Attacks on the Separation of Church and State: How Jews see it

How Shall We Achieve God's Kingdom in a Democracy?

Limits and Vision

Commentary for the Days of Awe by Rabbi Haim Dov Beliak, JewsOnFirst, September 12, 2006

The Days of Awe (formerly known as the High Holidays - Rosh HaShanah and Yom Kippur) are days of great hope for a better world. The Days of Awe are a ten-day rehearsal of the effort of instilling and calling forth hope. That hope is not a luxury for a despairing world but a dire necessity in the face of wars and other struggles.

As Jews, we recognize that our annual return to our synagogues and to a larger sense of who we may yet become -- begins in hope buffered by discernment about how to achieve God's kingdom. Carefully observing the separation of church and state is part of the buffer that our democracy depends upon. Continue.

JewsOnFirst Discussion

Please also see our section on Christian Zionists.

JewsOnFirst discussion: Dealing with Christian Zionists and their "Nights to Honor Israel"

Recorded conversation led by Rabbi Haim Dov Beliak, August 18, 2006

Following up on our July 31st report, Christian Zionists lobby for US attack on Iran Right-wing Christian Evangelicals, End Times and Israel, Rabbi Haim Dov Beliak, JewsOnFirst co-director, moderated a discussion about how rabbis are dealing with Christian Zionist "Nights to Honor Israel."

These "nights" are a project of Christians United for Israel (CUFI), an agglomeration of powerful religious right leaders assembled by San Antonio televangelist John Hagee. Most commonly, local Jewish federations and congregations jointly host the Night to Honor Israel with CUFI.

Participating in the hour-long conversation are: Rabbi Barry Block of Temple Beth-El in San Antonio; Rabbi Neal Katz of Congregation Beth El in Tyler, Texas; Rabbi Paula Reimers of Congregation Beth Israel in Lebanon, Pennsylvania; Prof. Yaakov Ariel of University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill; Rabbi Jeffrey Ronald of Beth Israel Congregation in Florence, South Carolina (who was on the call, but unfortunately, the audio on his line did not work). Rabbi Beliak introduces all the participants several minutes after the recording begins.

Their discussion ranged beyond the honor-Israel nights to a discussion of Christian Zionism which touched on dissent in the Jewish community, the religious right and inter-religious relations. To listen to the conversation, please use the player or click here.

Indiana Court Decision on Legislative Prayer Disappoints American Jewish Committee

NEW YORK, Oct. 30 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The American Jewish Committee is disappointed by the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals decision to dismiss a taxpayer challenge to the constitutionality of the legislative prayer practice in Indiana's House of Representatives.

"Today's Seventh Circuit decision is extremely alarming because it denies taxpayers the right to challenge a legislative act that in practice gives preferential access to Christian clergy in determining who shall present a daily legislative prayer," said Jeffrey Sinensky, AJC's general counsel.

"The Seventh Circuit today has overextended the narrow decision of the U.S. Supreme Court in Hein," Sinensky said. Continue.

Conservative rulings have groups rethinking advocacy strategy

Following the close of this year's Supreme Court term, Jewish groups are wondering whether or not their legal strategy is off kilter.

WASHINGTON (JTA) – Following a string of conservative rulings in the closing weeks of this year's Supreme Court session, some Jewish officials are suggesting that they may be forced to abandon their decades-long strategy of relying on the courts to protect liberal gains on a host of issues. For decades many Jewish groups counted on the top court to correct what they saw as the excesses of legislatures and chief executives across the country. But with the close of the court's first full term with two recent conservative arrivals, Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Samuel Alito, Jewish groups say the situation has reversed itself.

Not only has the Supreme Court thoroughly abandoned a decades-old tradition of upholding the liberal gains of the 1950s and 1960s, it has become the premier bulwark of conservatism now that Democrats have retaken Congress and the White House is weakened to the point of impotency. Click here.

God, Back On The Trail

Mounting fears from Jewish leaders of a religious test for candidates.

For Jewish leaders concerned about the growing mingling of sectarian religion and presidential politics, the surging campaign of former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney is taking some ominous turns.

