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| Irwin Blog May 15, 2008 |
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| Monday, 19 May 2008 | |
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Just Another Deflection
John McCain and his spiritual guide 
The Question: John McCain's spiritual guide, televangelist Rod Parsley, calls Islam a "false religion" that should be "destroyed." Should McCain renounce Parsley? Will Islam be an issue in this year's U.S. presidential election? So here we are again. We are a country in tremendous crisis and it seems anything we can do to deflect from the difficult conversations we need to have we will do. We are in a war that we can neither win nor afford to lose and we have a financial system that is damaged because of the greed of everyone from hedge fund managers to investment bankers, to commercial bankers to real estate sales people to home buyers. We have a health system that is bankrupting businesses and the government at the same time that millions of Americans can not afford health insurance. We have an education system that places us behind far too many western countries, have a country filled with repressed and not so repressed racial anger, an infrastructure that is rotting, a debate about immigration that is mostly fear mongering and illusion, have a prison system with more people incarcerated than any country in the world including China -- and we are worrying about whether politicians, in this case McCain, who has already, for political reasons, changed his position on taxes and immigration and proudly taken the support from a Pastor Hagee who has spouted vitriolic hatred for Catholics, should renounce his “spiritual guide” (is this a joke?) who spews hate against the now largest religion in the world. A presidential candidate running during a war against a very virulent and violent strand of Islam has as his spiritual guide a pastor who says Islam should be destroyed – yikes, it is like a cross between Twilight Zone and Saturday Night Live. Of course McCain should renounce his Muslim hating spiritual guide. But just as the focus on Rev. Wright missed the point so this attempt to tar and feather McCain misses the point. (Yes, I do believe that as magnificent and wise and important as Obama’s speech on racism was he still should have resigned, with great sadness, from his church because he wants to be president of the entire United States and no matter how justified and contextualized Pastor Wright’s anger is the way he expressed himself was frightening and radically divisive.) We all know that McCain is no more a religious bigot who hates all Muslims just because his televangelist pastor is a fear intoxicated religious bigot than Obama is a racist who hates whites because his pastor is an angry inflaming radical. So what is this about besides gotcha politics? First of all it would be good if we had politicians who had the courage and integrity to actually renounce hateful comments by religious leaders and not worry about the backlash from specific constituencies. But this is probably too much to expect these days. At best we can get some cautious distancing from the specific offensive remarks and while I appreciate the distinction between the sinner and the sin it seems to me that if you want to be President of the UNITED States you ought to be sophisticated enough to unambiguously renounce the religious leadership of a leader who preaches hate in a way that does not impugn the personhood of the leader. The real question is to us regular Americans. What do we do when our religious leaders preach hate and divisiveness? How do we react when our religious leaders play on and exaggerate our legitimate fears rather than help us mitigate those fears or nuance our understanding of events or help us avoid stereotyping and othering entire groups? Why is it that to feel good about ourselves and to feel that our religious orientation is worthy and moral we so often need to dismiss and demean other groups? I don’t even hold the pastors, preachers, ministers, rabbis, imams responsible as we the people get precisely the leaders we want and deserve. If we didn’t find some psychic gratification in hearing this hate or some weird pleasure in watching as voyeurs our religious leadership and our politicians twist in the wind when these hateful comments become public we wouldn’t have this hateful speech. We the people need to hold our religious leadership accountable. And we also need to recognize that there is no necessary connection between being religious, having knowledge about religion, or being ordained and being morally, psychologically, and ethically developed. We would like to think that this was not the case but it is and so religion like any way of making meaning in life – be it science, economics, philosophy…can legitimate hate and oppression and prejudice or can transform us and help us develop and grow. It turns out that religion is one of the most powerful meaning making forces because it addresses our largest questions – Why are we here? Where are we going? What is our purpose? And religion speaks in narratives, metaphors and symbols that reach deep places in our hearts and minds and religion has practices/technologies if you will that not only bind us into groups and affirm (or undermine) our sense of self but that affect our consciousness and our interior life. And paradoxically the same religious leaders who preach hate use the very same religions to also move people to be compassionate and caring and sacrificial in ways that not only mitigate peoples pain and vulnerability but that create an enduring and rich happiness for practitioners – a fact that our secular fundamentalists would benefit from recognizing. This is what makes religious leaders like Parsley and Wright (and there are versions of these two in every religion) so dangerous. So forcing McCain to renounce Parsley and Obama to renounce Wright is easy – though apparently not so easy for our presidential candidates to do. The more important issue is for us to ask ourselves how we use religion and whether we hold our religious leaders accountable. When we leave our churches, synagogues, mosques, meeting houses, religious centers, and our secular academies (that often are as hateful and cynical and dismissive as the worst of religions) have we heard words that have comforted or rabble roused, reassured or incited, dismissed others or elevated us, hardened our hearts, legitimated our hate, fixed us in our stereotypes or deepened our hope, our compassion, our understanding ( even of those we fear and legitimately need to defend against) and our love. When we the people regularly and honestly answer this in the way the very founders of our religions would have then not only will our politicians not think it beneficial to have the endorsements of the Parsleys and Wrights and Hagees but there won’t be anyone in the pews listening to them. |
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| Oct 2008 - Present |
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KTAR Radio The God Show 12/07/08
Cable Radio Network, AM Show, 12/1/08
The Louie Free Show, WASN-AM Cleveland, 11/25/08
This Thanksgiving, what do we have to be thankful for?
