INTERFAITH ALLIANCE STATE OF BELIEF

RADIO JULY 16, 2015

RUSH TRANSCRIPT: JACK MOLINE
Click here for video
[REV. DR. C. WELTON GADDY, HOST]: The
challenges facing our nation today can truly seem insurmountable.
Even as the wounds are still fresh from the deadliest mass attack in
this nation since 9/11, videos of police killings seem impossible to
interpret as justifying the deaths of black men as well as others; at the
same time, a protest that seemed a model of cooperation between
protesters and police ended in a bloodbath for law enforcement that
defies imagination. And still, far too many voices are raised in angry
and divisive accusation, trying to score cheap political points no
matter how brutal the circumstances.
The tragedies have been different. But the only possible solution
remains the same: if we dont find a way to see each other as
something else besides permanent adversaries, what hope is there
for anything other than things just getting worse?
Joining me now in the studio is Rabbi Jack Moline, president of
Interfaith Alliance and a seasoned veteran of working across
seemingly insurmountable divides.
Jack, welcome back to State of Belief Radio.
[RABBI JACK MOLINE, GUEST]: Thank you, Welton.

[WG]: Finding common ground despite differences or even because

of differences is at the core of the work of Interfaith Alliance. Do you
see that as a fair statement?
[JM]: Not only is it a fair statement; I think its the only statement that
paves a way out of this mess for this country. Our commitment to the
values contained in the Constitution, that we and the people who
support our work see as being something that emerges from our faith
rather than challenges our faith, is really what we need to be thinking
about as we look to the challenges that are in front of our country
right now.
[WG]: Where do you see our political leadership failing to prioritize
getting beyond divisiveness?
[JM]: Wow. I dont even know where to begin the answer to that
question. I had hopes that this political season would be different from
those in years past; I think that the underlying racism and anti-Muslim
feelings that typified a lot of criticism of President Obama and there
have certainly been things that could be criticized about him,
politically but the addition of those two horrible bigotries that were a
part of the criticism did not seem to tire Americans from name-calling
and race-baiting; but instead have given license to candidates on both
sides of the aisle to say simply horrific things that have emphasized
the differences among various groups of Americans, instead of lifting
up what we all have in common.
[WG]: You know, Jack, I - really, Im not nave but I dont
understand, when were in the middle of the kind of crises that were
in right now, I think the Presidents tone of voice and sensitivities
related to what happened in Dallas were very striking, stirring, helpful

things. I dont understand: why would anyone want to make it more

difficult to work through that?
[JM]: Well, it depends on what your ultimate goal is. If the goal is to
heal the nation; if your goal is to bring us together; if your goal is to lift
up America to the places that we consider it to be great then you
would want to build on the Presidents rhetoric and suggest actions
that we can take - legislatively, personally, communally to make this
a better place to live.
If your goal is to acquire power or prestige or position, then you do
anything you can, you sound whatever dog whistles are necessary,
you use whatever rhetoric is going to stir up the base in the hopes of
making every alternative look unsuitable. And that is a very cynical
political ploy.
[WG]: We've had plenty of opportunities to see both parties setting
their agendas going into the conventions. Do you think the crises are
being taken seriously? Or is it still business as usual - let's just get on
with nominating the candidates?
[JM]: Of course it's business as usual. It's one of the great fictions of
politics that a party platform is going to translate into legislative
initiatives. As long as the the Houses of Congress and the
administration are in different hands - or frankly, even if they're in the
same party - the legislative process in this country is so cumbersome
and so difficult that it's unlikely that the aspirations that are in the
platforms are going to see real policy changes in the United States.
But what those platforms can do - what the planks can do - is start a
conversation that will eventually lead us to a better place, if theyre
conducted well.

