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Safe “Sects”
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Dancing Into the
Millennium
19
hurch, Denomination,
Sect, Cult
Against the Currents
26
eporting Jews— Really?
28
A M agazine of
Religious Freedom
Vol. 89. No. 4
July/August 1994
«/»it ^ *;*..1^1!.«iiän
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OP. ( IT.
F,
Il
T
R obert L. Dale
Chairman. Editorial Board
C lifford G oldstein
Editor
Lole ta Thom as Bailey
Associate Editor
Jam e s A. Cavil
Copy Editor
Leo R anzolin
R obert S. Folkenberg
A. C. M cC lure
B. B. Beach
Consulting Editors
Vernon A lger
Y
Bombs Away!
Liberty is both thoughtprovoking and stimulating,
but “New Right W rongs” by
Robert H. Meneilly smacked
o f the proverbial sour
grapes. W hy are those who
have used and abused the
political system for so long
now surprised and upset
when others have learned
how to play the game of
politics?
DAVID P. SAUDER
Pastor
First Baptist Church
Elma, W ashington
sinister conspiracy to take
over America for fundam en­
talist Christianity— depriv­
ing other citizens of consti­
tutional rights! This is
paranoia. Meneilly seems to
have been reading too much
People for the American
Way literature.
I would like to call on
Liberty to give equal time to
representatives of the
K arnik D oukm etzian
R ichard Fenn
Sam uel Green
D arrel H uenergardt
Ted Jones
A lan Reinach
Lew is Stout
A d ria n W estney, Sr.
Consultants
G ary M. Ross
U.S. Congress Liaison
M itc h e ll A. Tyner
Legal Advisor
H arry Knox
Designer
M eade C. Van Putten
Treasurer
Liberty (ISSN 0024-2055) is
published bimonthly by the North
American Division of the Seventh-day
Adventist Church. 12501 Old
Columbia Pike. Silver Spring, MD
20904-6600. Second-class postage
paid at Hagerstown, MD.
POSTMASTER send changes of
address to Liberty, P.O. Box 1119,
Hagerstown, Md 21741-1119.
Printed by the Review and Herald
Publishing Assn., 55 West Oak
Ridge Drive, Hagerstown, MD
21741-1119. Subscription price:
U.S. $6.95 per year. Single copy:
U.S. $1.50. Price may vary where
national currencies differ.
Vol. 89, No.4, July/August 1994.
Frankly, 1 was
shocked at
Meneilly’s vitriolic
attack on his
conservative
Christian brothers,
Pat Robertson, Jerry
Falwell, and James
Dobson, whom he
lum ps together as “a
present danger
greater than the old
threat of C om m u­
nism.” The tone of
the article was
uncharitable to say the least.
At worst it reflected a kind
of McCarthyism of the Left!
I seriously doubt that all
the accusation and charges
leveled by Rev. Meneilly are
true. He seems to be able to
read the minds of all the
leaders of the so-called new
religious right and he
believes he discovers there a
religious right. Let them
speak for themselves in your
pages. I do not hear their
authentic voices through the
distortions of Meneilly’s
attack.
ROGER E. OLSON, Ph.D.
Professor of Theology
Bethel College
St Paul, Minnesota
J U L Y / A U G U S T
While I find your MarchApril issue interesting and
thought-provoking, I was
amazed that you would
print such a shoddy piece of
intellectual workmanship as
[A response to Robert
Meneilly’s article is coming
soon in Liberty—Ed.]
C O V E R
2 LIBERTY
Giving the impression as
one oblivious to the world
around him , Robert
Meneilly seems dreadfully
unaware of the cultural war
spearheaded by those he
maligns. As he systemati­
cally impugns the motives
and intentions of major
figures by ascribing to them
errant quotations and
fictitious agendas, he shows
how thoroughly he
fails to com prehend
the stakes o f our
present cultural
warfare.
For Pastor
Meneilly to charac­
terize citizens
holding to moral
viewpoints as
unthinking,”
m anipulative,”
concealing,”
censors,” “narrow ,”
misguided,”
extremist,” and
conniving” is to
show a poor under­
standing of those
who wish to influ­
ence the culture
around them.
Dr. RICHARD C. ANNIS
Ham ilton, Michigan
1994
I L L U S T R A T I O N
BY
C H A R L E S
W A L L E R
in*, h t .
Robert Meneilly’s “New
Right W rongs.”
I believe there is plenty of
reason for thinking readers
to doubt both Meneilly’s
awareness of the so-called
“new right” and the accu­
racy of many of the accusa­
tions he makes in the article.
In the case of Dr. James
Dobson, I have read his
work and listened to his
radio broadcasts for years
and I have never read where
he wrote nor have I heard
him say the things that
Pastor Meneilly alleges.
Surely Christian decency— if
not journalistic integrity—
calls for SOME substantia­
tion of such extreme
accusations. Perhaps
Meneilly would do well to
stick closer to fact, rather
than yield to emotional
finger pointing and hand
wringing.
JOHNNY D. MESSER
Ft. Benning, Georgia
Robert Meneilly’s article
attacks Pat Robertson, James
Dobson, Tim LaHaye, and
Jerry Falwell as leaders of the
“religious right” who pose a
menace to our country more
serious than the threat of
Com m unism . He also sees a
vast secret conspiracy by the
religious right to take over
elective offices and school
boards to advance their
heinous views— these
candidates from hell.
Apparently Pastor Meneilly
believes everything he reads
about these “conspirators”
since he evidently has never
read anything they have
actually written. (I prefer
not to accuse him of
deliberate misrepresentation
or distortion of their views.)
It’s a shame some light can’t
be shed by Pastor Meneilly’s
lurid article but then
diatribe does not lend itself
to enlightenment.
LARRY W. WOLF
Gettysburg, Pennsylvania
Robert Meneilly was
frothing so badly at the
m outh when he wrote “New
Right W rongs” that foam
flew off the page when I
turned to his article. W hat
is the m atter with Liberty?
W hen Roland Hegstad left
D E C L A R A T I O N
did he take the m anual for
producing footnotes? Was
he the only one who checked
articles for any resemblance
to actual facts? Meneilly
spews on about James
Dobson and others using
num erous quotations and
not a single footnote!
James Dobson is a
m odern-day John the
Baptist. W hen you attack
him you need to use real
quotes (if you can).
BRUCE N. CAMERON, J.D.
Montclair, Virginia
Robert Meneilly would
have us believe that a
Christian nation with
biblical values would be
more dangerous than the
Ham m er and Sickle? While
I agree that history reveals
that Christians haven’t
always loved their neighbor
OF
P R I N C I P L E S
he God-given right of religious liberty is best exer­
cised when church and state are separate.
Governm ent is God’s agency to protect individual
rights and to conduct civil affairs; in exercising these
responsibilities, officials are entitled to respect and
cooperation.
Religious liberty entails freedom of conscience: to
worship or not to worship; to profess, practice and
promulgate religious beliefs or to change them. In
exercising these rights, however, one m ust respect the
equivalent rights of all others.
Attempts to unite church and state are opposed to
the interests of each, subversive of hum an rights and
potentially persecuting in character; to oppose union,
lawfully and honorably, is not only the citizen’s duty
but the essence of the Golden R ule-to treat others as
one wishes to be treated.
T
as Jesus com m anded, I’d
rather deal with Christian
political leaders than godless
ones.
Psalm 33:12 says,
“Blessed is the nation whose
God is the Lord.” God deals
with countries, cities,
families, and individuals.
God exiled the nation of
Israel for their sins. Jonah
was sent by God to Nineveh,
“because its wickedness has
come up before m e” (Jonah
1:2). Ananias and Sapphira
secured their place in Acts 5
by lying to the Holy Spirit.
The apostle Paul was wrong
about his belief about Jesus,
so God sent a light from
heaven to straighten him out
(Acts 9:3). Jesus said, “You
are the light of the world.
Let your light shine!”
(M atthew 5:14-16).
I applaud Robertson,
Falwell, and Dobson for
their attem pt at bringing
truth and light to the
darkness of our American
conscience. America has
become a safe haven for
every bizarre religion and
philosophy. People save
trees, whales, and dolphins,
yet America aborts 1 million
babies a year.
Meneilly further states
that no group can insist on
majority rule. Well, whose
rule will we have then? I
would rather have a leader
with a biblical moral
LIBE RTY
J U L Y / A U G U S T
1994
3
«P. flT.
foundation. Pastor Meneilly
is just another well-meaning
moderate with no plan of
action.
I com m end those who try
to be part of the solution.
God bless Robertson,
Falwell, and Dobson.
Perhaps their efforts will
stop or at least slow the tide
of evil in our land.
ROD E. LAYMAN, Senior
Pastor
First Baptist Church
Sacramento, California
lambs and Pentameters
I was surprised by the
com m entary in the Iambs
and Pentameters section of
your March-April issue:
“ . . . it was the American
Civil Liberties Union, the
antichrist itself
Your magazine purports
to be a stronghold for
separation of church and
state. No organization has
done m ore than the Ameri­
can Civil Liberties Union to
defend this great principal.
STEVE ANDERSON
Attorney
Salem, Oregon
[We were being face­
tious, Steve!— Ed.]
4 LIBERTY
J U L Y / A U G U S T
Double Vision
Once upon a tim e there
was an old doe that grazed
by the seashore. She had but
one eye (her right one), and
as she grazed she always kept
that eye turned inland, from
whence she expected danger
from hunters. One day
some hunters got into a
boat, came in from the sea
and shot her.
You are giving a great
deal of attention to the
Right, from which you
expect danger. W atch the
Left!
E. HAROLD ROY, Pastor
Crestwood, Kentucky
[We’re watching, with
both eyes.— Ed.]
“ Deontological Encore”
I have always enjoyed
your magazine, and you
raise several good points in
your March-April editorial.
In passing, you referred to
William Rehnquist as the
“chief justice of the United
States Supreme C ourt.”
That, however, is not the
correct title. Rehnquist is
the most recent jurist whose
title was and is “Chief Justice
o f the United States.” The
title was originally as you
described it, but changed
due to the efforts of Salmon
P. Chase, an Ohioan
appointed chief justice by
President Abraham Lincoln.
Chase was somewhat
egotistical and wanted a
grander title, so he dubbed
1 994
himself “Chief Justice o f the
United States” (and, thus,
not just of the Supreme
Court). Congress went
along with the decision
shortly afterwards, and later
chief justices have all borne
the modified title. On the
Supreme Court, the chief
justice is primus inter pares,
b u t he is not the boss.
Keep up your otherwise
excellent work!
WILLIAM F. B. VODREY
New Philadelphia, Ohio
[Thanks for the correc­
tion. We intend to keep
giving it our best.— Ed.]
“Thus Saith the IRS”
I just finished this wellarticulated article by Daniel
J. Little. He makes good,
sound sense in his defense of
what his church prom oted
in the newspaper ad about
then-candidate Bill Clinton.
W ithin this argum ent is an
irony for the IRS. W hy was
The Church at Pierce Creek
singled out as a violator of
tax law 501(c)(3) when large
religious organizations like
Pat Robertson’s Christian
Coalition can hold political
rallies in support of selected
candidates like Bush and
Quayle? Did the IRS ever
seek to press charges against
them for such an obvious act
of violation o f the tax
exempt law?
