Keeping the Faith

"For faith to really be of any value, it must be based on facts, on reality."

Huh? That's a new one on me. I don't need my English degree to know that faith means the exact opposite of this. In fact, according to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, faith means, "firm belief in something for which there is no proof", among other things. Why this attempt to confuse faith in the improvable with belief in the demonstrable?

It's easy to just choose to believe something completely if you are so predisposed. If you are looking for a faith-based value system or political ideology (or some combination of both!) that will reflect your own view of the world back to you it shouldn't be hard to find. And believing in something for which there is demonstrable proof doesn’t take faith, it just requires the basic capacity to recognize and acknowledge reality. Faith in the existence of God, on the other hand, is tough stuff. Jesus, for example, thought it would be nothing short of a miracle if his own disciples had a share of faith roughly equivalent to the size of a mustard seed: "Amen, I say to you, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will be able to move mountains. Nothing will be impossible for you."

Now, if the men and women who spent at least an entire year of their lives living and working alongside Jesus could only muster (mustard?) this much faith, well... Just don't tell me that faith is an open-and-shut case of recognition and acceptance of the facts. Once you choose to exchange faith for fact, growth and the maturity of wisdom through experience for cold comfort and assurance you can reduce your mind’s ability, even its inclination, to see greater truths, to question and challenge harmful messages that are packaged in faith-based language. Some current examples include the entire movement devoted to the notion that God hates gay people, or those who believe that when Jesus returns to earth after the Rapture, he's coming with a pair of fully loaded sawed-off shotguns.

To what end do we apply our beliefs? In what do we have faith? What earthly purpose does our faith serve? The answers to these questions can reveal if our minds are vibrant gardens of thought and consideration, or stale receptacles of outdated and disproved notions and prejudices. I pose the issue in these terms as a response to those who call themselves people of faith, yet who for years have defined the word "faith" in the narrowest of terms. "Faith" as blind obedience to a particular church's teachings and pronouncements. "Faith" as full and unquestioning support for a particular political candidate or party. "Faith" as actively supporting or engaging in acts of hate and violence because it has been said that this is what God wants. The notion of faith as an evolving process of contemplation and the application of original thought has been overwhelmed by those who would nefariously gird certain political and cultural agendas with the authority of religious conviction. I've recently read a beautiful and succinct rebuttal to these notions in a book review on Amazon.com. The book's author is the former wife of a fundamentalist pastor. In reflecting back on what was obviously a traumatic period in her life she writes that she has come to see spirituality (an expression of faith) as "a road of discovery—not of submission to a rulebook."

The pursuit of faith in God calls on each person who seeks this to strive to develop a deep understanding of who or what God is, and what it is God calls upon us to do as members of the human community. While the question of who or what God is may not be knowable, there seems to be a historic consensus as to what it God calls upon us to do. To close today's post, here are some insights illuminating this basic call, and which provide a good starting point for anyone's faith journey. Shalom.

"...a state that is not pleasing or delightful to me, how could I inflict that upon another?" — Buddhism

"What is hateful to you, do not to your fellow man. That is the whole Torah; the rest is just commentary. Go and study it." — Hillel

"Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. This is the law and the prophets." — Jesus

"None of you truly believes until he loves for his brother what he loves for himself." — Muhammad

"This is the sum of duty; do naught unto others what you would not have them do unto you." — Mahabharata

"What you do not wish upon yourself, extend not to others." — Confucius

"Regard your neighbor’s gain as your gain, and your neighbor’s loss as your own loss." — Taoism

"All things are our relatives; what we do to everything, we do to ourselves. All is really One." — Native American Spiritual Teaching

"In happiness and suffering, in joy and grief, we should regard all creatures as we regard our own self." — Jainism

"That nature alone is good which refrains from doing another whatsoever is not good for itself." — Zoroastrianism

-Doug L.

