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Liberal, Jewish Not Same
By STEFANIE L. PEARSON
Assistant Editor of Jewish News of Greater Phoenix
Jews have a decision to make: "Are you a
secular liberal or a serious Jew?," radio talk show host Dennis
Prager told a packed house at the first Passages lecture Sunday
night.
They're not the same, he said, insisting
that Judaism actually contradicts the liberal conventional wisdom
on important issues including abortion, euthanasia and gay marriage.
(The national Reform rabbinate's governing body voted to support
civil marriage for homosexuals.)
Prager's speech kicked off the 20th season for Passages, an adult
education lecture series sponsored by the Bureau of Jewish Education.
Following a five-minute "message from the sponsors," in which
a Bureau officer read advertisements in the series ad journal, Prager
quipped that the turnout made him "feel like it's Yom Kippur." Listeners
filled the sanctuary at Beth El Congregation in Phoenix, spilling
several rows over into the attached social hall.
Op-ed Judaism
Jews mix up "what The New York Times op-ed page says with what
Judaism actually says" on important social issues, he said, resulting
in Jewish organizations asserting as "Jewish" positions that contravene
Jewish law.
Jews support what their "guts" say, he explained, rather than
looking to Judaism for ethical guidance. "Do you believe in Judaism?
No. You believe in you, and you fit Judaism to you," he said.
Communal infrastructure has acquiesced to the trend, he said,
allowing Judaism to become "therapeutic, not didactic," departing
from what he described as a religion's responsibility: teaching
right from wrong.
Rabbis and other religious leaders say "we want to make you feel
good," he said. "So come to shul, we'll comfort you. But religion's
mission is just as much to afflict the comfortable as to comfort
the afflicted."
Leaving liberalism
Describing himself as "Reservadox," (a combination of the three
major movements of Judaism), Prager said he "left liberalism when
being liberal left me."
For instance, he explained, he was considered liberal in his youth
because he thought race was "irrelevant" while today's political
left says race must be "honored" and focused upon.
Today's Jewish liberals, have become "secular extremists," he
said, noting their complete opposition to prayer of any kind at
school graduations.
"It's okay for seventh graders to see condoms put on a banana,
but God forbid a senior in high school hear 'God bless the graduating
class,' " he said.
The "logical consequence," Prager argued, is a "godless society"
plagued with social ills and misdirected youth.
"Government can be secular. It ought to be. But not you - and
our values shouldn't be," he said.
Those who believe that ethics can be taught without a basis in
a belief in a higher power are mistaken, he said, sketching an analogy
to cut flowers: someone who had only seen cut flowers might say
'oh, flowers don't need soil' because they appear to thrive in water.
"Religion is the soil that nurtures ethics," he said. "They can
last a generation or two, but no more."
He offered a challenge to "anyone who thinks religion is irrelevant
to ethics: You're walking in a terrible area, in a dark alley, and
you see 10 men walking toward you. Would you or would you not be
relieved if you found out that they had just left a Bible study
class?
"Even the biggest atheist in the world would say 'Thank God!'
"
Sticky issues
"We have to ask what Judaism says," about political and social
issues, he said.
Many Jews mistakenly believe that Jewish law endorses abortion
rights, euthanasia and gay marriage, he said. In actuality, while
many Jews may be strong supporters, Jewish law opposes euthanasia
and gay marriage, and allows abortion only under limited circumstances.
Rabbi Chaim Silver of Orthodox Young Israel of Phoenix, who attended
the lecture, and Rabbi Charles Herring of Reform Temple Kol Ami,
who did not, both said Prager correctly characterized Jewish law's
positions.
"Jewish law also demands that we observe Shabbat and keep kosher,"
Herring said. "But many (Jews) feel comfortable observing Judaism
like they were in Luby's cafeteria."
Silver said Prager drove home the message that "there is a greatness
about the human being that we have to learn to appreciate and that
we sometimes equate ourselves with lesser creatures so we can abdicate
the responsibilities of being a human being."
Prager said the focus of ethics should be on God.
Asserting an ethical belief that something is "wrong" isn't enough,
he said. The proper motivation to behave ethically is the belief
that a higher power thinks an action is wrong. "The best guarantor
against people doing bad," he said, "is a deeply held belief in
God."
Feedback: pearson@jewishaz.com
CRIME
October 8, 1996
A Commentary by Empower America Board Member Dennis Prager:
"During the 1960's, one neighborhood in San Francisco had the
lowest income, the highest unemployment rate, the highest proportion
of families with incomes under $4,000 per year, the least educational
attainment, and the highest proportion of substandard housing of
any area of the city. That neighborhood was called Chinatown. Yet
in 1965, there were only five persons of Chinese ancestry committed
to prison in the entire state of California."
-- Professors James Q. Wilson and Richard Hernstein
The philosophical root of Nazism is race determines behavior.
The philosophical root of Communism was that economics determines
behavior. Aside from racist hate groups, no longer does anyone believe
the former. Unfortunately, some liberal groups and individuals continue
to believe the latter.
The credo of contemporary liberalism is that "poverty causes crime".
Followers of this "Lie of the Left" rely in their belief that "the
lack of jobs" or "the failure to spend more on our cities" or "socioeconomic
conditions" is the root cause of crime in America.
Consider the following representative liberals who have publicly
confirmed their belief in the Credo of Liberalism: Cleveland Mayor
Michael White commented on NBC's Meet the Press that, "Many of the
problems you're seeing in the cities of today evolve not from social
conditions. They evolve from economic deprivation". Philadelphia
Mayor Ed Rendell agreed in saying that "the long run answer [to
solving the problems of our inner cities] is economics."
The liberal credo that poverty causes crime is still widely believed
despite numerous conflicting facts, including:
The vast majority of poor people do not engage in criminal behavior.
Crime was extremely low during the Great Depression, when a far
larger percentage of Americans were unemployed and experiencing
great poverty.
Few robberies, let alone rapes or murders, are committed to obtain
subsistence items such as food or clothing.
Impoverished cities in India are safer than far more affluent
American cities.
If poverty causes crime, it logically follows that affluence causes
honesty and morality.
Finally, are we to suppose that a 70 percent-plus out-of-wedlock
birth rate, the absence of fathers, and a lack of religion or other
conscience-building institutions are not significant causes of crime
and that "economic deprivation" is the problem, and economics "is
the long-run answer"? Only when we blame criminals rather than poverty,
and seek answers to society's problems through the inculcation of
moral values more than through increased social spending, will we
overcome this Lie of the Left.
By Thom Looney, radio columnist:
I agree with him 35% of the time, but I want to know
Dennis Prager. I called his show the other day, and he told me he
wanted to know me! So, we're halfway there. I think the whole country
should hear his show. I'll sell it; I'll produce it. I'll call the
affiliates and strong-arm them. I already have the name for it:
"Mr. Morality Pants." Half the time he's Joe Conservative, but he
doesn't feel like he has to march in lockstep and lash liberals
like the copious clan of confabulating conservative clones that
command talk radio coast to coast. The Dennis Prager show also has
a much hipper sound now that they've relinquished the satanic Beethoven
bumper music, and replaced it with normal rock 'n' roll. When I
wax with friends about moral issues, I use "Pragerisms" frequently,
but I never give him any credit. My friends think I'm really smart
now (suckers).
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