A lesson can be learned
for all Christian organiza­
tions that are passionate
about morality. Could not
Pastor Little and his congre­
gation and other supporters
have declared the same
message w ithout attacking
the candidate? Could there
not have been a little more
serpent wisdom exercised,
thus preserving the dove
spirit?
KEVIN JAMES, Pastor
Hattiesburg Seventh-day
Adventist Church
Hattiesburg, Mississippi
Moving?
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0394L1 would end with third (May-June) issue
of 1994.
IAMHX V PENTAMETERS
( OULD MAKE FOR AN
U o N ’T LIS TEN TO YO UR
IN TER ESTIN G PRAYER
They had
mafiosos, Nazis, and even
serial killers, so why not
Corrupted Clergy, De­
mented Deacons, Maniac
Messiahs, and Sinister
Ministers? M other Produc­
tions from California (where
else?) is offering its latest
line of bizarre trading cards:
religious luminaries who
have strayed from the
straight and narrow.
Among those stacked in the
dubious deck are David
Koresh, Jimmy Swaggert,
Jim Bakker, form er priest
and convicted pedophile
James Porter, and a few
other lesser known clerical
types who fell to various sins
of the flesh. Sounds like a
full house.
M EE TIN G :
T
he
TR U T H SHALL SET YOU
FREE (F O R A D O N A TIO N ,
The Church of
Scientology, founded by
science fiction writer L. Ron
Hubbard, asks “donations”
from members for various
life-enriching courses.
Perception o f Truth requires
a $1,150 donation (that’s a
pretty good price to perceive
truth). The Old Testament
Doctorate Course can be had
for a $9,200 donation (if
only W. F. Albright could
see this). The Hubbard Key
to Life course goes for
A N Y W A Y ):
For those who think
that the threat to religious
freedom comes from only
the Right (certainly the
impression you’d get from
reading Liberty), Surgeon
General Jocelyn Elders
recently uttered some
com m ents about churchstate separation that make
Pat Robertson sound almost
like Madelyn M urray
O ’Hair. In a speech at the
National Family Planning
and Reproductive Health
Association, the surgeon
general said, “W e’d always
talk about the separation of
church and state. Well, I
rights implem entation
want to forget about all this
properly varies from country separation and let’s try to
to country,” but he ex­
integrate church and state so
pressed concern about those
we can come together to do
nations who use “culture” as things and make a difference
a pretext for child slavery,
for people in our com m uni­
torture, extrajudicial
ties.” O f course, we can
execution, forced conver­
always forget about the
sions, and slavery. He was
Constitutional prohibition
particularly hard on Islamic
on “cruel and unusual
Sudan, whose violations of
punishm ent” and introduce
hum an rights, he said, “have caning; or we could forget
no justification with Islam,
about the right of “due
or any other ‘culture.’” In
process of law” and just lock
response to criticism from
up the accused without all
the U.N., Sudan’s minister
the procedural hassles that
of justice replied, “W ho am I eat up time, money, and
to follow God . . . or . . . the
manpower. W hy don’t we
U.N.?” Marshal urged the
just forget about the whole
U.N. to keep up the pres­
Bill of Rights and be done
sure, despite the claims of
with it? That will certainly
“historical, culture, and
“make a difference for
religious” differences.
people in our com m unities”
as well.
ELDERS:
$10,000, and for just $4,375
m ore you can get a special
package: the Hubbard Key to
Life/Hubbard Life Orienta­
tion course (no wonder
Scientologist Tom Cruise
charges millions per movie).
Thanks, but we’ll stick to
Christianity— it’s free.
M
u
L T IC U L T U R A L IS M :
Professor Paul Marshall of
the Institute for Christians
Studies has warned that
those nations demanding
that hum an rights be
addressed “in the context of
national and regional
peculiarities and various
historical, cultural, and
religious backgrounds” are
using that as an excuse for
continued violations. In a
report for News Network
International, Marshall said
that no serious com m enta­
tor “doubts that hum an
I LLUSTRATION
LIBERTY
JULY/AUGUST
BY RA Y D R I V E R
1994
5
“FORHOI, FORCO
ecil B. DeMille’s The Ten Commandments might
1 have been a hit in the 1950s, but in the 1990s the
' Ten Com m andm ents—or at least a m onum ent
of them — aren’t doing so well. Erected in 1956
by the Fraternal O rder of Eagles (FOE) Aerie
J 2063, the 4' x 2.5' stone m onum ent of God’s
I moral law might have to be removed after a
' Colorado court ruled that its placement in Lin­
coln Park, across from the Colorado state capitol, was unconstitutional.
“B ecause th e m o n u m e n t is on state
grounds,” says Bob Tiernan, attorney for the
Freedom From Religion Foundation, “it consti­
tutes endorsem ent o f religion and the belief in
one God. The state shouldn’t be endorsing one,
five, or no gods.”
The controversy began four years ago when
the Freedom From Religion Foundation asked
Governor Roy Romer to remove the m onum ent
because it was a religious symbol that didn’t
belong on governm ent property. W hen Romer
refused, saying that the Ten Com m andm ents
“are a belief system that the majority subscribe
to ,” the organization sued.
“The Ten C om m andm ents m onum ent in
Lincoln Park,” said Tiernan, “sends the wrong
message.”
Yet Helen Wasinger, one of the few Denver
Eagles who rem em bers the erection o f the
m onum ent, insists that its purpose isn’t reli­
gious. The Eagles, she said, erected the statue
for two reasons: to reflect the creed of the Na­
tional Fraternal O rder of Eagles (“For home, for
country, and for G od”) and to respond to the
popularity of DeMille’s movie.
“It was not a religious issue,” she asserts. “It
was just part of the beliefs of our national orga­
nization.”
Delbert Copley, a m em ber of the Aspen Fra­
ternal O rder of Eagles, explains, “W hen you join
Leticia L. Steffen
the Eagles, they give you a copy o f the Ten
is a freelance writer
C om m andm ents.”
living in Denver,
W hatever the Eagles’ motives, the Colorado
Colorado.
C ourt of Appeals cited Stone v. Graham (1980),
M
I
I
■
■
M
^
6 LIBERTY
J U L Y / A U G U S T
1994
BY L E T I C I A
L. S T E F F E N
in which the United States Supreme Court had
said that a substantial portion of the Ten Com ­
mandm ents was clearly religious, striking down
a Tennessee statute that required posting the
Ten Com m andm ents in public classrooms.
“The preem inent purpose for posting the
Ten Com m andm ents on schoolroom walls,”
the C ourt ruled in Stone, “is plainly religious in
nature. The Ten Com m andm ents are undeni-
Of, ANDFORGOD
Lord’s name in vain, and observing the Sabbath
day.”
The Court said too that “it does not m atter
that the posted copies of the Ten C om m and­
ments are financed by private contributions, for
the mere posting o f the copies under the aus­
pices of the legislature provides the ‘official sup­
port of the state governm ent’ that the Establish­
m ent Clause prohibits.”
Using the same logic, the Colorado C ourt of
Appeals ruled the Lincoln Park m onum ent u n ­
constitutional, but stopped short of calling for
its immediate removal.
Delbert Copley, reflecting the Eagles’ unhap­
piness with the decision, maintains that the Ten
Com m andm ents are merely sound guidelines of
life.
“The Aspen Fraternal O rder of Eagles,” he
says, “has existed all these years with the Ten
Comm andm ents, and we haven’t had any m u r­
ders yet.”
In a dispute over a similar m onum ent in
Glenwood Springs (also erected by the Eagles),
the statue was removed from government pro p ­
erty and placed on the grounds of a local church.
Yet Helen Wasinger is determined that this one
will remain.
“The m onum ent,” she says, “is still as good as
when we put it there.”
The Lincoln Park Memorial:
Wasinger fondly remembers that special day
when
dozens of members of the Fraternal Order
It might have to go.
of Eagles— all dressed in their official blue uni­
forms— attended the ceremony to install the
Ten Com m andm ents in Lincoln Park.
“Everybody,” she said, “wanted to pitch in
ably a sacred text in Jewish and Christian faiths, and put the m onum ent up.”
and no legislative citation of a supposed secular
She’s been frustrated lately, however, not
purpose can blind us to that fact. The com ­ only by the legal controversy, but by the lack of
m andm ents do not confine themselves to argu­ respect for the m onum ent in general.
ably secular m atters, such as honoring one’s
“We made m oney for it,” she says. “We had
parents, killing, or m urder . . . rather, the first potlucks and bake sales to put it up. Now some
part of the com m andm ents concerns the reli­ m en use it to urinate on!”
gious duties of believers, worshipping the Lord
The state has appealed to the Colorado Su­
God alone, avoiding idolatry, not using the preme Court.
0
LIB E RTY
J U L Y / A U G U S T
1994
7
D
ß
l
7
4
9
Deborah
Deborah Baxtrom is a
freelance writer in Los
Angeles, California.
8
LIBERTY
u sto m p lates re a d in g e v ery th in g from
“IPASTU,” “URUGLY,” “N O M O RW R,” to
“SXTOY,” “4PLAY,” “ H O O K R ” and
“BLKDVL” have been issued to Oregon vehicle
owners without opposition. But when Gloria
Iv erso n re q u e ste d cu sto m plates sta tin g
“PRAY,” she was refused.
Gloria, a widowed businesswoman and lay
minister from Lake Oswego, was denied per­
mission by the state m otor vehicle division be­
cause of a regulation that bans religious words
on custom license plates.
“I felt like a second-class citizen,” she says. “I
knew I had to take a stand.”
A prayer intercessor for friends, family, and
country, Gloria knew where to turn. She wrote
to Jay Sekulow, of the American Center for Law
and Justice (ACLJ), Pat Robertson’s legal task
J U L Y / A U G U S T
1994
force. She even wrote to Robertson himself.
According to Iverson, Sekulow sent a team of
ACLJ attorneys via a private jet to meet with her.
“T hey are m y sw at te a m ,” she said.
“Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego sent to
swat the devil’s flies.”
Mark Troobnick, one of the ACLJ attorneys,
says that “the issue of content-based discrimi­
nation is well-settled law. Once an open forum
allowing a wide variety of speech is established,
the doors can’t be closed to speech based on
religious content.”
Lawyers for the state of Oregon argued that
license plates are not a public forum and that
regulations barring religious words or phrases
are necessary to prevent violation of the Estab­
lishment Clause.
C lackam as C o u n ty c irc u it ju d g e Sid
»axtrom
Brockley, in a late 1993 ruling, disagreed with
the state. Brockley agreed that license plates are
a limited public forum and that the state vio­
lated Gloria Iverson’s right to free speech when
it denied her use of the word PRAY.
“The state,” Judge Brockley wrote, “is not
com m only believed to endorse the messages”
appearing on license plates. Therefore, the use
of religious wording does not violate the Estab­
lishment Clause.
Free speech cases involving custom plates are
not uncom m on. According to Troobnick, 20
states prohibit religious messages or references
to a deity. These laws are a holdover from the
late 1970s, when custom plate laws were m od­
eled on those in California, which restricted
content. California later relaxed its regulations
and currently allows custom plates with reliI L L U S T R A T I O N
BY
T I M O T H Y
D
B
2
5
9
7
95
gious content. O ther states did not adopt similar
policies.
