This week, Rabbi Dr. Jay Michaelson joins Rev. Paul Brandeis Raushenbush for a deep dive into the state of U.S. politics, the function of the rule of regulation in preserving democracy, and political assaults towards establishments of upper training. Collectively, they discover how religion can play a job in resistance and activism, reflecting on the deep divisions inside American society and the duty of establishments to defend core values in occasions of disaster.
Jay speaks in regards to the weaponization of accusations of antisemitism – and the way these techniques are getting used to assault larger training, finally harming the pursuits of American Jews. He additionally critiques the rise of the “woke proper,” arguing that anti-woke rhetoric has advanced into a brand new type of censorship, and expresses issues about the way forward for LGBTQ+ rights. Above all, he emphasizes the significance of standing in solidarity throughout strains of distinction to guard civil rights in these difficult occasions.
“[The right isn’t] towards censorship. They only wished to do the censoring. And the identical issues that folks complained about, rightly or wrongly, in the previous few years: Oh, you’ll be able to’t say something about gender, or you’ll be able to’t say something about race, or it’s a must to watch out what you say about this and that, and it’s a must to all the time watch out as a result of anyone’s going to be offended. That’s precisely the world we’re residing in now. It’s simply the opposite aspect. You’ll be able to’t say something that’s too essential of something that’s on the correct…The people who find themselves complaining are actually doing the very same factor that the individuals who they have been complaining about have been doing.”
– Rabbi Dr. Jay Michaelson, visiting professor at Harvard Regulation College and a discipline scholar on the Emory Middle for Psychedelics and Spirituality. He’s the creator of ten books, and a journalist whose work seems on CNN, in Rolling Stone, and in his weekly substack e-newsletter, Each/And with Jay Michaelson. For twenty years, Jay’s work has centered on the intersections of politics and faith; he labored as a non secular LGBTQ activist for ten years, and earlier this month he convened the first-ever convention on the authorized recognition of spiritual psychedelic use by Jews, Christians, and Muslims. He holds a PhD from Hebrew College, a JD from Yale Regulation College, and nondenominational rabbinic ordination. Jay’s newest guide is The Secret That Is Not a Secret: Ten Heretical Tales.
