Rabbi's Message

Rabbi Elyse Wechterman
Read about the Rabbi
June 2005

Religion and/in Politics

Last month, I wrote to you about the humanitarian crisis and genocide in Darfur. This coming weekend, the board will ask for your support for a congregational resolution calling for our elected officials to act to resolve that crisis. This will be the first time – at least since I came to Attleboro – that we collectively take a political stance on any issue. This particular issue isn’t controversial – I would doubt that any one would vote in favor of genocide – but it is a big step nonetheless. This action on our part will bring us collectively into the world outside of Agudas Achim and the Attleboro area, a place to where we haven’t ventured before.

This country is experiencing a shift – even a battle, some say - regarding the role of religion in politics and whether it is appropriate for faith communities to insert themselves into the political arena. Some, particularly those on the left, argue that religion has no place in the public arena at all - that separation of church and state means that any reference to faith and faith-infused ideas is somehow out of bounds of our otherwise free marketplace of ideas.

But this denies not only the religious foundations upon which this country is founded and continues to function but also ignores the important role religion plays in the development of an individual’s values that inform all that he or she does, including how he or she expresses him or herself in the political arena.

Others, on the right, argue for their particular faith to be the basis of all decisions facing this country. They equate their own religiously held values with national values and believe themselves to be the only stewards of Truth.

Such a mindset is extremely dangerous and runs contrary to the basic nature of a democracy. To outright deny any other religious tradition, interpretation or faith legitimacy is nothing short of idolatry in its truest sense – the worship of one’s own mind and opinion as arbiter of all truth.

Both perspectives are extremes and conspire together to silence the good, faithful people of this country in the middle. As non-Orthodox American Jews that’s who we are: good, faithful people who do not claim to have all the answers but still are compelled to be a part of the conversation. And it is those like us who have the most to lose in this argument.

Of course political arguments can be – and for many of us must be – based on religiously held values and truths. If religion is itself an expression of a set of values and ideas – a world view of faithful people – then how could our politics not be informed if not driven by our religion? For us, without the moral compass and higher ideals that Judaism inspires us to seek, we would have no basis other than personal gain and gratification upon which to guide our political selves.

Yet, many of us feel afraid or unsure about how to express our values. We may not even be clear as to what they are and how to use them to evaluate and critique societal norms and policies. We often feel like we don’t even own our own texts. When right-wing Christians quote biblical passages to shore up their arguments, we aren’t sure how to respond. Do we engage them in a verse by verse interpretation of the Bible or do we simply deny the Bible’s authority and align ourselves with secularists? How do we articulate what we know to be nuanced, subtle and complex issues when the world around us has reduced our texts to slogans and bumper stickers? How do we tell people that there are values that we hold dear – values that are constant and unchanging – even as we acknowledge that all of our texts, including the Torah, are human in origin and therefore imperfect?

There are no simple answers to these questions, but I do sense a beginning of a discussion in our community. It started when I first talked about Darfur during services last month and people quickly became animated about the need in our country for a progressive spiritual/religious voice. It continued with Rabbi Toba Spitzer’s talk two weeks later when she outlined the Jewish values of Betzelem Elohim (All of humanity is created in the divine image) and L’Adonay HaAretz uMelo’ah (The Earth and all that is in it belong to God). It was present on Mitzvah Morning when handfuls of us engaged in discussions about the roots of the societal ills we were addressing that morning. It is present in our teenagers’ enthusiasm for our efforts to raise consciousness about the Darfur crisis and in the discussion we will have at the annual meeting on the resolution.

For some of us, these discussions are frightening. We fear disagreement or conflict within the community. We are concerned that somehow our religious faith will become muddied by engagement in politics. We do not want to find ourselves on the outs with members of our own community or our neighbors. These fears are legitimate and well founded. But a mature and sensible community knows that our shared basic values trump any disagreement we may have regarding specific policies and programs. While as a community we share similar dreams and visions, as individuals we feel different senses of urgency and need.

We cannot allow our fears to prevent us from raising our voices in passionate (yet respectful) argument when morally compelled to do so. The rabbis understood the commandment to “Not Stand Idly by the Blood of your Neighbor” to mean that in politics, as in the fight against the genocide in Darfur, standing idly by is an indictment of the highest offense.

B’Shalom
Rabbi Elyse

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