Jews, Godlessness And Politics

By Rod Dreher • September 7, 2012, 11:19 AM

David Goldman reflects on religion at the party conventions, comparing the prayer the Conservative Rabbi David Wolpe gave at the Democratic convention with the prayer offered by Orthodox Rabbi Meir Soloveichik at the GOP confab. Excerpt:

One difference between the two addresses is the fact that the whole Republican convention heard Rabbi Soloveichik, while no-one but the cleaning crew was there for Rabbi Wolpe. There was a also a world of difference in the content. Rabbi Wild and Wonderful preached social work and psychobabble, while Rabbi Soloveitchik linked God’s revelation to Moses and the American founding, much closer in spirit to Cardinal Dolan than to the progressive Rabbi Wolpe.

It’s no surprise that progressive Judaism is imploding. In the past decade, the Reform and (poorly named) Conservative movements have lost 30% to 40% of their members by various estimates. If Judaism boils down to social work, why not do the social work, rather than bother with the laborious practices of an ancient religion? Progressive Jews have the lowest fertility rate of any identifiable (heterosexual) segment of the United States population, and half of their children intermarry. The American Jews will be a smaller, but far more devout, community a generation hence.

The cultural divide in the United States is now almost absolute; Democratic Party liberalism, which once embraced devout Catholics and observant Jews, cannot conceal its contempt for religion. Even the clergy who cling to the Democratic Party have trouble concealing their lack of interest in religion. On the other hand, Americans of faith have rallied together as never before: Catholic and Jew, Evangelical and Mormon. For this observant Jew, hearing an Orthodox rabbi quote Torah to open the Republican convention was a milestone for America as well for the Jewish people (not to mention the fact that Rabbi Soloveichik is associate rabbi of my synagogue). And to hear an overwhelmingly Christian audience listen to this rabbi was a great event. The good news is that Americans who seek the love and guidance of the God of the Bible have put their differences aside where the good of the country is concerned. My prayer is: Let this not be too late.

The Jewish Telegraph Agency had a non-partisan reflection on the two rabbis and their prayers, and the different visions each staked out.

Posted in Politics, Religion. Tagged convention, David Goldman, David Wolpe, Judaism, Meir Soloveichik, politics, Spengler.

35 Responses to Jews, Godlessness And Politics

reflectionephemeral says:

September 7, 2012 at 11:30 am

Democratic Party liberalism, which once embraced devout Catholics and observant Jews, cannot conceal its contempt for religion. Even the clergy who cling to the Democratic Party have trouble concealing their lack of interest in religion.

This is obviously false. Every single elected Democratic official is religious, with I believe the exception of Pete Stark. Of course it’s fair to disagree with the Democratic Party’s views of the role of religion in this or that issue, or even to argue that the party’s religious views are somehow bad or wrong, but it’s a foolish lie to say they feel “contempt for religion”.

What’s more, the reason we care about the government is because it implements policies that affect people’s lives. Even if Goldman weren’t lying when he wrote that “Americans who seek the love and guidance of the God of the Bible have put their differences aside where the good of the country is concerned”, he would still have to explain how this all worked for the good of the country.

The column is a substanceless, childish insult, and below the usual standards of this blog.
Steve says:

September 7, 2012 at 11:32 am

The “court chaplains” of the Democratic party establishment might be pretty weak sauce, but there are plenty of serious religious leaders in the Democratic populace, if not the Democratic establishment. The black church and the many Hispanic Catholics and evangelicals are not lacking in either devotion or firm committment to the democrats. They are the most obvious, but there are many other groups that combine Democratic politics and serious religious dedication, and it is a pity (and an error) for the Democrat leadership to shove them in a corner.
Siarlys Jenkins says:

September 7, 2012 at 11:41 am

Rabbi Soloveitchik linked God’s revelation to Moses and the American founding, much closer in spirit to Cardinal Dolan than to the progressive Rabbi Wolpe

Perhaps the cited pundit didn’t see this coming, but the Democratic convention closed with a prayer from none other than Cardinal Dolan. (To a respectful full house, with heads bowed, and some arms raised).

I was quite surprised when Dolan’s name was called, and I listened intently to every word. It was a masterpiece. Dolan used language which did not short-change any core belief of his church, but which nobody with different views could take offense at, unless they engaged in a semantic slice-and-dice on the level of “define ‘the’.”

It is quite heartening that people of diverse politics can come together in that mutually respectful manner. He did mention Jesus Christ once, which is only to be expected, but prefaced it with a strong reference to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. I doubt if any Jews present were offended, and I haven’t heard that Muslims or Sikhs were either.

