c. 2005 Religion News Service
(UNDATED) It’s time to answer some e-mail that readers have sent regarding several recent columns.
The Air Force Academy: No, dear Sarasota, Fla., reader, I am not against the Air Force. Indeed, I am proud of my USAF chaplaincy duty at Itazuke Air Base and at other military facilities in Japan and Korea. Nor am I anti-military. How could I be? My father, a retired Army lieutenant colonel, and mother are buried together in Arlington National Cemetery near the Pentagon. My late brother served as an Army captain at Fort Bragg, N.C., home of the 82nd Airborne Division.
It is that family background and personal experience that fuels my anger at the reported evangelical excesses that have taken place at the Air Force Academy. The abuses carried out against non-evangelical cadets severely undercut the academy’s central mission to train American men and women to be military officers, and not religious fanatics, proselytizers or flying advertisements for one particular brand of Christianity. Their oath as officers is to support and defend the United States Constitution, and not a particular theological doctrine or set of beliefs.
The Air Force Academy is neither a seminary nor a spiritual retreat center. The United States has an abundance of both that effectively serve various faith communities. Unlike religious institutions, our nation’s taxpayers fund the academy, and the American public that pays the bills has the right to demand the Colorado Springs school be welcoming to cadets and faculty of all spiritual backgrounds and to those who affirm no faith tradition.
No religious qualification is ever needed to serve as an American military officer.
Protestant churches and divestment from companies doing business in Israel: I have received mail from members of the Presbyterian Church, United Church of Christ and several other mainline denominations. They are enraged by the efforts of their church denominations to use “divestment” or “economic leverage” in an alleged attempt to aid the Middle East peace process.
One woman in Staten Island, N.Y., correctly noted that divestment sends the absolute wrong Christian message when both Israelis and Palestinians are groping their way in a tense, complex effort to achieve an equitable two-state solution. Economically punishing Israel at this critical moment in history by withdrawing funds from corporations that invest in that country is a disservice to the fragile peace process, damaging to Christian-Jewish relations and an embarrassment for millions of mainline Protestants.
An economic boycott against Israel is a not-so-subtle form of a social pathology that Jews know well: It is called anti-Semitism.
Another reader wondered whether certain Protestant leaders are suffering from “evangelical envy.” It is a condition caused by the steady membership decline and the increased median age of the mainline churches juxtaposed against the large numbers and growing influence of evangelicals within American society. In addition, evangelicals are frequently strong supporters of Israel and its quest for security and survival in a violent region of the world.
Use and abuse of the Bible: A Cleveland, Ohio, reader accused me of not showing the “appropriate reverence and respect” for the Bible. I receive such criticism each time I write about the Holy Scriptures. Again a bit of autobiography: I grew up “revering and respecting” the matriarchs and patriarchs of the Hebrew Bible: Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Sarah, Rebecca, Leah and Rachel along with Moses, David, Ruth and Deborah. My maternal grandfather always reminded me that all biblical figures, including the prophets, are “members of our Jewish family.” I love them all, and certainly do not mind sharing them and the Bible with other religions.
But I am upset when religious leaders speak approvingly of using “Old Testament Laws” as the sole basis for American jurisprudence and governance. I wonder whether they truly mean to enforce the Bible’s call for capital punishment in cases of blasphemy, adultery, sodomy, homosexuality, a “rebellious son” and other crimes.
While rabbinic Judaism, through the Talmud and other teachings, long ago mitigated such stern punishments, some Christian extremists continue to call for the imposition of the death penalty for those who break “Old Testament laws.”
What an irony. Now it is Christian zealots who are “legalistic, without compassion, and tied to the law” (all charges that have been hurled at Jews throughout history), while Judaism has interpreted the harsh biblical punishments with teachings of “mercy, compassion, and love” (terms usually associated with Christianity).
Ah, religion! It is our greatest gift and our greatest challenge … both at the same time.
MO/LF END RNS
(Rabbi Rudin, the American Jewish Committee’s Senior Interreligious Adviser, is Distinguished Visiting Professor at Saint Leo University.)
