This whole week, I've digested an endless number of op-eds on the part of writers saying America is going down the sinkhole. We're a downgraded nation. The world doesn't trust us to pay our bills. Our debt is strangling us. There is gridlock in Washington. China's got us in a chokehold.
Half the writers say it's Obama's fault. He has a spending addiction. He's a closet socialist. The other half say it's the Republicans and the heartless Tea Party who are destroying America. They are extremists who brook no compromise. They are the party of the rich who want grandmas to pay off our debt rather than hedge fund managers.
Both opinions miss the point. Our politicians will not get us out of this mess. The proof: Every two years we make a radical shift of political power. Two years ago Obama was the Messiah, able to walk on water, his words capable of reviving the dead. Two years later his poll numbers are themselves on life support.
A few years before, it was George Bush who was going to save the globe from tyranny, with a strong majority of Americans -- and Congress -- supporting his efforts to invade countries that practiced and exported tyranny. Now we blame him for saddling America with two wars that have bankrupted us. No doubt whoever wins the presidency in 2012 will be seen as a hero for about a year before they too are confined to the ranks of loser.
This lurching to and fro in jarring electoral shifts just proves that we're searching for something that politics can't provide.
The real problems lie elsewhere, with us, the electorate. We the people are losing our values. Drunk with decades of material indulgence unbalanced by authentic spiritual endeavor, we're fast becoming corrupt. We look to objects for happiness and fulfillment. We go shopping when we feel empty and depressed. We elevate billionaires and Hollywood entertainers to positions of public acclaim they have not earned.
America is not experiencing a crisis of leadership so much as a crisis of values. Politicians cannot provide them. They are mere caretakers of public business and are as much in need of values-guidance as the rest of us, and perhaps more.
So whence do values stem? From faith. From religion. From a belief in lofty ideals that are not man-made or human-manufactured. It is religion rather than politics that teaches that all humans are equal and of infinite value and therefore matter more than ephemeral material objects. It is religion that teaches that family is sacred and marriage a sacrament and that relationships are a more reliable road to happiness than career. And it is religion that teaches that one good deed -- even if it isn't captured on camera or broadcast on TV -- has the power to change the world for the better.
So why isn't religion reversing the values-rot in America? Because it too has been drafted into the service of American insatiability. G-d has become yet another avenue for material gain. Pastors preach prosperity theology where G-d is He who provides a promotion at work. Rabbis watch in silence as congregants turn spiritual celebrations into showcases of material excess. Islam promises virgins and paradise to those who strike a blow in its name.
At its core religion is the antidote to decadence, the subordination of our self-centeredness to G-d's higher purpose. It is the inspiration behind altruism and the engine powering empathy. But it is rendered powerless when it becomes yet another superstition with our needs rather than G-d at its center.
We Americans would do well to heed the call of Moses in this week's Torah reading for a religion that is a cure for materialism: "It is not by bread alone that man may live but on the word of the living G-d that man shall live."
The loss of religious values has consequences. Britain, where only 42 percent of the population believe in G-d, is in the throws of a vulgar tabloid scandal and humiliating riots where the demand for justice has been transmuted into stealing a television. The Church of England, with its weekly five percent attendance rate, seems powerless to imbue deeper values to a citizenry losing its spiritual core.
This is not to say that a nation must be religious to be healthy and indeed many religious nations are cruel, wicked, and utterly corrupt. It is to say that those nations that prosper have religious values, even if they are not themselves religious. A case in point is the State of Israel, whose majority population by far is secular, yet is informed and influenced by the Jewish values upon which it is built. I was in Israel last week when I heard the terrible news that 30 of our bravest fellow Americans were killed by a Taliban rocket. The terrible news was one among many headlines back home. In Israel it would have sent the entire nation into paroxysms of national mourning. Wherever you travel in Israel you see signs demanding the freeing of Gilad Shalit, the Israeli soldier who has been held like an animal by Hamas, a prime example of evil religion, for more than five years. "I have set before you life and death," said Moses. "You must choose life." These values are what makes Israel ready to trade 1000 terrorists to free Shalit.
Last week in Tel Aviv I took forty young Americans who were visiting Israel for the first time to the American Embassy, where we were guests of our outstanding new ambassador, Dan Shapiro, and heard a briefing on all that America does to support democracies like Israel. As we emerged on to the street I spontaneously led our group in loudly singing Lee Greenwood's beautiful song, "G-d bless the USA." It was a spontaneous hymn to my country, a paragon of benevolence and kindness. A few days later I was in Washington, DC, speaking at a conference, where I took my kids to the Marine, Air Force, and World War II monuments, explaining that the US military is today by far the foremost force for good in the world. And it's no coincidence that their greatness is marked by a service to something other than money.
Rabbi Shmuley Boteach will shortly be publishing "Ten Conversations You Need to Have with Yourself" and "Kosher Jesus." Follow him on Twitter @RabbiShmuley.