The Republican Romney, facing polls indicating that only 29 of Americans believe the nation is “ready” for a Mormon president, has been working frantically to reinforce his religious credentials with the conservative Christian leaders who could play a big role in deciding the outcome of key GOP primaries next year.

And those credentials aren’t entirely confined to his positions on the issues so-called “values” voters care about the most.

In a recent conference call with voters in Iowa, he said “my faith includes a fundamental belief that we are all sons and daughters of a loving God,” and added that “I happen to believe that Jesus Christ is my personal savior and the son of God.” Continue

ADL Lists Top 10 Issues Affecting Jews in 2006

The Anti-Defamation League -- whose suggestion in 2005 that Jewish organizations mount an opposition to the religious right was rejected -- put Church-State Separation ninth on its list of the top ten issues affecting Jews in 2006. The text of that item is below. You can read the complete top ten here.

This election year, national battles being fought through local initiatives

WASHINGTON, Oct. 24 (JTA) — In an election year that already defies the dictum that “all politics are local,” U.S. Jewish groups are urging their voters to help decide national issues through a decidedly local means: the ballot initiative.

The message a number of national groups have sent to members is that the future of issues as diverse as abortion access, gay-partner rights, the death penalty, affirmative action and stem-cell research will play out Nov. 7 in local ballot initiatives. Continue.

Rabbi Issues Appeal for Santorum

A Chabad-Lubavitch rabbi from Brooklyn sent out a mass e-mail Monday asking recipients to show support for embattled Senator Rick Santorum.

“At this moment, we need to show our support for Rick Santorum,” Rabbi Shea Hecht wrote in the missive. The rabbi asked recipients to urge the senator’s rival, Democrat Bob Casey Jr., to return donations from Moveon.org, a liberal organization that Republicans have accused of being supported by some anti-Israel and anti-Jewish activists.

In the e-mail, Hecht listed his official job title at the National Committee for the Furtherance of Jewish Education, a Chabad-linked nonprofit organization that is prohibited from partisan campaigning under Internal Revenue Service regulations. Continue.

Worries Build As GOP Seen Pushing Bills To Rally Base

Groups Respond With Liberal Lobbying Blitz

WASHINGTON — In the face of Republican efforts in Congress to rally the party's conservative base, Jewish organizations are stepping up efforts to push liberal positions on several legislative fronts.

With fewer than 50 workdays left in the 109th Congress, and lawmakers increasingly focused on November's midterm elections, Capitol Hill's Republican leadership is moving up votes on several pieces of legislation favored by conservatives. For example, in recent weeks congressional Republicans have been pressing for constitutional amendments banning flag burning and gay marriage, as well as for legislation repealing the federal estate tax. At the same time, Jewish organizations are actively opposing conservatives on measures involving immigration, reproductive rights and the separation of church and state. Continue

At Liberty University, liberal Jewish leader urges bridge building

ROANOKE, Va. -- The leader of the largest branch of American Judaism urged evangelical Christians on Wednesday not to compromise church-state separation as a quick fix to the "disturbing collapse of public morality."

Prayer in the schools is not the answer to moral decline in America, Rabbi Eric Yoffie told a chapel service at the Rev. Jerry Falwell's Liberty University in Lynchburg. Continue

Rabbi Enters Falwell's Bastion And Issues Plea for Tolerance

LYNCHBURG, Va. — Addressing one of the country's most influential Christian fundamentalist colleges this week, the leader of America's largest synagogue movement highlighted areas of common concern while calling for mutual respect and toleration of diversity. Continue

Agencies Weighing New Court Strategy

Alito Is Seen As Swing Vote On Church-State

"The expected confirmation of Judge Samuel Alito is prompting Jewish organizations to re-examine their strategy of bringing cases involving church-state separation and other civil rights matters to the Supreme Court." Click here for the report.

The last straw

Focus and friends pushing Jewish leaders' patience

This report begins by examining the response of national Jewish leaders to the proselytizing crisis at the Air Force Academy, in Colorado Springs. Then, midway, it shifts focus to local Rabbi Anat Moskowitz, who says she is "getting angry" over increasing attacks on church-state separation, but would like to dialogue with local evangelical leaders to promote tolerance. She says that Christians are harassing Jewish children at school, telling them that "they are going to hell because they don't believe in Jesus." Click here to go to the report.

