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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).