 |  |
Click for Contents
|
P.O. Box 1805,Jerusalem 91017 Tel. 972-2-531-5440, Fax: 972-2-537-9489 Advertising Fax: 972-2-531-5425, Email Editorial: [email protected] Subscriptions: [email protected] Web site: http://www.jrep.com |
Playing the Jesus Card
Yigal Schleifer / New York
 (Avi Katz) |
In a recent interview on CBS's "60 Minutes," one of the candidates running for president of the United States took the opportunity to let the country know that he is a born-again Christian. The same candidate, in an earlier interview in the Washington Post, confessed that he often asks himself "W.W.J.D? - What would Jesus do?" The candidate in question is not some fringe hopeful from the Republican party�s Christian fundamentalist wing, but the Democratic front-runner and vaunted liberal, Vice President Al Gore.
Gore is not the only one who seems to have gotten religion on the campaign trail. When asked in a recent debate in Iowa to name his favorite political philosopher or thinker, Republican front-runner George W. Bush answered: "Christ, because he changed my heart." Asked to explain this comment, the Texas governor replied: "When you turn your heart and your life over to Christ, when you accept Christ as your savior, it changes your heart and changes your life, and that�s what happened to me."
Bush�s Republican rival, Arizona�s Senator John McCain, has a radio spot that recalls how he composed a Christmas sermon while a prisoner of war in Vietnam. "It was certainly a shot to everyone�s morale to hear those Christian words in that very unchristian-like place," says a fellow former PoW.
Add to all this blatantly religious talk the fact that both Gore and Bush have made faith-based initiatives a centerpiece of their campaigns, and it almost seems that the candidates are running on a ticket with God. For many Jewish leaders, the candidates� increased use of overtly Christian language is disturbing; some say that even more distressing is that this trend may signal more fundamental changes soon to come in the realm where politics and religion meet.
"If candidates claim that they are born-again Christians and say that their political mentor is Jesus Christ, does that mean that all the teachings of Christ become political truths?" asks Abraham Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League. "That�s what makes a lot of us uncomfortable. It�s as if they�ve written off all those who don�t profess to be Christians."
Much of the religion-based language and proposals being put forward by Gore and Bush is simply a matter of politics, says Hank Sheinkopf, a Democratic political consultant from New York. "It�s important for Gore to drive a wedge between him and the moral flaws of Bill Clinton. Bush needs it to attract a major constituency of the Republican party - conservative Christians."
But political observers say that beneath the language lies the even more important question of what it portends for the larger issue of separation of church and state - a precept that one Jewish leader describes as the American Jewish community�s "holy of holies" because it has been a major factor in the community�s success.
Both Gore and Bush have made Charitable Choice - a proposal that would allow religious organizations to receive federal funds for social services - a big part of their campaign, while Bush is a strong supporter of school vouchers, which would allow taxpayers� money to be used to send children to religious schools. Coupled with a renewed effort to reintroduce prayer in schools in certain parts of the country, these changes have some people questioning whether the wall separating church and state is beginning to weaken.
"We are at a major crossroads," says Marc Stern, assistant executive director of the American Jewish Congress. "It�s not so much that there are cracks; there�s a fundamental dispute over where the country ought to be heading."
"There�s a shift under way, especially in the Democratic Party," echoes Robert Boston, assistant director of communications for Americans United for Separation of Church and State, a Washington-based public education group. "They are tired of being hit over the head on the religious issue." But it is precisely this shift, Boston adds, that makes the various candidates� religious talk the more troubling. "What�s the next step?" he asks. "How will this affect public policy if they become president?"
Mark Pelavin, associate director of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, expects more shots to be taken at the separation of church and state as the election draws nearer. Among them he cites Republican Oklahoma Congressman Ernest Istook�s proposal for an amendment that would give constitutional protection to school prayer. "I think there�s a feeling, especially among the conservatives, that these issues work for them," says Pelavin, "that it�s politically damaging to get up and vote against school prayer."
