14 | MAY 18 • 2023 T he audience was startled to hear the voice of a pastor bragging about helping even “witches find Christ” as part of his invocation (prayer) to the Michigan State Legislature in Lansing. State Sen. Jeremy Moss (D-District 7), president pro tempore of the Senate, played the tape “to bring a sense of how it feels to belong to a minority religion” during his participation on a panel discussing “Religion- Government Separation in Michigan Today. ” He was joined by State Sen. Rosemary Bayer (D-District 13) and a moderator, Nomi Joyrich, Michigan director of Jews for a Secular Democracy (JFASD). Rabbi Jeffrey Falick of Congregation for Humanistic Judaism in Farmington Hills and Rabbi Miriam Jerris led a Humanist Havdalah service prior to the program at CHJ on April 29. Each session of the Senate opens with an invocation, Moss explained, despite the fact that “our Michigan constitution states that government is not supposed to uplift one religion. Some want to lead by inserting their values into governance for the rest of us. ” Bayer, who is not Jewish, shares Moss’ conviction that “religion should be kept separate from governing. ” Serving her second term in the Senate, as is Moss, Bayer said she was a “brand-new legislator” when she accepted a Christian colleague’s invitation to attend the body’s weekly Prayer Breakfast Caucus. “I wanted to go for the camaraderie and getting to know everybody better, ” Bayer said, but she was immediately turned off when “everyone opened their Bible, first thing. ” She left and has never returned. The panelists talked more about the bias brought to bear by what Bayer termed: “White Christian favoritism. ” She said, “It’s an excuse for bad behavior in decision-making because ‘somebody else told me what to do. God tells me to do this. ’ It’s a pervasive attitude, every day. ” No one is forced to stay in the room and listen to Christian theology-laced invocation prayers, “but then the same notions come out in speeches on their floor. ” “They have an absolute right to believe that, ” Moss said, “but if it impacts the law-making for those who don’t subscribe to that religious value; that’s when it becomes a problem in the state. ” Bayer remembered the intimidation the legislators and staff felt on April 30, 2020, when a group of white Christian Nationalists with assault weapons went into the Capitol building for their so-called “ American Patriot Rally. ” She now keeps a bulletproof vest under her desk. “We learned later that they were practicing for the Jan. 6 coup attempt in Washington, D.C., ” Bayer said, and that “their full intent was to shoot all the legislators” — “burn down the building, too, ” Moss interjected — “capture the governor and kill her. ” NEW LEADERSHIP IN LANSING Before this year, the Republican majority with its Christian bias wouldn’t pass legislation acceptable to a majority of Michiganders, such as securing access to reproductive healthcare. A more progressive agenda is now possible in the wake of the nonpartisan commission that eliminated gerrymandered districts, by drawing new maps reflecting the 2020 census. Democrats held on to the top offices in the November election and won their first majority in many years in both chambers of the state legislature. Although voters approved the “Reproductive Freedom for All” Proposal 3 in 2022, it was important to Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and the Democrats to repeal the state’s 1931 anti- abortion rights legislation. The so-called “zombie law” was automatically triggered to go into effect when the Supreme Court overturned Roe v Wade last year, but Whitmer put a hold on Keeping Religion and State Separate OUR COMMUNITY Panel discussion examines religion’s role in state government. ESTHER ALLWEISS INGBER CONTRIBUTING WRITER Nomi Joyrich State Sen. Jeremy Moss State Sen. Rosemary Bayer Paul Golin and Nomi Joyrich of Jews for a Secular Democracy and State Senators Rosemary Bayer and Jeremy Moss. ESTHER ALLWEISS INGBER continued on page 16