Author Archives: Michael Bailey

The American Muslim Vote

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BOB ABERNETHY, host: In the mainstream Muslim community, there’s been a new focus on politics this election season. For the first time ever, American Muslims have launched a massive, national effort to register voters and organize political activity. In this installment of our special series on religion in the coming elections, Kim Lawton takes a look at the challenges facing American Muslims as they try to find a political voice.

KIM LAWTON: At mosques across the country this fall, there was an unexpected scene at Friday prayers … special displays urging Muslims to register and vote.

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It’s part of a national campaign designed to begin flexing some Muslim political muscle.

DR. AGHA SAEED (American Muslim Alliance): We must vote. Do you stand for Palestine? For Kashmir? For Chechnya? For Bosnia? Then you must vote. Every single Muslim must vote.

LAWTON: In an unusual show of unity, leaders of several Muslim organizations have banded together this year to promote the voter registration push within their communities.

SALAM AL-MARAYATI (Muslim Public Affairs Council): People are saying that “We’re gonna vote the bums out if we don’t get our voices heard in Washington.” And I think there you see the significant change in just the attitude of American Muslims in terms of how they feel they can make a difference in terms of U.S. policy.

LAWTON: Muslim leaders say the recent events in the Middle East have convinced many Muslims of the importance of having a voice to influence U.S. policy, which they perceive as being too pro-Israel.

NIHAD AWAD (Council on American-Islamic Relations): It pushes people to speak out more, especially to rectify policies that they feel have been unfair.

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LAWTON: Experts say American Muslims are following the patterns of other immigrant groups. Initially, they focused inward, building their communities. But with the dramatic growth of the American Muslim community, many leaders are now urging their members to move outward and begin influencing the society around them.

AL-MARAYATI: American Muslim political activity is still in its nascent stage. There are only pockets of involvement and activity. More on an individual level. Definitely there is not an infrastructure or a hierarchy in the political framework for the Muslim community.

IBRAHIM HOOPER (Council on American-Islamic Relations): Muslims for many years have been a bit hesitant and some of it stems from a good portion of our community coming from parts of the world where voting hasn’t been a tradition or even allowed. So it is something that people have to learn when they come to this country.

LAWTON: Islamic leaders vow that thousands, perhaps millions, will be voting this year. Politicians are starting to take notice of this potential mine of untapped votes.

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In July, Muslim leader Maher Hathout gave a benediction at the Republican National Convention, the first Muslim invited to do so by either party.

Reform Party candidate Pat Buchanan addressed the American Muslim Council meeting this summer.

Buchanan: “You and I have many, I believe, shared values.”

LAWTON: At the Islamic Society of North America meeting last month, Congressman Tom Campbell of California brought greetings from George W. Bush, and Congressman David Bonior brought greetings from Al Gore.

But political analysts say the potential political impact of the Muslim’s community is unclear.

PROFESSOR JOHN GREEN (Ray C. Bliss Inst. Of Applied Politics): Some scholars think that there may be as few as 500,000 Muslims in the United States. I suspect that might be a low figure. Other people claim there are as many as six million. Maybe that is a high figure. So somewhere between half a million and six million voters. That’s a small group. But it is concentrated in certain cities, particularly cities like Detroit and Youngstown, Ohio. And in a very close election that group could make a difference.

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LAWTON: One of the biggest challenges may be convincing some members of the community that they should get involved. Some Muslims have religious objections to political involvement, arguing that the Koran forbids it.

MUSTAFA SAYID: They are not supposed to get involved in anything that has to do with the disbelievers. They have a duty to respect the Koran, obligation and duty to respect the teaching of Islam. And in Islam, you don’t support the enemies of Allah. That’s it.

Many other Muslims interpret the Koran as encouraging political activity.

AL-MARAYATI: You pay taxes. And the issue is, should we allow those tax dollars to be used for the purposes of justice, mercy, compassion, which are Islamic values, or should our absence then dictate how that money is going to be spent and be determined by others? To us, political activity is an Islamic responsibility.

LAWTON: The Council on American-Islamic Relations is one of several groups trying to develop Muslim political activity. The group opened a new office in Washington, D.C., to teach Islamic leaders how to make their voices heard.

AWAD: It’s no secret that the Muslim community has not been well represented in this country. And we felt with the growth of Muslims in numbers and interest, they are becoming more sophisticated. And to be effective, they have to be trained. It’s not only art, it is also science.

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LAWTON: Many leaders have been urging Muslims to maximize their effectiveness by finding a unified voice. But given the diversity of the community, that’s been difficult.

JOHN GREEN: The Muslim community, just like the Catholic community or Protestant community, has many divisions. I think an additional problem with the Muslim community is that many of these groups are immigrant groups. They have just recently arrived in this country, they come from different political backgrounds, different ethnic origins and it sometimes makes it difficult for these groups to work together.

LAWTON: A significant part of the Muslim community is made up of African-Americans who tend to vote overwhelmingly Democratic. Polls commissioned by Islamic groups show that Muslims with an immigrant background are almost evenly divided between the Republican and Democratic parties. Many Muslims tend to be conservative on social issues such as abortion and gay rights, but more liberal on economic issues and civil rights.

HOOPER: The voting bloc for Muslims is still up in the air as far as liberal, conservative, Democratic, Republican. And I think this will develop over time, but what I think it shows is that Muslims are issue voters. They will see what the issues are, what the candidates believe and they will vote accordingly.

LAWTON: While their organizational efforts are still in the beginning stages, Islamic leaders say they expect the highest Muslim voter turnout ever next month. That could be crucial in key electoral states such as California, Michigan and Ohio. Many Muslims believe this election will set the stage for an even greater influence in the future.

I’m Kim Lawton in Falls Church, Virginia.

