Twenty contributors share their opinions about the most consequential changes, trends, and developments of the last two decades
Early on in my now four decades of service to Agudath Israel, I had occasion several times to warn legislators and judges about “slippery slopes” — how proposed new laws that represented only a slight departure from traditional social norms, and which appeared relatively benign, could lead to further and more radical departures whose consequences could be disastrous for society. Unfortunately, I was proven right.
Over the past 20 years, the slope has become not only more slippery but also steeper. In a case decided in 2003, the Supreme Court overruled its own earlier decision upholding laws that outlaw certain forms of deviant behavior. Little did we know that this case would serve as a turning point in American jurisprudence, and would lead to dramatic erosion in the moral foundations of American society. But that is exactly what happened.
From broadening civil rights protections to changing the very definition of marriage… from tolerating deviant personal behavior to ostracizing religious opponents of deviancy as bigots… from terminating life support for the critically ill to legalizing assisted suicide — all of these “advances” are attributable, at least in part, to the Supreme Court’s determination 21 years ago that notions of traditional morality have no place in the laws of this country.
Though we are Torah Jews with our own moral code, we are still affected by the moral climate of the society around us. The more spiritually toxic the climate, the more we need to insulate ourselves from its noxious fumes. The farther American culture keeps slipping down the slope, the more we need to embrace the counterculture embodied in authentic Torah Judaism.
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