I am pleased that the Burbank City Council decided to appeal an order
by Superior Court Judge Alexander Williams restricting prayers by local
ministers at the opening of council meetings.
But why doesn't it simply ignore the judge? The L.A. City Council
wasn't held in contempt of U.S. Supreme Court for its religious
persecution of the Boy Scouts. So why should the guardians of beautiful
downtown Burbank fear a lesser magistrate? As Bill Clinton demonstrated,
we don't have to obey laws we don't like.
The judge's ruling is the result of a lawsuit filed by Irv Rubin,
leader of the Jewish Defense League, who doesn't like to hear "Jesus"
mentioned in public. Actually, Rubin's organization is more of an offense
league, constantly searching for anything that may offend anyone, taking
it to activist judges who would rather make laws than apply them.
However, since Rubin is so devoted to the 1st Amendment's
"establishment clause," perhaps he'll help me in getting Washington to
stop giving billions of our tax dollars to Israel's theocratic
government. In that nation, separation of synagogue and state is so
nonexistent that even the flag is a religious symbol.
Most likely, that will move Rubin to bring up the Holocaust and deal
me the anti-Semitism card, which is supposed to terrorize non-Jews into
guilt-stricken silence.
Not that I'm accusing Rubin of reverse bigotry, of trying to push
Gentiles around the way that some Gentiles have pushed Jews around. I
think he's afflicted with more primitive and pernicious spiritual
disorder -- arrogant self-righteousness.
He believes that what he feels is morally right must be right for
everyone, and he has a mandate from heaven to make everyone feel as he
feels. Unfortunately, that attitude is what passes for "liberal
tolerance" nowadays.
That was particularly evident when Rubin placed himself above Divine
Authority to issue commandments on how Burbank's leaders must worship:
"Don't pray to Jesus. Don't pray to Allah. Pray to God and you've got it
made."
Significantly, he left out of the proscribed pantheon the Jewish
Yahweh, sometimes called Jehovah.
I wonder if he is aware that Allah is merely the Arabic word for God.
Does he also deny Spanish-speaking people the freedom to pray to Dios? Or
prohibit the French from worshiping Dieu? And there's the German Gott.
I shouldn't have to go through all the world's languages to make my
point. And I doubt that fanatics like Rubin want to learn anything beyond