Gentlemen Start Your Prayers

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BOB ABERNETHY, host: As baseball’s World Series is played out in New York, another major American sport is also coming to the end of its season: NASCAR, the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing. Nowhere in sports, not in baseball or even football, is there more unselfconscious expression of religion as there is at NASCAR races. Robert Lipsyte of The New York Times talked with NASCAR chaplains and drivers, some of them big names not only on the speedway, but also you may recognize from television commercials.

DALE BEAVER (NASCAR Chaplain): Father, thank you that, in the midst of the heat and amidst of the tiredness that each of us feel, that there is rest in you.

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ROBERT LIPSYTE: Sounds like just another weekend prayer meeting…

Chaplain BEAVER: …our needs in our own lives, as well as thankfulness from our hearts that we want to give the Lord today. So let’s just pause a moment…

LIPSYTE: …until the faithful start their engines. This is NASCAR’s Winston Cup circuit, the major-league of a multibillion-dollar-a-year sport. It entertains more than six million spectators and millions more on television.

Chaplain BEAVER: There’s a growing number of folks that realize that at this level of the sport, which is Winston Cup racing, that they’ve reached the brass ring. And I think at this level, they’re really starting to ask the question: ‘Is this all there is?’ Because if this is the brass ring, and as great as it is, you’re still not fulfilled. There’s still got to be something more.

LIPSYTE: It might not seem like a Godly place. After all, tobacco and beer pay for the gas, and drivers risk their lives for gold and glory.

DARRELL WALTRIP (3-Time NASCAR Winston Cup Champion): [The] dangerous, commercialized, helter-skelter lifestyle that we kind of lead is a perfect place for the Lord to be. I mean, if you don’t have God in your life in this kind of environment, you’ll go nuts.

LIPSYTE: A three-time NASCAR champion, Darrell Waltrip, with his wife Stevie, helped found the Motor Racing Outreach program, MRO, 12 years ago.

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Mr. WALTRIP: We want some stability in our life, and the only way we could get it was to bring it to the track, bring it with us. So like so many other things that we do, we have our own motor home, which we live in; we got our own trainers and doctors and everything else. We needed our own ministry.

Racing Outreach has done wonders in this — they’re not just here for Sunday service. They’re here for counseling. They’re here when people get hurt. They go to hospitals. They spend hours and hours and hours with families.

Mrs. STEVIE WALTRIP (Darrell Waltrip’s Wife): There is always the possibility that your husband, or your son or whoever is racing, could be injured or killed. Motor Racing Outreach is always there in those circumstances, and because of Motor Racing Outreach, there is a reaching out on the wives’ part to help other wives.

JEFF GORDON (3-Time NASCAR Winston Cup Champion): Because our sport is so dangerous, I think that probably even strengthens all of our faith in God.

LIPSYTE: Jeff Gordon is a NASCAR superstar.

Mr. GORDON: I think it’s made me a better driver, a better-focused race car driver, and I think that it also helps me have a lot more patience and understanding of, you know, putting my priorities in order. You know, I think that racing means a tremendous amount to me, but I also recognize now that it is what I do; it’s not who I am.

Chaplain BEAVER: I’ve never had a guy ask me to pray for victory or to pray that his car will be faster than everybody else’s. That’s not it at all. They — most of these men, if not all of these men, and on these teams as well, are deeper than that.

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(To pit crew) How are you doing? Am I missing the good ones?

LIPSYTE: Chaplain Dale Beaver is a 21st century circuit driver, traveling from race to race to minister to his fast-moving flock.

Chaplain BEAVER: Good luck, Larry. Hey, buddy. Hey, man.

When I pray with these guys — and I’m privileged to pray with them before they get in the car at every race — I make sure that we pray that God will be glorified, and that’s all I ask. If it’s through a victory for these guys, fine. If it’s through them coming through this race without being killed, fine. In whatever way that God can glorify themselves through that race team’s life, that’s what I try to get these guys to see the significance for.

LIPSYTE: From the pits to the Super Bowl, religion has become increasingly public in our sporting life. Why? Is it a reflection of a larger society, or is it yet another way for jocks to find a competitive edge?

Professor BILL BAKER (History, University of Maine): Back in my day athletes — I think Christian athletes thought that religion gave us an edge in that it kept us straight and disciplined and focused.

LIPSYTE: As a quarterback at Furman University, Bill Baker, a pre-seminary student, was known as the passing preacher. Now he’s a history professor at the University of Maine. He writes about religion and sports.

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Prof. BAKER: I think there’s a logic of evangelical Christianity and bigtime sport in having this kind of cozy relationship because I think, in many ways, they’re similar. Both are win-loss mentalities. In evangelical Christianity, you’re either saved or lost. You’re going to heaven; you’re going to hell. You either win or you lose, and that’s what sport is about.

LIPSYTE: That cozy relationship sometimes plays out in national arenas and locker rooms.

KURT WARNER (St. Louis Rams Quarterback): And I realized where my strength comes from, and that’s, you know, from the Lord.

RANDALL CUNNINGHAM (Dallas Cowboys Quarterback): And God is in my life and matured me as a man and as a person. Christianity first.

Prof. BAKER: Many of the people who are the demonstrative Jesus athletes, demonstrative in Jesus, come from Southern backgrounds, and many of these happen to be black. They come from homes that are religious homes; from a culture that is bathed in a fundamentalist, evangelical tradition. And in many ways, I assume that to acclaim Jesus, believe in Jesus, to extol Jesus on the field especially is one way that these athletes reconnect with their roots, with their culture.

LIPSYTE: Joe Gibbs coached the Washington Redskins to three Super Bowl championships. Now he’s a top race car owner. He huddles in prayer with his NASCAR team before every race.