Rise of the 'Culture Wars'

How life-style issues rank with the public

Iraq, the broader war on terror, immigration and now a scandal involving a disgraced former Republican congressman; these issues have dominated the headlines during this tempestuous election season, in which control of both branches of Congress, especially the House, remains at stake.

But is it possible that when the majority of Jews go to the polls come November, the so-called "culture-war issues" -- abortion, gay rights, the separation of church and state -- will be foremost in their minds? Click here

Memories Of The Hammer

Cleaning up Congress without DeLay.

One of the co-authors of the GOP's unlikely strategy to develop a strong relationship between the radical right and the Jewish community has been the rather ethically challenged Tom DeLay. (Ironically, potential Patrick Fitzgerald target Karl Rove is the other co-author.)

We wanted to take an opportunity upon his departure from Congress to remind our readers of some of DeLay's "greatest hits" racked up as he served a pivotal role helping lead the right wing revolution in the US House of Representatives. Continue

Book Review: Getting on Message

Challenging the Christian Right from the Heart of the Gospel, by Rev. Peter Laarman, Editor

As American Jews, the notion that "we live in a Christian country" is filled with complexity and irony. Christianity pervades our lives like the air we breathe, and some times - particularly Christmas and Easter times - we can't avoid being overwhelmed by the blurring of Christianity with mainstream commercialism...

But in the 21st Century, with the Christian Right appropriating our text while seeking our conversion and relishing our destruction in the Armageddon that they welcome, it is no longer sufficient to duck out of town (or go to a Chinese restaurant) during their holidays. We are called upon to be more vigilant, for ourselves and for others who are victimized by their pervasive, self-righteous, authoritarian, militaristic acquisitiveness and their demonization of poor people, immigrants, gays and lesbians, women, liberals, and everyone else who does not identify as "born again."

Thus it is with great hope and pleasure that we may turn to Getting on Message; Challenging the Christian Right from the Heart of the Gospel edited by Rev. Peter Laarman. Here, we Jews who care for the First Amendment - and presumably the expansion of economic justice and human rights - can discover our counterparts in opposition to an increasingly Christianized right-wing country. Continue

Reviewer Claire Gorfinkel's publishing company, Intentional Productions, focuses on "stories of courage ... human responses to adversity and evil."

Retaining religious freedom

A summary of lectures on church-state separation by Rabbi David Saperstein, director of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, at Mercer University. The Baptist Joint Committee on Religious Liberty; the Baptist Joint Committee on Religious Liberty was one of the series' sponsors. Click here

Why the GOP Can't Convert the Jewish Vote

"Even as President Bush courted the Jewish vote in 2004, Jews remained loyal to the Democratic Party, to a large degree out of fear of the religious right." Click here for the report.

Kentucky Jewish leaders chide legislators for their preoccupation with religion

Interview with H. Philip Grossman, a leader of the Louisville Jewish community

The Community Relations Council of the Jewish Community Federation of Louisville wrote to the members of the Kentucky General Assembly late last month, expressing concern that, with pressing issues of public welfare to address, "our elected officials appear to be increasingly preoccupied with matters of religion and personal faith, at the expense of taking care of the business of government." Their statements came as Kentucky passed a law mandating religious displays and against a background of other explicitly Christian state actions. We interview H. Philip Grossman, one of the statement's authors. Click here

Joplin Jewish leaders voice concern about "Christian God" resolution

Legislators sponsoring a measure that recognizes a "Christian God" say it is just a resolution without the force of law. But two Jewish leaders in the small southern Missouri city of Joplin do not take it lightly. Read our interviews with attorney Bill Fleischaker and Prof. Paul Teverow. Click here.

Comments about Homeland Security Funding for Non-profits and Synagogues

American Jews and the Current Challenges of Church-State Separation

Rabbi David Saperstein, director of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, October 19, 2004

Speaking at the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, Rabbi Saperstein focuses on two key concepts in the First Amendment. "…I want to turn to what I think is at the core of the discussion…. It is the issue of neutrality and what it means for the government to treat 'equally' religion [and] to treat 'neutrally' religion." Click here to read the complete statement.

