February 18, 2016
Direct Link to Pew Research report on Religion - Heavy Reading!
Just posted N.Y. Times article 2/24/16, Bernie Sanders Is Jewish, but He Doesn’t Like to Talk About It, covering many of the same points as mine below, without the Pew Study of contrary public views of Jews and Atheist- given Sanders is both. More personal discussion of his background and how he handles being a secular Jew. Excellent article.
With Bernie Sanders victory in the New Hampshire primaries, whether or not he advances further in his quest for the Presidency, his defining of his Jewishness will affect the American Public's perception of what it means to be a Jew in America. Given his goal, his interests will be primarily creating an image that will lead to electoral success. This OpEd from the L.A. Times gives some historical background of differing responses towards Jews who rose to prominent public positions, and describes the current Congress, "which now includes 17 Jewish representatives and 11 Jewish senators." The fact that all but one are Democrats does matter, even though not mentioned in the article.
It is important to differentiate between Jewishness as a religion and as an ethnic identity. For V.P candidate Joe Lieberman, it includes a religion, one that he practiced to the degree he acknowledged that if he were to ascend to the presidency he would perform those duties as head of state on the Sabbath only if they constituted an emergency. Sanders, as this being only an ethnic identity, would have no such limitations.
Direct Link to Pew Research report on Religion - Heavy Reading!
Just posted N.Y. Times article 2/24/16, Bernie Sanders Is Jewish, but He Doesn’t Like to Talk About It, covering many of the same points as mine below, without the Pew Study of contrary public views of Jews and Atheist- given Sanders is both. More personal discussion of his background and how he handles being a secular Jew. Excellent article.
With Bernie Sanders victory in the New Hampshire primaries, whether or not he advances further in his quest for the Presidency, his defining of his Jewishness will affect the American Public's perception of what it means to be a Jew in America. Given his goal, his interests will be primarily creating an image that will lead to electoral success. This OpEd from the L.A. Times gives some historical background of differing responses towards Jews who rose to prominent public positions, and describes the current Congress, "which now includes 17 Jewish representatives and 11 Jewish senators." The fact that all but one are Democrats does matter, even though not mentioned in the article.
It is important to differentiate between Jewishness as a religion and as an ethnic identity. For V.P candidate Joe Lieberman, it includes a religion, one that he practiced to the degree he acknowledged that if he were to ascend to the presidency he would perform those duties as head of state on the Sabbath only if they constituted an emergency. Sanders, as this being only an ethnic identity, would have no such limitations.
What I personally find meaningful is his own description of his background in speeches and debates, "My parents were Polish immigrants" often ignoring the “Jewish” part. Sanders and myself have similar backgrounds, born only a year apart from parents born in the pale of settlement that encompassed current parts current Poland and Russia. Both of us are secular, with our Jewishness an ethnic identity rather than a religion. Yet I would never, nor more importantly would my extended family, describe their or their parents as being Polish immigrants. My mother as a Jewish child, was not allow to play in the public parks, the sign that read, "No Dogs or Jews," something she remember all of her life. So, neither she nor I had any confusion about her identity in that country.
Here's how Wikipedia handles the origin issue:
Sanders was born in the New York City borough of Brooklyn. His father, Eli Sanders, was born on September 19, 1904, in Słopnice, Poland,[23][24] to a Jewish family, and emigrated to the United States in 1921,[25] at the age of seventeen.[23][26] His mother, Dorothy Sanders (née Glassberg), was born in New York City on October 2, 1912,[27][28] to Jewish immigrant parents from Poland and Russia.[29][30] Many of Eli's relatives who remained in Poland were killed in the Holocaust.[6][26][28][31].,,,
Sander's
use of the, "Polish Immigrant" term, beyond political expediency, is
based on a distortion of Poland of that era being the "melting pot" idealized in
U.S. Is
it harmless image creation, or is it something that will bring a
refutation that will engender hostility for the "deceit?" This is an
important question if one believes, as I do, that Jew hatred is still
simmering below the surface in this country, even if not spoken in
polite company. It broke through the surface recently in Ted Nuggent's facebook posting
that described the gun control movement as a Jewish conspiracy. As a
board member of the National Rifle Association, his being excoriated by some yet supported by
others. As of this writing, he has not apologized or resigned from his position in the N.R.A
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The Pew Research organization is highly respected for providing information
based on rigorous surveys of this country and of the world. Its well funded endowments allows it to ignore the public perception of its
findings and provide information that is usually only available to
political and commercial groups who will use it to advance their goals -- rather than to increase public understanding. .
