Key word (wrong word
) = “interference”
Meltzerboy, if committed black Baptists (+other Protestants), + Catholics
+ Jews, had not “interfered” with existing Southern culture back in the 1960’s, the Civil Rights movement as we know it would not have occurred. It was, in large respect,
a religiously driven movement, aided by (to Lisa’s point) moral atheists and agnositcs (to a much lesser extent).
A good Jew reconciles his moral conscience with his voting decisions, no? (In my experience, yes.) In fact, of all the people I know, including Catholics, Jews are much more likely to actually agonize over voting decisions than any other single group.
Again, tangentially to Lisa’s point, I see much of the late 20-th and early 21st-century Jewish activism in politics to be post-Shoah consciousness. It is very important to every practicing Jew I personally know (and I know a lot of them
) not to be silent on civic issues which have moral import. It doesn’t matter how much a minority Jews are in the population, it is Standing for something that is the issue. (Christians call it Witness.
)
You can look upon it as “recommending.” Or you can look upon it as saying, “Here is what I stand for, because this is how my faith informs my conscience on this issue.” You could not say just that, speaking to a Jewish family who seemed racked by indecision?