Two other cases involving custom plates are
currently pending in Virginia. One deals with
the state’s acceptance of some religious refer­
ences but not others. The second deals with a
regulation prohibiting lewd or offensive words
on custom plates.
In February 1994 Gloria Iverson received her
PRAY plates in the mail. She had been informed
by her attorneys that the state would not appeal.
“My friends say I have a hot line to heaven!
God told me 1 was going to get the plates and I
was to wait on Him. God bless Judge Brockley.
The Lord knew broccoli was my favorite veg­
etable!”
BRCKLYOK.
K N E P P
LIB ERTY
J U L Y / A U G U S T
1994
9
WÄllEl^
¿iirV
BY
O liv ers. Thomas,
a Baptist minister,
resides in Maryville,
Tennessee,
where he preaches,
teaches, practices law,
and writes country
music— not necessarily
in that order.
I L L U S T R A T I O N
BY
OLIVER
urdy, Missouri, is a town in which Baptists are as
thick as the hops Anheuser-Busch brews up the
road in St. Louis, so when high school students
w anted to stage a dance, concerned saints
showed up at the local school board meeting
with Bibles in hand and fire in their eyes. After
listening to homilies on the evils of dancing, the
board members— courageous politicians all—
canceled the dance. The students then did what
most Americans do when they feel wronged—
they sued. W hen the dust settled, the U.S. dis­
trict court ordered the school to proceed with
the dance.
The reason: the Lemon test.
In Douglas County, Georgia, invocations
were as m uch a part o f high school football
games as blankets and hot chocolate. So when a
student complained, jaws dropped; when he
sued, tem pers flared; and, when he won, it
started a wave of protests across the country.
W hy did he win? The Lemon test.
In Pittsburgh, the county erected a Nativity
scene. Across the street at the m unicipal build­
ing sat a Christmas tree, a menorah, and a ban­
ner signed by the mayor extolling religious lib­
erty. The ACLU sued, and the United States
Supreme C ourt said the tree and the m enorah
stay, but the Nativity scene goes.
Its reason? The Lemon test.
The Lemon test? Sounds m ore like some­
thing for chefs than lawyers. Yet mention the
word around First A mendment experts, and
they divide into warring camps: those who like
it, and those who find its name an apt descrip­
tion of its substance (Justice Scalia has called it a
“ghoul in some late-night horror movie”1 that
haunts the Supreme C ourt’s First A mendment
cases).
From its inception, the Lemon test has been
controversial, and by the time this article is
published, the Supreme C ourt may have de­
cided whether Lemon should remain the stan­
dard for deciding cases under the establishment
clause, be modified, or hauled out with the
trash.2 Though the concerns are many, the big
C H A R L E S
W A L L E R
S. T H O M A S
question is whether Lemon has pitted the two
great constitutional principles of nonestablish­
m ent and free exercise against each other.
The Lemon test3 asks three questions about a
challenged government action: Does the law (or
other government action) have a secular p u r­
pose? Does its prim ary effect neither advance
nor inhibit religion? Does the law avoid exces­
sive government entanglement with religion? A
negative answer to any of the questions means
the act is illegal.
Yet it’s not so simple. A law, for instance,
banning alcoholic beverages certainly could
prohibit the religious practices o f those who
drink C om m union wine, and thus violate the
free exercise clause. Suppose, in response, the
governm ent exempted Roman Catholics and
others who drink Com m union wine from the
law. W ould this exemption meet the “secular”
purpose prong of Lemon? And even if it did,
w ouldn’t its prim ary effect be the advancement
of religion? Many would argue yes.
Thus, it’s this potential conflict between the
two religion clauses that makes Lemon ques­
tionable to many scholars. Former Chief Justice
W arren Burger once wrote that either of the two
religion clauses “if expanded to a logical ex­
trem e would tend to clash with the other.”
Does Lemon cause them to clash now?
No doubt, the framers did not intend that the
two religion clauses cancel each other out.
Thus, any proper interpretation of the estab­
lishment clause m ust take into account free ex­
ercise and vice versa.
One possible solution lies in a correct under­
standing of the word “secular” in Lem ons first
prong. A better word might have been “civic,”
for some have suggested that accommodating
religion is not a legitimate secular purpose. But
is it?
Justice O ’C onnor moved the Court in the
right direction in her concurring opinion in the
Alabama moment-of-silence decision, Wallace
v. Jaffree, when Alabama had enacted three moment-of-silence laws, only one of which was a
LIBERTY
JULY/AUGUST
1994
11
straightforward m om ent of silence that neither
encouraged n o r discouraged school prayer. Jus­
tice O ’C onnor opined that the key to resolving
any tension between the religion clauses lay in
“identifying workable lim its” to the govern­
m ent’s obligation to accom modate the free ex­
ercise o f religion.
“G overnm ent pursues Free Exercise Clause
values when it lifts a governm ent-im posed bur­
den on the free exercise of religion,” she wrote.
“If a statute falls within this category, then the
standard Establishment Clause test should be
m odified accordingly. It is disingenuous to look
for a purely secular purpose when the manifest
objective o f a statute is to facilitate the free
exercise of religion by lifting a governmentim posed burden. Instead, the C ourt should
simply acknowledge that the religious purpose
of such a statute is legitimated by the Free Exer­
cise Clause.”4
Two years later a unani­
m
ous
Supreme C ourt ech­
law isn’t necessarily
o ed th ese se n tim e n ts:
“U nder the Lemon analysis
unconstitutional
it is a permissible legisla­
tive purpose to alleviate
significant governm ental
even if it helps make a
interference with the abil­
ity o f religious organiza­
religious organization’s tions to define and carry
out their missions.”5
The U. S. court of ap­
work easier.
peals said it best in the
Purdy dance ban case. Be­
cause the school board had
been m otivated almost ex­
clusively by religion, the
district court held that the ban violated the
Lemon test. Its purpose was religious— not
secular— and, therefore, illegal.
Yet it’s still not that simple. However much
some m ight celebrate the students’ victory over
what m any would consider a silly and anachro­
nistic rule, if the Purdy dram a ended there, the
rights of all Americans would have suffered,
because the rights o f some Americans— i.e., the
religious— would have suffered. Fortunately,
the court o f appeals added an im portant balanc­
ing element to the decision: “The mere fact that
a governmental body takes action that coincides
with the principles o f a particular religious
group does not transform the action into an
impermissible establishment of religion.. . . We
simply do not believe elected officials are re­
quired to check at the door whatever religious
background (or lack o f it) they carry with them
12 L I B E R T Y
JULY/A UGUST
1994
before they act on rules that are otherwise unob­
jectionable under the Lemon standards. This
approach to constitutional analysis would have
the effect of disenfranchising religious groups
when they succeed in influencing secular deci­
sions. Religious groups have an absolute right
to make their views known and to participate in
public discussion of issues.”6
In other words, the First A m endm ent pro­
tects the rights of all Americans— including re­
ligious ones— and as long as some legitimate
“civic” purpose exists for what a law m ight do
(admittedly, it was thin in the school dance ban
case), that law should not be struck down, even
if that law happens to coincide with religious
principles. Indeed, a law isn’t necessarily u n ­
constitutional even if it helps make a religious
organization’s work easier.
But didn’t Lemon say that a law’s prim ary
effect may neither advance nor inhibit religion?
Again, a law is not unconstitutional simply
because it allows churches and synagogues to
advance religion, which is their purpose. For a
law to have forbidden effects under Lemon it
m ust be the government itself that has advanced
religion through its own actions.7 Thus, the
government does not violate Lemon by declin­
ing to impose a tax on religious and charitable
organizations even though others may be re­
quired to pay the tax. It would be unconstitu­
tional, on the other hand, to provide churches
with cash subsidies. Government neutrality to ­
ward religion, that’s the bottom line.
Sometimes the best thing you can do for
something is leave it alone. That’s the way it is
with the government and religion, as the Ameri­
can experiment has so aptly proven. W hatever
legal standard the courts use, it should ensure
that the coercive power of the state is never used
to inhibit or advance anyone’s religion. Prop­
erly understood and applied, the fabled Lemon
test does precisely that.
E
FOOTNOTES
1L am b’s Chapel v. Center 1 Moriches School District, 508 U.S.
, 113 S.Ct._ , 124 L.Ed.2d. 352, 365 (1993) (Scalia, J.
dissenting).
2 The Establishment Clause is the first 10 words o f the First
A m endm ent and reads: “Congress shall make no law respect­
ing an establishm ent o f religion. . . . ” The Establishm ent
Clause is now applied to all levels o f governm ent by virtue of
the due process clause o f the Fourteenth A m endm ent.
3 403 U.S. 602.
4 Wallace v. Jaffree, 472 U.S. 38, 83 (1985) (O ’C onnor, J„
dissenting).
5 Corporation o f the Presiding Bishop v. Amos, 483 U.S. 327,335
(1987).
6Clayton v. Place, 884 F.2d. 376, 380 (1989).
7 Corporation o f the Presiding Bishop v. Amos, 483 U.S. 327,
337 (1987).
1 1
hile looking for work in San Francisco, 27-year-old
David Molko, a graduate from Temple University School o f
Law, was approached by two members o f the Unification
Church. Claiming to live in an international community of
socially conscious people from different occupations who met
evenings to discuss important issues, they denied any religious
connection and neglected to reveal they were Moonies look­
ing for recruits.
Lee Boothby is an attorney with Boothby and Yingst in Washington, D.C.
W hen Molko eventually discovered who they
were, he joined the Unification Church anyway.
Later, after being deprogram m ed, Molko
claimed that he had been brainwashed. He then
sued the U nificatio n C h urch, arguing the
Moonies had used deceptive tactics in recruiting
him. In Molko v. Holy Spirit Association for the
Unification o f World Christianity,' a majority of
the California Supreme Court concluded that
Molko and another form er church m em ber had
the right to bring “fraud actions against the
church for allegedly inducing them, by misrep­
resentation and concealment of its identity, into
unknowingly entering an atmosphere in which
they were then subjected to coercive persuasion.
This decision has raised serious questions
about free exercise and the rights of churches to
proselytize, especially after Waco and the con­
cerns it has spawned regarding cults. Many
churches— some mainline, others not— use ev­
erything from social action programs and cof­
feehouses to vegetarian restaurants as means of
his decision has raised serious questions about
free exercise and the rights o f churches to
proselytize, especially after Waco and the
concerns it has spawned regarding cults.
recruiting. As a result of Molko, this free exercise
o f religion is jeopardized by the threat of law­
suits.
“Apparently, the court would find a person
liable anytime a m em ber approached a person
with proselytizing intent and failed to inform
the potential convert of the purpose to ‘recruit’
him ,” warned the National Council of Churches
o f Christ in an amicus brief filed on behalf of the
Unification Church. “U nder this standard, a
church would be found liable, for example,
when a teenager invited a friend to Sunday ser­
vice w ithout inform ing the friend of an intent to
‘recruit’ him .”
