Rabbi Jack Moline is president of Interfaith Alliance.
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Mike Pence is Wrong
Illustration by Matt Chase
AS PART OF his annual commencement speech tour, Vice President Mike Pence warned graduates at Christian colleges such as Liberty University that they would be “shunned or ridiculed for defending the teachings of the Bible” and adherence to “traditional Christian beliefs.” As an example, Pence cited the backlash he and his wife, Karen Pence, received after she took a job at Immanuel Christian School in Springfield, Va., a private Christian school that bans LGBT employees and students and the children of gay parents.
What the vice president and many like him are describing, however, is not an infringement of their rights or persecution, but theological disagreement and different beliefs that are as protected as their own. While the Constitution protects their right to choose their religion and how to practice their beliefs, the Constitution does not protect against theological or philosophical disagreements.
Have Corporations Become Modern-day Golems?
In Jewish folklore, a golem is an anthropomorphic entity created from inanimate matter. Creative Commons image Matthias Ripp.
Corporations are not people — no matter what five Supreme Court justices and a failed presidential candidate may say.
I take that position on the basis of my religious faith, the very test that the justices applied in Burwell v. Hobby Lobby.
My tradition tells me to ask essential questions.
So here is where I start: May a golem be counted in a minyan? A minyan is a quorum required for certain Jewish prayers, and a golem is a mythological creature created from clay and animated by a sacred incantation.
The golem’s “sculptor” controls its actions; it has no real will of its own.