I applaud both the Republicans and the Democrats for the amount of
time they're spending crafting their public platforms. I'd love to see a
plank in both of them affirming true religious freedom in this country,
because there is the possibility for healing rather than divisiveness
and discrimination.
[WG]: You know what's not there. So when you look at what is there,
do you see anything in the platforms that give you hope?
[JM]: I think that, aside from the manipulations of particular issues
that interest groups have tried to affect in both platforms, this time
every four years is a time of great affirmation of the American
process. I am reluctant to point my finger at this policy or that policy,
because as I said, it's a lot of rhetoric. But taken as a whole, the
platforms themselves are an affirmation of our love of this country and
our belief that it is as great as it ever was - and will be even greater as
we move forward.
[WG]: Talk for a minute, if you will, Jack, about the unique
opportunities of approaching conflicts from a faith-based perspective.
[JM]: So Welton, its interesting. This morning I had the extraordinary
opportunity to meet with two of the survivors of the Charleston
shootings. These were two women who survived - one by rolling
under a table and playing dead, and the other who was spared by the
gunman in order, as he said, to tell the story of what happened. And
where you would expect bitterness, where you would expect anger,
where you would expect a lack of respect and trust for people who
are different than they are - these two women and their husbands
who accompanied them had nothing but hope for tomorrow based on
their faith; based on their commitment to the love that they learned

from the bible studies that they attended - just like the one where the
tragedy took place.
And so I think that in this country, if those of us - particularly those of
us whose hearts are open to each other - would look a little more
closely at the real mandates of their faith, not the policy mandates
that they presume come from from 2,000 years ago or 600 years ago
or 3,000 years ago, but the real transformational advice and
mandates of our faith traditions, we would find out that first of all,
we're to love each other; and next, we're to take care of each other something I know you sign off with each week; and last and most
important, we are to respect that there is something larger in this
world than my opinion.
[WG]: Yeah. You know, I can't help but make the observation, with
you saying that, that what happened in South Carolina almost seems
unique - not in the meanness that happened there, but in people's
response to it. And I wonder how much connection there is between
that community's handling of the crisis drawing on the kinds of values
that you talked about, and whether or not that made a difference in
how much change took place after that. Because I think more change
took place more quickly in Charleston than almost any other of these
places where we've had tragedies.
[JM]: So Ill tell you, I haven't thought this through entirely but I'll float
an idea to you that that I think may speak to this. Both in Charleston
and in Dallas we had communities that were intentional about how
they were addressing the relationships between different segments of
the community - particularly between white people and AfricanAmericans. In the communities up north where there was a sense
that everything was perhaps OK - or at least better than it should be,
Minnesota and Michigan - that's where there seems to be a little more
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conflict. Having come through the trauma of understanding the racism