Molko could also be so interpreted as to
increase the num ber of “facts” required to be
disclosed at the outset of any proselytization
attem pt to prevent former members from seek­
ing large damage awards from religious organi­
zations. N um erous church bodies, therefore,
fear the influence that this decision could have
upon their evangelistic efforts.
“Chilling effects on the evangelical activities
14 L I B E R T Y
JULY /A UGUST
1994
of all religious groups will result simply because
now all churches will fear the trem endous b u r­
dens o f long trials,” warned Dr. Stephen Post at
Case W estern Reserve University. “The b u r­
dens are in part economic— such a trial can cost
millions of dollars in attorney expenses and the
like. But equally chilling is the fact that all
churches will now be subjected to the circus-like
atmosphere that surrounds these trials as any
and all disaffected members are paraded before
the public in the context of media sensational­
ism.”3
Indeed, the Unification Church eventually
settled out o f court with Molko rather than face
the negative publicity of a legal battle.
In Molko the majority of the court said that
“the challenge here, as we have stated, is not to
the church’s teachings or the validity of a reli­
gious conversion. The challenge is to the
church’s practice of concealing its identity in
order to bring unsuspecting outsiders into its
highly structured environm ent.”4
In a concurring and dissenting opinion, Jus­
tice Anderson observed that “religious conver­
sion is not subject to judicial scrutiny, regardless
of the methods used, because such scrutiny nec­
essarily entails the questioning o f religious
faith— scrutiny that is absolutely forbidden by
the First Am endm ent.”5
Justice Anderson noted that what might be
perceived as “brainwashing or m ind control
might very well be equated with the more popu­
larly accepted symptoms of genuine religious
conversion.” He wrote that “religious behav­
ioral change induced by the mystery o f faith
cannot be proved or disproved by secular sci­
ence, which limits its scope of inquiry to tan­
gible, rational, and logical phenom ena, com ­
prehensible and explainable by hum an rea­
sons.”6
Nevertheless, as early as 1978, cult critic Ri­
chard Delgado suggested that a religious proselytizer should be required to obtain “informed
consent” before seeking to win converts. Ac­
cording to Delgado, when a person engages in
proselytization, that person has a duty to pro­
vide material information anytime “conversion
activity” begins. Professor Delgado stated that
“if a convert strikes up a conversation, on a bus
for example, on a neutral subject, the informed
consent requirement does not arise. As soon as
the conversation moves in the direction o f in­
teresting the convert in making contact with the
group, offer of disclosure m ust be made.”7
A ccording to D elgado, the proselytizer
should be required to reveal the name of his
o llo w in g th e tragedy in W aco, leaders rep resen tin g
a broad cross sectio n o f th e relig io u s c o m m u n ity w arn ed
th e g overn m en t against u sin g W aco to restrict
relig io u s free exercise.
group and that the organization is religious,
after which the proselytizer should be required
to respond “honestly and fully” to all questions.8
Delgado also suggested that courts require a
“cooling o ff’ period during which a new convert
could leave the religious group for a period of
tim e in order to offset any coercive persuasion.9
O ther remedies proposed by Delgado include
the use of state licensing10 or a “flat prohibition
o f proselytizing by groups that utilize intensive
psychological ind o ctrin atio n o f their m em ­
bers.”11
Such state-im posed schemes of “truth-inproselytizing,” however, would result in an u n ­
acceptable level of state entanglement with reli­
gion.12
In the FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin, a series
of articles w ritten by O. D. Lucksted and D. F.
Martell, special agents and legal instructors for
the FBI, favored new legislation that would
have imposed a “fine and/or prison sentence on
any organization that falsifies facts in recruit­
m ent of new members and/or coercively pre­
vents an individual from having contact with
individuals outside the organization or term i­
nating their affiliation with the organization.” 13
Following the tragedy in Waco, leaders rep­
resenting a broad cross-section of the religious
com m unity warned the government against us­
ing W aco to restrict religious free exercise.
“Government m ust resist any tem ptation to re­
treat from our ‘first freedom,’” because to “deny
religious liberty to any is to diminish religious
liberty for all,” they said. The statement was
signed by such diverse groups as the National
Council of Churches in the U.S.A., the National
A ssociation o f Evangelicals, the U nion o f
American Hebrew Congregations, the Presbyte­
rian C h u rc h (U .S.A .), an d the E piscopal
Church.
Repeatedly during the 51-day episode ex­
perts w arned o f the sim ilarity between the
standoff in W aco and the N ovem ber 1978
Jonestow n m assacre, which resulted in the
deaths o f 917 adults and children from the
People’s Temple m ovement through ingestion
of cyanide-laced Kool-Aid. There too a reli­
gious group was led by a charismatic leader, the
Reverend Jim Jones. Shortly thereafter Senator
Robert Dole of Kansas, in a letter to the chair­
m an of the Senate Finance Committee, wrote:
“The question surrounding the Jonestown inci­
dent and the continuous activity of the Unifica­
tion Church require action. The public needs
protection from unscrupulous operations that
flout the law for their own purposes.” Accord­
ing to Dole, “the tragedy in Guyana presented
sufficient cause for a full-scale investigation of
. . . this group and much closer scrutiny of other
such religious cults.”14
In the wake of W aco, anti-cult organizations
have sounded the drum beat for legislative in­
vestigation and congressional action. Though
there has been no avalanche of similar cases
since Molko, efforts to curb cults could be aided
by this court decision.
Religion in America is flourishing because all
religions are accorded equal opportunity in the
American religious marketplace. Any attem pt
to curb religious speech or subject those seeking
converts to potential m ulti-m illion-dollar judg­
ments from hostile juries can result only in the
dim inishing of religious freedom for all. Waco
m ust not be used by government as an excuse to
regulate religious speech or limit the rights of
religious organizations to carry their messages
to nonm em bers.
0
FOOTNOTES
1 762 P .2d46 (1988).
2 Ibid., p. 61.
3 Stephen Post, “The M olko Case: Will Freedom Prevail?”
Journal o f Church and State 31 (A utum n 1989): 463.
* 762 P. 2d 59(1988).
5 Ibid., p. 70
6 Ibid., p. 74, quoting Shapiro, Robots, Persons, and the
Protections o f Religious Beliefs, 56 So. Cal. L. Rev. 1277,1316,
1317 (1982-1983).
7 Delgado, Cults and Conversion: The Case for Informed
Consent, 16 Ga. L. Rev. 533, 564, note 166 (1982).
* Ibid., pp. 556, 557.
9 See Religious Totalism: Gentle and Ungentle Persuasion Un­
der the First Am endm ent, 51 So. Cal. L. Rev. 1, 74 (1978).
10 Ibid., p.76.
11 Ibid., p. 75.
12 Shapiro, p. 1315.
13 FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin 21 (June 1982).
14 Washington Post, Dec. 2, 1978.
LIBERTY
JU LY /A UGUST
1994
15
church invites an evangelist to conduct m eet­
ings. He mails 50,000 brochures to local homes
under the address o f “Prophecy Lectures” and a
box num ber. He then covers the church sign
with a large canvas that advertises the lectures
and rem oves any literature identifying the
church.
Before a large evangelistic series in Europe,
tens of thousands of brochures are distributed.
People are required to call for reservations and
tickets. The evangelist instructs those answer­
ing telephones to not reveal the sponsor, but to
say simply that it was a lecture on archaeology
and the Bible.
At one tim e or another, sects, cults, and even
mainline churches have concealed their iden­
tity, either because they are deceptive and seek
power, control, or money— or because they
don’t want people to know immediately who
they are out of fear that prejudice will prevent
recruits from giving the organization an im par­
tial hearing.
W hatever the reasons— and putting aside
any potential legal troubles, such as in the Molko
case (see page 13)— is it ethical for a church to
conceal its identity in its initial proselytization?
Because we’re working from a Christian per­
spective, what does the Bible say about this
topic?
i l ics Ili
BY J. DAVID NEW MAN
J. David Newman is editor
ot Ministry magazine.
I L L U S T R A T I O N
B Y
Thus Saith the Lord
The Bible does make it clear that believers
should be open, honest, and straightforward.
“The Lord detests lying lips, but he delights
H A R R Y
in m en who are truthful” (Proverbs 12:22).*
“I hate and abhor falsehood but I love your
law” (Psalm 119:163).
“But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile,
the m urderers, the sexually immoral, those who
practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars—
their place will be in the fiery lake of burning
sulfur. This is the second death” (Revelation
2 1 :8 ).
“You belong to your father, the devil, and
you w ant to carry out your father’s desire. He
was a m urderer from the beginning, not holding
to the truth, for there is no truth in him. W hen
he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a
liar and the father of lies” (John 8:44).
The Bible links lying and deception with Sa­
tan, but links truth and honesty with God. “God
is not a man, that he should lie, nor a son o f man,
that he should change his mind. Does he speak
and then not act? Does he promise and not
fulfill” (Numbers 23:19)?
“For the law was given through Moses; grace
and truth came through Jesus Christ” (John
1:17).
“Jesus answered, ‘I am the way and the truth
and the life. No one comes to the Father except
through m e’” (John 14:6).
In one Old Testament narrative, however,
God told Samuel to anoint David as the new
king. Because Samuel feared Saul, the present
king, God told Samuel to take a heifer and tell
the elders in Bethlehem that he had come to
offer a sacrifice, but to still proceed with the
anointing (1 Samuel 16:1-5).
K N O X
LIBERTY
JULY /AUGUST
1 9 9 4
17
No lie was told, but the prim ary reason for
the action was hidden. God had accommodated
Him self to Samuel’s insecurity. Obviously, God
preferred openness and candor. He changed
His procedure only because He was gracious
and condescending to Samuel’s fears.
On a Personal Level
Thus, if even God doesn’t reveal all the truth
all the time, should a person always announce
his or her religious affiliation? Should a reli­
gious group disclose who they are whenever
they operate a program , or if they use a cafe,
restaurant, or a coffee house as part of a com ­
m unity witness?
The absolutist will argue that the truth must
always be told. It is never appropriate to hide
one’s identity. Im m anuel Kant believed that
telling the truth is an ab­
solute: “Truthfulness in
statements which cannot
'hould a religious group
be avoided is the formal
duty of an individual to
disclose who they are
everyone, however great
may be the disadvantage
whenever they operate a
accruing to himself or to
another.”
program, or if they use a
Yet th is sta te m e n t
d
o
e
s n ’t ad d re ss how
café, restaurant, or a coffee
m uch truth needs to be
rev ealed at one tim e.
house as part o f a
Even Jesus said to His
disciples: “I have m uch
community witness?
m ore to say to you, more
than you can now bear”
(John 16:12). Deceit is
always wrong, b u t how
m uch tru th one should tell in any given situa­
tion is another matter. W hen Jesus walked with
two disciples on the road to Emmaus, He did not
at first reveal His identity (Luke 24:15, 16).
O n a personal level, when a person is forming
a friendship, any discussion about religion or
church affiliation should arise from the normal
unfolding o f the conversation. No need exists
to announce immediately that one belongs to a
certain church any m ore than a person has the
need to announce his or her age, weight, or
other private matters. If one were to declare his
religious affiliation immediately, the other per­
son might become suspicious about the motives
for this relationship.