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JOE GIBBS (NFL Hall of Famer; NASCAR Team Owner): We pray for Jimmy, we pray for Bobby. We just pray we’re all going to be at our absolute best, and we give you the glory for it. We pray for that motor to be perfect. Father, we just thank you for all the ways you’ve blessed us this year. In thy precious name, we pray. Come on, let’s go get us one. One more test tonight.

I’ve never asked somebody here, you know, “What’s your personal relationship with Christ?” I’ve never not hired somebody, I’ve never kept somebody on a football team, I’ve never even asked that question. If you ask me personally — are we better performers, knowing that we have a personal relationship with Christ, I think I am.

Chaplain BEAVER: And it is through that that we plan. It is through that that we strap into it and to constantly…

LIPSYTE: Chaplain Beaver is obviously a true believer in drivers as Christian role models.

Chaplain BEAVER: I think God is using people in these higher-profile positions, whether they are the drivers of these race cars or whether they’re the men that make it happen. See, God is using them in his own time to remind people that, “Hey, I’m still here, and I’m not silent, and I still care about you.”

Mr. GORDON: I think I’ve been put on the platform to be able to — you know, to show other people what God has done for me in my life, and I hope that, in some way, that influences others. And I think that that’s what God wants all of us to be able to do — is to just, you know, spread that Word and, you know, be able to influence others so that, you know, they can live a better life. Every race I have a message from the Bible in my race car with me. My wife writes it down every race and — different scriptures. One of my favorites is Philippians 4:13: “I can do all things through Christ, who strengthens me.” And, you know, it’s nice to have that positive message inside the car with me every lap.

LIPSYTE: Jeff Gordon doesn’t always win, but he wins often enough to qualify as a top preacher with a pedal. For RELIGION & ETHICS NEWSWEEKLY, I’m Robert Lipsyte.

High-Tech Church

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BOB ABERNETHY, host: In Dallas, Texas, a milestone for the evangelist and writer Bishop T.D. Jakes, and the 25,000 members of his Potter’s House church.

Bishop T.D. JAKES (The Potter’s House): Ooh, God. Ooh, can you feel it? Do all you can. Feel it. Nothing else. I don’t know what that’s going to mean to you in the days to come, but this is something worth giving, worth hearing, worth writing down, worth putting on your computer. When it comes on, do all you can.

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ABERNETHY: This weekend Bishop Jakes will lead his congregation into the cyber age with the dedication of his new, ultra-contemporary, high-tech, 8,000-plus-seat sanctuary.

Bishop JAKES: I think that people who go to our churches are not necessarily looking for traditional religion. I think that they’re using — they’re looking for Christ, and they’re looking for ways to incorporate Christ and Christianity within their modern, everyday lives. The message hasn’t changed, just the method.

ABERNETHY: And has it ever. At The Potter’s House, old-fashioned stained-glass windows have been replaced with computer data terminals and Palm Pilots.

Mr. NATHANIEL TATE (Administrator, The Potter’s House): What we wanted to do was allow the laptop users in our congregation the ability to download the pastor’s outline of the sermon or other material.

Under the benches, we have actual inputs and power for the computers, for the laptops. Every other row, for four rows, is wired for computers. We’re looking at about 200 people that can sit with their laptops or more and download the information.

ABERNETHY: And some parishioners obviously enjoy opening their laptops as well as their Bibles.

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Mr. CRAIG JACKSON: It’ll allow me to download the sermon and take notes, and I can go back home, and I can take it and build a library, and just something I can keep for years and years to come.

ABERNETHY: Contemporary technology also has a role in other aspects of the church. Take, for example, the Language Translation Center. When completed, it will have the capability to translate six languages simultaneously. And Palm Pilots play an active part during the church’s altar call.

Bishop JAKES: We use Palm Pilots for new converts and things like that. Just so that we can more proficiently handle the 25,000 members that we have. We have to be organized in order to do that.

ABERNETHY: But Jakes and his parishioners insist all the high-tech engineering designed to bring the church into the 21st century will never overshadow the reason people come to The Potter’s House church.

Mr. TATE: It’s not just, “Let’s have more bells and whistles. Let’s not have magic buttons that do this.” But do these tools help us with the goals and objectives of presenting the gospel? And that’s the bottom line.

Cultural Abuse

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TIM O’BRIEN: Starting in the late 1800s and continuing through 1970, Canada’s leading churches ran dozens of residential schools — like the Mohawk Institute, 60 miles north of Toronto — all aimed at integrating more than a hundred thousand Indian children into the developing Canadian society.

But a growing number of Indians — now almost 6,500 — are suing the church, seeking an estimated 8 billion dollars in damages for physical and sexual abuse, and what they call “cultural genocide.”

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TONY MERCHANT (Attorney for Plaintiffs): The government of Canada decided, and the government of the United States made the same decision, that what they were going to do was take the Indian out of the Indian. And they established schools, and the process was to turn red children into white adults.

Particularly because they were Christian churches running them, they would say, “Don’t speak that Pagan language. Indian language is the tongue of the devil,” that kind of thing.

O’BRIEN: There was nothing voluntary about the schools. The Canadian government, also named as a defendant in the lawsuits, required Indian parents to surrender their children at tender ages — and those who refused could be jailed. Many children were isolated from their families for lengthy periods.

Melvin George, a Cree Indian, was taken away from home when he was only about five years old.

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MELVIN GEORGE (Cree Indian, Plaintiff): My father was the only parent, and, uh, I guess seeing him in tears, leaving him behind, was about the worst…

O’BRIEN: Attorney Tony Merchant represents more than 4,300 Indian plaintiffs; most of them, he says, were physically abused, and about 1,500 were sexually abused by school authorities:

MERCHANT: What happened was you’d have bad apples that would accumulate in these schools because they liked being there — because they could perform as sexual predators — and bad apples turned into bad barrels.