Beautiful.
JonF says:

September 7, 2012 at 11:42 am

An old cliche has it that actions speak louder than words. And overall the GOP’s actions and proposed actions are much more inimical to moral values than the Democrats’ (yes, abortion is the glaring exception). I’d rather be governed by a blasphemous rakehell who nonetheless followed wise and good policies than by a sanctimonious hypocrite mouthing platitudes while imposing profoundly wicked policies on the nation.
cermak_rd says:

September 7, 2012 at 11:57 am

If you’re not a conservative Christian or an Orthodox Jew exactly what does the GOP offer you and your religious vision? The Democrats have become, because of the insularity of the GOP, the party of religious diversity. Hindu engineers who, one might think, would support the GOP, support the Dems because they see a Christian version of the BJP back in India.

I like how all the conservative religious seem to be proclaiming a smaller, purer tribe in the future. As a devoted secularist, I welcome this to their smaller and purer because it means my side in these struggles will be larger and have more votes.
Angela Y Crane says:

September 7, 2012 at 11:59 am

The benediction from the first night of the DNC was telling, I think.http://jenanardella.wordpress.com/2012/09/04/praying-for-the-nation/
mlarsen23 says:

September 7, 2012 at 12:07 pm

This writer is completely correct, I have just found another article that very much confirms the situation: http://onion.com/Rr4ms3
Jack Ross says:

September 7, 2012 at 12:10 pm

Goldman is an ex-LaRouchite “creeping sharia” crank. Wolpe is actually rather right-wing, and probably not even a nominal Democrat. And even Soloveichik is much more a neocon hack than his father, the independent minded father of American modern Orthodoxy.

Liberal and Orthodox Judaism both are accursed by what Ross Douthat so rightly called bad religion. When – and it is a matter of when, not if, the liberal and Orthodox go their separate ways, modern Orthodoxy will have all the same problems that the dying Conservatives, and to a lesser extent the rest of the liberal Jewish world, have now.
Lienad says:

September 7, 2012 at 12:17 pm

Did this guy really just dog on intermarriage?
Floridan says:

September 7, 2012 at 12:22 pm

I find this most objectionable.

Goldman’s rant is shallow, stupid and insulting. Where does he (or you) get off dismissing the religiousity of half the population?

This is nothing more than using religion to make a partisan political point.
MH - Secular Misanthropist says:

September 7, 2012 at 12:25 pm

I think David Goldman is confusing apathy with contempt. He might want to follow Reddit’s /r/atheisms for a bit or read Christopher Hitchens to really understand contempt.

The decline of Reformed and Conservative Judaism is interesting. Historically Judaism doesn’t have a history of proselytizing because it is the religion of the Jewish people. People born Jews stayed Jews, partly to preserve family relationships, and partly because of out-group hostility. This left Judaism unprepared for modernity when out-group prejudice declined and every Jew became a Jew by choice. Some of the local Synagogues are trying outreach efforts, but only to intermarried couples. They’ve had some success, but I think they face an uphill battle as that population won’t be enough to sustain them.

My wife is a good example as she was raised Jewish, but married out without social consequences. She’s always been apathetic, but not hostile to her birth religion. A generation would likely have married a Jew and gone through the motions of participation. But given her apathy she could now marry someone like me and not even put on the pretense of being a moderately observant Jew.
John E_o says:

September 7, 2012 at 12:44 pm

I think David Goldman is confusing apathy with contempt.

Yeah, that.

This is nothing more than using religion to make a partisan political point.

Well that’s what Goldman does.
MH - Secular Misanthropist says:

September 7, 2012 at 12:55 pm

Lienad said:

Did this guy really just dog on intermarriage?

Orthodox Jews have been against intermarriage for a long time. Google intermarriage and you’ll find articles like this one:

http://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/108396/jewish/Intermarriage.htm
cermak_rd says:

September 7, 2012 at 1:18 pm

I converted to Reform Judaism from Catholicism. In it, I found a religion that I no longer had to fight against my faith to find justification for my Enlightenment values. Reform and Conservative Judaism are both outgrowths of the Enlightenment. The Reconstruction and Humanist Jewish movements are outcomes of postmodernism.

I chose Reform because in it I found a beautiful faith, that I could stay in even if I had questions, that accepted me as a woman with no gender role restrictions whatsoever. That has no Communion of Saints clause and therefore no tie to what generations of folks have accepted or tolerated or for that matter to anti-gay or sexist folk halfway around the world. I found a deity who is big enough to accept Abraham’s arguments and haggling. I found a people who are more accepting than any congregation I have ever been a part of.