In the course of forming friendships, it takes
tim e for people to learn about each other. No
law ordains the order in which inform ation
m ust be given. However, if I am intentionally
18 L I B E R T Y
JU LY /A UGUST
1994
withholding inform ation that the other person
needs to make an informed choice, if I am p o r­
traying myself to be other than what I am, if I
give inform ation that I know will be understood
differently from the actual facts— then I am
violating the personal rights of the other indi­
vidual. This is wrong, no m atter whether I
consider that to be in the best interest of the
individual.
O n a Corporate Level
W hen it comes to official church functions
or programs, churches should be candid about
who they are from the beginning. To do other­
wise would be dishonest. Why? Because there’s
a difference between contact on a personal,
friendly basis and contact made through orga­
nizational outreach. There’s nothing dishonest
about meeting another person on a personal
level and not immediately divulging your reli­
gion, even if you would one day like to convert
that contact. On the other hand, when a church
invites someone to a meeting of any kind, to
hide the name purposely is deceptive.
This does not mean that a church m ust make
it obvious who they are, but they should not
conceal it. It is wrong for a church that has an
official name to hide under umbrella organiza­
tions. A Christian organization that attem pts to
teach people truth m ust itself be above reproach
on this issue.
W hat happens, then, if a church gives its
name and people will not listen? Rather than
resorting to subterfuge, the leaders ought to ask
what causes people to dislike and avoid them?
Believers should place themselves in the other
person’s shoes. W ould we want deception prac­
ticed on us? Should we not know with whom we
are actually dealing? How would you feel if you
discovered that you had just contributed to a
neo-Nazi group under a false identity when if
you had known the truth you would not have
given a penny?
Everyone has the right to know what is true
and false. It may be argued that on national
levels and in politics it is permissible for govern­
ments to lie. This is a debatable proposition.
Utilitarian and situation ethics make sense if
one discounts the supernatural, but churches
that believe in the power of God shouldn’t have
to stoop to the level of politics to do the work of
the gospel.
How sad too if one day the government m ust
force churches to display the honesty that the
Bible has already com m anded them to display.
0
BY
DOUGLAS
MORGAN
On the Frailty
o f Our
Freedoms
d istin ctiv e featu re o f th e A m erican experience is h o w few corpses resu ltin g fro m
religious conflict have littered th e h isto rical landscape. In c o n tra st to th e lo n g E u ro p ea n legacy
o f p e rse c u tio n a n d w ars p ittin g P ro te stan t against C atholic a n d C h ristian against M uslim ,
A m erica has am assed a vast array o f religious g ro u p s w ith am azingly little blo o d sh ed .
Douglas Morgan, Ph.D., is a freelance writer living in Atlanta, Georgia.
Tragically, Waco added 80 m ore corpses to
the landscape. The disaster reflects a longstand­
ing tension in American history that repeatedly
tests the nation’s experiment in pluralism and
religious liberty. Assertions of liberty by m inor­
ity groups sometimes run counter to the keepers
o f m ainstream culture.
Ironically, it has often been efforts to defend
or advance freedom that have become twisted
by religious prejudice into suppression o f that
freedom. Various episodes in American history
reveal the fragility o f religious freedom in the
nation that has pioneered that freedom for the
world. These episodes show, too, the necessity
of a careful distinction between the legitimate
dem ands of public order and patriotism , and of
the use o f these values as pretexts for persecu­
tion o f m inority religious groups.
Various
episodes in
A m erican
A Test of Protestant Principle
In the spring of 1844 Philadelphia degenerat­
ed into a war zone much like Belfast or Beirut in
this century. The immediate problem was one
that is com m on today: religion in the public
schools; the larger one— escalating Protestant
animosity toward Catholics.
In the early days of the American republic,
Protestant-C atholic relations were relatively
cordial. Both fought side by side for indepen­
dence, and leading Catholic clerics firmly advo­
cated religious liberty and separation of church
and state.
By the 1830s, however, the interfaith atm o­
sphere was becoming poisoned. Immigrants,
mainly from Ireland and Germany, expanded
the ranks of Catholicism, bringing with them
Old W orld ways and attitudes. From about
50,000 in 1800, the American Catholic C hurch’s
m embership ballooned to around 3 million by
the Civil W ar, becom ing the largest single
denom ination in America.
Protestants increasingly became preoccu­
pied with fears that im m igration and Catholic
expansion were endangering both civil and reli­
gious liberty. Newspapers and organizations
prom oting resistance to “popery” proliferated.
The American Protestant Association (formed
in 1842) united Protestant clergy against pop­
ery. Anti-papalism entered politics in the form
of the American Republican Party in 1843, a
predecessor to the Know-Nothing Party, which
briefly enjoyed considerable national success in
the 1850s.
Protestants did have some grounds for con­
cern. The im m igrants tended to drink too
much, to brawl in the streets, and to violate
20 L I B E R T Y
JULY /A UGUST
1994
h istory
reveal the
fra g ility o f
religious
freedom in
the nation
th a t has
p ion eered
th a t freedom
fo r the
world.
Puritan conceptions o f Sunday observance.
And despite pleas from some American bishops
and their liberal Catholic counterparts in Eu­
rope for a “free church in a free society,” the
Papacy rem ained firmly entrenched against
such m odern, revolutionary ideas as democracy
and separation of church and state.
Unfortunately, nativism and religious preju­
dice m utated the concern for freedom into a
hateful crusade of repression. An almost hyster­
ical c o n sp ira to ria l a ttitu d e g ripped m any
Protestants. Jesuits were believed to be lurking
everywhere, carrying out a plot to control the
Mississippi Valley and from there to m ount an
armed revolt to establish papal despotism in
America. An Ohio minister reported that “the
western country swarms with them under the
names of puppet show men, dancing masters,
music teachers, peddlers of images and orna­
m ents, b a rre l organ players, an d sim ilar
practitioners.” Inevitably, a societal atmosphere
made flammable by such rhetoric would ex­
plode in violence.
In 1834 a mob in the Boston com m unity of
Charlestown torched a girls’ school operated by
Ursuline nuns. In Philadelphia a larger out­
break occurred a decade later. In 1842 Bishop
Francis Patrick Kenrick had petitioned the pub­
lic school board of controllers to allow Catholic
children to use their own Bible version rather
than the Protestant one, and to excuse them
from other religious instruction. W hen the
school board complied, the American Protes­
tant Association and others, who apparently
construed religious freedom to be applicable
only to Protestants, protested. Kenrick said that
he wanted only equal treatm ent for Catholics
and was not trying to drive God out of the public
schools.
The issue climaxed in the spring o f 1844. In
March thousands opposed to the decision to
favor the Catholics gathered in Independence
Square and adopted a resolution that “every
man who loves his country, his Bible, and his
God is bound by all lawful and honorable means
to resist every attem pt to banish the Bible from
our public institutions.”
Feverish with this religious nationalism, a
mob organized by the American Republicans
assembled on May 3 in the suburb of Kensing­
ton, where Irish laborers were concentrated.
The Irish regarded this action as a provocative
invasion of their territory, and an Irish mob
drove the Protestants away. Determined to as­
sert the right o f peaceable assembly, the Ameri­
can Republicans scheduled another gathering in
Kensington for May 6. Several thousand came,
and in the m idst o f a heavy rain shots rang out,
either from the Hibernia Hose Company (the
Irish fire fighting station) or from the marchers.
Some marchers were killed in the melee, which
ended in another Protestant retreat.
The following day cries of vengeance electri­
fied the city. Speakers on street corners gathered
crowds with anti-Catholic harangues. Another
Saint Bartholomew’s Day has begun, cried the
editor of the Native American, and Protestants
m ust fight back: “The bloody hand of the Pope
has stretched itself forth to our destruction. We
now call upon our fellow citizens, who regard
free institutions, w hether they be native or
adopted, to arm .”
In two m ore days of forays into Kensington,
anti-Catholic crowds systematically destroyed
Irish homes. Entire blocks burned. The reprisals
culm inated in attacks on Catholic churches.
Driven by rum ors that arms were stockpiled in
Saint Michael’s church, the rioters burned that
church and an adjoining seminary. Ignoring the
protests o f the mayor and the efforts of a few
militia, the mob next sacked Saint Augustine’s
church. After the violence finally subsided,
widespread expressions of revulsion were of­
fered, even by anti-papal leaders, at the desecra­
tion of C hristian sanctuaries; however, the
Fourth o f July holiday brought a new round of
sectarian warfare.
A total of 13 citizens died and m ore than 50
were wounded in Philadelphia’s religious battles
of 1844. An official investigation blamed the
Irish. The grand jury concluded that the conflict
resulted from “the efforts of a portion of the
com m unity to exclude the Bible from our public
schools.” And despite publicly expressed out­
rage and remorse over the riots, some leading
wealthy citizens privately rejoiced, believing
that “the papists deserve all this and m uch
m ore.”
Many Protestants, no doubt, were driven by a
genuine passion for liberty in the anti-papal
crusades of the 1830s and 1840s. But that pas­
sion was misdirected by a conspiratorial m ind­
set that im puted absolute evil to a rival faith
system, and in which events were construed or
fabricated in such way as to show how all fit into
a sensational and malign master plot. Religious
prejudice, com bined with fear of displacement
by foreigners and sheer m ob spirit, produced
devastating results. In the name of liberty, the
nation’s Protestant establishment prom oted a
blind zeal that ignored the actual record and
sentiments of American Catholics regarding de­
mocracy and for a tim e denied them the promise
of liberty.
D riven by
rum ors th at
arm s were
stockpiled in
S ain t
M ichael's
church, the
rioters burned
th a t church
an d an
a djoin in g
sem inary.
A Clash of Millennialisms
Few ideas have m ore thoroughly permeated
and shaped the American experience than millennialism, broadly defined as belief in a coming
era o f peace, justice, and abundance. The Puri­
tan “errand into the wilderness” was to carry the
Protestant Reformation to its culm ination and,
like “a city on a hill,” lead the world toward
Christ’s millennial reign. M any religious and
political leaders came to view the American
Republic as G od’s agency for ushering in the
millennium.
This civil millennialism linked the national
purpose of leading the world to democracy and
religious freedom to the divine program for the
consum m ation o f history. In the nineteenth
century, civil millennialism fused with “m ani­
fest destiny”— the conviction that American
territorial expansion throughout the continent
was an inevitable outworking of divine provi­
dence. The nation’s millennial mission made
conquest of the West necessary.
The lofty millennial vision did not bode well,
however, for those Native Americans occupying
the W estern lands. One o f the m ost poignant
instances of the darker side of civil millennial­
ism occurred in connection with Wovoka, the
son of a Paiute shaman, who transform ed the
Christian millennial hope into a new Indian
religion. Raised by white settlers in southeastern
Nevada, Wovoka heard the story of a Jesus who
worked wonders, healed the sick, taught peace
and love, and was killed but came back to life
from the spirit world.
Impressed, W ovoka eventually became con­
vinced that he was the new messiah and that he
had a message o f salvation for the Indians. God
spoke directly to him, said Wovoka, telling him
to prepare Indians for time when they would be
united with their ancestors in paradise. The
earth itself was soon to die; a new land would
cover the old, pushing the white people away,
back into the ocean from whence they came.