that pervaded southern culture for so long, I think people in the
southern part of this country are better equipped to deal with these
issues and to speak to each other about them, and to know each
other's hearts than those of us like me who came from from the north.
I grew up in Chicago, where we lived in our own neighborhoods and
that was about it - and didnt worry about each other.
[WG]: Changing the subject, how concerned are you about this socalled First Amendment Defense Act or FADA? There was a
congressional hearing this week that really brought out some of the
most egregious misinterpretations of religious liberty.
[JM]: Well, the First Amendment Defense Act is probably the most
inaccurately named piece of of legislation to be considered by
Congress in its history. It is a license to discriminate. It is an
affirmation of a falsehood, which is that this is a Christian nation. My
friend and your friend Brent Walker likes to say, if we're a Christian
society, it's by sociology not by the Constitution. And it is serving the
main purpose of outing those people in the legislatures who don't
understand that the First Amendment to the Constitution guarantees
diversity - not shores up a particular perspective.
[WG]: What do voters need to do to encourage, and hopefully ensure,
that divide-and-conquer isn't the main tactic of this election season?
What does each of us have to demand of our leaders and our
representatives in that regard?
[JM]: I think voters should accept no excuses for bad behavior from
candidates. I'm going to wind up voting for someone for president,
Welton, even though I have questions about every candidate that I've
seen. But I want to state my reasons for supporting a candidate on
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the basis of the ideas that are put forward and the hopes and
aspirations that are expressed by that candidate - and not on the
basis of who that candidate wants to exclude from the process.
I think that voters need to demand more from the people who are
seeking their vote than simply pandering to their own selfish needs.
And that, by the way, is the case whether we're talking about people
who feel that the majority in this country has been disenfranchised by
the influx of people from outside the shores of the United States, or
whether we're talking about people who feel that they're part of the
99% that's being ripped off by the 1%. It doesn't matter to me which;
our goal should be coming together, not tearing apart.
[WG]: Jack, what do you think young people in this nation are thinking
about what they're seeing in these acts that we call democracy?
[JM]: So if you added our ages together, Welton, it would take a whole
lot of young people's ages to catch up to where we are. But I just
spent a week with my kids, and we talked about a lot of things. And I
have to say, I'm alarmed at what they feel about the role of religion in
this country, and I am alarmed at what is happening with the rhetoric
of campaigns and what's going on in the streets. I will tell you that for
the first time in my life - I'm 63 years old, Ill be 64 next month - for the
first time in my life, I told my kids to make sure their passports were
up to date. It is alarming enough to me to see the division that's
happening in this country, that if we don't step up and do something
about it all of us need to know that we have somewhere to go.
[WG]: Wow. This past week I had the good fortune of someone
asking me about Interfaith Alliance. I loved it because nobody had
asked me that in a while, and I loved talking again about why this
organization is so important - and particularly why it is so important
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not just in this election cycle, but in the whole milieu in which we're
living right now. And I love to hear you talk about it - and that's why
almost every time you come I ask you that question. So talk about
Interfaith Alliance and all of the good work its doing.
[JM]: I have to say I am in contact with people who are in coalition
with us on all sorts of issues all the time, and the thing that I'm
reminded of every time I meet with these folks is that we're the only
organization that says: faith has a positive influence on life in the
United States if it is expressed in consonance with the values of the
Constitution. Most of the people we find ourselves in agreement with
on legislative matters are people who oppose the influence of
religious traditions because those religious traditions are trying to
impose themselves in what I would consider to be an unconstitutional
way. And it's easy to come to the conclusion that therefore religion
and government should have no relationship to each other at all.
On the contrary, there is a wide plain on which every idea that is held
deeply needs to be brought to the attention of the American public,
and we at Interfaith Alliance are - to the best of my knowledge - the
only ones who are not prescribing faith to an American community,
but suggesting that faith has to inform the individual and collective
decisions that we make.
I've started talking about the Mall here in Washington D.C. It's
bounded on one side by Constitution Avenue, and on the other side
by Independence Boulevard. And in between is this wide open space
to which Americans can bring themselves, their ideas, their notions,
their hopes - but there is no institution along either Constitution or
Independence that is a religious institution. Those values come in
with our citizens, and when you leave the mall you take those values
with you too. It is what's in between that makes us American: the wide
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open spaces where every point of view is welcome, and every point
of view is important. And that's where we will inaugurate the next
President of the United States.
[WG]: Rabbi Jack Moline is president of Interfaith Alliance. With many
years of congregational leadership and interreligious activism on his
resume, Jack is a prominent advocate for constitutionally-based
religious freedom in this country.
Jack, thanks again for being with us on State of Belief. You're always
welcome here. Glad you were here today.
And I'm always glad to be here. Thanks for having me again, Welton.

Rabbi Jack Moline

Jack Moline is President of Interfaith Alliance. In a career spanning
four decades, he has established himself as a powerful voice fighting
for religious freedom for all Americans, regardless of their faith or
belief system. As a rabbi, he has worked to create common ground
between people of diverse religious and secular backgrounds. As an
advocate, he has led efforts to secure services for this disabled,
increase the supply of affordable housing, promote marriage equality,
ensure pay equity and especially, protect civil rights for people of all
faiths and sexual orientations.
A native of Chicago, he holds the title of Rabbi Emeritus of Agudas
Achim Congregation in Alexandria, Virginia, where he served for 27
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years. Rabbi Moline is an adjunct faculty member of the Jewish

Theological Seminary and the Virginia Theological Seminary,
educating future leaders in the Jewish, Christian and Muslim faith
communities.
A long time board member of Interfaith Alliance, serving as chair of
the board from 2006-2008, Rabbi Moline comes to this role with a
wealth of experience in interfaith advocacy. In addition to his work
with Interfaith Alliance, he has served as chair of the Interfaith
Relations Committee of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, vice
president of the Washington-Baltimore Rabbinical Assembly and
board member of the Faith and Politics Institute. He serves on the
advisory boards of Clergy Beyond Borders and Operation
Understanding DC. He has served as president of the Washington
Board of Rabbis and is past chair of the Alexandria Interfaith
Association. He also served as the first director of public policy for the
Rabbinical Assembly and was executive director of NJDC.
Rabbi Moline also has advised and written for many public figures,
including President Bill Clinton, for whom he provided advice on
international affairs and the presidents personal challenges. He was
invited to offer a blessing to the Obama and Biden families before the
2013 presidential inauguration.
Rabbi Moline has authored two books and has contributed to many
publications. He is a popular speaker and has offered commentary on
PBS, CNN, CBS, Fox News, the Washington Post, National Journal,
Huffington Post and other news outlets.
Rabbi Moline is a graduate of Northwestern University (School of
Communications, 1974). He studied to become a rabbi at the
University of Judaism (now the American Jewish University) in Los

