Nice article. It--especially the Air Force Academy anecdote-- makes me think about one Jewish leader (I forgot the name, back in 1996) saying that we're living in a predominanty Christian nation, so what if public prayers are Christian and December is filled with Christmas trees and creches? I agree. If I were living in Israel in the Christian minority, I wouldn't expect a non-Jewish prayer at a public event.

But proselytizing on either side is another matter. I think there should be regulations against proselytizing in any public venue except the church; it has no place at the Air Force Academy, whose business is to train fighters and fighter suppor. If those fighters/supporters want to proselytize, let them go to seminary.

Street-corner proselytizing is fine as long as it is not of a harassing nature (yelling, disturbing the peace, etc.). Handing out leaflets or setting up an information booth is fine. You only see right-wing Evangelists proselytizing so loudly; you never see this from Buddhists, Hindus, Muslims, or Jews (or Catholics!)

I think trying to de-Christianise public prayer is too draconian. If there is to be any public prayer, then it should reflect the faith of the speaker, or what the speaker wants to say, unless it is of a harassing nature (e.g. "And Jesus, please save the Jews, who will burn in the eternal flames of Hell if they do not take up the cross and follow you"). If a Rabbi is called to give the only prayer at some event, that is fine. I fully expect to hear a Jewish prayer. But I can do without reference to the State of Israel, which is a political issue.

Bottom line: Keep it civil. Tolerate but don't legislate. And if any group can't play fair, you're gonna get some guidelines.

But we don't have to go all the way to prohibiting free speech in the name of POLITICAL correctness-- which is exactly what it is, on both sides.

Y'all play nice, now.

I am glad to see some new louder voices -- including a rabbi -- who refuse to get in line with the increasingly conservative and monolithic face of Judaism the general public sees.

Just as Jim Wallis and Anne Lamott have shown that Christianity is more than Pat Robertson and the Catholic Church's scandal of the week, American Judaism has been in desperate need of an alternative--or at least addition--to Dennis Praeger, Michael Medved and Joe Liebermen.

Good for them. What needs to happen is for more Christians to speak out. Many people are appalled by the dark visions of TV preachers-- even the 10am 11am Sunday church broadcasts aren't local anymore. It's all about advertising and money, and they even tell you that if you listen to them. They'll say "We've been blessed with so much wealth, so wealthy..." to extol money and their own celebrity. Christian movies, Christian stores, Christian books, Christian TV stations-- because you have to have a Christian TV station to advertise the store, the book, and the movie.

Me, with 300+ channels I can skip a lot of the nonsense, but they still target the older people heavily-- that's why the cable companies put so many religious stations in the first 13 channels (older TVs just get those 13.)

When I was growing up the televangelist was the guy who was getting arrested like Jim Baker (his bathroom had a *gold toilet* that he bought with donations), or making a tearful plea for forgiveness after being caught with a prostitute like Jimmy Swaggert. (Swaggert is still on TV and any station that carries him has got to be questionable. I expect my preacher not to be perfect but I draw the line at creepy motel sex scenes. He should be going to church not leading one.)

Back in the 1980s there was also Oral Roberts. Oral Roberts promised that God would "take him away" if he didn't raise $8 million dollars. What happened when he missed the deadline?! "God gave me an extra month!" he said.

More people need to stand up to the hypocrisy and we need to take back our television and radio stations... and I'm not against religious programming-- just religious marketing.

I'm so glad to finally read someone give voice to the disturbing alliance between the Evangelical Christian Facist Right and the Jewish Establisment. Forfeiting the Bill of Rights, and everything that makes America free just to get "support" for Israel is self-defeating. What makes you think that once the Wingnuts have Christianized America that they will stop there? They would love to Christianize Israel and the rest of the middle east. After all the only reason they even support Israel is because it fits into their doomsday scenario where they all go to heaven and the jews and other non-Christians burn in a sea of fire. What kind of friendship is that really? It's about time Jewish Leaders step up to the plate and not kow tow to these fanatics that want to destroy freedom of religion in America, and who knows where else. I understand that some Jews feel they have to support Israel at all costs, however should that cost include your own freedom in the country you actually live in?

This was a superb article. Perhaps the most poignant / shocking / outrageous moment for me, was when Y.Z. Eckstein, of the IFCJ, argues that religious Christians are "very different from the Jewish community ... If their pastor says black is white and white is black, well, the pastor said so."

So let me get this straight. A man who has spent a good portion of his life trying to support a Jewish-Christian political alliance--and therefore has spent a lot of his time working with certain Christian churches--believes his partners are a bunch of authoritarian fanatics, willing to believe black is white on the say so of their pastor? I don't blame him for being scared shitless, if he thinks that his "friends" are already outfitted with such mental jackboots!

My take on this is that Eckstein himself is prejudiced against protestantism, the original Christian church of all believers. I have no sympathy for the Christian right, and despair at the idiocy and indeed fanaticism of some of its followers and leaders. But then again, I'm not trying to coordinate interfaith dialog (while cynically believing, as Eckstein seems to, that my partners are closet authoritarians). I'm just trying not to indulge in broad, lame stereotypes about Jewish-Christian differences, in the name of partisan politics. Politically it might be convenient to turn reality into an ethnic joke; philosophically and historically, though, its appalling.