O’BRIEN: Marla Anaskan says she is still undergoing therapy for sexual assaults by a child care supervisor many years ago.

MARLA ANASKAN (First Nations People, Plaintiff): He was supposed to be the man in charge of us, taking care of us. He’s responsible for us. We’re supposed to look up to these people and trust them; he broke that trust.

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RICHARD REDMAN (Dakota Indian, Plaintiff): My little brother got raped when he was four years old. He was four or five years old. He was in there, in kindergarten. He came there and I didn’t understand what it was all about. It wasn’t until he was forty years old that he started talking to me about it.

O’BRIEN: No one disputes that serious physical and sexual abuse occurred. Or that the effort to assimilate the Indian children into the Canadian culture was misguided.

Two years ago, in what may have been a turning point, the Canadian government issued a formal apology:

JANE STEWART (Minister, Indian Affairs; January 7, 1998): “We wish to emphasize that what you experienced was not your fault. It should not have happened. For those of you who suffered this tragedy at residential schools, we’re deeply sorry.”

O’BRIEN: The government has set aside 235 million dollars to address chronic unemployment, drug abuse, and suicide among the Indians. But Ottawa has yet to acknowledge any liability in the thousands of pending lawsuits.

The churches insist the government must also be held accountable.

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ARCHDEACON JIM BOYLE (General Secretary, Anglican Church of Canada): We believe that the government owned the buildings, provided almost all the funding, provided the regulations for the schools and named the principal, and those pieces of evidence convince us that the government had “the” major responsibility.

O’BRIEN: If the government doesn’t chip in, how serious a threat are these lawsuits to the Anglican Church?

BOYLE: Well, they’re very serious, Tim. The church is facing potential bankruptcy because of them.

O’BRIEN: Other churches defendants have expressed similar fears.

The Mohawk Institute, ironically, is now a government-funded museum, dedicated to perpetuating the Indian heritage the country had earlier tried to destroy. Some of the plaintiffs insist there is no monetary judgment that can ever make them whole again. And what would it take? The anger still runs deep.

RICHARD REDMAN: Give me my choice of switch. Give me my choice of stick and give me a priest, give me a nun, and just leave me in a room with them for ten, 15 minutes. You want me to get over it? That would probably do it for me. Will I ever really get over it? No.

O’BRIEN: In recent weeks, the government and the churches have begun some preliminary talks to resolve the lawsuits without bankrupting the churches. It is a long time coming — and given the size and seriousness of the Indians’ claims, any real reconciliation may have a long way to go.

For RELIGION & ETHICS NEWSWEEKLY, I’m Tim O’Brien in Brantford, Ontario.

Election 2000 – The Jewish Vote

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BOB ABERNETHY, anchor: U.S. Relations with Israel is a key policy concern for American Jewish voters. This week, we begin a special series of reports about religion and the upcoming election. In part one, Kim Lawton takes a look at the impact of Senator Lieberman’s candidacy on the Jewish community.

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KIM LAWTON: In Washington, D.C., members of the Brandenburg family watched the vice-presidential debates with interest and with pride. For the first time ever, one of those on the platform shared their Jewish faith. The Brandenburgs say they’ve never been much interested in politics. But the Lieberman candidacy has ignited something new.

10-year-old Hilary has been particularly captivated.

HILARY BRANDENBURG: I think he’s really cool because he’s the first Jewish vice president running and he’s a great guy.

LAWTON: Political persuasions aside, most Jews agree this indeed has been a highly symbolic moment.

RABBI DAVID SAPERSTEIN (Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism): It represents a sea change in America. It represents the promise of America that here, truly, we would have the same rights, the same freedoms, the same responsibilities, and be able to play out those responsibilities as [does] every other American citizen.

LAWTON: Jews represent just over two percent of the U.S. population. But they’ve become a key voting bloc, sought after by candidates across the political spectrum.

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Professor Alan Mittleman

Professor ALAN MITTLEMAN (Muhlenberg College): They’re a highly educated community, a highly professional community, and, to be honest, a largely middle- and upper-middle-class community. They’re also quite philanthropic and politically oriented, so they tend to have an effect on culture, on society, and on politics in excess of their raw numbers.

LAWTON: Jewish political activism in the United States grew out of the immigrant experience. Like many other immigrant groups, Jewish immigrants identified with the Democratic Party, which they saw as more responsive to their social needs. Today, more than 70 percent are still registered Democrats.

But Republicans are also attempting to make inroads.

RABBI SAPERSTEIN: Jews are not knee-jerk in their reaction, and it only takes a shift of five or 10 percent to shift a lot of votes in some of the big electoral states — Florida, New York, California, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts — where a lot of Jewish votes are disproportionately found.

LAWTON: Politically conservative groups such as “Toward Tradition” argue that the Jewish community is increasingly adopting conservative social and political values.

RABBI DANIEL LAPIN (Toward Tradition): There is no such thing as a monolithic voice in the Jewish community. It simply doesn’t exist.

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LAWTON: Professor Alan Mittleman is working on a project called Jews in the American Public Square, which is currently studying Jewish political trends.

PROFESSOR MITTLEMAN: Jews remain largely a liberal community, but on issues that come very close to home — law and order issues, crime, for example — they are willing to vote for people outside the Democratic Party.

LAWTON: According to polls, more than 90 percent of Jews voted for Bill Clinton in 1996. The addition of Joe Lieberman has shored up Democratic loyalty going into this election. Some say it’s also prompting political re-thinking in the Jewish community, re-thinking that could have repercussions well beyond November.

For some, Lieberman is challenging stereotypes of what it means to be a religious Jew.

MS. BETTY EHRENBERG (Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America): I think for the most part, the Orthodox Jewish community is very fascinated by the idea that someone who is an observant Jew has been chosen as a candidate. But I think it’s also seen as an opportunity for people to understand more about Orthodox Judaism than has been understood previously.