There are two Pew studies that apply to this issue; the first being is How Americans Feel About Religious Groups. This is professionally generated material that is all in the public domain, including on the right side of the linked page extensive raw data and analyses. One striking result that is relevant to the Sanders discussion is the American public's feelings towards two groups, Jews and Atheists, both of which labels could be applied to Sanders, even though he would not formally proclaim his atheism. The former is his public ethnic identity, the later is his intellectual perspective that is consistent with the personal and historical foundation of his political views.
An important element of the Pew survey is questions that constitute a scale of being comfortable with, or liking, those of, a given religious orientation. Their opening paragraph describes it this way, "Jews, Catholics and evangelical Christians are viewed warmly by the American public. When asked to rate each group on a “feeling thermometer” ranging from 0 to 100 – where 0 reflects the coldest, most negative possible rating and 100 the warmest, most positive rating." As you will see, those with the "coldest" rating by Americans are Muslims and then Atheists.
This second related Pew survey,U.S. Religious Landscape Survey: Religious Beliefs and Practices, of 2008 goes into more detail on the broad subject of this essay. About a third down on the website we have this heading, “Great Diversity in Core Religious Beliefs,” that while not breaking down Jewish denominations, does reflect the range of meaning that are encompassed by those exemplified by two national candidates, Bernie Sanders contrasted with Joe Lieberman. Here's their summary:
Sanders, along with many secular Jews would probably answer "yes," to the first question of belief in God, and "no" to the second "absolutely certain that God exists." If we were to break this down by denomination, from Ultra Orthodox to Reformed, the differences would be stark; the former, by definition, being certain of God's existence, while among the later such certainty is rare. This is well known among Jews, but not so commonly understood among the general public. It is the same conflation that outsiders have about the range of literal belief among Muslims, except there is no such thing as a secular denomination of Islam, as one is either formally of the religion or not- (the proclaiming of "not" having possibly dire effects -IE: Salmon Rushdie or Fareed Zakaria)
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Sanders' Judaism has parallels to Obama's Christianity, as explored in this article shortly after his first term began, “The Faith of Obama, a Secular Messiah” that includes this summary of an interview:
OBAMA: Sixteen, 17 years ago
1987 or 88 (when he proclaimed his Christianity at Church)
Falsani: So you got yourself born again?
OBAMA: Yeah, although I don’t — I retain from my childhood and my experiences growing up, a suspicion of dogma. And I’m not somebody who is always comfortable with language that implies I’ve got a monopoly on the truth, or that my faith is automatically transferable to others.
I’m a big believer in tolerance. I think that religion at it’s best comes with a big dose of doubt. I’m suspicious of too much certainty in the pursuit of understanding just because I think people are limited in their understanding.
I think that, particularly as somebody who’s now in the public realm and is a student of what brings people together and what drives them apart, there’s an enormous amount of damage done around the world in the name of religion and certainty.
- See more at: https://sojo.net/articles/transcript-barack-obama-and-god-factor-interview#sthash.b0yTzyWs.dpuf
There are two Pew studies that apply to this issue; the first being is How Americans Feel About Religious Groups. This is professionally generated material that is all in the public domain, including on the right side of the linked page extensive raw data and analyses. One striking result that is relevant to the Sanders discussion is the American public's feelings towards two groups, Jews and Atheists, both of which labels could be applied to Sanders, even though he would not formally proclaim his atheism. The former is his public ethnic identity, the later is his intellectual perspective that is consistent with the personal and historical foundation of his political views.