Of course, the fact that I already spoke and read Hebrew and was reared by a Jewish father and was therefore somewhat reared with the faith probably helped smooth my way, here. I strive to keep kosher and to keep shabbat. I try to keep Tikkun Olam in mind always and to internalize the ethics behind the Law.
JLF says:

September 7, 2012 at 1:28 pm

Religious liberty under the First Amendment – the freedom from being forced to support an established religion – as I understand it, is the right to be left alone in whatever beliefs you might hold. The freedom to practice those religious beliefs under the second clause of the First Amendment is limited to those practices that do not contravene accepted societal norms. One is not free to practice human sacrifice, regardless of what god ordains or requires such. Taken together, these two aspects of religious life enshrined in the Constitution protect not only our own religious beliefs, whatever they might be, but also protect us from the imposition of another’s religious beliefs upon us.

Like the term limits movement, which seeks to impose an outsider’s objection to my representational choice, a choice I could theoretically repeat for a generation or two (cf Ted Kennedy), many religious conservatives seek to impose their religious standards upon others, most notably restrictions on abortion. Such objections, though they certainly may be grounded on other principles, are much more frequently grounded on religious tenets (the sacredness of life and so forth.) I may not favor abortion, but I have no constitutional right to demand government deny my neighbor’s right to an abortion because if offends my religious beliefs.
VikingLS says:

September 7, 2012 at 2:15 pm

Wow the comment section on that blog…

I wonder what will happen if the GOP realizes it isn’t getting the Jewish vote anyway and that Muslims tend to share their social values.
Joseph D says:

September 7, 2012 at 2:56 pm

And yet, as Jews, we will continue to vote against you Republicans overwhelmingly, against your aristocrat allies like Romney, and against your “Christian supremacist” allies like Ann Coulter who explicitly want us to convert and become like you. We will never convert and we will never be be partners with those who want to turn us into themselves. Frankly, we don’t think you’re standard is worth embracing or copying.

God is ONE, there is none else.
Pacific moderate says:

September 7, 2012 at 3:00 pm

Rod, do you believe that Christians should follow the exhortation of Matthew 6:5?
John E_o says:

September 7, 2012 at 3:46 pm

Frankly, we don’t think you’re standard is worth embracing or copying.

The Sistine Chapel is really nice as are many of the European cathedrals…
VikingLS says:

September 7, 2012 at 4:37 pm

Joseph D is the kind of Jew I can respect.
VikingLS says:

September 7, 2012 at 4:41 pm

Actually let me rephrase that. Joseph D that’s a kind of Judaism I can respect. I respect a lot of Jewish people. I just don’t care for this “Judeo-Christian” tradition business.
Noah172 says:

September 7, 2012 at 4:47 pm

I am put off by the politically correct spectacle of these dueling rabbis at the two party conventions. Genuine Christians should prefer either 1) an explicitly Christian invocation (preferably, in light of American culture and history, given by a Protestant minister), or 2) no invocation at all, on the grounds (which I can respect) of not mixing religion and secular partisan politicking (for the Church’s benefit as much as the parties’). I gag at this Unitarian Universalist all-relgions-are-the-same pablum. The Dispensationalists who are such a significant element of the Republican coalition would have gone apoplectic if an imam had given the invocation at their convention — and yet Judaism is as different from Christianity as Islam, even more so in certain respects (e.g. the status of Jesus), and nobody bats an eye that a rabbi is offering a prayer at an overwhelmingly Christian gathering.

We hear a lot about “putting Christ back in Christmas.” Can we also put Christ back in Christianity?
Noah172 says:

September 7, 2012 at 4:53 pm

I wonder what will happen if the GOP realizes it isn’t getting the Jewish vote anyway and that Muslims tend to share their social values.

That would mean that the Stupid Party had found some brains (or is it balls?).

Unless/until Muslims in America accumulate a critical mass of wealth and voting numbers (in that order of priority) to compete with the influence of Jews, neither party is going to court Muslims with the same assiduousness as they court Jews. Republican outreach to Jews, especially, is really about money, not votes.
sklein11 says:

September 7, 2012 at 5:06 pm

1. it’s Reform, not Reformed. Not a nit.
2. as a Reform Jew; i have more in common with liberal Christians than fundamentalist Jews.
3. i won’t apologize for that.
4. I am serious about my religion. It affects the way I live my life. And that doesn’t mean only or mostly tikkun olam.
5. Soleivichik is a fool and a menace.
Grumpy Old Man says:

September 7, 2012 at 6:47 pm

What is left out of this conversation is that Romney has bought into the Iran-as-Germany narrative and all but promised to initiate a new war against her. Talk about right-to-life! How many will die in that war and the likely resulting Depression? And a major fragment of those urging war are Jews of the neocon persuasion.