LAWTON: Jews from many traditions say Lieberman’s candidacy is also challenging the notion that religion and politics belong in separate realms.

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Betty Ehrenberg

MARK DAVIS: That a person could be in [this] world, could be modern, could be in business and politics, and yet still abide by his religion or her religion, and I think that’s the thing about Lieberman that makes me the most proud.

LAWTON: Some Jews are concerned Lieberman’s visibility as an observant Jew could stir up latent anti-Semitic feelings and provoke a backlash against the entire community. But others believe it can also be a catalyst for a new day.

MS. EHRENBERG: Those who are anti-Semitic exist. They are always there. They will always be there. If they come out to the light and the sunshine, now we’ll know who they are exactly and they will not be hidden any more. I think it will increase anti-Semitism in any way and I feel that only positive can really come of this.

LAWTON: Professor Mittleman asserts that many American Jews have not made the connection between their public policy positions and the religious beliefs that may have led to those positions. Lieberman, he says, offers a new image.

PROFESSOR MITTLEMAN: Jews are very comfortable talking about social progress and social justice and sort of large liberal ideals which they hook up to their prophetic tradition. But they don’t like to descend into the specifics of how their faith and their traditional practices might impact on their civic engagement.

LAWTON: But such discussions are already yielding controversy within the community. Some political conservatives are frustrated that Lieberman talks about religion and family values, and yet supports abortion and gay rights.

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Rabbi David Saperstein

RABBI LAPIN: There is another wing of the Jewish community, the more observant wing of the community, who is less comfortable also with the gap between the things that the senator says and the way he actually votes.

LAWTON: Some liberals have been alarmed by Lieberman’s views about the role of religion in public life, for example, his comments at a black church that freedom of religion doesn’t mean freedom from religion.

Most Jews have traditionally supported a strict separation between church and state.

RABBI SAPERSTEIN: Jews have benefited extraordinarily by America’s separation of church and state. Keeping the government out of religion has allowed religion to flourish with a diversity and strength in American unmatched anywhere in the Western world.

PROFESSOR MITTLEMAN: I believe that Senator Lieberman’s presence on the ticket will cause a lot of soul-searching and rethinking in the Jewish community on some of the core church-state issues.

LAWTON: The immediate impact of the Lieberman candidacy has been to energize Jewish families such as the Brandenburgs to get more involved in politics. Fani Brandenburg says her family is still thinking through the implications of their faith for their politics. But she says the clear message of this campaign for her daughters is that their Jewish faith can be an asset, whatever their future holds.

FANI BRANDENBURG: The door’s wide open. This is truly the American dream.

LAWTON: I’m Kim Lawton in Washington.

Sukkot

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BOB ABERNETHY: On the calendar this week, the 7-day Jewish observance of Sukkot, which began at sundown on Friday.

Jews recall their ancestors’ 40 years of wandering in the desert after the exodus from Egypt by praying in a sukkah. A sukkah is a temporary dwelling exposed to the elements, where observant Jews may also eat and sleep. We visited the Greenbaum-Sherman family in Bethesda, Maryland, as they put the finishing touches on their backyard sukkah.

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DAD: This is fun. Come on.

MOM: It’s a great way to stay really connected. Every time I build this I reconnect with my father.

DAD: The Jews have been around for a long time. We’ve survived all sorts of cataclysms, catastrophes. And I believe that we are an eternal people and this is one of the ways of asserting our connection. The golden chain of continuity with our people for thousands of years.

MOM: Remember that year it was really cold we had to wear our winter coats and we said we were going to sit out here and eat the entire meal no matter how cold we were and we did. We ate quickly.

DAD: When you come home and you see all the decorations and you know your children have been involved with it and you have a sense not just that it’s a beautiful sukkah but that you’ve handed to your children something which is more valuable than money.

Middle East Unrest

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BOB ABERNETHY (anchor): The latest violence in the Middle East highlights the role of religion as fuel for conflict. We want to talk about the religious dimension of the Israeli-Palestinian hostility with professor Marius Deeb, a Christian of Lebanese descent who teaches Middle East history and politics at the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies; and with Rabbi Arthur Herzberg, a writer and professor at New York University and Rabbi Emeritus of the conservative temple Emanuel in Englewood, New Jersey. Rabbi Hertzberg joins us from New York.

Rabbi, is it religion that’s the problem or is it religious extremism?

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RABBI ARTHUR HERTZBERG: (New York University): It is certainly religious extremism. Religion is the problem to the degree that mainstream religion, which teaches peace, harmony, and the attempt to live together, has not succeeded in curbing the extremists who believe in ethnic hatred and in religion which encourages them to commit all kinds of atrocities in the name of God.

ABERNETHY: Professor Deeb, we’re familiar, I think most of us with, the Israeli claim that the land is theirs because God gave it to their ancestors. What are the Muslim religious claims?

PROFESSOR MARIUS DEEB: Religious claim of course of the Haram Al-Sharif, the Temple Mount, is because Prophet Mohammed’s ascent to heaven was from Jerusalem, and because the mosques were built there precisely because of biblical tradition and anyway, this shows that it is possible to share the Temple Mount, the Haram al-Sharif, between Muslims and Jews because both — the sides are holy to both communities.

ABERNETHY: Rabbi, you’ve argued that religion should somehow be taken out of the discussions of about how to bring about peace. This weekend, that seems like a real longshot. How could that come about?

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RABBI HERTZBERG: It has to come about. Religions absolutes — religious absolutes and the absolutists who believe in them, cannot compromise with one another. The Temple Mount, the Haram al-Sharif and the conflict over it is an exact example of that. Only pragmatic statesmen who are willing to find formulas for “live and let live” have any hope of bringing peace.

