To Give Communion or Not

Rabbi Gary S. Creditor  A week ago, a visiting student from St. Edwards hesitantly asked me about my being a Rabbi. I knew what he was asking. Could Rabbis marry and have children? I assured him that I was married, with three children and a granddaughter. For his frame of reference I also told him that I was not a "holy" man. I did not dispense sacraments. He understood my answer. I don't think that he had any idea how "loaded" a question he asked. While not always on the front page or even in the newspaper daily, the power to withhold the dispensing sacraments is now inseparably intertwined with the political process and the decision-making of literally life and death issues. The subject of dispensing the sacraments and politics follows in a long chain of issues - school prayer, funding of private religious schools, funding for faith based organizations rendering social services, the public display and public funding for crèches, the Ten Commandments and ornamentation of public buildings. Indeed it opens wide the door to the role of religion in the public domain.  As Jews, we have beliefs that run directly counter to Catholic and fundamentalist churches on certain issues, like abortion, stem-cell research, and organ donation. Judaism is unique and our views emerge from the dialectic of our sacred texts through intense study. Judaism has positions on these issues all our own.  As Americans, we have a vested interest in securing and sustaining a government that insures that we and all citizens are free from the domination of other religions in our personal lives, not only that we are free to worship as Jews. We had better wake up and realize the winds-of-change and involve ourselves in the political processes of America and not abdicate the stage of the political arena. There are several issues I wish to address. 1. I frequently host church student groups, either from their private schools or from their church classes. Among the many subjects we touch upon is that of Rabbi Verses priest. They are amazed when I tell them that I do not dispense any sacrament like communion. Judaism is really a very democratic religion. Conversion is a process validated by a bet din, a court. Kiddushin, marriage, is affected by the groom making the declaration to the bride, and her accepting the ring. Divorce is a process between parting spouses, validated by a bet din. These are not sacraments. I tell the visiting students that we pray, we sing, we study Torah, and observe the festivals. And that if you study enough, everyone is eligible to be a Rabbi, for in essence, there is no division. I have nothing to withhold and nothing to dispense. We all can, should make Kiddush and drink from the wine, make hamotzi and eat of the challah, put up a mezuzah, go to mikveh, light the menorah, and keep kosher. We have an abundant constellation of sacred acts - mitzvot - that connect us to God and each other. But as Rabbi I don't give and I don't withhold. There is no coercive power by "the clergy" in our faith. 2. Recently, invited to be cross-examined by the Young Leadership Development Program of the Federation I was asked: is there anything that can get a Jew excommunicated? At least that was the essence of the question. I answered, no, except for one thing, and that really happened in Israel . In Jewish law, a Jew, even if he sins, remains a Jew, and thus eligible and obligated to the mitzvot. As our tradition, as seen through the argumentation in the Talmud, has wide parameter for our beliefs and latitude in our religious observances. The movements in Judaism see Jewish practice and theology differently. Parts of the Jewish family don't have to accept what other parts do. And even if someone - wrongly - wanted to use the adjectives "good" and "bad," we still remain a Jew. In the case of Brother Daniel, a born Jew who became a Christian clergy, the State of Israel denied him the right of return as a Jew. He immigrated as a Christian. In that singular issue, I would concur. A Jew who converts to Christianity and becomes a church religious official has relinquished their place in the Jewish people. Otherwise, a person might adopt beliefs that are outside of Judaism's umbrella, but as a Jew is still entitled to fulfill the mitzvot of our faith. Judaism is unique. To the essence: 3. My folder on church-state issues is brimming with articles of the past thirty years. Consistently they reflect the swing of the pendulum to have religion come forth "from the pew to the public." It seems that the vast majority of Americans had been content to have a fairly clear segregation of religion away from the common public ground. What was said on Friday, Saturday, or Sunday, stayed there in mosque, synagogue and church. At most it went from there to the home. We had what some call "ceremonial religion," religious invocations, reading of Psalms and the Lord's Prayer in public school, and Christmas trees. Religions, for the most part, did not attempt to influence public policy. They preached to private, individual practice. That has now changed. Already in 1984 the renowned author Professor Harvey Cox wrote: "Rather than an age of rampant secularism and religious decline, it appears to be more of an era of religious revival and the return of the sacral." We might conceive that the first era of American history was to keep religion free from the state. George Washington wrote: "I have often expressed my sentiments, that every man, conducting himself as a good citizen, and being accountable to God alone for his religious opinions, ought to be protected in worshipping the Deity according to the dictates of his own conscience." We naively thought that that also meant to keep the state free from religion. The second era of American history might be called, to paraphrase an article from the Long Island Newsday, December 28, 1981, "The Church Comes Out of the Cloister." Our newest era is not only the active participation of the Church in the argumentation, but also the use of its own internal religious mechanism for coercion over its adherents who are elected officials. Bishop Michael Sheridan on Colorado, Cardinal Francis Arinze, and Bishop Raymond Burke of Wisconsin are only the first to seek to deny their Catholic followers access the sacrament of communion, their central religious ritual if they hold "pro-life" positions and especially if they vote that way. In an illuminating article on the web site of the Catholic Educator's Resource Center , Father Thomas Williams clearly demonstrates the use of withholding ritual for non compliance with dogma is right and necessary. I clearly and distinctly remember the presidential campaign of 1960. Slightly above a whisper it was asked: "Would John Kennedy take orders from the Pope?" I believe that it is our sacred duty to communicate to our legislators the reinforcement to vote their personal conscience as they see the issues, and not because of religious coercion. They must hear from us, the Jews in the pews, that our views, our personal lives, the issues of life and death, are not governed, not held hostage, by any other religion. We all admire and respect that adherents of any faith will personally, for their own lives, follow the dictates of that faith. I wish Jews would too! Our political representatives must hear from us, in Richmond locally and the state, and in Washington , D.C. , that they represent all of us, with different faiths and different dogmas - maybe without dogmas - and different obligations. The state must legislate for the entire society. That will truly be religious freedom. We must make our voices heard. We should support those who insure us of our liberty. There is much more at stake than the child could ever imagine in his simple question:  1. What right does a faith use its power to coerce public officials?  What about the death penalty? Going to war? Taxation? Pacifism?  2. How far does a religion go in propagating its beliefs?  Only in the pulpit?  On billboards on the highways?  Commercials on TV and radio?  To withhold and exclude burial, marriage?  3. Is it supposed to be a free-for-all by religions, in which money meaning power will be a significant determinant, in order to reshape society in its image? Do we go beyond sermon making and take action in the streets?  4. And if the politicians turn their back on the sacraments, keep their faith and keep their political views, has not religion become trivialized, or is religion going to be viewed like a political party, lost this election so lets win the next one?  5. Particularly in this case of abortion, where the two political parties have clear differences, where does the endorsement of an issue be separate from endorsing the party? Is this an end run for politics up to the pulpit? This is the challenge that we face as Americans and as Jews in the every changing landscape of America .  May our voices be heard.  May we not shy away from engagement in the political process.  May the vision of America , taken from our prophets always be true in this country, that we are free to enjoy "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness." Amen.