Christian Science Monitor, 11/25/08
WERE-AM Maury Feren Show, Cleveland, 11/22/08
Brad discusses his book WBEZ, Worldview, Chicago Public Radio, 11/17/08 Cleveland Jewish News, 11/14/08 Tru-TV, “In Session,” 11/14/08
On the Disney World assault trial
KPHX The Jeff Farias Show (Nova M Radio) 11/13/08 The Busted Halo, Sirius Radio, 11/12/08 KERA Think (NPR, Dallas) 11/10/08 KMOX The Carney Show (CBS affiliate St Louis) 11/6/08 St. Louis Beacon 11/2/08 The Washington Post 10/11/08 When Judging Guilt By Association, Look Deeper |
| May 2008 - Sept 2008 |
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Religion News Service 9/23/08
Christian Science Monitor 9/11/08
NPR “Tell Me More” 8/22/08
Topic: The Obama McCain debates at Saddleback Church—what was missing? Philadelphia Jewish Voice 8/08 Parents as Life Coaches
Christian Science Monitor 7/29/08
"State of Belief" 7/27/08
Christian Science Monitor 7/18/08
CNN Radio “The Paula Gordon Show” 6/21/08
PBS TV: The Jewish People: A Story of Survival, an original one-hour film explores these themes of resilience, fortitude and achievement of the Jewish people, moving chronologically over four millennia. Featuring Rabbi Brad Hirschfield, it is hosted by Martha Teichner, Senior Correspondent for “CBS News/Sunday Morning.”
5/7/08 WLIW NYC
6/1/08 WETA DC
6/2/08 WHYY, Philadelphia
6/4/08 KOCE, LA
6/5/08 WTTW, CHI
WORT-FM (Madison) “A Public Affair” 5/8/08
KPBS (San Diego) “These Days” 5/22/08 |
| April 2008 - Present |
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NBC's The Today Show, 11/25/08
The Journal News 11/6/08 Obama narrows 'God gap' WJBC-AM (Central Illinois) “The Drive,” 11/4/08 Dayton Daily News 10/18/08 Financial difficulties lead followers to church Wisconson Public Radio 9/26/08 LISTEN: At Issue with Ben Merens The Jewish Week, 9/12/08
Baltimore Jewish Times 8/22/08
The Jewish Game of Being a Tribe is Over, Wisconsin Jewish Chronicle 8/22/08
"Lake Effect" Milwaukee Public Radio 8/11/08
Irwin spoke about “transitioning religion”
The Jeff Farias Show, Nova M Radio Network (Phoenix) 8/7/08
“At Issue” Wisconsin Public Radio, 8/5/08
The Detroit Jewish News Online 6/13/08
Voice of America 6/11/08
“In the Spirit” WRPI- FM (Albany) 6/5/08
The Mitch Albom Show WJR-AM, Detroit 6/2/08
KOOP-FM (Austin) Soul Talk 4/17/08
The Drive with Steve Fast on WJBC (Central Illinois) April 14
Maria Sanchez Show on KVTA (Ventura, CA) April 14
Irwin ranks #7 in Newsweek's 50 most influential Rabbis in America 4/11/08
The Jeff Farias Show, on Nova M Radio Network (Phoenix) April 10
The Pope’s visit with the Jewish community, and the sacredness of paying our taxes on the Louie B. Free Show Tuesday, April 8 at 2:05 pm EST, WASN, WRBP, and WGFT (all in the Cleveland/Pittsburgh area)
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| Arizona Daily Star 3/7/08 |
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Brad & Irwin in the Arizona Daily Star 3/7/08 |