An important element of the Pew survey is questions that constitute a scale of being comfortable with, or liking, those of, a given religious orientation. Their opening paragraph describes it this way, "Jews, Catholics and evangelical Christians are viewed warmly by the American public. When asked to rate each group on a “feeling thermometer” ranging from 0 to 100 – where 0 reflects the coldest, most negative possible rating and 100 the warmest, most positive rating." As you will see, those with the "coldest" rating by Americans are Muslims and then Atheists.
This second related Pew survey,U.S. Religious Landscape Survey: Religious Beliefs and Practices, of 2008 goes into more detail on the broad subject of this essay. About a third down on the website we have this heading, “Great Diversity in Core Religious Beliefs,” that while not breaking down Jewish denominations, does reflect the range of meaning that are encompassed by those exemplified by two national candidates, Bernie Sanders contrasted with Joe Lieberman. Here's their summary:
"But a closer look reveals considerable diversity with respect to both the certainty and the nature of these beliefs. Americans’ beliefs about God are a good example of this diversity." Nearly all adults (92%) say they believe in God or a universal spirit, including seven-in-ten of the unaffiliated. Indeed, one-in-five people who identify themselves as atheist (21%) and a majority of those who identify themselves as agnostic (55%) express a belief in God or a universal spirit.
Both the certainty and nature of belief in God, however, vary widely across religious groups. Overwhelming majorities of some groups – including Jehovah’s Witnesses (93%), members of evangelical (90%) and historically black (90%) Protestant churches, and Mormons (90%) – say they are absolutely certain that God exists.A caveat about Pew’s data is the reluctance of individuals to divulge opinions that are broadly unacceptable; so those with antisemitic views may be underrepresented by number and intensity in their statistics. The survey did show that the general public does not feel affinity with atheists, but what was not asked, and could not have been easily ascertained from this survey is what the sentiment is towards Jews who are atheists-agnostics.
Although a large percentage of members of other religious groups also express absolute certainty about God’s existence, they exhibit comparatively less unanimity; for instance, roughly seven-in-ten members of mainline Protestant churches (73%), Catholics (72%) and Orthodox Christians (71%) are absolutely certain that God exists.
Like their Christian counterparts, majorities of Jews (83%), Buddhists (75%), Hindus (92%) and the unaffiliated (70%) express a belief in God, but these groups tend to be less certain in their belief; only 57% of Hindus, and fewer than half of Jews (41%), Buddhists (39%) and the unaffiliated (36%) say they are absolutely certain of God’s existence.
Sanders, along with many secular Jews would probably answer "yes," to the first question of belief in God, and "no" to the second "absolutely certain that God exists." If we were to break this down by denomination, from Ultra Orthodox to Reformed, the differences would be stark; the former, by definition, being certain of God's existence, while among the later such certainty is rare. This is well known among Jews, but not so commonly understood among the general public. It is the same conflation that outsiders have about the range of literal belief among Muslims, except there is no such thing as a secular denomination of Islam, as one is either formally of the religion or not- (the proclaiming of "not" having possibly dire effects -IE: Salmon Rushdie or Fareed Zakaria)
---------------—
Sanders' Judaism has parallels to Obama's Christianity, as explored in this article shortly after his first term began, “The Faith of Obama, a Secular Messiah” that includes this summary of an interview:
A few months before his 2004 convention speech propelled him to national prominence, Obama gave an interview in which he spoke about his religious beliefs in a far more open way than he would today. Two things stand out from his interview with the Chicago Sun-Times:
When asked whether his faith was often questioned by voters, Obama gave a curious answer that is even more interesting when trying to work out how someone with his post-racial politics sat in Wright’s racialist church. He said of the voters who see him in church: ‘They may presume a set of doctrines that I subscribe to that I don’t necessarily subscribe to. But I don’t think that’s unique to me. I think that each of us when we walk into our church or mosque or synagogue are interpreting that experience in different ways, are reading scriptures in different ways and are arriving at our own understanding in different ways and in different phases.’
