Writings from Rabbi Glickman

My friend, Michael, is alive today, and for that I am thankful. However, had the timing been different, and had the nation somehow bought into President Bush’s “Faith Based Initiative” a few years ago, Michael might have died as a result.

That is, I think so. But I’m still trying to me make sure I understand what the president is proposing: Let’s see…President Bush has a great deal of respect for religion … OK … and he believes that religious groups can effectively deliver social services…fine. His “Faith Based Initiative” would therefore provide federal funding to religious organizations that do so…sounds good. However, the only catch is that the initiative also forbids these organizations from evangelizing or instilling religious values along the way. Wait a minute…does this mean, in other words, that the President’s plan would support religious organizations’ social service work only if they are not … well … religious as they do it?

If so, then my response to the whole idea is a resounding “Big Deal!” There are countless secular organizations that feed the hungry, house the homeless, and counsel those in pain. They do it well, and they do it without direct mention of anything religious - just as the president’s plan would require of religious organizations in order to qualify the support it offers. However, these secular organizations tend to have the expertise and infrastructure to do their work far better (dare I say it?) than many religious groups. So perhaps we should leave non-sectarian social service work to them.

Don’t get me wrong. Like the president, I too have a great deal of respect for religion. In fact, I think that religious groups can be far more effective in addressing many of the social problems plaguing our nation today than can many of the secular groups. Think about it - a hungry person can go into a secular soup kitchen and get a hot meal to hold him over for a few hours. That same individual, however, could go to a church and get a bowl of soup plus some guidance as to how to get their lives in line with God. Morally speaking, the secular organization would give them a fish, the church would teach them how to fish…and how to do so in a sacred way.

Religious organizations, you see, can be very powerful forces in the lives of the people they touch precisely because they are religious. Take the religion out of a church food bank and all you’ve got is a soup spigot under a steeple - big deal.

Michael is one of the people who taught me this. He is in his mid-twenties now, but I’ve known Michael since he was born. He has a quiet, endearing smile; he is a talented musician; children love being with him, and many adults do, too.

That’s why is was so painful a couple of years ago when we learned that Michael, then a college student, had gotten hooked on heroin. Immediately, his parents secured a place for him at Gateways Beit Teshuvah, a Jewish drug and alcohol rehabilitation facility in Los Angeles.

In that safe and nurturing environment, Michael got the help he needed to become sober. There was a regimented schedule - daily prayer, intense Torah study, group and individual counseling, communal meals.

I visited Michael after he had been at Beit Teshuvah for several months. By that time Michael was used to the rhythm of life there. He had developed a profound love of Judaism and, most important, this newfound connection with his religious tradition helped lead him to sobriety. By “sobriety” here, I’m not referring only to his staying off drugs, but rather to a sobriety far more profound. Michael had developed a sober perspective on life. He was physically calmer than ever before, he was thinking about his future in mature ways, he asked about my family with sincere interest.

At one point during the day, Michael smiled about something. It was a huge smile, the kind that seemed to come from somewhere deep within him. It was only when I saw its brilliance that I realized that Michael’s quiet smiles of the past were little more than a façade.

Michael has been sober for about a year and a half now. He has a job, a terrific girlfriend, and he is still smiling bright. Thank God!

Michael’s story is important here because it shows what can happen when a religious group does religious work religiously. Michael had seen other counselors before, but they didn’t seem to help much. I am convinced that a major factor in Michael’s success at Beit Teshuvah was that the program there is profoundly and unapologetically religious.

Had President Bush’s Faith Based Initiative been in effect when Michael entered rehab, and had Beit Teshuvah altered its program in order to qualify for the funds it offered, I don’t think it would have worked.

Yes, the initiative might help some, but it will encourage religious groups to compromise their core values - and it may have left Michael dead.

There are many other Michaels out there - people who need the focus and direction and life-mission that religion can provide. It is crucial that we as a society do what we can to support them in fulfilling this need. The president’s faith based initiative does just the opposite; it is a very dangerous idea.

I believe that the president is sincere in his respect for the power of religion. I only wish he would come up with a plan that gives religion genuine support. It may be difficult, but it is something we all - especially the Michaels out there - need him to do.

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