Where have you gone sandman?
I'm posting this despite the fact that no one reads my super-secret blog. The deep thought of the day: I'm tired.
Seven of the last nine nights: Slept less than six hours.
What's been on my mind lately? The Frontline episode Faith and Doubt at Ground Zero. Embodies everything I love about the study of religion. Gave me goosebumps. Made me think. Made me cry. Made me want to teach religion in a way that is honest and uncomfortable. Filled me with hope for the human experience, while I drowned in the supposition that war, hate, and religion are going to destroy the world.
From one of the interviews featured:
*When the president said, "This is not a religious issue," that's when I knew it actually was a religious issue. At the same time that Osama bin Laden and that group of people were claiming this was religious, we were claming it's not, but finishing every single sentence with "God bless America." I remember every seventh-inning stretch that had a "God bless America," and my body, literally ... I felt like I was repulsed. I was repulsed that basically all we were doing is, everybody was trotting out their own God.
So we, in America, were trotting out our God -- that's the God of sports, that's the God who comes in and says everything's good. You'll score a touchdown, you'll score, and your army will win. God bless America.
And they were trotting out their God. What really was the difference? Three weeks earlier, everybody was saying it's all the same God. It's all the same God, these monotheist Gods. So if it's all the same God, how come one God kills and one God affirms? I said, "I will never teach about that God again, because that's what that God does."
It was as superficial to say "God bless America" at the end of the presidential speech, as it was dangerous to say, "Our God commanded us to fly into the buildings." I'm still trying to figure out what to do with that realization, in all honesty, because I can't even pray to that God any more.*
-Rabbi Irwin Kula
This was taken from the site http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/faith/interviews/kula.html
Seven of the last nine nights: Slept less than six hours.
What's been on my mind lately? The Frontline episode Faith and Doubt at Ground Zero. Embodies everything I love about the study of religion. Gave me goosebumps. Made me think. Made me cry. Made me want to teach religion in a way that is honest and uncomfortable. Filled me with hope for the human experience, while I drowned in the supposition that war, hate, and religion are going to destroy the world.
From one of the interviews featured:
*When the president said, "This is not a religious issue," that's when I knew it actually was a religious issue. At the same time that Osama bin Laden and that group of people were claiming this was religious, we were claming it's not, but finishing every single sentence with "God bless America." I remember every seventh-inning stretch that had a "God bless America," and my body, literally ... I felt like I was repulsed. I was repulsed that basically all we were doing is, everybody was trotting out their own God.
So we, in America, were trotting out our God -- that's the God of sports, that's the God who comes in and says everything's good. You'll score a touchdown, you'll score, and your army will win. God bless America.
And they were trotting out their God. What really was the difference? Three weeks earlier, everybody was saying it's all the same God. It's all the same God, these monotheist Gods. So if it's all the same God, how come one God kills and one God affirms? I said, "I will never teach about that God again, because that's what that God does."
It was as superficial to say "God bless America" at the end of the presidential speech, as it was dangerous to say, "Our God commanded us to fly into the buildings." I'm still trying to figure out what to do with that realization, in all honesty, because I can't even pray to that God any more.*
-Rabbi Irwin Kula
This was taken from the site http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/faith/interviews/kula.html