See also: The complete transcript of the October 19, 2004 event, American Jews and the Current Challenges of Church-State Separation Tuesday, at the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life. Click here

The Upcoming Challenges for Church-State Separation

Rabbi David Saperstein, Director of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, January 14, 2005

"America's unmatched history of religious liberty has been secured by our long-standing and unwavering commitment to the separation of church and state. The combination of the First Amendment's Free Exercise and Establishment Clauses ensures that Americans of all faiths and of no faith are protected." Click here to read full statement.

American Jewish Values and Church/State Issues

"There are many students of American Jewish life who believe that the struggle to expand separation of church and state in America is one of the greatest contributions Jews have rendered to the enlargement of American freedom.

"Only in America have Jews been free to pursue our faith and to organize our communal lives, equal under law and in practice, without government interference. Thus America - through its Constitution - created a system of religious liberty that has proved to be generally fair and effective, one that Jews wish to preserve. Jews have learned, through history, that both religion and the state flourish best when they are separate." Click to read similar material on the Religious Action Center website.

The Center Still Silent On Alito

Reform movement, NCJW gear up to block the Supreme Court nominee, but most Jewish groups stay neutral

"With Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearings scheduled to start on Monday, groups opposed to the nomination of Judge Samuel Alito to the Supreme Court are mobilizing for what they say will be the biggest push against a nominee since the 1987 battle over Robert Bork.

"But only two Jewish groups will be on the front lines: the National Council of Jewish Women (NCJW) and the Union for Reform Judaism.

Despite the flurry of new reports about Alito's rulings on church-state issues and abortion, most other Jewish groups are where they've been all along: on the sidelines. 'Our position has been and remains that in the normal course of things, we don't take positions on nominations to the bench,' said Richard Foltin, legislative director for the American Jewish Committee. 'So far nothing has happened to change that.' Go to the Jewish Week report.

US Jews feel threatened by religious right

"CHICAGO (Reuters) - U.S. Jewish leaders say they are increasingly worried that Christian conservatives want to turn America politically and culturally into a country that tolerates only their brand of Christianity." Click here to read the report.

Air Force Rules Rile Republicans

In this detailed report about the religious right's effort to protect coercive proselytizing at the Air Force Academy, the nation's leading Jewish weekly notes: "The fight is the latest ripple in a church-state crisis that has roiled the Air Force, revealing deep partisan divides and an increasingly strong allegiance between some Republican lawmakers and Christian conservative organizations." Click here to read the report To read more about religious coercion at the Air Force Academy, click here.

Air Force retracts evangelizing policy

Jewish air force vet presses ahead with lawsuit

Plaintiff Mikey Weinstein said he would not drop the lawsuit against the Academy until there is an order or a verdict because he didn't trust the Air Force to keep to the new guidelines. Asked by the paper "if he was concerned that his lawsuit against the Air Force could open another front in the culture war, Weinstein said: 'I hope it does. Right now all the biggest issues - stem cell research, abortion, the environment - are all derived from the mother-ship issue of church-state [separation].'" Click here to read the report To read more about religious coercion at the Air Force Academy, click here.

Jews and Evangelicals: Support for Israel Isn't Everything

Op-ed by Abraham H. Foxman, Time Magazine (counterpoint to Zev Chafets op-ed) January 16, 2007

At a time when Israel is once again under siege — physically from terrorists and Iran's nuclear threat, and psychologically from Islamic extremists and other anti-Israel forces around the world — the pro-Israel perspective of Evangelical Christians is much appreciated. The theological reasons for why they stand with Israel, as a precursor to the Second Coming and Armageddon, take a backseat to current realities. The support comes voluntarily, and we welcome it, as long as it comes without a quid pro quo.

Still, none of this obscures our concerns about certain views among the religious right. Unfortunately, there are elements in the Evangelical community who would like to impose Christianity by government edict. Some openly call for the Christianization of America, claiming that America has always been a Christian nation and that all institutions should be Christianized. Others, less dramatically, are calling for policies that would amount to religious coercion. Continue.

Can Jews and Evangelicals Get Along?

In early November 2005, the Prime Minister of Iran stated his intention to wipe Israel off the map. At almost exactly the same time, leaders of the American Jewish community declared war on the Christian Right.

