“The creche on the courthouse lawn” and the prayers in the public schools that mark the weakening of church-state separation “threaten the integrity of Judaism itself in this land,” Theodore Mann, a constitutional lawyer and president of the American Jewish Congress, told 450 Jewish leaders from across the U.S. meeting here at the annual plenary session of the National Jewish Community Relations Advisory Council (NJCRAC).
Focusing on the psychological impact and theological implications of growing governmental involvement in religion, Mann called the current erosion of the constitutional principle of church-state separation potentially “devastating,” threatening to transform American Jews into “outsiders” and “strangers in their own land.”
Reverend Charles Bergstrom, executive director of Governmental Affairs for the Lutheran Council in the United States of America, shared the podium with Mann at a plenum session on “Church-State Separation: The Wall Under Attack.” Bergstrom denounced the current assault on the separation principle, terming it an “attempt to Christianize America.”
Mann, who has argued church-state cases before the Supreme Court on behalf of the Jewish community, asserted that Judge Sandra Day O’Connor had correctly stated that government endorsement of religion “sends a message to non-adherents that they are outsiders, not full members of the political community.”
MADE TO FEEL LIKE OUTSIDERS
Terming a creche “a symbolic reenactment of the birth of a divine being,” he claimed that “the concept that a divine being was born” is completely antithetical to Jewish theology. “The creche and the cross as governmental symbols, as well as prayers in public schools, stand as dramatic reminders of our differences with Christianity, thereby making us feel like outsiders in the way that minority groups so often feel,” he said.
Mann noted that there will soon be significant Supreme Court decisions involving creches and school prayer, while widespread attempts to extend government involvement in religion can be expected to continue. He recommended steps to address these developments to his audience of Jewish community relations leaders.
The American Jewish Congress president stressed the importance of an active campaign of challenging the constitutionality of legislation and practices that violate the separation principle. He urged “seeking a new set of allies in these challenges from among the abundant non-Christian immigrants who have come into the United States since our immigration laws changed in 1965.”
Bergstrom, who described himself as “a born again Christian Evangelical,” deplored the current attack on church-state separation. “We are seeing an intolerant attempt to Christianize America,” he charged. “It is based,” he said, “on a misreading of the Constitution and a misinterpretation of Scripture.”
The Lutheran leader sharply attacked “the radical religious Right” for “attempting to confuse the words of politics and religion.” He called the use of terms such as “Christian issues” and “Christian candidate” the “parlance of religious bigotry and blatant intolerance.”
Bergstrom strongly criticized the role of President Reagan, who he called a “political fundamentalist.” He pointed to the 1984 Republican convention’s “endorsement of the radical religious Right”; the “twisted logic” of calling opponents of school prayer “intolerant”; and the “horrible theology of a President who claims that prayer is in danger of being kicked out of school.”
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
