his book at a conference last December.   One of his statements, based on Wiesel’s teachings, stuck with me: “Tragedy does not define us.  Our response to tragedy defines us.”

     We can properly respond to tragedy and other challenges when we come together based on empathy and a shared sense of responsibility.   

     That is a lesson for our time. 

What God asks of us - on the eve of the 2020 election

Did God ask you to follow the desires only of the rich and powerful? 

Did God ask you to ignore the needs of the middle class and those who are destitute? 

Did God ask you to create a tax cut that only lasted for several years for those who are not rich, creating immediate gains but hiding the coming increase in taxes for most Americans? 

Did God ask you to focus only on your views, establishing laws that codify your religious beliefs, refusing to see that your freedom is intact only when the freedom of others is also guaranteed? 

Did God ask you to allow those who are supposed to preserve justice to protect from scrutiny any leaders who believe that law and order is for everyone but themselves? 

Did God ask you to endlessly attempt to disenfranchise thousands - even millions - of honest voters as a way to try to win, rather than doing so with persuasion based on policies? 

Did God ask you to look at the history of election ridicule, which has, sadly, been an American tradition, and to take it to a dangerous extreme? 

Did God ask you to support people who would put a state leader in their sights for kidnapping and possible execution?

Did God ask you to misrepresent moderate viewpoints, recasting them as extreme, when they are not, in any way, extreme? 

Did God ask you to see lovers of our nation, who would seek a good life here, as invaders who deserve no human consideration? 

Did God ask you to ignore the counsel of scientific experts and measure the value of life based on a fictional number of those who did not die, rather than offering empathy and comfort to those who family members did die from a pandemic that could have been more carefully controlled? 

Did God ask you to submit to the will of a speaker whom you find entertaining, but whose statements often stray far from facts and the truth?

I think not.   I am not sure who “you” is, specifically, but I know you are out there. 

I believe that God asks something different from us. 

To listen. 

To offer support to those with whom we agree or disagree. 

To state our views and engage in respectful discourse. 

To recognize the divine image in every person in our communities and all across the world. 

To offer concern and support for people facing all sorts of challenges and needs. 

To meet despair with hope. 

To respond to fear with courage. 

To build everyone up, not just a select few. 

To provide healing for those struggling to survive. 

My wording is always cautious, so that I can write again. 

The feelings inside are strong

As I look to a time when there will be room for people with different perspectives to find a way to work with each other. 

Based on the words of Psalm 85: 

May faithfulness and truth meet

May justice and well-being kiss. 

May truth spring up from the earth; 

May justice look down from heaven.

A prayer for momentous decisions in our national live - November 1, 2020

Eternal God, 

Compassionate Judge,

Concerned Creator,

Spirit of Oneness 

Infused into our very existence,

As we exercise our responsibility 

As citizens

To decide who will lead us

In the coming years,

Help us to emulate your essential attributes:

Mercy

Grace

Patience

Outrage that leads to productive action

A pursuit and sharing of the truth

Kindness

Forgiveness 

and the awareness that what we do in any moment 

Can have long lasting consequences. 

May the gifts of insight and wisdom 

Which you have made available to us

Enable us to combat, in all forms

Cruelty

Violence

Prejudice

Hatred

Discrimination 

The misuse of systems of justice

The spreading of misinformation

Intimidation of opponents due to seeing them as less than human. 

We know that You have provided us with the tools and the capacity 

To love ourselves, our family, our friends, our neighbors, 

and people whom we do not yet know. 

When we see love, consideration, and decency disappearing 

From our communities, our nation and our world, 

May we find a way to take a stand 

And to join with others

To preserve love - and peace - within our souls

Within our relationships 

And within the unseen but powerful ties 

That bind together all human beings with all of Your creation.