Religious Cleansing is as Shameful as Ethnic Cleansing

Georgetown, Delaware, has driven one the few Jewish families out of town. Bad Christians insisted on promoting Christianity alone in the public schools, and harassing the Jewish kids even in class. Mona Dobrich asked for a reasonable accommodation from the school on behalf of her children. She wasn't trying to drive God out of school. She was just asked for the Judeo-Christian accommodation that is normal in most American small towns. Instead she got the back of the hand from local government officials, and death threats from anonymous rednecks. The Dobriches moved to more cosmopolitan Wilmington, at great financial sacrifice.

This kind of thing brings shame on Christians. The perpetrators will likely live to see the day when they revile their own actions. But just as culpable are the good Christians who let it happen.

Corbin, KY, drove all the black people out of town just after the First World War. For decades thereafter any African-Americans passing through were harassed. Corbin became a by-word among black Kentuckians for racism and what we would now call ethnic cleansing. Even to this day, nearly a century later and despite strong efforts by more recent generations to be a welcoming community for African-Americans, the taint lingers.

The people of Georgetown, DE, might want to ask the people of Corbin, KY, whether a moment's "purity" is worth generations of shame.