Cross-Currents Should We Celebrate?
Cross Currents (the Jewish one) posted today about last month's Supreme Court ruling on the Ten Commandments monuments. When I first read about the issue, when it was current, the verdict seemed fairly clear-cut: Monuments that are part of displays about history are okay in public buildings; monuments meant to establish Christianity as the State Religion are not.
But now Marvin Schick, is tearing his garments and wailing in the public square that religious folks like us are being sorely oppressed.
What is there to celebrate when four Justices say that any public display of the Ten Commandments violates the First Amendment? What is there to celebrate when in all likelihood, the Supreme Court ruling will mean that most displays will be ruled unconstitutional?
Well for starters, that's not what happened. Court says public displays of the Big Ten are okay
when they are put in a cultural or historical context, just not when they are naked attempts to Christianize the country. No straw men, please Martin.
What is there to celebrate when we continue to have decisions that are hostile to religion?
What is there for a minority religion like ours to celebrate when the Court rules that elected officials can't celebrate their religion on public property, using public funds? Lots. I don't know about you, Marvin, but I'm not keen about having the Catholic or Protestant or Roy Moore version of the Big Ten shoved down my throat whenever I go to fight a parking ticket.
I know that the Ten Commandments issue is not per se that important. People do not respect religion because a tablet is installed in a public place. No one’s belief or behavior is affected. As a practical matter it makes small difference whether the Ten Commandments can be posted in a public place.
Ok, this makes sense. This ruling will not compel people to go around coveting their neighbor's asses. So why all the moaning and teeth-gnashing?
What concerns me essentially is not what the Supreme Court did but how we as Jews – and particularly Orthodox Jews – look at the matter. Overwhelmingly, American Jews are not only secular, they embrace a brand of secularism that is hostile to religion. This may not be the conscious intent, yet it is what emerges from the totality of our advocacy against religion. This attitude strikes me as risky, both for Israel and American Jewry because it invites counter-hostility from Christian groups.
And there it is. The ghetto Jew, alive and well. Even though (1) the ruling favors Jews because it protects them from being subjected to foreign creeds, and even though (2) Marvy concedes that as a practical matter, the ruling won't affect anyone's behavior, we Jews must still sell out both our religious interests and our common sense because if we don't, Cossaks will come marauding through the Five Towns.
In organized American Jewish life, the most powerful imperatives are fundraising and public relations. From the standpoint of major secular organizations, being against the Ten Commandments is good business.
Not against the Ten Commandments. Against the public dispay of the Ten Commandments. Big difference, Marvy. You can love the Big Ten, and still think that they are cheapened and embaressed when buffoons like Roy Moore use them like a giant paperweight. You can love the Big Ten, but still worry that posting them in public might open the door to posting Christian scripture on courthouse walls and government buildings. Opposing the public display of the Ten C is not the same as oppsing the Ten C and you, Marvin, should be smart enough to know the difference.
His ridiculous fear of "inviting counter hostitlity from Christian groups" appears to have over-ridden his usual good sense. Or maybe he's had too much to drink fromt he Cross Currents (Jewish) water fountain.