I stand with Donald Trump, and think that we all should do the same, for the good of our country and the world.
Now there is a sentence I never thought I would write, and having done so, it only applies in a very limited way.
At a major address delivered in Ohio, Trump suggested that he wanted to research not only the possible criminal/terror-related backgrounds of visitors and those seeking residence in the US, but their ideological orientation as well.
He went on to suggest that could be done by testing their commitment to religious freedom and gay rights as those are benchmark issues when it comes to American Constitutional values. He’s right, they are, but the challenge of securing commitment to those values is much closer to home than Trump acknowledges.
Ironically, many of Donald Trump’s strongest supporters would not pass his own insightful examples of core Constitutional values. For example, one can personally disagree with same-sex marriage without being a homophobe, but one cannot represent a national policy against it when the arguments are only based on one understanding of religious doctrine, and then claim that they stand for freedom of religion. Neither can one support the passage of a law, as the Republican platform does, assuring that parents have the right to force their children into the widely discredited practice of “reparative therapy” and claim to support the dignity of gay people.
So while decent people can and will disagree about these issues for the foreseeable future, it seems that at the same time leaders start making demands of others, they should at least make those demands of themselves and those who support them. We can debate what makes for good policy, or how to interpret the Constitution, but no good will come from failing to commit to the equal application of whatever interpretation we have, to all people who want to live under its protection, wherever they started out in life.
Listed for many years in Newsweek as one of America’s “50 Most Influential Rabbis” and recognized as one of our nation’s leading “Preachers and Teachers,” by Beliefnet.com, Rabbi Brad Hirschfield serves as the President of Clal–The National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership, a training institute, think tank, and resource center nurturing religious and intellectual pluralism within the Jewish community, and the wider world, preparing people to meet the biggest challenges we face in our increasingly polarized world.
An ordained Orthodox rabbi who studied for his PhD and taught at The Jewish Theological Seminary, he has also taught the University of Pennsylvania, where he directs an ongoing seminar, and American Jewish University. Rabbi Brad regularly teaches and consults for the US Army and United States Department of Defense, religious organizations — Jewish and Christian — including United Seminary (Methodist), Yeshivat Chovevei Torah (Modern Orthodox) Luther Seminary (Lutheran), and The Jewish Theological Seminary (Conservative) — civic organizations including No Labels, Odyssey Impact, and The Aspen Institute, numerous Jewish Federations, and a variety of communal and family foundations.
Hirschfield is the author and editor of numerous books, including You Don’t Have To Be Wrong For Me To Be Right: Finding Faith Without Fanaticism, writes a column for Religion News Service, and appears regularly on TV and radio in outlets ranging from The Washington Post to Fox News Channel. He is also the founder of the Stand and See Fellowship, which brings hundreds of Christian religious leaders to Israel, preparing them to address the increasing polarization around Middle East issues — and really all currently polarizing issues at home and abroad — with six words, “It’s more complicated than we know.”