> For the majority of mainline Protestants, liberal-to-left Catholics,
> Reform, Conservative, & Reconstructionist Jews, liberal-to-left
> Muslims, etc., "God" is indeed a placeholder, the Other serving as a
> place for regard for others (e.g., Matt 25:34-45), not at all a matter
> of "life after death" and other supernatural beliefs. This is a point
> that Daniel Dennett humorously makes: "Wanting to preserve and
> transmit a great culture, we [who have a naturalist as opposed to a
> supernaturalist world view] even teach Sunday school and Hebrew
> classes. Many of the nation's clergy members are closet brights, I
> suspect" (Daniel C. Dennett, "The Bright Stuff," _New York Times_, 12
> July 2003, <http://www.the-brights.net/dennett_nyt.htm>).
>
> That is probably why the right wing of each faith and denomination
> regard the left wing of it as practically a bunch of Godless atheists.
I don't recall where I heard this argument, but a great deal of anti-Semitic fear is addressed more at secular Jews than Orthodox Jews. This was mainly because ideas raised by secularists were the real threat, and bigots could align this "subversion" with fears of alien doctrines.
This also reminds me of the Mad Magazine "Religion in America Primer," which catalogued three kinds of Jews. The quote was something like, "There are Jews who observe all of the holy laws. They are called Orthodox Jews. Then there are Jews who observe only some of the holy laws. They are called Reform Jews. Then there are Jews who don't observe any of the holy laws at all. The other Jews have a name for them. They are called "Christians.""