The Indian messiah taught a Christian ethic.
To prepare for the millennium, Indians must
lead virtuous lives— honest, industrious, peace­
ful. They m ust not fight the white people, but
renounce violence and harm no one— a truly
revolutionary doctrine for a people who had
traditionally placed high value on success in
warfare.
They m ust also do one more thing: they must
dance. The dance would bring them a foretaste
LIBERTY
JU LY /A UGUST
1994
21
of the new world and hasten its coming. Only
those who participated in the ritual that became
known as the ghost dance would enter paradise.
W ord o f the new messiah m oved rapidly to
nearly every reservation in the West. Every­
where Indians began to dance.
A m ong th o se w ho h eard an d accepted
W ovoka’s message were the Sioux. Though
defeated decisively as a military threat in 1876,
many rem ained resistant to the governm ent’s
efforts to “civilize” them and take m ore of their
land in violation of earlier treaties. Hunger
sharpened Sioux resentm ent. Their food supply
from hunting had been depleted, and a prom is­
ing start to their agricultural attem pts that
spring had been wiped out by a July drought.
Defiant and desperate, they gave W ovoka’s
peaceful teachings a m ilitant twist. They im put­
ed a distinctive significance to the ghost shirt
w orn by the dancers— its wearers would be
invulnerable to the bullets o f the blue-coated
soldiers. The bulletproof ritual garb, richly dec­
orated with sacred symbols, em boldened their
resistance— no arm y could hurt or coerce them,
and whites m ust not be perm itted to interfere
with the dancing. Yet they adhered to W ovoka’s
nonviolent doctrine in that they would not at­
tack or shoot at the whites. The messiah would
bring their vindication soon enough.
As the frenzied dancing spread, the white
com m unity panicked from rum ors of a new
Sioux uprising, and so the Army was mobilized
to stop the dancing. The Indian Bureau in
W ashington in stru cted agents to send the
names of the “fomenters of disturbances” to the
headquarters o f General Nelson (“Bear Coat”)
Miles in Chicago so that these ringleaders could
be apprehended.
From the white perspective, any ritual that so
united and energized Indians could be only
ominous. And surely the frenetic dancing could
seem only bizarre and pagan. Few attem pted to
discover the Christian-like teaching behind the
ritual.
James (“W hite H air”) McLaughlin, agent at
the Standing Rock reservation, where Sitting
Bull resided, declared, “A more pernicious sys­
tem of religion could not have been offered to a
people who stood on the threshold o f civili­
zation.” For civilization to proceed, and with it
American progress toward its millennial desti­
ny, the Indians’ new faith had to be stamped
out.
The amassing of troops on the reservations
only stiffened Indian determ ination to defend
their religious freedom and way of life, and to
22
LIBERTY
JULY/A UGUST
1994
As the
fre n zie d
dan cin g
spread, the
w h ite
c o m m u n ity
p a n ick ed
fro m rum ors
o f a new
Sioux
uprising, an d
so the A rm y
w as
m o b ilized to
stop the
dancing.
dance their way to the millennium.
In December 1890 the M iniconjou chief Big
Foot, who was on the list of “fomenters of dis­
turbances,” led his band, comprised of 120 men
and 230 women and children, to Pine Ridge,
South Dakota, where he hoped Chief Red Cloud
could protect them from the soldiers. On De­
cember 28, however, Big Foot encountered
troops from the Seventh U.S. Cavalry under
M ajor Samuel Whitside and surrendered im ­
mediately. Night was falling by the tim e the
prisoners were settled at W ounded Knee, so
W hitside postponed disarm ing them until
morning.
In the morning the Indians began complying
with the order to surrender their guns. Then the
soldiers searched the tepees, bringing out axes,
knives, and tent stakes, stacking them with the
guns in the center o f the camp. Still not satis­
fied, Colonel James Forsyth, who had assumed
command, ordered that the warriors remove
their blankets and subm it to individual search­
es.
Though angry, the Indians did not resist. But
then a medicine man, Yellow Bird, threw some
dust into the air, signifying the beginning of the
millennium. He started a ghost dance and
chanted holy songs, assuring the warriors that
bullets could not harm them. Meanwhile, Black
Coyote, later reported to have been hard of
hearing, raised a W inchester he’d managed to
retain over his head, shouting that he had paid a
lot for it and didn’t intend to give it up.
As the soldiers moved to restrain him, Black
Coyote fired. Immediately the soldiers opened
fire on the Indians. Those few Indians who
could lay their hands on a weapon fought back,
but it counted for little against the cavalry’s
newly invented Hotchkiss machine guns, which
indiscriminately spewed large explosive shells at
the rate of 50 per m inute into the camp. W hen
the shooting finally stopped, 153 men, women,
and children lay dead on the frozen ground,
including Chief Big Foot. Many more wounded
died outside the camp while trying to escape
into the hills. The cavalry sustained 25 casual­
ties, most caused by friendly fire. The govern­
m ent awarded 18 soldiers with Medals of H onor
for bravery.
Along with hundreds of lives, the slaughter
at W ounded Knee crushed o u t a religion.
Wovoka continued to believe in the truth o f his
revelation. But, disconsolate over the catastro­
phe, he withdrew to the m ountains, and his
following drifted away.
Dreams of wealth and adventure drew most
people toward the West m ore directly than m il­
lennial dreams. Nonetheless, W ounded Knee
represented a clash of millennialisms. Civil m il­
lennialism justified and in a broad sense im ­
pelled the A m erican w estw ard drive. And
though religious liberty was central to its creed,
the American civil faith could not countenance
a countervision of the future that denied legiti­
macy to the takeover of W estern lands.
A Persecuting Patriotism
A millennialist faith brought members of the
International Bible Students Association into
conflict with the United States government d u r­
ing W orld W ar I. Also known as Russellites
(after their founder, Charles Taze Russell), and
later as Jehovah’s Witnesses, the Bible Students
expressed their apocalyptic faith with such te­
nacity that they became an irritant to existing
ecclesiastical institutions and finally to govern­
ment. As with the Shakers and M orm ons before
them, the Jehovah’s Witnesses’ innovations on
C hristianity w ould at tim es be deem ed too
dangerous to be allowed freedom.
Aggressively seeking converts with forays
into streets and homes, the Bible Students pro­
claimed the soon end of the present age, at the
battle o f Arm ageddon. They consigned the
churches, and secular governments, to the realm
of Satan, destined for destruction. Though
taught to be law-abiding on matters not involv­
ing conflict with G od’s will, they pressed the
logic of their identity as members of Christ’s
kingdom with a rigor that dem anded sharp re­
pudiation of earthly institutions.
In 1917 President W oodrow Wilson sum ­
m oned the nation to arms with terms redolent
of the millennial mission by then deeply in­
grained in the American consciousness. The
purpose o f the war was “to make the world safe
for democracy.” Americans would fight “for a
universal dom inion of right by such a concert of
free peoples as shall bring peace and safety to all
nations and make the world itself at last free.”
The American churches as a whole embraced
American entry into the First W orld War. A
statement from the Federal Council of Churches
sum m ed the m atter simply: “The war for righ­
teousness will be won! Let the church do her
part.”
The Bible Students not only refused military
service in the great crusade, but in their pugna­
cious, energetic m anner, they condem ned the
militaristic nationalism and the clergy support
for the war. This stand brought upon them mob
attacks, beatings, and arrests. In June 1918 the
The
Jehovah's
W itnesses'
in novations
on
C hristianity
w ou ld a t
tim es be
deem ed too
dangerous
to be
allow ed
freedom .
eight members of the W atch Tower Society’s
board of directors and editorial board were con­
victed for sedition. Seven were sentenced to 20
years in the penitentiary; the eighth was later
sentenced to 10 years.
O ther churches gave them little sympathy or
support. The Watchman-Examiner, a Baptist
publication, expressed the predom inant senti­
ment in the religious press, declaring that the
Bible Students had always been a curse and those
convicted got what they deserved. M any clergy,
resentful of years o f condem nation from the
Bible Students, encouraged the harassment and
rejoiced that Russellism appeared doomed.
Argum ents set forth by Shailer Mathews,
who as a professor at the University o f Chicago
Divinity School stood at the intellectual fore­
front o f m ainstream Protestantism , d em on­
strate how thoroughly religious duty and na­
tional agenda had intertwined in the m inds of
American Christians: “A religion which will
keep its followers from com m itting themselves
to the support o f such patriotism is either too
aesthetic for hum anity’s actual needs, too indi­
vidualistic to be social, or too disloyal to be
tolerated.”
Soon after the war the convictions of the
incarcerated Russellite leaders were overturned
on appeal, and they were released after a year’s
im prisonm ent. No thanks to the churches,
though— hardly a word from ecclesial sources
was expressed on behalf o f the Bible Students
before or after the final verdict.
Patriotism Versus Freedom
Religious freedom stands prom inent among
the freedoms our nation champions. But as
history shows, it is a freedom that efforts to
prom ote national interest often place in jeopar­
dy. The tragic and embarrassing instances of the
past suggest the im portance of asking certain
questions before invoking the power of state
against dangerous “cults.” How exactly is public
order being endangered? How might sensation­
alism, hysteria, or bigotry be distorting percep­
tions? Is a chauvinistic, uncritical form of patri­
otism overheating tempers? Is employment of
force really likely to succeed, or is it likely to
worsen or inflame a tense situation? W hat
precedents might be set by proposed action and
with what implications for everyone’s freedom?
These are questions that must be answered if the
promise o f freedom is to be given its fullest
realization, and the body count as a result of
religious confrontation on American soil is to
remain low.
C
LIBERTY
JU LY /A UGUST
1994
23
mt
ince the 1960s A m erica has
been invaded by forms o f East­
ern religion— Zen, Soka-gakBY F R A N K
kai, yoga, transcendental m edi­
tation. Perhaps out of our fear
o f this “Eastern peril,” the term cult has acquired
unfavorable, even sinister, connotations. Now­
adays a cult implies a dictatorial charismatic
leader (often deranged, like David Koresh), bi­
zarre beliefs (such as the im m inent end of the
w orld), odd or perverse practices (especially
sexual), animal sacrifice, satanic worship, coer­
cive proselytizing techniques (brainwashing),
suicide drills, and financial shenanigans.
Thus, cult has become a highly charged, am­
biguous, even dangerous word. Like spy, the
odd one out in the rhyme set “tinker, tailor,
soldier, spy,” cult occupies the last and most
dubious place in the set of religious social cate­
gories church, denomination, sect, cult. In the
heated debates after Waco, a clarification of its
origin and use would be helpful.
Frank K. Flinn is
adjunct professor of
religious studies at
Washington University
in St. Louis.
He has served as an
expert witness on
the definition of religion
in court cases in North
America and abroad.
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier
A church, according to religion sociologist
Ernest Troeltsch, seeks to be universal; that is it
desires to cover the whole life of humanity.
C h u rc h e s— su c h as th e R om an C a th o lic
Church in medieval Europe or the Geneva Re­
formed Church of Calvin’s day— generally fa­
vor the ruling classes and seek to become an
integral part o f the social order. Churches work
downward from above. In the churchly out­
look, the spheres of secular or
natural life are marshaled as a
means to attain a sacred, su­
K. F L I N N
pernatural life.
