It urges members of their congregations and the public to show basic respect to those with whom they disagree.
“The whole atmosphere has been getting just nasty,” said Rabbi Robert Loewy of Congregation Gates of Prayer. People demonize each other in the public square – on television, at public meetings, on the Internet. They shout each other down and gleefully circulate vicious email messages distorting the other side.
“We’re not going to change the world,” said Loewy, “but we’ve decided we need to raise people’s awareness – that this is just not right. It’s wrong.”
The statement is founded on the shared premise that “since we regard all human beings as God’s children …we regard an offense against our neighbor as an offense to God.” The priests, ministers, rabbis and imam have agreed to promote the statement from their pulpits and to circulate it through their communications networks.
