ADL's Foxman, accused of warning about Christianization to raise funds, responds to Jewish columnist

In these two op-ed articles, David Klinghoffer, a right-wing columnist for Jewish publications, accuses Anti-Defamation League Director Abraham Foxman of raising the threat of Christianization to enhance the ADL's appeals for funds. Klinghoffer disparages Foxman's analysis of the menace of the Christian right, and at one point argues that Islam is a greater threat. Foxman's response follows Klinghoffer's column. Foxman responds that "Klinghoffer is engaging in demagoguery when he suggests we're ignoring the threats from the Islamic world."

OP-ED Critic: Why does Foxman tout 'menace' of evangelicals? To raise more money

By David Klinghoffer, Jewish Telegraphic Agency, November 15, 2005

SEATTLE, Nov. 15 (JTA) - Devoted to fighting anti-Jewish bigotry, the Anti-Defamation League is America's most influential Jewish group. So what are we to make of the weird air of unreality in the ADL's public statements about Christians?

Consider the recent address by Abraham Foxman, the ADL's national director, to the group's annual meeting, in which he called for a community-wide response to a growing threat.

Foxman spoke Nov. 3 in New York during a week when disturbing news stories were unfolding around the world. The riots across France by immigrant Muslim youths were building to a climax. These are the same youths who have been terrorizing French Jews for the past five years - assaulting individuals, firebombing synagogues and desecrating Jewish cemeteries.

The same week, Iran's president was refusing to back down from his call to fellow Muslims to "wipe Israel off the map." Meanwhile, TV viewers in Egypt had just spent Ramadan enjoying a new drama series based on "The Protocols of the Elders of Zion," the notorious anti-Semitic hoax.

If there is one religion that poses a danger to Jewish interests, it's worldwide Islam. How strange, then, that Foxman held up the terrifying specter of, um - American Christianity.

"Today," said Foxman, "we face a better financed, more sophisticated, coordinated, unified, energized and organized coalition of groups in opposition to our policy positions on church-state separation than ever before. Their goal is to implement their Christian worldview. To save us!"

Foxman warned that mainstream evangelical groups have "built infrastructures throughout the country . . . intend[ing] to 'Christianize' all aspects of American life, from the halls of government to the libraries, to the movies, to recording studios, to the playing fields and locker rooms of professional, collegiate and amateur sports, from the military to SpongeBob SquarePants."

" 'Christianize' all aspects of American life?" This must mean that evangelical leaders want to Christianize us either by legal coercion or by inspiration and moral example.

If Foxman means by legal coercion, his accusation is ludicrous. To take a controversial illustration that's in the news, Intelligent Design has drawn support from Christians (as well as others) and condemnation from the ADL. One may disapprove of letting teachers acquaint public-school students with a scientific critique of Darwinism, but I.D. in biology class is an entirely different thing from "Christianizing" American life - a phrase that calls to mind the Spanish Inquisition.

If Foxman means that evangelicals would "Christianize" by inspiration and example, he's right - but so what? By definition, to be an evangelical means to wish to influence the culture in what Christians regard as a spiritually healthful direction. Good for them.

Broadly speaking, that direction is one that we Jews likewise traditionally have regarded as healthy and positive. Many classical Jewish sources - the Talmud, Midrash, Maimonides and other authorities - speak of the need to bring humanity closer to the values of the One God.

There is nothing exclusively "Christian" about favoring traditional marriage, lamenting the abortion culture or defending a helpless woman like Terri Schiavo. Christians are only doing what we Jews ought to do.

So why vilify them? Historical Christian anti-Semitic persecution cannot fully explain modern Jewish attitudes. Surely Jews are rational enough to appreciate that we don't live in medieval Europe, but rather in a time of unprecedented Christian philo-Semitism, especially among conservative Christians.

For the needlessly heightened state of Jewish concern about evangelicals, we can't blame the ADL entirely. Yet the group has done much to exacerbate Jewish worries. What drives the ADL to stoke our fears?

Let's be realistic. Naturally, a crusading non-profit organization needs a bad guy to give a sense of urgency to its fund-raising campaigns. The ADL has more than $52 million in yearly expenses, including Foxman's $412,000 in salary and other compensation (according to publicly available 2003 tax information). Not bad for a non-profit.

The anti-defamation professionals of the Jewish community are no dummies. Nor, I believe, are they paranoid. Or cynical.

True, if these well-meaning folks are directing so much attention to the wildly exaggerated menace of Christian evangelicals, I don't see an alternative explanation to a financial one. But this doesn't mean the ADL leadership is corrupt.

