Jews Have Lost Moral Voice

Jewish Week ^ | 11-25-04 | Rabbi Shmuley Boteach

[SJackson]

With the Democratic Party scrambling to discover how to reconnect with mainstream America, members of the Jewish community better ask themselves the same question.

The foremost issue animating voters in the 2004 election was moral values, and 80 percent of the moral values voters went for George Bush. This contrasts with 75 percent of Jewish voters who went for John Kerry, which suggests that the Jewish community’s basic morality is out of touch with the majority of Americans.

A giant gulf, in particular, has opened between the Jewish community and America’s 70 million born-again Christians for whom religion is primarily about fighting for a moral society. Evangelicals are the single largest group of opponents of the moral decay in our culture, including the sexual exploitation of women, sex before marriage, casual drug use by teens and their signature issues, gay marriage and abortion.

But for the Jewish community, religion is primarily about preserving a tradition and maintaining an ethnic heritage. Our issues are building synagogues rather than strengthening the family, and building Jewish day schools rather than promoting prayer in public schools.

To be sure, promoting Jewish observance is laudatory and noble. But has the Jewish community really lost its moral voice? Could it be that the descendants of Isaiah and Micah have ceded the moral debate to followers of Jesus, as if Christians and not Jews are the keepers of America’s godly heritage? Are we Jews the protectors of nothing more than our own traditions?

The portrayal of religion as a spiritual heirloom rather than a moral conscience is the fundamental sin of American Jewry. Afraid of offering offense, we refuse to take a stand and have devoted ourselves chiefly to self-preservation.

Indeed, American Jews betray a terror of religion and morality in the public arena, a position that causes them to fear and dread Evangelical Christians who are religious morality’s usual champions. It was the Christians rather than the Jews who fought to have the Ten Commandments in the public schools. Is the fight to have “under God” kept in the pledge of allegiance strictly the preserve of only one of America’s monotheistic faiths?

The Jewish abandonment of the fight for a more godly country is especially tragic in light of how much more wholesome Jews could make the moral debate. Evangelical Christians overemphasize abortion and gay marriage to the exclusion of far more pressing moral issues like the 50 percent divorce rate (a far greater threat to heterosexual union than gay marriage) and the wide acceptance of male womanizing and pornography. But why aren’t we Jews, famously devoted to family, not at the forefront of condemning no-fault divorce?

Our religion, more than any other, affirms the dignity of women and their right to be treated as more than a male fantasy. So where is our voice to decry the sexual exploitation of women in music and television? And since six million Jews died while the world watched in silence, where was the Jewish voice to protest Saddam’s slaughter of nearly a million Arabs and 300,000 Kurds?

At Mount Sinai, God gave the Jews the Ten Commandments, history’s greatest moral code, and entrusted them with its guardianship. But while there are hundreds of Christian organizations promoting morality, most Jewish organizations only raise money for Israel and Jewish education.

Two thirds of married-with-children-women voted for President Bush, at least in part because of Kerry’s close association with Hollywood, which middle America rightly accuses of robbing their children of innocence. These women are sick and tired of their daughters wearing thongs to junior high. Yet some of Hollywood’s most guilty parties, like Madonna, are heroes in the Jewish community, while Evangelical Christians, who fight this smut, are treated like the enemy.

Many Jewish leaders have warned me against my close association with the Evangelicals. “What they really want is for us to convert to Jesus,” they tell me. But such misgivings run in direct contradiction to the central Jewish teaching of judging people by their actions rather than their beliefs. While Evangelicals may believe that Jesus is the only door to heaven, they send tens of millions of dollars each year to Israel and are at the forefront of fighting the spread of Islamist hatred.

I have had numerous televised debates against leading Evangelical pastors where I have forcefully made the case from scripture that Jesus was not the Jewish messiah. But this has not stopped the Evangelicals from embracing me with great love and warmth, inviting me to lecture at their seminaries, and even their missionary training centers. Why? Because they know that amid our profound disagreements on the fundamental issues of faith, I sincerely value them as righteous and moral people who raise God-fearing children and will shake the very foundations of this country if the U.S. ever sells out Israel.

How strange today that Orthodox Jews, so long accused of being primitive and out of touch, are today much more aligned with the pulse of middle America than secular, liberal Jews, who continue to fear America becoming a moral nation. n

Rabbi Shmuley Boteach is a nationally syndicated radio host 2-5 p.m. daily on the Liberty Broadcasting Network. His newest book is “Face Your Fear: Living Courageously in an Age of Caution” (St. Martin’s Press).

Special To The Jewish Week

[SJackson]

If you'd like to be on this middle east/political ping list, please FR mail me.

[Cinnamon Girl]

Check the sources for those numbers, Rabbi Boteach.