Rabbis, priests–where are you in this dialogue?
Jon says:

September 7, 2012 at 7:10 pm

1) leviticus 25? So we’re going to quote the part of Leviticus 25 that says “proclaim liberty throughout the land” but leave off “Your male and female slaves are to come from the nations around you; from them you may buy slaves.”

2) Rabbi Soloveichik did sound more like Cardinal Dolan in his benediction – specifically in that he delivered a distinctively Christian sounding benediction. What on earth is this nonsense about everybody (including gentiles) getting their liberty from G-d? Leviticus 25 (again) specifically says that the children of Israel are free from the rule of other men because they are the servants of G-d, who He brought out of Egypt. Doesn’t say anything about Gentiles.

3) It was actually David Wolpe who gave the more jewish speech, in that he suggests that Ameerica is blessed becuase of its friendship to Jews. The implication is that America is Righteous among the Nations, not that America is intended for some special role by G-d.
TTT says:

September 7, 2012 at 10:37 pm

Goldman is clinging to bitterness here, along with the second generation pundit caste of Republican “Jews”, in claiming to never ever understand why Jews vote Democratic while at once saying it won’t matter because that bloc will intermarry and lapse into extinction. It’s been a constant toothache in some literary quarters for a century now. They feel they don’t need to reckon with conservatism’s wholesale antagonism towards the values of American Jewry, and instead can just wait for the much-rumored demographic implosion to make it go away. And they wait… and wait… and wait…

Jews will always be here, and for the most part will always be more receptive to liberal arguments than conservative ones. It’s a feature, not a bug.
Turmarion says:

September 8, 2012 at 9:21 am

MH, the apathy of which you speak is, in my view, the reason for the decline of organized religion in general and the rise of “none of the above” as a religious category. Christians didn’t have the outgroup pressures that Jews had, but there were still relatively strong social pressures and stigmas to prevent people from dropping away from their faith, and encouraging them at least to go through the motions.

Now, to be anything is ultimately a personal choice, and a lot of people are choosing “no, thanks”. This is why I don’t get too exercised about it. Fifty years ago there were people were sitting in pews who were doing so only because they felt obligated. Such people now don’t feel obligated, so they are honest and so they aren’t there warming a pew for something that doesn’t interest them. Bad if you view religion as a numbers game; but good if you think that, you know, people ought to do what they really believe and want to do. I’m a believer, but I’d never say that the old-fashioned scenario of going through the motions is preferable, even if it means declining numbers.

Noah172: Genuine Christians should prefer either 1) an explicitly Christian invocation (preferably, in light of American culture and history, given by a Protestant minister), or 2) no invocation at all, on the grounds (which I can respect) of not mixing religion and secular partisan politicking (for the Church’s benefit as much as the parties’).

Since we’re a pluralistic country with a Constitution that bars religious tests for office, and since as you rightly say, prayers at these events entangle religion and politics, I’d say only option two is viable. Of course, both parties like to make political hay out of pretending to give a damn about religion, so I don’t see anything changing.
Noah172 says:

September 8, 2012 at 9:36 am

Jews will always be here, and for the most part will always be more receptive to liberal arguments than conservative ones.

Correction: for the most will always be more receptive to liberal arguments when living as minorities in the diaspora. Jews in Israel are drifting in a more ethnonationalist, right-wing direction, and Israelis are increasing as a proportion of global Jewry due to low birth rates and assimilation in the diaspora. (This is in addition to the trend of Orthodox Jews increasing as a share of Jewry both in Israel and the diaspora).
Sean Scallon says:

September 8, 2012 at 9:53 am

I like what Tom Fleming said about the whole platform flap: “At least the Democrats weren’t hypocritical enough to put God in a Godless platform.” I agree. That was no omission. For party that is relies more and more on secular voters in response to the “religious” Republicans, the Democrats are heading in the direction where they probably won’t have benedictions in future conventions if nobody can be bothered to stay for them.

But is that really what we want? Do we want culture war to really turn into religious war? You may say, “Well let’s have all the religious voters in one party and all the non-religious voters in the other.” In other words another big great sort just like we did when we put all the liberals in one party and all the conservatives into another. Thus process basically turned whole regions of the country into one-party fiefdoms which is hardly one would call “democratic” as Ron Paul recently pointed out.

