An Alabama rabbi's response to Roy Moore.

[trof]

Religious lessons from the week's election
By Jonathan Miller, Rabbi Emeritus, Temple Emanu-El, Birmingham, Alabama

Years ago, I heard then Chief Justice Moore give his standard stump speech. Before he was removed from office (the first time), his personal Ten Commandment monument sat in the vestibule of the Alabama Supreme Court building in Montgomery. True to form, Roy Moore was the center of attention. In his speech, Moore quoted amply from our nation's foundational texts to show that American was conceived as a Christian nation. The quotes came, one after another, staccato style, lifted without context or the well-reasoned discussion that accompanied America's founding generation.

I listened carefully, but something didn't sit quite right. Moore's description of America's ideal was in sharp contrast to what I learned in school and experienced in my spiritual life.

When the Q and A came, I stood up and asked Justice Moore, "I appreciate your commitment to faith. I am a pulpit rabbi. In this community, I work with people of faith, Jews and Christians, all my waking hours. Justice Moore, what makes you think that the state of faith and the religious institutions in Alabama are so weak and pitiful that we need the assistance of the Alabama Supreme Court to encourage religious living? Don't you think the synagogues and churches are doing a good enough job that we do not need the Supreme Court to teach us how to live faithfully?"

Moore stopped in his tracks. Not answering my question, he said, "I believe the churches in the state are doing a fine job."

It got me to thinking. True people of faith are safe and secure. Nothing can shake them. To know and experience God is unforgettable and transformational. People of faith do not need a two-and-a-half-ton monument to proclaim what God has planted in their hearts. And people of faith do not need a politician or a judge to impose morality and dogma in the public square. We religious leaders in Alabama are quite able to teach and guide our adherents in the ways of faith.
http://www.al.com/opinion/index.ssf/2017/12/religious_lessons_from_the_wee.html#incart_river_index

I am not a deist, but I agree with the rabbi 100%.
trof

[safeinOhio]

1. You can not reason with fundamentalest.

Because they are no fun and they are mental.

[TomSlick]

2. My definition of a fundamentalist:

A person who is confident what God would do if God knew all the facts.