Rather, don't dismiss the Marxist insight that money can shape consciousness. For whatever reason, hyperventilating about Christians makes Jews open their wallets. Very possibly, a dynamic inherent in the non-profit business molds the attitudes of those who work in this curious industry.

Not cynics at all, they sincerely come to believe those things they must say to raise money - money, I would add, that would be far better spent on other communal needs such as Jewish education, which is the best assurance of a flourishing communal life.

In more ways than one, the ADL's success is our loss.

ADLs Foxman responds to Klinghoffer

By Abraham H. Foxman, Jewish Journal, November 25, 2005

It's unfortunate that David Klinghoffer sets up a number of straw men in his condemnation of my speech warning about certain efforts to Christianize America.

By pointing out the various Muslim anti-Jewish activities during the week I made my remarks, Klinghoffer suggests I'm focusing on the wrong threat.

In fact, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) has been at the forefront of efforts to expose Islamic extremism, if only Klinghoffer were interested. The very week that I spoke, ADL ran advertisements in The New York Times and The Hill calling on the world to stand up against Iran and take concrete steps against its Islamic government in light of the call by Iran's president to "wipe Israel off the map."

On the subject of the film based on "The Protocols of the Elders of Zion" being shown on Arab TV, for two years we have been working with the U.S. State Department and the American Embassy in Cairo to pressure Egypt and other Arab countries to stop airing anti-Semitic TV series. ADL regularly reports on anti-Semitism in the Arab media, keeping our Web site updated daily.

In other words, Klinghoffer is engaging in demagoguery when he suggests we're ignoring the threats from the Islamic world.

Regarding evangelical support for Israel, the ADL always has encouraged it. When many in our community were raising questions about such support, we asserted that it was important -- in a world where Israel has many enemies -- to bolster support from evangelical Christians.

We also said all along, however, that in order to achieve that support we would not abandon our principles of keeping America the kind of society in which there is tolerance and in which Jews don't feel excluded in any way.

My speech had nothing to do with Christians' right to express their values and religious beliefs or to "influence the culture in what Christians regard as a spiritually healthful direction." Of course they have such a right.

Indeed, the ADL has been very energetic in advancing that part of the First Amendment that calls for the "free exercise of religion." We believe religion is a critical institution and value that makes America great, and should be encouraged.

I have no doubt that others, following Klinghoffer's lead, will accuse me of all kinds of things -- being anti-religious, anti-Christian, claiming that evangelicals are anti-Semitic or undermining support for Israel.

None of these accusations is true.

I have worked all my life to improve relations between Christians and Jews. I have not hesitated to acknowledge and comment on the significant reductions in anti-Semitic attitudes and policies by Christian churches. I have encouraged evangelical support for Israel and the free-exercise rights of all religions.

What my speech did deal with, and what I believe is a new development in American life, is a desire by some groups to coerce Americans to subscribe to a narrow religious perspective that will result in exclusion, both practically and psychologically, for Jews, other religious minorities, nonbelievers and even many Christians.

When the Alliance Defense Fund says "court victories are vital steps to ... reclaim the legal system for Jesus Christ," that points to its intention to threaten the pluralistic society that is at the heart of Jewish security in America.

When D. James Kennedy, head of Coral Ridge Ministries, says, "Our job is to reclaim America for Christ whatever the cost and to exercise godly dominion Over every aspect and institution of human society," that's not the America that I know.

When the Texas GOP platform says the United States is a Christian nation and that the separation of church and state is a myth, that's not merely a matter of expressing one's religious views.

When hundreds of millions of dollars of federal funds are appropriated for religious institutions without prohibitions against proselytizing, or when the U.S. Air Force Academy -- a federally funded institution -- is a place where Jews and other non-evangelicals feel religious coercion, then something is amiss.

As the head of an organization that fights for free expression of religion, that believes religion is an important part of a healthy American democracy and that has encouraged evangelical support for Israel, I'm very aware of how important these issues are.

In the long run, however, what has made American Jewish life a uniquely positive experience in Diaspora history and enabled us to be such important allies for the State of Israel is a pluralistic, tolerant and inclusive American society. If those who seek a coercive America would have their way, American Jewish life would fundamentally change.

We believe the American people as a whole value such a society. We also believe that to alert the public to gathering threats to that kind of society serves America, the Jewish community and ultimately American Jews' ability to support Israel in its quest for peace and security.

Finally, it's sad that Klinghoffer has to resort to the charge that my speech was all about raising money. Disagree with me, make your arguments -- but don't resort to inappropriate accusations.

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