ABERNETHY: Professor Deeb, one of the ideas that has been floated is called “Divine Sovereignty”: that somehow, each side would recognize that God is in charge of the Temple Mount or something. Does that have merit?

PROF. DEEB: I don’t think it is very realistic because in the final analysis, human beings are going to be charged of the Temple Mount and the Haram al-Sharif. So, I think we would have to agree completely with Rabbi Hertzberg, we have to move to the pragmatic politician to solve these problems.

ABERNETHY: Rabbi, some Christians say, “well, the answer is to have some kind of international control of the Holy sites”; that’s not going to fly though, is it?

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RABBI HERTZBERG: Well, the last time this was discussed seriously, it didn’t fly at all because immediately, various national and for that matter church interests got involved in who was going to chair the international control, who would call the tombs. The only way the tombs can be called so they can be lived with, is for Palestinians and Israelis, Jews and Arabs to realize, that they are if you will, destined if you will, condemned, to live with one another, to live together.

ABERNETHY: Now, you say that the statesman should pick up on this and find compromise, but I gather you also feel that there are big responsibilities here for the religious communities on both sides to try to rein in their extremists, right?

RABBI HERTZBERG: Absolutely. The great task of religion — and it is a historic task almost since time immemorial — is to teach each of us to teach our people that the true meaning of the faith is it’s universalist element reaching out towards all of mankind and therefore the true meaning of religion is to bring Shalom, to bring peace, which is of course a component of the very name of Jerusalem.

ABERNETHY: Professor Deeb is that a possibility on the Muslim side, do you think?

PROF. DEEB: Yes, I think it is a possibility, but of course we need pragmatic politicians to push men of religion in that direction because men of religion, in their own — in Muslim tradition — did not have independence which exists in other religions.

ABERNETHY: Professor Deeb, Rabbi Hertzberg in New York, many thanks to both of you.

Unholy Bedfellows: Political-Religious Boundaries

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BOB ABERNETHY: There was surprisingly sharp reaction this week to Senator Joe Lieberman’s call last Sunday for more religious faith in American public life. Here’s part of what the Democratic vice presidential candidate said at a black church in Detroit.

Senator JOE LIEBERMAN (Democrat, Vice Presidential Candidate): As a people, we have to reaffirm our faith and renew the dedication of our nation and ourselves to God and God’s purposes.

ABERNETHY: Lieberman’s words may not have seemed controversial to many people of faith, but they triggered immediate and widespread concern, remembering past discrimination against religious minorities. The leaders of the Anti-Defamation League said, ‘An emphasis on religion in a political campaign becomes inappropriate and even unsettling in a religiously diverse society such as ours.’ Americans United for Separation of Church and State worry that ‘When religion is used repeatedly in the context of a presidential campaign, faith then becomes a political tool. Manipulating religion in this fashion,’ said Americans United, ‘cheapens and exploits religion for partisan ends.’ For his part, Lieberman called the concerns a ‘bit of an overreaction’ and made no apology. He said all he was saying was that faith has a constructive role that it can play in American life.

BOB ABERNETHY: The week’s debate made clear that the proper place for religion in a political campaign is a red-hot button, a volatile issue with unclear boundaries, not just for candidates, but for organizations too. Kim Lawton has a special report from Augusta, Maine.

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KIM LAWTON: Summer’s lazy beauty is still reflected all over the state of Maine. But in the capital city of Augusta, just down the road from the State Capitol building, members of the Christian Civic League are getting ready for an autumn of hard work. The Christian activist group wants to influence the November elections, particularly on three state referendum issues: casino-style gambling, doctor-assisted suicide, and expansion of gay rights. The league is opposed to all three and its members believe they have a moral responsibility to campaign for their beliefs.

Mr. MICHAEL HEATH (Christian Civic League of Maine): All us Christians have to be faithful to get involved and to speak honestly about what — how our convictions are in relationship to a candidate or the issues.

LAWTON: As the fall election season cranks into high gear, people across the religious and political spectrums are hoping to have an influence. Finding the appropriate legal and ethical boundaries for how that is worked out in the political arena, can, indeed, be tricky.

Dr. ROBERT FRANKLIN (PhD; Interdenominational Theological Center): It’s a creative tension. It’s a dialectical dance between church and the state along that border.

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LAWTON: According to IRS regulations, churches and other religious tax-exempt groups cannot get involved in the political campaigns of candidates — no organizational endorsements, no campaign donations, and no fund raising for individual candidates. But even the IRS admits what’s permissible can depend on the individual facts and circumstances in every case. In May, a U.S. appeals court upheld an IRS decision to revoke the tax exempt status of The Church at Pierce Creek, an evangelical church in New York that took out a political ad in 1992 warning Christians not to vote for Bill Clinton. And the Christian Coalition is fighting several battles over the distribution of its voter guides, which rate candidates on a series of issues. Under dispute is whether the guides are unfairly biased to favor Republican candidates. But where are the boundaries? Can a religious group host a political candidate of just one party?

Vice President AL GORE: I want your support. I want your help.

LAWTON: Can campaign signs be placed near or even inside religious buildings?

Can re-election literature, even in the form of church fans, be distributed at churches? And just how supportive can religious leaders be?

LAWTON: At the Republican National Convention, the Reverend Herbert Lutz and the Greater Exodus Baptist Church were beamed in via satellite.

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Reverend HERBERT LUTZ (Greater Exodus Baptist Church): We are supporting Governor Bush, and we are supporting him because we know that he understands that we must give faith a chance.

LAWTON: The next day, Americans United for Separation of Church and State wrote a letter urging the IRS to investigate whether the church should lose its tax-exempt status. Several months earlier, the group also urged the IRS to investigate minister and former New York Congressman Floyd Flake, after he expressed support for Al Gore from the pulpit.