The next term in the socio­
religious canon is denom ination. The tendency
toward denominationalism is a marked feature
of American religion. D enom inational reli­
gious attachm ent was fostered by pluralistic
im migration (Anglicans, Puritans, Dutch Re­
form ed, Lutherans, Catholics, etc.) and the
American principle of religious tolerance. De­
nom inationalism is the religious equivalent of
“keeping up with the Joneses.” Denominations
are m ore concerned w ith edu catin g th e ir
young— first in Sunday school and then at
Yale— than in missionizing the gospel and har­
vesting new converts.
Thomas O ’Dea described a denom ination as
a “routinized sect.” David M artin, sociologist at
the London School of Economics, theorizes that
denom inations are “delegated dem ocracies”
that do not sacralize religious institutions, as the
Catholics do when they refer to “Holy M other
Church,” nor do they establish “priests forever
according to the order of Melchisedech.” Rath­
er, denominations elect their ministers the way
they do their public officials.
A sect, in contrast to both churches and de­
nominations, aspires after inward spiritual per­
fection and withdraws from universal social life
into a small perfectionist group. It may be
tolerant, indifferent, or hostile toward outw ard
society. Often sects are identified with the lower
classes (at least in the beginning) and work from
below upward.
In the language o f sociologist Max Weber,
churches tend to be world-affirming (or worldembracing), while sects tend to be world-deny­
ing (or w orld-shunning). Churches are institu­
tions that favor priestly or clerical hierarchy;
sects are voluntary associations that favor the
layperson in a spiritual democracy.
The Four
♦
Categories
♦
of American
♦
Religion
who, the anti-cultists allege, are duped by “de­
structive” cults. Many anti-cultists believe that
they establish a group as a pseudo-religion if
they succeed in getting it labeled as a cult. Be­
cause o f the furor now swirling about the term
cult, scholars are now using the phrase “new
religious m ovem ent” (NRM). The press has not
followed suit.
Cult is derived from the Latin word colere,
which m eant first to till a field and second to
worship. Because ancient Roman farmers made
Spy
offerings to the gods and goddesses of fertility at
Cult is the most nebulous of the four terms. shrines located at the boundaries o f their fields,
N ot too long ago the term cult was applied to the word for tilling, as in cultivation, took on the
m any religious groups, including the M ormons, added meaning o f worship, as in the cult of
the Swedenborgians, Seventh-day Adventists, Ceres. Roman Catholicism took over this Ro­
Unity, the Spiritualists, Jehovah’s Witnesses, man usage and began to speak of the cult of
and even Pentecostals. Scholars have tried, u n ­ Mary or the cult o f the Sacred Heart, where the
successfully, to strip away its pejorative conno­ term means a form of devotion.
tations.
Today the term has taken on further secular
Sociologists Rodney Stark and William Sims meanings, such as the “Elvis cult” or the “fash­
Bainbridge say that sects begin as reformist reac­ ion cult.” In these usages the word means a
tions against standing religious traditions; cults, passing fad.
by contrast, spring up am ong the unchurched or
Obviously, in the context of religion, the
the nominally churched. They are like new na­ term cult has difficulties that church and denom­
tive or im ported religious species. O ther schol­ ination do not. Cult has been applied to Opus
ars, like the University of Chicago’s M artin M ar­ Dei, Hasidic Judaism, Pentecostals, Shi’ism,
ty, add that cults are characterized by charism at­ Baha’i, heavy metal, satanism, Wicca, etc. Cult
ic leaders and that when they die, the cults dissi­ is a term that means everything— and nothing.
pate. Oxford scholar Bryan W ilson, however,
argues that many religious groups classified as Religious Liberty
cults, such as New Thought and the RosicruThe labeling of a group as a cult also has the
cians, have prospered w ithout charismatic lead­ added peril of creating a constitutional blur that
ers.
threatens religious liberty. The Constitution
O f course, since living religious groups— uses only one word for all o f the preceding phe­
w hether church, denom ination, sect, or cult— nomena: religion. So the constitutional ques­
are dynamic and evolve in diverse and surprising tion is Is this a religion or is this not a religion?
ways, labels, terms, categories, and classifica­ The fact that a religious group is a church, de­
tions tend to be ultimately temporary. Most nom ination, sect, cult, assembly, fellowship,
religious movements will display mixtures and meeting, synagogue, gathering, coven, society,
tendencies that cross over such labels. As some or congregation should be constitutionally irrel­
labels ostracize people, the current scattershot evant. Many scholars concerned about the dan­
use of the term cult raises serious questions ger in the use of the term cult point out that
about the ethics of language for the populace at yesterday’s cult has often become today’s reli­
large and the press in particular.
gion.
Perhaps Leo Pfeffer, the great scholar o f reli­
Anti-Cult Cult
gious liberty, sum m ed up the situation best at a
A new class of professionals— deprogram ­ W ashington University Law School conference
mers or cult-exit counselors— have arisen in re­ in the mid-1980s. W hen asked to define the
sponse to public fear about cults, and to make a word cult, he said, “If you like a fellow, you call
buck, too. Sociologists David Bromley and An­ his religion a faith; if you are indifferent toward
son Shupe even speak of an “anti-cult cult” that him, you call it a sect; but if you really hate the
favors kidnapping and deprogramming youths [expletive deleted], you call it a cult.”
El
LIBERTY
JU LY /A UGUST
1994
25
Experiences o f a M essianic Jew in Israel
(Far left) Elhanan
and his fam ily on
the handbill warning
that he was a traitor
and a deceiver.
(Left) The ben
Avraham fam ily.
(Bottom) Elhanan
with his “Garden of
Eden” painting. He
could have written
at the bottom: “All
things work together
for good to them
that love God.”
BY
ELHANAN
BEN
AVR AH AM
s a Jewish believer in the Yeshua
(Jesus), I knew that upon moving to
Israel I would face challenges. Aware
of the Jewish people’s long, sad experi­
ence with the “church,” I expected b it­
ter opposition. I wasn’t disappointed.
kill me. “I am a killer,” one of them said, “and
you’re going to die for your faith.”
O ne afternoon, on the lawn outside my
apartm ent, I was attacked and beaten by three
N orth African Jews. Though I didn’t hit them
back, I was charged with criminal assault. For­
tunately, some o f my Israeli neighbors testified
in the court that I hadn’t struck anyone. After
I had been living w ith my wife
presenting my own side of the story before the
(whom 1 had m et in Israel) at an ab­
court, including my beliefs, I was cleared of
sorption center in Jerusalem in 1980 while I m ost o f the accusations. On the one I was found
found various jobs as an artist. Soon after, guilty of, I was given a 60-hour public-service
someone standing in line behind me at a pay obligation, for which I volunteered to paint a
phone heard me tell about my belief in Yeshua. wall m ural for the city of Jerusalem.
The next day the O rthodox rabbi of the absorp­
The 12-foot-square mural, Noah After the
tion center, dressed in his black clothes and Flood, was well received and led to several mural
donning a black beard, came to our door, intro­ commissions in public buildings in Jerusalem.
duced himself, and said, “I hear that you have One was a 45' x 11' painting of the Garden of
some strange beliefs.” We had a pleasant time Eden. I could have written at the bottom of it,
explaining our faith. He nodded politely and
“All things work together for good to them that
left. W ithin a short tim e I was dismissed from
love G od” (Romans 8:28).
most of my jobs.
Today, my wife, two children, and I attend a
We finally moved from the absorption center 60-70 m em ber Messianic Jewish congregation
to an apartm ent in Jerusalem. O ur neighbors called Roeh Yisrael (Shepherd of Israel) that
had been warned to avoid us. W ithin a few owns its own building and is registered as a
m onths handbills were placed in their mail­ nonprofit organization. Establishing this m in­
boxes and pasted on poles. They showed our istry didn’t come easy. Yad L ’Achim used its
picture and were filled with distortions and lies influence to bring a lawsuit against us over zon­
about what we believed. They called us traitors
ing laws. We almost lost the building, but after
and deceivers. Actually, instead of causing hos­ a dramatic, last-m inute turnabout in the court­
tility am ong many of my neighbors, the hand­ room, we managed to keep the building, and
bills caused m ore interest in us and what we our ministry.
believed. Many Israelis are open-minded.
Sixteen years ago, as an American traveling
The handbills were distributed by activists in Brazil, I came to believe in Yeshua as the
called Yad L ’Achim (H and of the Brothers), Jewish Messiah, and felt certain about two other
dedicated to elim inating cults, missionaries, points: I was Jewish, and I was to travel to Israel.
and Jewish followers of Yeshua. Though the Two years later I fulfilled that calling. I’ll never
group claims independence, it clearly has access forget that mom ent. After having arrived in
to the files of the Interior Ministry, currently in Jerusalem, I wandered over to the W estern Wall.
the hands of the Orthodox Shas Party. Some of As I touched the cool, ancient stones, they
the inform ation in the handbills couldn’t have seemed to speak out, saying, “Welcome hom e.”
been obtained without help from the Ministry.
I’ve been “hom e” now 15 years. I have lived
Their efforts have caused the loss of work for a as an Israeli citizen, have served in the army, and
num ber of Jewish followers of Yeshua. They have faced the continuous pressure of living in
also have placed pressure on landlords to evict
the region. O ur Messianic con­
Messianic Jews from their apartments. Elha nan ben Avraham
gregation, and others, are growing
My family received telephone
is an artist living in
in numbers and strength despite
threats. One night I had been met
Jerusalem.
opposition.
|c_j
by a p p aren t m em bers o f Yad
L ’Achim, and they threatened to
A
LIBERTY
JULY/A UGUST
1994
27
Israel’s M essianic M ess
BY C A R E Y
Carey Kinsolving is a
freelance writer residing in
Falls Church, Virginia.
28
LIBERTY
very year Jews the world over celebrate the time
when the angel of death passed over their houses
and delivered them and their firstborn from
Egypt. But when Messianic Jews in Israel cele­
brate Yeshua (Hebrew for Jesus) as the Messiah
who offered Himself as the Passover Lamb to
atone for all sin, it stirs up plenty of controversy.
Last year an Israeli newspaper reported that
Mordecai Kirochenbaum, the director of Israeli
Broadcast Authority, had rejected a news report
showing Messianic Jews (an estimated 3,000
am ong 4.7 million Israelis) celebrating the Passover seder. Said television spokeswoman Ayola
Cohen, “The subject itself is im portant and wor­
thy of treatm ent by television, but such subjects
require care that it does not overflow into mis­
sionary activity.”
Controversy over Messianic Jews, however,
isn’t limited to Passover. Public opinion has
recently been aroused because three families
have been denied citizenship based on their ac­
ceptance of Yeshua as Messiah.
“W e would have died at Auschwitz as Jews,”
said David Stern, a spokesman for the Israeli
Messianic com m unity, “but we are not perm it­
ted to live in Israel as Jews.”