[SJackson]

Check the sources for those numbers, Rabbi Boteach.

Solid source, 400 voters. Imagine he impact each of their answers has had.

[Sam Cree]

read later

[raptor29]

Again, the lure of being leaders in the wrong party outweigh the virtue of being footsoldiers in the right party.

[nmh]

"... the Jewish community’s basic morality is out of touch with the majority of Americans. "

Sad but true. The few that acknowledge the Torah for the core of their beliefs is a small percentage.

[KC_for_Freedom]

A good referenc for Jews who still have their moral compass is Rabbi Labin's organization. http://www.towardtradition.org/

[Eric in the Ozarks]

I think you're on to something.

[Campion]

Too bad the good Rabbi can't get beyond his animus toward orthodox Catholics to recognize that we are also on the same side of the same moral issues. I've yet to hear him apologize to Catholics or evangelicals for some of the nastier things he said about POTC, for example.

It's going to take righteous evangelicals, Catholics, and Jews, as well as maybe some others, plus G-d's help, to save this culture. As Ben Franklin so famously said, either we all hang together, or we will most certainly all hang separately.

[SauronOfMordor]

It's more like there has been a long-standing schism in the Jewish community, with many people who are ethnically Jewish, in actuality being worshipers of Socialism. Notice that Republican support comes disproportionately from the Orthodox

[Mark in the Old South]

Re: "Evangelical Christians overemphasize abortion and gay marriage to the exclusion of far more pressing moral issues like the 50 percent divorce rate (a far greater threat to heterosexual union than gay marriage) and the wide acceptance of male womanizing and pornography"

I am appalled this fellow sees abortion in such relative terms. The daily death of thousands is relegated to an also ran position. I agree divorce is a problem but I respectfully submit at the children usually get to live at the end of divorce proceedings.

Now that I got that off my chest, it is a fairly good article. Just don't expect any big changes. The Jews have the same problem that Catholics and Protestants have. Which is far too many people who want to be a member of the club but don't want to pay the dues (walk in the faith) To add insult to injury far too many of these people are in leadership positions in the Church structure. Consider Cardinal Law, Leaders in the Jewish Anti-defemation league. or the length and breath of the Episcopalian Club. To that you can add the United Methodist Church, and Presbyterian Church USA both of which support "reproductive rights"

[RFEngineer]

American Jews, in general, wrongly fear evangelicals, and protestantism, instead of recognizing the kinship in religious persecution that founded this country, and established, again, in general, the tradition of religious tolerance practiced by most protestant faiths.

In my opinion, Jews support Democrats because they fear the dominant force of protestantism in this country will overwhelm them - and so they opt for secularism as a defense of their religion, as odd as it may seem.

The view of some prominent Jews, (like Dershowitz) that Judaism can be compatible with atheism further leads them astray.

How wrong they are. It is Democrats and the socialism/secularism they bring that they should fear because in the long run, Jews will be among the first persecuted by the same socialism when it fails to live up to the expectations of the populace. Christianity, for the third time - in general, does not fear or persecute Jews in America.

[sgtbono2002]

I have never understood how the Jewish voter could ever vote for a Dumocrat. And lately I dont care.

[Caipirabob]

Four words..."Jim and Tammy Faye".

I will not judge a race or religion because of some rotten apples. We all have them.

Let's just collectively stand back and embrace our common cause, our Judeo-Christian values and give thanks to God we can tell the difference.

[sandviper]

 According to Rabbi Yisrael Rutman 37  members of congress are jews. A quick check of party affiliations indicate the land of blue so what's the surprise :-)

[arthurus]

Abortion and the high divorce rate are manifestations of the same problem and it is all due to sex without consequences. It all goes back to artificial birth control. That introduced the idea that promiscuity had no consequences and abortion became necessary to mop up the errors of birth control. Babies are disposable now and no longer any serious reason to get or stay married. Marriage is rendered frivolous.

[Happy2BMe]

King David would never allow the killing of babies or the glorification of homosexuality in his kingdom.

He understood it was these things that God had delivered the Children of Israel from in the first place.

Why doesn't American Jewry get it?

[Tribune7]

Thank you, Rabbi Boteach

[Salem]

"...Why doesn't American Jewry get it?"

Oh, American Jewry will "get it" sooner or later, as the slant of the Rabbi's article shows. It's just a work in progress!  

Haaahaaaa!!





If you'd like to be on or off this
Christian Supporters of Israel ping list,
please FR mail me. ~
    
MikeFromFR ~
There failed not ought of any good thing which the LORD had
spoken unto the house of Israel; all came to pass. (Joshua 21:45)
Letter To The President In Support Of Israel ~
'Final Solution,' Phase 2 ~
Warnings ~