Jeffrey Salkin: Should religion influence abortion policy?

(Rabbi Jeffrey K. Salkin is the spiritual leader of Temple Israel in West Palm Beach, Florida, and the author of numerous books on Jewish spirituality and ethics, published by Jewish Lights Publishing and Jewish Publication Society.) For the past three weeks, for the first time since the end of February, the biggest and boldest headlines in The New York Times have not been about Ukraine. They were about America. The threat to Roe v. Wade, and the very real possibility that abortion will no longer be legal in huge swaths of this country, has shaken us. But, for those of us who are people of faith, the issue runs deeper, and it is even more painful. This is because this conflict forces us to ask the question: What role should religion have in national conversations on public policy, especially on matters as sensitive and as intimate as abortion? First, let us remember that there is no such thing as “religion.” There are “religions,” and none of them are the established religion, or “church,” in America.

It is not only that there was no public church in America. There could not have been. The principles of the Enlightenment consigned religion in America to the private realm of the individual. That being said, America is a deeply religious country. “Separation of church and state” is one thing. But, America has never agreed to the separation of religion and society. There is that thing called the American “civil religion.” Religious symbols, meanings and celebrations crowd into and compete for space in the public square. America is, as G.W. Chesterton said, a nation with the soul of a church. So, what then? What should religion’s voice be in shaping American society? I recall the words of the late chief rabbi of Great Britain, Lord Jonathan Sacks: “Religion can make good people better, and bad people worse.” At its best, American religion made good people better, and it made good social movements even better. Consider how many social movements in this country relied on religion as their moral engines. Two out of many examples: anti-slavery and civil rights (as in: The Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.) both used biblical phrases and ideas.