Abe Foxman, head of the Anti-Defamation League, issued the first call to arms. The Jews, he said, faced an organized, sophisticated coalition of enemies. He described as "openly arrogant" the supposed Evangelical goal: "To Christianize us, to save us!" Within a few weeks, Rabbi Eric Yoffie, leader of the liberal Reform Movement, America's largest Jewish denomination, and Rabbi James Rudin of the ultra-establishment American Jewish Committee, reprised Foxman's complaint.

Never before in U.S. history had Jewish leaders shown such bold hostility toward Evangelical Christians, the largest Protestant community in America and, by most measures, the most philo-Semitic and pro-Israel. In normal times, this would be paradoxical. In an age of jihad it was dangerously perverse. Continue.

ADL's Foxman warns of efforts to `Christianize America'

"Institutionalized Christianity in the U.S. has grown so extremist that it poses a tangible danger to the principle of separation of church and state and threatens to undermine the religious tolerance that characterizes the country, the national director of the Anti-Defamation League, Abraham Foxman, warned in his address to the League's national commission, meeting in New York City over the weekend." Click here to read the report

Attack On Right Reveals Fault Lines

Jewish groups differ on Evangelical 'threat' as they try to hash out consensus going forward.

"A meeting of Jewish leaders called to hash out common strategies for dealing with the Christian right instead pointed to Jewish factions that are moving in opposite directions on the issue.

"Still, participants said Monday's session, called by Anti-Defamation League national director Abraham Foxman as part of his controversial blast at groups he said were using the government to help "Christianize" the nation, may have clarified where Jewish leaders agree on relations with the Evangelicals - and where they disagree." Click here to read the report.

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

David Klinghoffer, Jewish Telegraphic Agency, November 15, 2005; Abraham Foxman, Jewish Journal, November 25, 2005

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 responds that "Klinghoffer is engaging in demagoguery when he suggests we're ignoring the threats from the Islamic world." Click here to read the op-ed's.

Christian Right Leader Warns Foxman on Israel

"According to one prominent Christian evangelical, support for Israel may go on the chopping block if Jewish leaders persist in publicly criticizing the religious right." Click here to go to the report.

Jewish organizations oppose Religious Freedom Amendment

The American Jewish Committee

The American Jewish Committee issued a statement noting that "We already have a Religious Freedom Amendment-the First Amendment to the Constitution -- which safeguards truly voluntary religious expression." Click here to read the statement.

The Anti-Defamation League

Ten Commandments display cases talking points for CCAR (Reform) rabbis

Talking points prepared by the Relgious Action Center of Reform Judaism, mid-2005

Writing in the wake of two Supreme Court decisions on displays of the Ten Commandments, the Religious Action Center summarizes the arguments and reasons that prompted both the Union for Reform Judaism and the Central Conference of American Rabbis to participate in the cases opposing the displays. Additionally, it presents a long list of resources on church-state separation. Click here to read the collection on the Religious Action Center website.

Religion Today: Conservative Jews and Evangelicals Parlay

"NEW YORK - The prestigious Jewish Theological Seminary has sponsored dialogues with all sorts of American religious and ethnic groups over the past 67 years, but never with evangelical Protestants - until last week.

"Conservative Judaism's prime campus was the site for respectful talks between national-level figures from both faiths, with participants agreeing on support for Israel and greater willingness from each side to learn about the other. But there also was evident wariness on domestic politics, reflecting the complicated relationship between the two groups. Click here to read the report."

Two groups divided, but both feel under attack

A search for common ground between Jewish groups and conservative evangelical Christians.

"Evangelical leaders meeting last week at the Jewish Theological Seminary sought to emphasize common ground and greater understanding of each other's theology. And several suggested that the religious right may have passed its zenith." Click here to read the report.

Abramoff accomplice right wing Rabbi Daniel Lapin is still in business

Ethically-challenged head of Toward Tradition, one of the Christian Right's most reliable Jewish allies, decides to keep the doors of his organization open

A funny thing happened to Rabbi Daniel Lapin on his journey to constantly claiming the moral high ground: Toward Tradition, his conservative Jewish organization, got so deeply involved with the shenanigans of the now-jailed Republican Party mega-lobbyist Jack Abramoff -- Lapin's longtime friend and business associate -- that rumors of the organization's demise began to percolate in the media. But despite the rumor that Toward Tradition would shut its doors -- a rumor generated largely by the Rabbi's testimony before a congressional committee -- Lapin has now pledged to keep the organization's doors open.