Stern notes that the Jewishness of those who
followed a false, second-century messiah, Bar
Kochba, is never questioned. One follower,
Rabbi Akiva, remains a venerated teacher in
Jewish history. The same inconsistency exists
today with Jews who believe that Rabbi Schneerson of New York is the messiah, Stern said.
Gary and Shirley Beresford, one of the three
families being denied citizenship, were born of
Jewish parents in South Africa. Their two sons,
Darrin and Paul, are Israeli citizens and have
served as arm y paratroopers. Shirley’s m other
has Israeli citizenship.
Since 1985 the Beresfords have sought Israeli
citizenship under the Law of Return, which de­
fines Jewishness as being born of a Jewish m oth­
JULY/AUGUST
1994
KINSOLVING
er, but excludes anyone who is “a m em ber of
another religion.” The Beresfords keep kosher,
observe the Sabbath, keep the Jewish feast days,
and fast on Yom Kippur.
A ruling last year from Israel’s highest court
denied them citizenship. “Because we believe
that Yeshua is the Messiah, which we m ain­
tained all through the court case, that in itself is
sufficient to make us not Jewish,” Gary Beres­
ford said about the ruling. “It’s sheer nonsense,
based on thoughts and beliefs, not actions.”
He equates the decision to trying someone
for thinking about m urder rather than com m it­
ting the act.
Beresford is not alone in his opinion. Davar,
an Israeli daily newspaper, published a letter
from D. Riki in which two questions were asked:
“How can it be that only Messianic Jews, o f all
people, are denied this right [citizenship under
the Law of Return]— and this, in the supposedly
secular democratic state of Israel? Is any other
person in Israel required to believe in the Jewish
religion, though officially considered one o f its
members?”
Columnist Hillel Halkin defended the Beres­
fords in the December 31 issue of the Jerusalem
Report, saying that Jesus lived as a Jew, thought
as a Jew, spoke as a Jew, and was crucified by the
Romans as a Jew. “Jews were practically the only
people He knew, and while He obviously liked
some of them better than others (fishermen, for
instance, more than rabbis), who of us can’t say
the same?” Halkin asks.
In fact, it is the rabbis who are behind the
denial of citizenship to Messianic Jews, accord­
ing to the Beresfords. The interior ministry, run
by the ultraorthodox Shas Party, approves citi­
zenship papers and perm anent residency status.
In a 1988 poll o f 1,189 Israelis conducted by
the Dahaf Research Institute, 61 percent stated
that a person born to a Jewish m other who
believes Yeshua is the Messiah and considers
REALLY?
(Top) The Beresfords:
“We are not going
anywhere.”
Messianic Jews
worshiping in Israel:
(Bottom) “We would
have died in
Auschwitz as Jews,
but we are not
permitted to live in
Israel as Jew s.”
himself a Jew should be granted an im m igrant’s
visa u nder the Law o f Return. The figure
jum ped to 78 percent when factors like being
faithful to the state of Israel, paying taxes, serv­
ing in the Israeli army, and celebrating Jewish
holidays were added. In the same poll, com m is­
sioned by David Stern, 83 percent of Israelis said
that a person born of a Jewish m other who does
not believe in the existence of God should be
granted an im m igrant’s visa.
A recent Messianic Jewish immigrant from
northern Virginia who asked not to be identi­
fied said the problem stems from the things
done to the Jews in the name of Jesus, not Jesus
Himself. Like many Messianic Jews, he views
Yeshua as one who perfectly observed the Torah
(the first five books of the Hebrew Scriptures).
He added that the rabbis taught that “the law
made one righteous for salvation,” but “Abra­
ham was declared righteous by faith” before the
law was given to Moses.
“I will not allow the Jewish or the Christian
communities to strip me of my Jewishness or
my belief that Yeshua is the Messiah,” he said.
This same sentim ent is expressed in the Be­
resfords’ com m itm ent to stand fast. In spite of
the court’s denial, the Beresfords are not plan­
ning to move, even if the interior m inistry refus­
es to renew their tourist visa.
“I have stated publicly that we are not going
anywhere,” said Gary Beresford after attending
a Messianic Jewish service that meets on Satur­
day in a West Bank settlement. “We have a right
to be in Israel. W e are Jews. W e do not see
ourselves as being anything but Jews.”
Though many Jews are sympathetic with the
Beresfords, some are not. Mark Powers, spokes­
m an for the Baltimore-based anti-missionary
group called Jews for Judaism, said the Israeli
government was correct in rejecting the Beres­
fords’ application to receive economic benefits
under the Law of Return. “They are Christians,
not Jews,” Powers said. “They don’t lose their
Jewishness; they voluntarily gave it up.
“Being a Jew cannot be separated from a faith
system,” said Powers. But his position changes
when applied to Jewish atheists.
“An atheist, a nonbeliever in God, has not
denied the faith system to the essence of some­
body who has accepted another faith system,”
he said.
W hen asked whether believing God doesn’t
exist constitutes a belief system, Powers said,
“W hether it is or it isn’t, I’m not sure. A person
who believes in no God is clearly an apostate
Jew.”
Powers equated giving up one’s Judaism to
leaving Christianity for another faith.
Said Reuven Berger, one of several Messianic
Jewish leaders in Israel, “We aren’t a sect. O ur
belief is the divine Judaism of God because it’s
based on the new covenant with God rather
than tradition.”
The Messianic com m unity in Israel has ral­
lied around the Beresfords and the other two
families that face deportation, the Kendalls, for­
merly of Idaho, and the Speakmans, of Oregon.
On February 21, sign-carrying Messianic Jews
gathered outside the prime m inister’s home.
They carried placards that read:
“Deporting Jews— really?”
LIBERTY
JU LY /A UGUST
1994
29
0 It I T E It
L
B
a n g u a g e
a r r i e r
“The lim its of my language mean the lim its of my w orld.”— Ludwig W ittgenstein
“ Once, Turner had him self lashed to the mast ot a ship for several hours, during a furious storm, so that
he could later paint the storm.
“ Obviously, it was not the storm that Turner intended to paint. What he intended to paint was a
representation of the storm.
“One’s language is frequently imprecise in that matter, I have discovered.” — David Markson
he Bible m ight be the W ord of God,
The com m on solution is to
but hundreds of denom inations
“ define term s.” Yet we define term s
prove that the W ord has many
w ith other term s, and those term s
“There’s no surer way to
interpretations. If people disagree
w ith still others, in infinite regress.
misread any docum ent,” warned
on the m eaning of the Ten
We can’t latch on to som ething
Learned Hand, “than to read it
Com m andm ents, etched in stone
beyond, or outside of, w ords.
literally.”
by the finge r of God— what
Dictionaries are ou r cages.
unanim ity w ill exist fo r the firs t 10
W hat’s w orse, human thought
and language are ultim ately
make no law respecting an
C onstitution, scribbled on
construed and lim ited by cultural,
establishm ent of religion or
even personal, boundaries that are
prohibiting the free exercise
always In flux. Not only are we
thereof’’— penned more than 200
Concepts— w hether the law of God
caged, but the bars constantly
years ago, a linguistic eon (look
from heaven o r the Bill of Rights
move.
w hat 30 years has done to gray)?
The problem is language.
from the Colonies— are expressed
How, fo r example, could the
In the 1890s the U.S. Supreme
in w ords, and w ords are as
C onstitution, w hich promised
Court said that religion “ has
reference to one’s views of his
enigm atic as dreams. “ A w o rd ,”
“ liberty,” allow slavery? Liberty
w rote Oliver W endail Holmes, “ is
obviously d idn’t mean the same
relations to his Creator, and to the
not a crystal, transparent and
then as it does today. The word
obligation they im pose of reverence
unchanged; it is the skin of a living
itself hasn’t changed; its cultural
fo r His being and character, and of
th oug ht and may vary greatly in
context has.
obedience to His w ill.” By 1965
color and content according to the
Justice M arshall said that “ no
religion had become “ a sincere and
circum stances and the tim e in
w ord conveys to the mind, in all
m eaningful belief w hich occupies In
w hich it is used."
situations, one single definite Idea,”
the life of Its possessor a place
and thus linguistic and social
paralleled to that filled b y . . . G od.”
Thus, questions about original
intent, judicial activism , strict
context m ust be considered. When
If the meaning of “ religion” isn’t
textualism , legal realism, and other
the C onstitution declares that only a
stable, who can grasp its
theories of constitutional
“ natural born c itiz e n . . . shall be
“ establishm ent” or “ free exercise” ?
interpretation are more
eligible to the office of President,”
philosophical than jurisprudential,
does it disqualify those born
and philosophy is often a problem
overseas, or by Cesarean section or
of language.
artificial Insem ination? We know
the answer, not because of the
exact w ording, but because we
JULY/A UGUST
What, then, can we do w ith
these 16 w ords— “ Congress shall
am endm ents of the U.S.
parchm ent by James M adison?
30 L I B E R T Y
know the cultural, political, and
social concerns of the Framers.
1994
Is a tax-funded interpreter fo r a
deaf student an establishm ent of
O I I I T K It
religion? Four justices said yes;
five no. Are Bible readings In
justices said yes; tw o no.
What happened? The w ords
sym bols that com pose language.
No doubt God created
To solve th is problem w ould, of
language, and Fie, existing outside
public schools an establishm ent of
“ free exercise" in the text didn’t
course, be to solve one of the
tim e and space, transcending all
religion? Eight said yes; one no. Is
change, but the cultural context did
fundam ental philosophical
cultural and linguistic barriers,
the refusal to exem pt an American
(the earlier decision precipitated
dilem m as since Gorgias, fo u r
knows w hat everything means.
Indian fro m legislation outlaw ing
violence against W itnesses).
centuries before Christ, w rote
Yet we can’t bring Him into the
peyote an infringem ent of free
In the diagram, stare at the
about the fu tility of using language
church-state debate because the
exercise? Three said yes; six no.
corners marked a and then glance at
to express reality. Even if i had an
ACLU w ould sue and Liberty
Is a high school graduation
those marked b. The a’s appear In
answer, It w ould be conveyed In
w ould print articles w arning about
speaker’s public prayer an
front. Then stare at the b's. Before
w ords, and using w ords to express
th is egregious violation of the
establishm ent of religion? Five
your eyes the ft’s w ill appear in
problem s about w ords is like
Establishm ent Clause.
said yes; fo u r no. The justices all
fro nt.
defining a term w ith the term itself
read the same w ords. They just
read them differently.
In the 1940s Jehovah’s
If a sim ple shift of the eyes can
W hatever that means.
used In the definition.
cause such a drastic change In
perception of som ething as concrete
W itnesses children were refused
as this draw ing, Imagine what
exem ption fro m saluting the flag.
culture, politics, sociology, tim e,
Was th is an infringem ent of free
heredity, mood, and other factors
exercise? Eight justices said no;
can do to perceptions of the abstract
one yes. Three years later six
LIBERTY
JULY /AUGUST
1994
31
iberty is the m ost jealous and exacting mistress that
'can beguile the brain and soul o f man. From him
w ho will not give her all, she will have nothing. She
knows that his pretended love serves hut to betray.
But when once the fierce heat o f her quenchless,
lustrous eyes have burned into the victim ’s heart, he
will know no other sm ile but hers.”
— Clarence S. Darrow, American