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Angeles and the Jewish Theological Seminarys (JTS) Jerusalem and

New York campuses. Ordained in 1982, he received an honorary
doctorate from JTS in 2012. He became full-time rabbi and part-time
Jewish chaplain at the Federal Correctional Institution in Danbury,
Connecticut upon ordination. In 1987, he became rabbi of Agudas
Achim Congregation of Northern Virginia, in Alexandria.
Rabbi Moline is a long-suffering supporter of the Chicago Cubs. He
lives in Alexandria, VA with his wife of 37 years. He is the father of
three grown children and the proud grandfather of one.

Rev. Dr. C. Welton Gaddy

Author of more than 20 books, including First Freedom First: A
Citizens Guide to Protecting Religious Liberty and the Separation of
Church and State, the Rev. Dr. C. Welton Gaddy led the national nonpartisan grassroots and educational organization Interfaith Alliance
for 16 years, retiring in 2014. Dr. Gaddy continues his work with the
Alliance as President Emeritus and Senior Advisor. He serves as
Pastor for Preaching and Worship at Northminster (Baptist) Church in
Monroe, Louisiana.
In addition to being a prolific writer, Dr. Gaddy hosts the weekly State
of Belief radio program, where he explores the role of religion in the
life of the nation by illustrating the vast diversity of beliefs in America,
while exposing and critiquing both the political manipulation of religion
for partisan purposes and the religious manipulation of government
for sectarian purposes.

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Dr. Gaddy provides regular commentary to the national media on

issues relating to religion and politics. He has appeared on MSNBCs
The Rachel Maddow Show and Hardball, NBCs Nightly News and
Dateline, PBSs Religion and Ethics Newsweekly and The Newshour
with Jim Lehrer, C-SPANs Washington Journal, ABCs World News,
and CNNs American Morning. Former host of Morally Speaking on
NBC affiliate KTVE in Monroe, Louisiana, Dr. Gaddy is a regular
contributor to mainstream and religious news outlets.
While ministering to churches with a message of inclusion, Dr. Gaddy
emerged as a leader among progressive and moderate Baptists.
Among his many leadership roles, he is a past president of the
Alliance of Baptists and has been a 20-year member of the
Commission of Christian Ethics of the Baptist World Alliance. His past
leadership roles include serving as a member of the General Council
of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, President of Americans United
for Separation of Church and State, Chair of the Pastoral Leadership
Commission of the Baptist World Alliance and member of the World
Economic Forums Council of 100. Rev. Gaddy currently serves on
the White House task force on the reform of the Office of Faith Based
and Neighborhood Partnerships.
Prior to the fundamentalist takeover of the Southern Baptist
Convention (SBC), Dr. Gaddy served in many SBC leadership roles
including as a member of the conventions Executive Committee from
1980-84 and Director of Christian Citizenship Development of the
Christian Life Commission from 1973-77.
Dr. Gaddy received his undergraduate degree from Union University
in Jackson, Tennessee and his doctoral degree and divinity training
from the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville,
Kentucky.

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State of Belief Radio
State of Belief is based on the proposition that religion has a positive
and healing role to play in the life of the nation. The show explains
and explores that role by illustrating the vast diversity of beliefs in
America the most religiously diverse country in the world while
exposing and critiquing both the political manipulation of religion for
partisan purposes and the religious manipulation of government for
sectarian purposes.
Each week, the Rev. Dr. C. Welton Gaddy offers listeners critical
analysis of the news of religion and politics, and seeks to provide
listeners with an understanding and appreciation of religious liberty.
Rev. Gaddy tackles politics with the firm belief that the best way to
secure freedom for religion in America is to secure freedom from
religion. State of Belief illustrates how the Religious Right is wrong
wrong for America and bad for religion.
Through interviews with celebrities and newsmakers and field reports
from around the country, State of Belief explores the intersection of
religion with politics, culture, media, and activism, and promotes
diverse religious voices in a religiously pluralistic world.

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