What�s being said and proposed on the campaign trail and in Congress is not coming out of a vacuum. Americans are becoming more religious and more spiritual. A 1994 Harris poll found 95 percent of them saying they believed in God and 90 percent believing in heaven. The American Jewish Congress�s Stern says that many Americans are concerned with what they see as a lack of morals in the country. "Parallel to that," adds Stern, "there is a series of so-far intractable social problems that have lingered for 30 years. The feeling is that the discipline religion brings to people�s lives would help solve these problems. In that sense, it�s easy to understand why candidates would inject religion into the campaign."
Jewish organizations are not the only religious groups raising red flags. Concerned about what effect government involvement could have on religious life in the U.S., some major Christian organizations have been working with Jewish groups to develop guidelines for the church-state debate.
"My concern with the language of born-again Christians is that someone is going to say �My faith is preferable and I will work very hard to make this the faith of America.�" warns the Rev. Joan Brown Campbell, general secretary of the National Council of Churches. Brent Walker, executive director of the Baptist Joint Committee, adds: "There�s a delicate balance you have to achieve. The Jesus card is a dangerous one to play. A lot of people in our nation today - by a long shot - are not followers of Jesus."
The candidates and some of their Jewish supporters are down-playing the significance of some of the statements that have been made. "It�s important to make a distinction between religion playing a role in a campaign and candidates answering questions about how religion has played a role in their lives," says Ari Fleischer, spokesman for the Bush campaign. "I think voters can sort out which candidates preach religion and which candidates derive strength from their religion and traditions."
Relating to some of Bush�s faith-based initiatives, Fleischer says: "The governor does believe that the answers to many of society�s deepest problems are often found in our nation�s synagogues, churches and mosques. The concept of tzedakah [charity] has very often helped people more effectively than government redistribution programs."
Matt Brooks, executive director of the Republican Jewish Coalition, says that based on recent appearances by the Republican candidates before his organization, he sees no reason for concern. "We work very hard and believe the walls between church and state should be very strong," Brooks says. Yet, he adds, in defense of what Bush and some of the other Republican candidates have said: "I think it�s important for voters to understand who these candidates are."
The Gore campaign did not respond to The Jerusalem Report�s repeated requests for a comment, but Ira Forman, director of the National Jewish Democratic Council, says he hasn�t been concerned by what the vice president has said so far. And despite the two candidates raising similar proposals, Forman says Gore and Bush are quite different in terms of their views of what role religion should play in government policy. "There are huge differences. Bush lines up more to the side that says the separation of church and state is something we don�t need to be concerned about. Gore will fall much more on the side of protecting it."
Finding the difference between the Republicans and Democrats on a number of these issues may take some detective work. But one place where a division is apparent is in the Jewish community. Although, according to recent surveys, Jews are mostly opposed to school voucher programs, the Orthodox community, which would like more government funding for its institutions and schools, has come out as a strong supporter of both vouchers and Charitable Choice.
Nathan Diament, director of the Institute for Public Affairs at the Orthodox Union, says he isn�t bothered by the religious language being used on the campaign trail. "In some ways, it�s more honest," he explains. "Let�s find out what animates these people, what their values are." For Diament, concern about what such talk means for church-state separation is moot. "I don�t think the dividing line is as tidy as people make it out to be," he says. "The strict separationists are really out of touch with mainstream America right now."
Given that Jews can be found in the Senate, in the cabinet and in all walks of American life, Diament believes fears that a lowered wall will be harmful to the Jewish community are unfounded. "How many average Jews on the street in America today have any encounter that causes them to worry that the United States as a Christian nation is inhospitable to Jews?" he asks.
But Stephen Steinlight, director of national affairs at the American Jewish Committee, cautions that the success of American Jewry shouldn�t lead to lowered vigilance. "We have flourished in this country like nowhere else," he says, "and that is thanks to a set of principles." As concerns about Jewish continuity grow and day-school education becomes more popular, Steinlight is worried that the traditional non-Orthodox consensus on one of the most important of those principles may start to crumble.
"I�m afraid that American Jews are becoming enormously complacent because we have done enormously well," he says. "But I think we are forgetting what has enabled us to achieve this - and a centerpiece is church-state separation. The American Jewish community may be killing the goose that laid the golden egg."
Jewish World
|
 |
|
© The Jerusalem Report 1999-2001 |  |