Rabbi Dreyfus’s Remarks on the 10th Anniversary of Francis Cardinal George as Archbishop of Chicago

April 30,2007 - Chicago, Illinois

It is a great honor to participate with this distinguished panel to commemorate ten years of Cardinal George’s leadership of the Archdiocese of Chicago, to celebrate his presence in our midst and to reflect on his influence on the multi-faceted religious community in this region. I recall the first time I met the Cardinal – when in his first year here he came to speak to a meeting of the Chicago Board of Rabbis, a group that includes rabbis from various movements across the religious spectrum of the Jewish community. I was impressed not only by his knowledge and scholarship, but also by his willingness to listen. Moreover, he responded to at least one question by saying that he needed to learn more and consider the matter before he could give an answer. All of us appreciated his openness and honesty, as well as the desire for continued dialogue and serious conversation. I see this evening as part of that continuing conversation.

We have been asked to reflect on what God expects from our religious communities as we work together. The best text I can find for guidance in this reflection is from Micah 6:8, as the prophet states:

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“You have been told, O mortal, what is good and what the Eternal requires of you: only to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk modestly with your God.”

The first requirement is to do justice. People of faith realize that justice is not only a goal for all, but doing justice is a requirement for anyone who takes seriously the sacred texts of all of our faiths. However, none of us can hope that our work for justice will bear fruit if we work alone. If we want to be effective, we need to build and strengthen coalitions to work for basic human rights like decent housing, and universal health care, and economic justice, and fair access to employment, and freedom from violence, and clean air and water. These are not just issues for politicians to argue about when they manipulate the purse-strings of our society at the expense of the poor and disenfranchised. These are religious issues that demand our attention and our combined energy. If we truly believe that every person is created in the image of God, then we cannot tolerate a system that disrespects some because of their race or gender or age or orientation, and disregards others whose appearance or behavior might cause discomfort. I pray that in the years to come, the religious communities of Chicago increase their involvement in these issues, so that we can work to eliminate the injustice that permeates our society.

The statement from Micah continues with the instruction to love kindness. Ours has become a very hard and unkind world. The language people use in the public sphere – and I don’t mean only Don Imus – should be offensive to every ear and unacceptable to people of faith. The behavior that is spewed daily on our television screens is an affront to humanity and to God. The role models that our children see are base and crude and immodest. I am no prude, but I feel that we are sinking to new lows. We can try to blame the media, but they only give the public what they want. It is up to us, the religious communities, to help our people want something better, something more tasteful and decent and civilized than the empty calories they are being fed. If we love kindness, we will not tolerate demeaning and degrading depictions of women as objects. If we love kindness, we will not glorify violence as entertainment. If we love kindness, we will take the psalmist’s advice to “guard your tongue from evil and your lips from deceitful speech.”

And finally Micah tells us to walk modestly with our God. Of course this phrase, like so many others, is open to interpretation. I read it now to say that God has the power and the answers, and we need to be modest as we walk with God. In this context I would respectfully suggest that each of our faiths interprets God’s will and God’s expectations of us differently. We are only human, and cannot know everything. By walking modestly with our God, we recognize that we do not have all the truth and all the answers. I believe in religious pluralism which recognizes that others hold truths that I do not share, but even while fundamentally disagreeing on what we hold sacred, I can respect them and their beliefs. This is, of course, very difficult and challenging, since we believe what we believe with great passion and sincerity. But it is the key to authentic interreligious relationships. We do not enter into dialogue with the motive of converting the other, but rather of hearing and learning from and teaching our partners in dialogue.

In the two years that I sat on the Council of Religious Leaders of Metropolitan Chicago, I had the extraordinary opportunity to meet with great minds and wonderful individuals, one of whom is Francis Cardinal George. I recall the time when the Council drafted a letter to President Bush, urging him to seek every diplomatic solution before invading Iraq. Though our letter ultimately fell on deaf ears, the process of drafting it was a lesson in interreligious cooperation. As we struggled with finding carefully nuanced language that would satisfy a range of perspectives while still being true to the purpose at hand, we listened to each other with great respect and high regard. I believe that God was present in that room, and that we were engaged in sacred work.

Cardinal George, I wish you a hearty mazel tov on this ten year milestone, and join everyone here in praying that God grant you many more years of health and strength to continue the good work you are doing for this community.