Sander’s
being a Jew will get from voters the same presumption of , “…. a set
of doctrines that I subscribe to-- that I don’t necessarily subscribe
to” which will either be that of the stereotypical Jew, for whom they
feel affection, or or something quite different for the atheist,
We have previous examples of candidates whose religion-ethnicy were outside of the majority protestant Christian denomination of this country. Al Smith won the Democratic nomination in 1928, a Catholic during a time when the virulent hostility towards his religion that had long roots in this country had faded. His candidacy interacting with Jim Crow in the "solid Democratic South, the anti-prohibition movement and the expansion of the women's vote only a decade before resulted in dynamics not anticipated, something that I would suspect with a secular Jewish candidate now.
A generation later JFK won a close election facing the stigma against Catholics head on, and by doing so and his short period in office and tragic death, has blunted any stigma against Catholics running for office. Mitt Romney, although losing his bid, did have the effect of softening the animosity towards the Church of Later Day Saints, Mormons. It should be recalled that the Reverend Billy Graham, the all but official minister to Presidents for a half century, until his candidacy had publicly dismissed Mormons as being a cult, and not part of Christendom.
We have previous examples of candidates whose religion-ethnicy were outside of the majority protestant Christian denomination of this country. Al Smith won the Democratic nomination in 1928, a Catholic during a time when the virulent hostility towards his religion that had long roots in this country had faded. His candidacy interacting with Jim Crow in the "solid Democratic South, the anti-prohibition movement and the expansion of the women's vote only a decade before resulted in dynamics not anticipated, something that I would suspect with a secular Jewish candidate now.
A generation later JFK won a close election facing the stigma against Catholics head on, and by doing so and his short period in office and tragic death, has blunted any stigma against Catholics running for office. Mitt Romney, although losing his bid, did have the effect of softening the animosity towards the Church of Later Day Saints, Mormons. It should be recalled that the Reverend Billy Graham, the all but official minister to Presidents for a half century, until his candidacy had publicly dismissed Mormons as being a cult, and not part of Christendom.
The three candidates described were part of a nominal all-or-nothing faith, as there is no Catholicism or Mormon “light"
such as Reform Jewish movement. Yet, they all shared with the vast majority of Americans the belief thst Jesus Christ is divine, as the fine points of trinatarianism are lost on the vast majority of voters. Religious Jews are accepted by Christians for many reasons, that do not apply to Jews who happen to be in the agnostic-atheist spectrum. It's no accident that there are virtually no Jews among elected Republicans.
Sanders as not identifying with Reformed or Reconstructionist Judaism, based on his public statements, his being a secular Jew would place him in the Pew Studies agnostic-atheist category. If Sanders continues to advance toward gaining the Democratic nomination, could he agree to an open interview about his religious beliefs such as Obama did? Obama is haunted to this day by a large number of Americans believing he is a Muslim, which is false. Sanders will be haunted by those who believe him to be atheist-agnostic- which is true.
Religion is has been thrust into public media by Trumps singling out Muslims for being barred from the country and Cruz's attacking the "N.Y. city mentality", or "Neo Cons," both seen by commentators as code for Jews. As I write this Pope Francis has just stated that one that behavior like Trump's is not following Christian principles. Rather than harming Trump's popularity, this may renew the old animosity toward Catholicism, as even Jeb Bush, a Catholic, criticized the Pope for his interference in American politics.
Religion, always a subtext in American elections, would be brought to the fore if Sanders wins the nomination. It may be useful to start thinking about it now.
Sanders as not identifying with Reformed or Reconstructionist Judaism, based on his public statements, his being a secular Jew would place him in the Pew Studies agnostic-atheist category. If Sanders continues to advance toward gaining the Democratic nomination, could he agree to an open interview about his religious beliefs such as Obama did? Obama is haunted to this day by a large number of Americans believing he is a Muslim, which is false. Sanders will be haunted by those who believe him to be atheist-agnostic- which is true.