FOR FURTHER REFERENCE

Interfaith Voices Podcast, 'The Life of Meaning: Reflections on Faith, Doubt and Repairing the World' (April 26, 2007)

Utterly Humbled by Mystery ('This I Believe', NPR, December 18, 2006)

'Faith, Reason, God and Other Imponderables' (NY Times, July 25, 2006)

Jesus Christ- The Nice Jewish Boy Your Mother Didn't Tell You About

I've given it some thought- a lot of thought, actually- and I've concluded that Jesus Christ might be the least Christian of all of history’s famous Christians. Don't get me wrong- I'm not saying that I think that Jesus was lax in practicing his faith. Just the opposite! My understanding of Jesus is that of someone who was keenly devoted to his faith, and who understood his faith to be a vehicle for reaching out to and helping other human beings. Thing is, though, his faith didn't happen to be Christianity. It was Judaism. And given that Jesus practiced the Judaism of his day, and not the Reform or Reconstructionist Judaism of the modern era, this places him squarely in the Orthodox camp- Old Shul, baby.

This is not the Jesus Christ that my mother, my father, or my Church told me about, coming up as I did in the Roman Catholic tradition. I was taught about the wonderful and good things Jesus did: Jesus healed the sick, Jesus fed the poor, and so on. As such, it never occurred to me to give any thought to the fact that my Catholic religion, a faith established upon the person of Jesus himself, was/is fundamentally different than Jesus' own (despite the fact that they share important liturgical and scriptural elements).

Maybe my life would have continued in this same direction, maybe I would never have spent any amount of time reflecting on Jesus' Jewishness. Yes, maybe so, except that in the course of my life I fell in love with and married a Jewish woman. We swept one another off our feet, we vowed our undying love for one another, and we delighted in establishing an interfaith oasis of peace, love and happiness despite our different faiths. Despite our Utopian leanings it was inevitable that Jesus wound up serving as a confounding rather than a unifying figure in our relationship, given the unhappy history between Judaism and Christianity. While there is clearly common theological and liturgical ground shared between Jews and Christians, it vanishes the moment the subject of Jesus as Messiah, Savior, Lord, Eternal Son of God, etc., comes up.

Tricky stuff. Yet despite this, interfaith marriages are increasing in number each year, especially in the metropolitan Washington, DC area. In growing numbers, members of interfaith relationships and marriages continue to choose to engage in an experience fraught with pitfalls such as the “Jesus is the Messiah” / “No, he isn’t” conundrum. This conundrum is not always limited to religious couples. Even people who have not ever been religious per se can find themselves struggling to make sure that their “side” is given a fair hearing in the relationship.

I can’t speak for the Jewish half of my relationship, and maybe I can’t even speak for other Christians. What I do know is that whatever our individual reasons are I think it is pretty clear that those of us who belong to such relationships hold something important in common. We see something very good about coming together this way. We feel that it is better for us as members of different faith traditions and cultures to be close to one another, not divided and separate. We know this is true even as we struggle to figure out what this means or how it works in practical terms.

What causes some of the greatest difficulty for interfaith families is the fact that there is no such official religious institution that reflects this kind of construct, even for couples who have decided to raise their children in one faith tradition. For example, there are precious few rabbis in the metro Washington area who will participate in or otherwise recognize interfaith wedding ceremonies and marriages. Christian priests and ministers may be more amenable to co-officiating at interfaith weddings. However, I don’t know of any churches that have acknowledged the growing number congregants with Jewish spouses or that otherwise strive to address or help meet the religious needs of interfaith couples.

Does that mean that we toss our faith traditions aside and make up our own rules? I don’t know. What I do know is that it is better for people of different faiths to be closer to each other than for them to be separate and divided. I do know that while we all have our own thoughts and opinions about what “interfaith” means, it is good to share these thoughts with each other and to build a community through dialogue and exploration. Those of us with interfaith relationships and families are a part of something that is dynamic, exciting and growing. In the absence of official institutions to support and sanction the choices we are making we need to establish that support for each other. Any steps we take toward understanding and appreciating one another's beliefs and faith traditions are a necessary part of providing that very support and creating shared community.