Follow Rabbi Shmuley Boteach on Twitter: www.twitter.com/RabbiShmuley
Incumbents on Both Sides Face Peril in 2012
DNC Chairwoman: Obama Is In 'Remarkably Good Shape' Heading Into 2012
Obama, job approvals and the 2012 electoral college landscape
 |
 |
|
| Obama | Romney | |
|---|---|---|
| Electoral Votes (270 to win) |
332 | 206 |
| Obama | Romney | |
|---|---|---|
| Total | 65,899,660 | 60,932,152 |
| Percent | 51.1% | 47.2% |
| Democrats* | Republicans | |
|---|---|---|
| Current Senate | 53 | 47 |
| Seats gained or lost | +2 | -2 |
| New Total | 55 | 45 |
| Democrats | Republicans | |
|---|---|---|
| Seats won | 201 | 234 |
Both opinions miss the point. Our politicians will not get us out of this mess. The proof: Every two years we make a radical shift of political power. Two years ago Obama was the Messiah, able to walk on water, his words capable of reviving the dead. Two years later his poll numbers are themselves on life support.
Perfect example of Perception and Actuality --- We all need change -- So we voted for the Change and we got shortchanged by our leaders --- We judge people and outclass them so fast --- and those who are in this task have nothing to offer how to come out of this debacle ---- WE have become a nation of Fears --- debt default fears-- WMD fears--- bankruptcy fears--- foreclosure fears-- loosing seats in election fears----no social security fears--- cancer fears--- stressed out and die young fears- =
Why we have to take out the O from G-d -- O is or may be for the Omipotent the Most Merciful and the Most Beneficient -The Lone Creator of this Universe ---- Now What HE says is one thing and What religious leaders in their zeal understand and interpret is another --- It is our understanding or misunderstanding that is the core of the problem ---- God teaches to bring the whole humanity togather but we do not want that Unity over more than 6000 years of interpretations that are as diverse as the Earth and the Sky. --ie- how the religious leaders take out anything from religion or shy -O- from G-d, that brings money in any form an Money speaks louder than what God says or Means --- it is the religious, political leaders, the Media Gods who after getting Money & speak louder than the God Words no matter what. The Messiah has to come to take us out of this modern educated economic slavery. Specially as you misunderstand or misled about virgins and paradise in Islam.
Those who wait for Democrats, Republicans, or any other party to save this nation are riding on false hope.
When a nation turns away from G-d, it inevitably dooms itself.
What utter nonsense. Your holy book gives rules for slavery, yet you claim it teaches that all humans are equal? Only a religious person could possibly overcome the cognitive dissonance involved in making such a ridiculous claim.
American religious leaders believe that the power of America can be equated with the interests of G-d's kingdom. In the orthodox view this is anathema.
is that enough?
As a substitute, in matters political, economic, and moral people have turned to rigid dogmas with their own bubble realities that cannot be penetrated by reason or evidence. What we need is more respect for ethical and capable amateur scientists and engineers: a scientific hobbyist culture that encourages contributions and engagement with non scientists. We need to encourage non-scientists who are willing to learn, experiment, and present their work for peer review, not just because members of the general public CAN make meaningful contributions to scientific knowledge, but because curiosity and engagement will stimulate rational, fact based decision making other areas of our public life.
Patriarchal religion, after all, is what gave us the present situation --- valuing men, warfare, a brutal competitive economics, an earth-destroying profit-paramount value system, corporate "persons", capitalism without compassion. Let us not forget that the patriarchal religions were fine with slavery in the 1700-1800s and have championed the oppression of women for millenia. Many of us prefer a different set of values.
Politicians have had a huge influence in gettng us here. The laws they have enacted permitted the bankers and brokers to go nuts with greed, the corporations to suck the life out of the earth, half our wealth to go to the military instead of taking care of the people. Obama could have taken an FDR approach and put the nation to work fixing infrastructure and improving education and health care --- instead he has become a continuation of the GWB administrtion. Still, politicians have the potential and the power, if they can muster the will, to set the nation on a regenerative course. Or not.
Since God remains silent ever since the cruciFIXtion of Jesus, is it no wonder that people have no values? Who takes the time to read God's Word in the BIBLE? Now let's remember that the text hasn't been updated in 2000 years. So why would anyone in a current generation rely on outdated texts?
When Religion makes a pronouncement it is usually condemnation of people. Hence, people have turned their backs on that kind of self-righteousness. Therefore, God has no voice in the affairs of mankind.
Now just how are people to know about God's values, Rabbi?
"So whence do values stem? From faith. From religion. From a belief in lofty ideals that are not man-made or human-manufactured. It is religion rather than politics that teaches that all humans are equal and of infinite value and therefore matter more than ephemeral material objects"
Exodus 21:2-4: "If thou buy an Hebrew servant, six years he shall serve: and in the seventh he shall go out free for nothing....If his master have given him a wife, and she have born him sons or daughters; the wife and her children shall be her master's, and he shall go out by himself."
Exodus 21:7: "And if a man sell his daughter to be a maidservant, she shall not go out as the menservants do."
Leviticus 27:6 "And if it be from a month old even unto five years old, then thy estimation shall be of the male five shekels of silver, and for the female thy estimation shall be three shekels of silver."
Yes, these biblical values are something (just for starters) to be aspired to...
You are wrong about what people need. What the people of the United States need is clarity. We need a news media that values empirical evidence and doesn't provide "both sides of the story" when there is only one side or there are a dozen (in which case I want MORE information). We need politicians who are willing to explain their ideas and educate the people. We need secular schools that teach children to think critically; which standardized testing does not accomplish or even test for.
But, because you are a man of God, you disagree with me on all of that. You despise knowledge and education, you loathe critical thinking, rationality, and empirical evidence. You only want people to accept that YOU own the truth, because God owns you.