#BillofRights225

Today marks the 225^th anniversary of the Bill of Rights – that is, it was on this date in 1791 that Virginia became the 10^th of 14 states to ratify the first ten amendments to the Constitution (for a complete text, go to https://www.archives.gov/founding-docs/bill-of-rights-transcript). For well over two centuries, these foundational concepts of American democracy have been the source of discussion, debate, inspiration and argumentation regarding nearly every aspect of civil liberty. To this day, the Bill of Rights fosters difference in interpretation, and therefore in enactment of policy and procedure. Yet today, it appears these sacred values – which were meant to add to and expand our understanding of how civilized, democratic society operates – are under attack like never before. Beyond scrutiny of the text, beyond articulate if even biased justification of its nuances, we now have masses of our people who would abuse the Amendments for political posturing – or worse, neglect these rights out of intentional prejudice or sheer ignorance. Saddest of all, this movement is fronted by the President-elect, a person singularly stunted in his grasp of history and fact.

What strikes me as so odd is a growing voice over the last year that contradicts the Bill of Rights itself: the seeming zeal, among some, to defend the public reverence for the Ten Commandments, and comfort in invoking those values as a tool in the governmental arena 

(see http://taggedtanakh.org/Chapter/Index/english-Exod-20). 

The First Amendment states that Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof (the Establishment Clause), which not only protects individuals and groups in practicing (or not practicing) as they wish, it also prevents the imposition of any one’s respective personal religious vantage point over another in political affairs. Ironic that when this is violated, as it has been over the years, it often accompanies abuse of the very next phrase, or abridging the freedom of speech – as its too common in our history, and that of the Western world, that zealots attempt to prove their position by silencing any opposition.

I am a lifelong liberal Jew, which means I have been educated and encouraged to engage in thoughtful, often difficult navigation between “tradition” and “innovation” in a rich complex religious system. Like the Founders, this has informed my worldview. More so, I am a lifelong political progressive, which demands a similar, if not even more vexing responsibility to understand a dynamism between my personal outlook (including religion) and my place as an actor in an American society that is (yet still) free and requires my participation. I for one fully “get” that no matter how strongly certain religious values are ingrained in me, they are not right for everybody (anybody?) else. Classically, my right to believe in anything, or uphold a position about anything, ends – respectfully – where another person’s begins.

One hope I maintain as this crazed political season endures: that the tumultuous campaign and its aftermath will motivate people to return to their roots – their elementary scholastic roots – and embrace a conscientious regard for our founding documents, and the awe they should inspire about the prospects of our shared humanity. 

(By the way - don't you think there's a reason we protect even the very paper its written on? Just sayin'...)