The Senate Finance Committee reported that Toward Tradition and four other organizations may have violated their tax-exempt status by aiding Jack Abramoff clients

Before deciding not to pull the plug on Toward Tradition -- which Lapin claims has 31,000 members, half Jewish and half Christian -- Lapin took a few minutes to cheap-shot Barbra Streisand, another old friend. Continue

The Real Reason Liberal Jews Fear Evangelical Christians

"Conservative Christians, however, are our allies in the current struggle for the land of Israel and the Muslims are our adversaries who wish to see the Jewish presence there - if not the Jews themselves - terminated. Whether conservative Christians want to convert us is politically irrelevant." Click here to read the article.

The Anti-Christian League

A group of reputed Jewish leaders met in New York last week to devise a strategy to deal with what kosher Chicken Littles like the Anti-Defamation League's Abraham Foxman see as the emerging threat of the Religious Right.

Feder is one of a small number of right-wing Jews who have risen to denounce criticism of Christian fundamentalists' behavior. Writing on a right-wing website, he says: "What Foxman calls a campaign to Christianize America is actually an effort to return Judeo-Christian morality - the Biblical code on which this nation was founded and through which it grew to greatness - to the councils of government. The ethical code conservative Christians are fighting for comes from a Jewish book that's topped the best-sellers' list since Sinai." Click here to read the article.

Rabbi's Book Warns of Imminent Christianization

Senior interreligious relations specialist foresees threat to Constitution

In his book, The Baptizing of America: The Religious Right's Plans for the Rest of Us,

Rabbi James Rudin deems the prospect of an ascendant religious right the most urgent threat confronting us. Rudin, whose understanding of Christian trends comes from many years of interreligious relations work for the American Jewish Committee, predicts that the security Jews have drawn from the constitutional separation of church and state is about to end.

Also imperiled, writes Rabbi Haim Dov Beliak of JewsOnFirst in his review, is the sense of safety Jews acquired after the world absorbed the lessons of World War II. "For many Americans, especially American Jews and many of their liberal rabbis, still moored in that sense of safety, The Baptizing of America will come as a shock." Click here to read the review.

Rudin And The ‘Christocrats’

"One of the architects of Jewish outreach to the Christian community has issued a scathing blast against an Evangelical movement he says has been hijacked by extremists determined to make America a Christian nation — by law.... The title of the book goes where no other major Jewish leader has gone before..." Go to the report

BuzzFlash interview: Rabbi James Rudin

The 'Christocrats' are here

BuzzFlash Interviews , BuzzFlash.com, Working for Change (Working Assets), February 15, 2006

"Rabbi James Rudin: I had to develop a term to describe the specific Christian conservatives who, in my judgment, are trying to change the basic structure of America after 220 years. I found that using words like 'fundamentalist' or 'extremist' or 'Christian conservatives' or 'Evangelicals' was inaccurate. In my own work – 35 years with the American Jewish Committee and Christian-Jewish relations - I’ve found that the overwhelming majority of Evangelical Christians are not committed to changing the basic relationship between church and state, and between government and religion. There’s a small percentage who are, so I searched for a name that would set them apart from other Evangelicals or Christian conservatives." Click here for the interview.

The politics of faith

Review of "The Left Hand of God, Taking Back Our Country From the Religious Right" by Michael Lerner

"At the core of Lerner's argument is his description of two competing theologies.

"The theology of the 'right hand of God' gives conservative ideologues their religious credibility. This theology 'sees the universe as a fundamentally scary place filled with evil forces…. God is the avenger, the big man in heaven who can be invoked to use violence to overcome those evil forces, either right now or in some future ultimate reckoning….[T]he world is filled with constant dangers and the rational way to live is to dominate and control others before they dominate and control us.'

"The 'left hand of God' theology sees God as 'the loving, kind, and generous energy in the universe' and 'encourages us to be like this loving God.'" Click here to read the review.

See also: Mark LeVine's review of The Left Hand of God in Mother Jones, posted March 24, 2006. (Click here.)