Mr. BARRY LYNN (Americans United for Separation of Church and State): I like the idea of walking into a sanctuary and smelling incense. I don’t want to smell cigar smoke that’s coming from the church basement where they’re having some big meeting for all the Democratic or Republican hacks in town.

LAWTON: Since the earliest days of the nation, religious groups have tried to influence the political process based on their religious beliefs, from the abolitionist movement to prohibition, for suffrage and civil rights.

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Rabbi DAVID SAPERSTEIN (Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism): There’s a long tradition in America that religious groups have a right and an obligation to fulfill their prophetic mandate, to be a moral goad to the conscience of the country.

LAWTON: The Christian Civic League of Maine was founded more than 100 years ago to support the prohibition of alcohol. Over the years, the league has refocused its concerns to include other issues, such as opposition to abortion, gambling, and gay rights.

Mr. HEATH: Christians have an obligation to get into the mix and to make arguments that are consistent with what the Bible has to say.

LAWTON: League members believe political campaigns are a key way to influence the culture with their beliefs. Mike Heath travels across the state of Maine trying to rally others to the cause.

Mr. HEATH: I probably spend about 25 percent of my time driving through Maine, a lot of time on the weekends because I speak in churches.

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LAWTON: On this day, Heath went to a church in Bangor, where he addressed a group of pastors.

Mr. HEATH: Join us in being faithful this fall to tell the truth about the — these profound moral questions.

LAWTON: In an attempt to comply with IRS regulations, the league has created three separate entities with three different tax statues. Two are allowed to engage in some politicking, but it isn’t always easy to differentiate which activities fall under which category. Religion and politicking also has a complicated relationship in the African-American tradition, where the black church has long been the strongest organizing institution.

Dr. FRANKLIN: It’s clergy. We’re always the most literate members of the community, and naturally became interpreters of political reality for the larger community.

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LAWTON: Over the years, the IRS has not moved against politicking inside African-American churches. This has led to the appearance of a double standard, one for conservative white churches and another for politically liberal black churches. Some African-American leaders admit it may be time for special exemptions to come to an end.

Dr. FRANKLIN: In the post-civil rights movement period, we have an opportunity now to become assimilated to join the larger game and, hence, will have to conform to the rules of that game.

LAWTON: Legalities aside, many believe there are moral and ethical considerations religious groups should voluntarily take on as they delve into politics.

Professor JEAN BETHKE ELSHTAIN (University of Chicago): They shouldn’t seek to control the government for one particular denomination, that they shouldn’t assume that those who disagree with them on a political issue are somehow people whose faith isn’t as rich or isn’t as deep as their own.

Mr. LYNN: What we should not do is endorse or oppose candidates for office, or we shouldn’t link our values with any particular candidate or any particular party. And, finally, we shouldn’t use that of religious authority to impose a religious view on people or what they do when they go in the voting booth.

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LAWTON: Father Robert Drinan is a Roman Catholic priest who also served in Congress for a decade. He sites the electoral example of the Catholic bishops.

Father ROBERT DRINAN, S.J. (Georgetown University Law Center): They put out a brochure: Here are the 10 or 15 social issues that Catholics should consider before they vote. Abortion is one of them. It is not highlighted. It’s there with poverty and hunger and world aid. People have this available, but in no way can you say that the Catholic bishops say you have to vote thus and so.

LAWTON: To do otherwise, some say, would be to compromise the religious voices that have enriched the social and political process.

Prof. ELSHTAIN: The American tradition has been one of saying church-state separation, yes, but religion in politics is something else. There we have a very close and complicated working relationship, and sometimes people are going to take positions from the pulpit of a political nature, hopefully of a rather general nature, about reminding people of the core commitments of their faith and then suggesting there are some political implications of this.

LAWTON: Despite the complexities, religious people on the right and the left say they’ll still add their voices to this fall’s elections, ensuring that the tradition of controversy will also continue. I’m Kim Lawton in Augusta, Maine.

Kentucky Gun Control

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BOB ABERNETHY: As we reported, among its other actions, the United Methodists also came out in support of strong laws to control handguns. This as hundreds of thousands of people in Washington and more than 60 other cities prepared for Sunday’s Million Mom March, a Mother’s Day attempt to convince Congress to pass tougher gun control laws. Every major faith group — Christian, Jewish, Muslim — has endorsed the march, but the gun issue still divides many believers, as correspondent Lucky Severson discovered. Here is his report on God and guns in Kentucky.

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LUCKY SEVERSON: This is the heart and soul of horse country, a few miles outside of Lexington, Kentucky. It is Sunday morning at the New Union Christian Church. Pastor Nancy Jo Kemper is at the pulpit.

Reverend NANCY JO KEMPER (New Union Christian Church) (To Congregation): The theme of this psalm is about unity and about …

SEVERSON: One of her favorite sermons is about loving and trusting thy neighbor, something she thinks is disappearing from the American scene.

Rev. KEMPER: Folks seem to be more and more frightened by their neighbor. In place of trying to love their neighbor, they want to arm themselves against their neighbor. And that’s why I think churches need to be involved.

SEVERSON: But like other Kentucky preachers, Pastor Willie Ramsey thinks that people arming themselves is a God-given right. In 1998, Pastor Ramsey convinced the Kentucky legislature to enact a law that specifically allowed clergy to carry concealed weapons on church property, providing they have a license, as the pastor does. It is the only law of its kind in the country.

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Reverend WILLIE RAMSEY (Church of Christ): As a preacher, a — and as a religious person, I don’t think that I need to be attacked simply because I’m a preacher or a religious person. My family wants me to come home safely in the evening, just like anyone else’s, just like the policeman’s family wants him to come home safely in the evening. The Second Amendment is a treasured right, and I appreciate it.

