[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]

Nothing to do with Nine Inch Nails, really.




You know, I couldn't for the life of me figure out what the hell he was 
talking about. I'm censoring G-d? Huh?

Hey, Matt, here's a lesson for you. Yes, as my friends have been kind 
enough to point out, I'm Jewish, even though I don't usually mention it 
here. I'll get to why later.

In our culture, it's considered disrespectful to write out the name of 
the Creator/G-d/however you choose to say it in a transitory medium. 
Paper burns, stone crumbles, etc. Thus one never writes it out, really. 
Now, I'm a Reform Jew, and that means we're an ever-changing religion, 
constantly reexamining and adapting to the world as we live in it today. 
As in, we no longer demand, say, a literal eye for an eye. It's okay to 
turn on a light or cook on Saturdays. Reconstructionist, Conservative and 
Orthodox Jews do things differently, but we're all Jews. Anyway, it was 
eventually decided by the Rabbinical College whose job it is to decide 
these things that a bunch of pixels on a screen isn't really writing in 
the first place, so it's okay to write out the word G-d online. But it's 
habit with me now (and I suppose, what happens if someone prints out my 
post? Although I guess I'm not writing it myself that time so maybe it 
wouldn't count? Anyhow....) and I choose not to write it.

So. Why don't I mention what religion I am? Cos it's no one's damn 
business.

You don't see Jews on streetcorners exhorting people to repent cos the 
end is nigh, do you? Jews don't come to your door to invite you to sit in 
the sukkah with you on Sukkot, do they? We don't parade down your street 
in costume on Purim waving gregors at you, do we? No. Why? Cos it's our 
religion, it's what we do, and it's none of our business what your 
religion is.

There's an old joke: two Jews, three opinions. What that means is 
sometimes we don't even agree with ourselves, much less each other. But 
on the whole, we believe that a person's relationship with G-d is the 
single most personal relationship there is. It's between that person and 
G-d. No one else. In other words, when I say "Maybe you shouldn't talk 
about someone else's talents in terms of your own religion," I'm saying, 
"Please respect that that person might be offended by your ascribing 
religious ideals to him that he might not espouse."

Also, it's equally incorrect to say that _everyone_ believes in G-d. I 
have atheist and agnostic friends. My best friend is a Buddist, and she 
doesn't believe in G-d, either. Her father has an altar at his house and 
prays every day and just had a book published in Japan about religion and 
science, but I don't think he believes in G-d. That's not his religion. 
And again, it's none of my business. I was raised that in the end, it's 
all the same: the aim of religion is to bring comfort to the soul (with 
G-d or not) and there are many different paths to that aim. While there 
are some sick people in this world, it's not for me to say the Hindus and 
Sihks and Jaines in the world are wrong. I can't say one way is right and 
everyone else is wrong. I don't believe G-d is that simple, or even 
something I can completely understand. I also don't think that this is 
the place to have this discussion. It's not why I signed up to the Over 
the Rhine list, and I don't think it's why everyone else signed up, 
either.

I respect that to a lot of people here on this list, it's part of your 
religious duty to bring people to your way, your religion. I don't agree 
with it, but again, it's not my place to tell you how to worship. What 
bothers me is when the discussion of that religion and the implied 
evangelising consumes discussion threads over and over again. It's 
probably not as obvious to those of you who live a Christ-centered life 
and think about these things as you think about breathing, but to me, and 
to some of the other non-Christians on the list, it's like bringing a 900 
pound gorilla to the dinner table and asking us to just ignore it if we 
don't like it. Religion isn't just another thread-- it's an issue over 
which millions of people have been killed, countries divided, governments 
overthrown, kids thrown out of houses, and planes flown into buildings. 
Yes, it can be beautiful as well as terrible, but it causes a lot of 
disagreements. It HAS caused a lot of disagreements, but I feel sometimes 
like no one here cares. We're a small community here, and over the last, 
oh, two years, I'd have to say maybe a third of the threads come back to 
Christian theology in some form or another. That's great for the 
Christians, but not for the rest of us. Again, it's a deeply personal 
issue. The constant religious threads are, to me at least, a lot like 
people endlessly and exhaustively discussing penis length and their 
favourite sexual positions. There's nothing wrong with it, but is a 
public list really the place for it? Again and again and again? You're 
not going to change anyone's mind here-- the Christians are already at 
the table and the rest of us are at the Chinese noodle place down the 
street. Can't we leave it offlist out of simple respect for others? I've 
been asking this for well over a year now-- I get a lot of support 
off-list, but it would be nice to have some on-list, too.

All right. I think it's time to end this unintentional rant. I think I've 
said everything I need to say, and managed not to say those things I 
probably shouldn't have said. I hope I've at least stated my position 
clearly and doled out some food for thought. I'm not dissing anyone's 
religion, and I hope no one thinks I have been. 

The original welcome message to this list asked us to try to avoid 
discussing religion here, and I really do think that's a good idea. 

Hope everyone has a peaceful day.




Ysoie








---------------
Unsubscribe by going to http://www.actwin.com/OtR/
Follow-Ups: