Work to close political divide within religious community

Last month I was invited to deliver a prayer for the president of the United States at the National Day of Prayer service held in Bluffton at the Church of the Cross' Buckwalter campus. This is the same day of prayer commemoration which a federal judge in Wisconsin ruled to be unconstitutional. Prayers were offered for the military, the congress and for the country as a whole. The band, the Buckwalter Praise Band, was excellent and the honor guards from Parris Island proclaimed that faith and patriotism go hand in hand.

I came away with the thought that we needed one more prayer on that day. We needed a prayer for the religious community. As much as we are divided politically these days, the religious community is no different. Religions have their political action committees. They pursue the political process by carrying their fervor for social reform from all sides of the political spectrum, advocating for their cherished principles. But is that what the religious community is all about?

There is something missing here when the religious community gives up or forgets the role of keeping us all together despite the political divide. Who else but the religious community can overcome ideological differences and teach us that we as Americans have a great spiritual heritage?

I grew up in Maryland, which is called "The Free State." It meant that it was the first state to allow Catholics to worship freely. We now have a tapestry of religions from Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, Buddism and the list goes on. They thrive in America today despite the prejudices of some in our country. The truth is that the culture of a multi-religious and pluralistic religious community today has established itself in the framework of American life.

But don't religious communities have responsibilities that go beyond their sectarian boundaries? Should they not promote peace throughout the land? Is it not the role of religion to teach us how to transcend our own, often narrow perspectives, and to see the bigger picture -- that America is great because we can learn to accept religious diversity as well as racial and political diversity?

Religious leaders can create bridges of understanding. We have the authority and influence to reach out to the clergy and lay leaders of other faiths to keep the peace by preserving civil dialogue and by reminding each other that God is watching us, saints and sinners alike.

The religious community is supposed to hold the moral high ground in America, and the moral high ground is clearly in peril today. We pride ourselves that we are an intensely religious country. We need to go beyond finding like-minded clergy and houses of worship. Instead, religious leaders of different and even opposing political and religious viewpoints have a responsibility to talk to each other. How can we ignore each other when we live in the same community or when our children attend the same schools or play on the same sports teams?

Despite the great spiritual and religious traditions that grew and took root in our culture, sadly our country has also produced homegrown terrorists such as Timothy McVeigh, who bombed the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City in 1995. Other domestic terrorists have grown up in America and burned churches and synagogues, attacked military installations and inspired young Americans to kill innocent citizens in their warped vision of religious bigotry and triumphalism. Do we not all have a duty in the religious community to hold the line and do what we can to combat the fear and mistrust that arises between religions and other ethnic and racial groups when a crisis occurs?

So I shall put my hand to such a prayer and maybe it will do some good.

Rabbi Brad L. Bloom is the rabbi at Congregation Beth Yam on Hilton Head Island. He can be reached at 843-689-2178.