Religion is has been thrust into public media by Trumps singling out Muslims for being barred from the country and Cruz's attacking the "N.Y. city mentality", or "Neo Cons," both seen by commentators as code for Jews. As I write this Pope Francis has just stated that one that behavior like Trump's is not following Christian principles. Rather than harming Trump's popularity, this may renew the old animosity toward Catholicism, as even Jeb Bush, a Catholic, criticized the Pope for his interference in American politics.
Religion, always a subtext in American elections, would be brought to the fore if Sanders wins the nomination. It may be useful to start thinking about it now.
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Article from the Forward, written by young woman Rabbi covering some of my same themes
We Need to Out Bernie Sanders as a Jew for his own Good
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Article from the Forward, written by young woman Rabbi covering some of my same themes
We Need to Out Bernie Sanders as a Jew for his own Good
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Excerpts from Cathleen Falsani's 02-21-2012 interview with Barack Obama: on his religion
OBAMA: Sixteen, 17 years ago
1987 or 88 (when he proclaimed his Christianity at Church)
Falsani: So you got yourself born again?
OBAMA: Yeah, although I don’t — I retain from my childhood and my experiences growing up, a suspicion of dogma. And I’m not somebody who is always comfortable with language that implies I’ve got a monopoly on the truth, or that my faith is automatically transferable to others.
I’m a big believer in tolerance. I think that religion at it’s best comes with a big dose of doubt. I’m suspicious of too much certainty in the pursuit of understanding just because I think people are limited in their understanding.
I think that, particularly as somebody who’s now in the public realm and is a student of what brings people together and what drives them apart, there’s an enormous amount of damage done around the world in the name of religion and certainty.
snip-
OBAMA:
Which is why you generally will not see me spending a lot of time talking about it on the stump.
Alongside my own deep personal faith, I am a follower, as well, of our civic religion. I am a big believer in the separation of church and state. I am a big believer in our constitutional structure. I mean, I’m a law professor at the University of Chicago teaching constitutional law. I am a great admirer of our founding charter, and its resolve to prevent theocracies from forming, and its resolve to prevent disruptive strains of fundamentalism from taking root ion this country.
As I said before, in my own public policy, I’m very suspicious of religious certainty expressing itself in politics.
Now, that’s different form a belief that values have to inform our public policy. I think it’s perfectly consistent to say that I want my government to be operating for all faiths and all peoples, including atheists and agnostics, while also insisting that there are values that inform my politics that are appropriate to talk about.
A standard line in my stump speech during this campaign is that my politics are informed by a belief that we’re all connected. That if there’s a child on the South Side of Chicago that can’t read, that makes a difference in my life even if it’s not my own child. If there’s a senior citizen in downstate Illinois that’s struggling to pay for their medicine and having to chose between medicine and the rent, that makes my life poorer even if it’s not my grandparent. And if there’s an Arab American family that’s being rounded up by John Ashcroft without the benefit of due process, that threatens my civil liberties. —
Alongside my own deep personal faith, I am a follower, as well, of our civic religion. I am a big believer in the separation of church and state. I am a big believer in our constitutional structure. I mean, I’m a law professor at the University of Chicago teaching constitutional law. I am a great admirer of our founding charter, and its resolve to prevent theocracies from forming, and its resolve to prevent disruptive strains of fundamentalism from taking root ion this country.
As I said before, in my own public policy, I’m very suspicious of religious certainty expressing itself in politics.
Now, that’s different form a belief that values have to inform our public policy. I think it’s perfectly consistent to say that I want my government to be operating for all faiths and all peoples, including atheists and agnostics, while also insisting that there are values that inform my politics that are appropriate to talk about.
A standard line in my stump speech during this campaign is that my politics are informed by a belief that we’re all connected. That if there’s a child on the South Side of Chicago that can’t read, that makes a difference in my life even if it’s not my own child. If there’s a senior citizen in downstate Illinois that’s struggling to pay for their medicine and having to chose between medicine and the rent, that makes my life poorer even if it’s not my grandparent. And if there’s an Arab American family that’s being rounded up by John Ashcroft without the benefit of due process, that threatens my civil liberties. —
snip-
