The Supreme Court & Baccalaureate Services

Rabbi Gary S. Creditor
June 23, 2000

 On Monday, June 12th, 2000 I participated in my fifth baccalaureate service, the second time for Douglas Freeman High School. A baccalaureate service includes either "America the Beautiful" or "My Country ''Tis of Thee", Presentation of the Colors, several speeches by students, which can include being in a religious vein, speeches by clergy, and invocations and benedictions. They have all been held in churches. The first for Douglass Freeman at the West End Assembly of God in 1995, Collegiate School at Second Baptist Church in 1996, The Governor's School at the Cathedral of the Sacred Heart in 1998, The Steward School at the Gayton Kirk in 1999, and at Grove Avenue Baptist Church this year. I must tell you that a good Jewish boy like me has never been in so many churches in such a short span of time in his life! It's a strange feeling. I don't look upon it like going into "the lions den." I just think about Jewish history, the conflict of church and synagogue spanning two millennia, the miracle of my presence, a Rabbi with kippah walking down those church aisles and speaking from those pulpits, those students, ninety-nine percent non-Jewish looking and listening to me, and America at this juncture in history. Sometimes I am caught up in my thoughts and have a surrealistic feeling swirling around me.

The Supreme Court decision this week, banning student led prayers before football games when done over a loudspeaker before kickoff, has re-ignited the ongoing heated discussion over the place of religion in the public domain. In light of the Supreme Court decision the ACLU in Virginia is initiating a suit to declare the Moment of Silence legislation recently passed by the General Assembly as unconstitutional. It was the Supreme Court decision in 1992 barring prayers at graduation ceremonies that caused parents and others to create the venue of baccalaureate services. They were, and still are, dedicated to maintaining religion and the message of religion in life and life's events. The news polls indicate that the popular sentiment is running strongly against the posture of the Supreme Court. I can imagine that in parts of this country, where neither Jew nor Moslem has ever set foot, they are up in arms over this decision. They see every part of life as appropriate for religion. In a strange way, we do too! These parents want to send their sons and daughters off into college life, on their own, away from parental oversight, with a religious message that will strengthen them as they encounter the enticements of the world. We should want to give our children religious messages too! Yet this is not such a simplistic scene.

What messages do we give them? While some messages might be in common, others will be "religion specific."

When we get together, Moslems, Jews, Christians, atheists, in whose name do we pray?

What music do we sing, and what is the religious message of that music?

Can the secular society provide values that sustain and encourage a law-abiding, respectful, productive society?

Can American society ever be religiously neutral?

When I came to both the baccalaureate services for Douglass Freeman, the guest speaker was Reverend John Leonard, the Pastor of St. Michael's Catholic Church. Especially the first time, I was worried, what was he going to say? What did I get myself into? What did my presence, when he said whatever he said, indicate? While I have no recollection of his first speech, which was listed as "Sermon" on the brochure, he second was wonderful, with little changes; I could have delivered it, and was listed as "Guest Speaker." Perhaps the change in nomenclature indicates how far we have come.

A few personal observations:

I don't believe that American society will ever be truly religiously neutral because it is founded on beliefs that are predicated in a belief in the Divine. The United States is unique in the annals of history because it bases its civic structure on the religious belief, originally written in our Torah, that every human being is "endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights…" America, for its essence, as different from every other state in history, is grounded in a belief in God that made all people equal; equally protected, equally deserving; equally human. This is a specific Jewish teaching. This is the basis for all civil rights laws, laws against hate, for the law that protects us to be Jews.

I don't believe that the secular society provides the correct value system. Secularism has no regard for our humanity.Its ultimate goals are power, money and control. There is neither redemption nor salvation. There is neither higher meaning nor purpose to life. "Relative" is the operative term, to determine whether something is good or bad, right or wrong. While perhaps most Jews live in and as if the secular society is the normal and normative mode, our Judaism posits that religion, and for us Judaism, is the true source of values and not the secular market place.

I accept the invitation to participate in these baccalaureate services for several reasons:

1.Judaism must be present on the stage of religions. For our own honor, for the honor of Torah and Am Yisrael, must have a public persona.

2. My presence insures that these programs will be kept as religiously universal as possible. It is possible to refer to God with just that word and not have to say Adonay, Allah, or Jesus.

3. We can say to these young adults, that their religions, each in their own language, provide a "higher" litmus test" in order to determine right from wrong. We believe that there are more important values than whether or not "it makes you feel good." Not everything that feels good is good.

4. America will only fulfill its potential when people of faith work together. Our faiths observedifferent Sabbaths of Friday, Saturday and Sunday; yet all faiths reach beyond, reach higher for the ultimate source of life, its purpose, its obligations, and its rules.

These common meeting grounds, where rules of civility and courtesy prevail, can even serve a most useful purpose. At this last service for Douglas Freeman High School, one of the student speakers was a Jewish girl. She proudly spoke about being different, proudly being Jewish, that all the other students knew it. Her presence, in school and on stage was a powerful lesson to the diversity and differences, which is the richness of American society. That she was chosen to speak indicates to the next generation of citizens and perhaps leaders, that acceptance and respect of others is thetrue value of America, which is higher that merely tolerating or acknowledging that there are others who are different. I think that every student and parent left that service with a greater appreciation of the diversity of his or her world. It was a good, religious message.

The pendulum of religious expression and tolerance is never static but ever changing. It might be that in order to insure respect of others the Supreme Court will need to continue to protect the wall of separation of church and state. We certainly do not want the government mixing into the "business" of religion. We must be vigilant how much religion injects itself into the "business" of government. That will be an issue of this November's elections. Yet religion will and must speak in our society. We, too, as Jews, claim to hear God's message through the words of the Torah and our prophets, have an obligation to represent them in public, and have them guide our lives. It is our message to America, from Micah, that every citizen should "do justly, love mercy and walk humbly with God." May we contribute to making America beautiful for all.

Amen.