Jewish leaders speaking out against Christian Right theocracy

"Make no mistake: We are facing an emerging Christian right leadership that intends to 'Christianize' all aspects of American life, from the halls of government to the libraries, to the movies, to recording studios, to the playing fields and local rooms of professional collegiate and amateur sport, from the military to SpongeBob SquarePants." - Abraham Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL)

Michelle Goldberg has just done an article that is one of the more hopeful pieces I've seen in a while dealing with the Christian Right. It's about how some Jewish leaders are reacting publicly against the theocratic goals and the not-very-submerged anti-Semitism that are central characteristics of today's Christian Right: Jews and the Christian right: Is the honeymoon over? Salon 11/29/05.

Abe Foxman has been specific about the groups that he sees as the major players that concern in in this regard: James Dobson's Focus on the Family, the Alliance Defense Fund, Don Wildmon's American Family Association and Tony Perkins' Family Research Council.

She also quotes a sermon by Rabbi Eric Yoffe, who is president of the Union for Reform Judaism. Judaism has three major branches: Reform, Conservative and Orthodox. Reform Judaism is the most widely practiced version in the US. To the extent that the Christian Right groups take Judaism seriously as a religion at all, their affinity is for the Orthodox version. The Orthodox version shares some of the Christian apocalyptic ideas that are used in support of hardline rightwing policies in Israel, including the militant settler movement, which some conservative Christian groups help to finance. Orthodox Judaism tends to emphasizes "traditional values" as the Christian Right understands them in issues relating to sex and personal conduct.

I've always suspected, too, that Orthodox dress and dietary practices make them seem more exotic to many conservative Christians, which fits with their image of Jews as somehow strange and alien.

Rabbi Yoffe addresses the issue of Christian Right anti-Semitism head-on:

"We are particularly offended by the suggestion that the opposite of the religious right is the voice of atheism," he told his audience. "We are appalled when 'people of faith' is used in such a way that it excludes us, as well as most Jews, Catholics and Muslims. What could be more bigoted than to claim that you have a monopoly on God and that anyone who disagrees with you is not a person of faith?"

Much of Yoffie's sermon argued that for many Jews, liberalism is the result of religious values, not their antithesis. Being a liberal believer, he said, "means believing that religion involves concern for the poor and the needy, and giving a fair shake to all. When people talk about God and yet ignore justice, it just feels downright wrong to us. When they cloak themselves in religion and forget mercy, it strikes us as blasphemy. "

And then he launched into the most controversial part of his sermon -- an impassioned denunciation of right-wing homophobia that invoked the historical parallel of Nazism. "We understand those who believe that the Bible opposes gay marriage, even though we read that text in a very different way," he said. "But we cannot understand why any two people who make a lifelong commitment to each other should be denied legal guarantees that protect them and their children and benefit the broader society. We cannot forget that when Hitler came to power in 1933, one of the first things that he did was ban gay organizations. And today, we cannot feel anything but rage when we hear about gay men and women, some on the front lines, being hounded out of our armed services. Yes, we can disagree about gay marriage. But there is no excuse for hateful rhetoric that fuels the hellfires of anti-gay bigotry."

Goldberg makes an important point that I've discussed before here at The Blue Voice: that the Christian Right's "pro-Israel" stance is not only in practice support of the hardline policies that have been associated with Israel's Likud Party, but it's based on a theological view of the end of the world that is hard to imagine as being friendly to Jews: "Their Jewish allies usually choose to ignore the fact that the Christian Zionist's apocalyptic scenario ends with unsaved Jews being slaughtered and condemned to hell."

Goldberg's article is really a good look at the strange alliance between the Christian Right and pro-Likud Jewish activist groups. And it focuses on how the inevitable emergence of the narrow, intolerant tendencies of the Christian Right are becoming more prominent the more power they get. The Christian Right are George Wallace's angry white folks with suits and ties and Bibles. And Goldberg is right in observing that "the culture wars have suddenly taken on an overtly sectarian cast". Except I would say that the sectarian cast was there all along for people who looked carefully at what the Christian Right groups were saying.

The revelations this past year about aggressive Protestant proselytizing at the Air Force Academy were a dramatic sign of what's going on, and one of the things that have spurred leaders like Foxman and Yoffe to get more vocal in their criticisms of the Christian Right. Goldberg probably overestimates the degree of "sensitivity" to Jewish religious concerns that Christian Right groups supposedly showed in the 1990s. But she's right in recognizing that their sectarian character is becoming more and more evident:

Such sensitivity has virtually vanished from today's religious right, replaced with a triumphalist religious nationalism. Foxman was especially alarmed by the situation at the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colo., where, according to numerous reports, a climate of outright religious bigotry prevailed. Some faculty members introduced themselves to their classes as born-again Christians and encouraged their charges to convert. Upperclassmen exerted similar pressure on undergraduates; one Jewish cadet was slurred as a Christ killer. Several cadets have filed a lawsuit.

Even more disturbing to Foxman than the abuses themselves was the religious right's response when they came to light. Few were apologetic - instead, they declared themselves the victims. When Democratic Rep. David Obey offered an amendment to a defense appropriations bill calling for an investigation into the situation at the academy, Republican John Hostettler stood up and said, "The long war on Christianity in America continues today on the floor of the House of Representatives." (my emphasis)

And Hostettler did not mean it was Muslims who were conducted this "war on Christianity" that only the Christian Right ideologues can see.