American political parties are not European parties based on ideology or class and never meant to be that way. Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr had almost nothing in common other than the fact they wished to work together to win an election. That’s it. And it worked, because said parties were able to bring in the diverse groups of the country and put them working together under a broad framework.

Now we wish to have our parties be the same as one would find in Africa and Asia, based on tribe and religion? Well, then be prepared for the violence and unrest to follow because God help you if your side loses. A Democratic Party devoid of any religion whatsoever and a Republican Party unable to reach out beyond its demographic groups that are becoming minorities in this country, is a menu for political disaster, not just for the traditionalists but for the country as a whole.

And don’t that it can’t happen here. What happened in Wisconsin in 2011-12 was largely the result of a Republican Party which was completely devoid of moderates or anyone telling its members you don’t have a mandate from heaven and a Democrat Party so completely depended on public employee unions for support it had no choice but to engage in costly recall elections.
MH - accidentally banned in Boston says:

September 8, 2012 at 2:41 pm

Turmarion said:

I’m a believer, but I’d never say that the old-fashioned scenario of going through the motions is preferable, even if it means declining numbers.

I’ll can see how an individual can be comfortable with this. But I imagine institutions are not. A lack of filled pews translates to a loss of organizational power.
Siarlys Jenkins says:

September 8, 2012 at 8:24 pm

I wonder what will happen if the GOP realizes it isn’t getting the Jewish vote anyway and that Muslims tend to share their social values.

George W. Bush got a big chunk of Muslim votes in 2000, based on cultural issues, family values, work ethic… somehow the Republican Party had lost all of that support by 2004.
David J. White says:

September 9, 2012 at 12:22 pm

That has no Communion of Saints clause and therefore no tie to what generations of folks have accepted or tolerated or for that matter to anti-gay or sexist folk halfway around the world.

Interesting, cermak_rd. The Communion of Saints and the ties of tradition and community — both diachronic and synchronic — are a bit part of why I have remained Catholic.
Sharon Astyk says:

September 9, 2012 at 12:43 pm

Missed this because I was getting ready for the Sabbath and having one. Pity liberal Judaism is nearly dead – it was a lovely, lovely Shabbos for all us zombies .

Ignoring the spectacle of the various conventions, which I find fairly simply to pretend doesn’t exist, and which really has very little to do with actual Judaism as actually practiced, I wonder whether I live in a very weird place of the demographic decline of liberal Jews is hooey. Our shul is small (around 300 families), but the demographics are pretty clear. I know only two families with a single child. Most have two or three, but there are quite a few four and more child families as well, plus us, who vary from 4 to inifinity depending on the number of kids in our home at the moment.

There is certainly a wide spread of observance and engagement, but a critical mass of educated, serious, observant liberal Jews whose children are growing up deeply engaged. Among the kids in our shul, there’s a friendly competition to see who can first read Torah in Junior Congregation (can’t do it in the main Congregation until bat or bar mitzvah age). My son Simon is currently winning, having chanted his first Torah portion done on his 9th birthday, but a friend’s 8 1/2 year old daughter has until January to kick his butt, and I bet she will.

Today is the first day of Hebrew school, and my kids are excited – they don’t complain about meaninglessness and warm apple juice in paper cups, they are looking forward to it. My eight year old has mastered translation from Hebrew to English with a dictionary in hand and can’t wait to show his teacher.

What these kids have are engaged parents – parents who spend their time doing Jewish learning and who prioritize religious community uber alles – and not just uber alles as something that you do for your children, but something that engages the grownups. Yesterday one of my husband’s students (he tutors bar mitzvah candidates in his not-very-copious spare time, until they can chant Torah and Haftorah and lead the Musaf service – something my husband only re-learned to do in his 30s) had his bar mitzvah, and at the end of the celebration a core group of us sang the blessing after meal, Birkat Hamazon. My 2 month old foster son was on one knee, a the 1 year old daughter of a friend on the other, and I have rarely felt more strongly the hope that my foster son will stay with us – because in this moment of communal grace I can see what we can offer them – a way in to a way of life that has a long history, and a future that will endure, at least in our corner of the world, through at least one more generation of children brought up to love Judaism.

Zombies, maybe, but happy, fruitful, growing zombies.

Sharon
NRF says:

October 2, 2012 at 7:17 pm

JLF, is there any reason why you expect us to know what “Tikkun Olam” is?