SEVERSON: Was there an incident here in Kentucky that made certain pastors feel that they needed to carry guns?

Rev. KEMPER: No, we’ve not had a church robbed, except maybe once in the inner city of Louisville, in 20 years.

Father ANTHONY CHANDLER (St. Bartholomew’s Catholic Church) (To Congregation): We pause now, calling to mind our sinfulness, asking God’s forgiveness and loving mercy.

SEVERSON: Father Anthony Chandler owns guns, but doesn’t carry one.

You haven’t personally felt threatened.

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Fr. CHANDLER: No. No, I’ve never — in my 11 years, I’ve not felt threatened.

SEVERSON: Pastor Ramsey says there has been an epidemic of crimes against religion in Kentucky, including the shooting in a Paducah high school targeting a prayer group. Three students were killed and five injured. And there was a robbery in a Kentucky church three years ago. Pastor Ramsey did not want us to take pictures of his church in rural Kentucky or his four guns, and he wouldn’t tell us if he was carrying a gun on his way to church.

Rev. RAMSEY: Like, if I was going somewhere right now and I told somebody I’m not, that I — you know, somebody that heard that or somebody found out, I could be in danger.

SEVERSON: He says his feelings about guns are based on biblical teachings: that Christ owns our bodies, and it is our obligation to protect them.

Rev. KEMPER: I think Jesus instructed us, you know, if someone strikes you on one cheek, to turn the other. If they want to take your coat, give them your cloak as well.

SEVERSON: But with Pastor Ramsey and other pro-gun preachers we spoke with, what is most sacred is the Second Amendment to the Bill of Rights, which says, “A well-regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.” Tom Riner is a minister and state legislator.

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Reverend TOM RINER (Louisville Church for the Homeless): It’s a basic freedom for each individual American to be able to own a firearm, and that helps, our forefathers said, stabilize a society, and it makes it less likely that we’ll ever have the type of tyranny that has taken place in Nazi Germany and Stalinist Russia.

Rev. KEMPER: Liberty has become the American civil religion, and it’s destroying the democracy that we share. A democracy is based on moral values implemented in law for the benefit of the whole, not for the benefit of the one.

SEVERSON: In Kentucky this year, the legislature overrode the governor’s veto and ordered that all confiscated guns had to be auctioned back to the public.

The new law stunned Sherry Hammond. In 1997, her 15-year-old son Quintin was shot and killed on his way to school. Quintin didn’t belong to any gangs. Everyone agreed he was a good kid, one of 4,223 in the U.S. killed by gunfire in 1997.

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Ms. SHERRY HAMMOND (Mother of Gun Victim): I think the gun should be made to be destroyed, and let that be the end of it. Why would you want to own a gun that killed somebody like my child? It’s not — it doesn’t make sense to me.

SEVERSON: The Kentucky legislature passed another law this year, making it legal for everyone, not just pastors, to carry concealed weapons to church. Did you vote for those two laws?

Rev. RINER: Yes, I did.

SEVERSON: The law does allow individual churches to forbid concealed weapons, but that would be a silly thing to do, if you listen to Pastor Ramsey.

Rev. RAMSEY: Anytime a business or a home puts a big sign on the door, “We have no weapons here,” it’s like putting a big bull’s-eye on that door.

Rev. KEMPER: I think it is nauseating, and I think Jesus would be absolutely appalled at the thought that we have to post signs on church property that say, “Concealed deadly weapons prohibited.”

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Rev. RAMSEY: And what I resent is people in urban areas and in the media who don’t own a handgun and treat handguns kind of like they would a spider or a snake. They’re afraid of them.

Fr. CHANDLER: When that was passed, we were told immediately, by letter by our ordinary, that we would not be carrying guns in the churches.

SEVERSON: Will you discourage your members from carrying concealed weapons to church?

Reverend RON SISK (Crescent Hill Baptist Church): Oh, goodness, yes. We wouldn’t permit a weapon in this facility for any reason, and I certainly would never carry one.

SEVERSON: Ron Sisk is pastor of the Crescent Hill Baptist Church, and he’s chairman of an Interfaith Kentuckiana Alliance to End Gun Violence. It is an alliance of several Kentucky faiths, including Jews, Catholics, Muslims, and Baptists.

UNIDENTIFIED MAN #1: You can actually put it through the hole in your cylinder.

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SEVERSON: In April, the alliance distributed 5,000 free gun locks to Kentucky gun owners. Churches, of course, have banded together on moral issues many times before, but this is one of the first times they have taken on guns as a moral issue. Why haven’t churches gotten involved in this issue before?

Rev. SISK: One of the things that has happened in the last year or two is that the epidemic of violence has found its way into the religious community, and we’re getting a hearing, whereas there really wasn’t room for that years ago.

UNIDENTIFIED MAN #2: Whatever you got for me.

UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: Okay.

UNIDENTIFIED MAN #2: Thank you so much.

SEVERSON: And you’re in favor of locks for guns.

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Rev. RAMSEY: No. No, I’m not.

SEVERSON: Why not?

Rev. RAMSEY: Well, a gun, by its very nature, is something that if one needed for self-defense, they would need it quickly.

Rev. KEMPER (To Congregation): And now may the joy of God shine from your face.

SEVERSON: Nancy Kemper and a growing number of Kentucky religious leaders think it’s time that churches use the pulpit to battle gun violence.

Rev. KEMPER: God intends for us to live in a compassionate community of care with one another, not arming ourselves for battle against one another.

SEVERSON: The Pastors Riner and Ramsey and other preachers in Kentucky are not inclined to budge. For now, they have more sway with the legislature than pastors who want some gun control. But that may be changing. For RELIGION & ETHICS NEWSWEEKLY, I’m Lucky Severson in Louisville.