I'd like to close by pointing out that, although Christians don’t say the Sh’ma at Mass or services, those of us who claim to be his followers (especially those of us with Jewish spouses) would do well to remember that this prayer, the most sacred prayer in Judaism, was very likely nearest and dearest to Jesus’ heart. To wit: “When the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together, and one of them, a scholar of the law, tested him by asking, ‘Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?’ He said to him, ‘You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment. The second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments.’” (Gospel of Matthew, Chapter 22, verses 34-40.)

The very commandment that Jesus cites as the most important is also found in the beginning of the Sh’ma:

"Sh'ma Yis'ra'eil Adonai Eloheinu Adonai echad."
(Hear, Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord is One.)

"Barukh sheim k'vod malkhuto l'olam va'ed."
(Blessed be the Name of His glorious kingdom forever and ever.)

"V'ahav'ta eit Adonai Elohekha b'khol l'vav'kha uv'khol naf'sh'kha uv'khol m'odekha."
(And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.)

This is all to say that there is much good to be said about thinking beyond the established boundaries of our various faith traditions and exploring the unorthodox as a means to growing closer. For myself, I am excited to learn more about the Jewish Jesus. Not only does this provide me with a way to get to really know him better, to deepen my understanding of Jesus and his message, it provides a path for me to grow closer to my wife and her faith tradition. This will hopefully result in more common ground between us, more domestic tranquility. You know, the actual peace, love and happiness that Jesus preached about. Shalom.

-Doug L.

FOR FURTHER REFERENCE:

Reclaiming Jesus- The Jewish Standard, 12.09.2005

From Jesus to Christ (Frontline, PBS.org)

Jewish Voices About Jesus (Jewish-Christian Relations.net)

Welcome to Unkosher Jesus!

Unkosher Jesus is the fruit of my musings as the Catholic half of a Jewish-Catholic marriage. We live in the metropolitan Washington, DC area where the rate of intermarriage among Jews and Christians is apparently much higher than in most other parts of the US. Each interfaith relationship is unique and has its own issues and challenges, but for all interfaith couples there are a special set of challenges that come in addition to the pressures any couple typically endures. There are challenges over different faith traditions, challenges over no faith tradition, challenges having to do with figuring out what faith to raise children (if any). And of course, throughout all of it there is the continuing challenge of dealing with the expectations of parents, other family members and religious institutions that have their own expectations as to how our relationships ought to be run.

Unkosher Jesus has been launched to provide a place where anyone who is a member of an interfaith relationship or is simply interested in the interfaith experience can post their thoughts, concerns, insights, and read those of others as well. It is a place where we can explore our shared religious faith traditions while challenging these to remember what their intended purpose is in first place- to create communities where people can grow closer to God by treating other human beings with mercy, compassion and justice. Unkosher Jesus is a place where we can support and even challenge each other as members of the greater interfaith community. It is also a place to discuss current events as these intersect with matters of faith, religion, family and relationships.

My faith heritage and that of my wife's each share the same monotheistic roots, but as a blog Unkosher Jesus does not restrict itself to that point of view. It will strive to reflect and promote the belief that while the world is home to many different countries and cultures, traditions and religions, we are all members of one human race. Unkosher Jesus readers will have the opportunity to comment on each post. Inappropriate comments will be removed- each reader is welcome to state his or her disagreement with the contents of any particular post, even strongly, but please do so respectfully and in the spirit of advancing, not halting, any given discussion. Also, as religion and faith issues often intersect with issues of politics and culture, Unkosher Jesus will usually have something to say about these as well. I hope you do, too.

For those interested in submitting an entry to be posted on Unkosher Jesus, you are invited to please send your submissions to unkosherjesus@gmail.com. There is no prerequisite that prospective authors/commentators be the member of any particular faith, or any faith at all. Readers are invited to submit posts that speak to any variety of issues and current events as these relate to their own interfaith relationships and experiences, including comments and perspectives reflecting your own specific faith tradition. All posts will be published anonymously, unless the author provides Unkosher Jesus with permission to post his or her name. This will typically include the author's first name and the first initial of his or her last name. No one's contact information will be included with any post.

Again, thank you for logging onto Unkosher Jesus! Without further adieu, let the conversation begin...