Comments | scarlettina: Yet another interfaith experience and the inevitable post-event thought dump

scarlettina

Yet another interfaith experience and the inevitable post-event thought dump

Mar 09, 2008 23:30

wanton_heat_jet teaches church school (read "Sunday school") at a local Unitarian church of which he's a member. He's a staunch atheist, but has a deep interest in history and spiritual traditions and is very well read on the subject. He recently asked me to come to his class and speak about Passover; today was the class. The whole experience has been interesting ( Read more... )

religion, jewish, deep thoughts

Comments 40

mimerki March 10 2008, 07:23:05 UTC

Thank you for posting this. I think I'm too sleepy to express this clearly but I really appreciate your thoughts and they've given me a lot to chew on.

scarlettina March 10 2008, 13:17:13 UTC

You're welcome. :-)

anaka March 10 2008, 07:24:15 UTC

My grandfather's family was from Bohemia back in the day (now the Czech Republic). This meant pretty close to nothing to me as far as my personal identity goes until I moved go Chicago. While I lived there, I was about halfway between Little Puerto Rico and Little Poland. It was the latter that made a bigger impression on me, because suddenly, for the first time in my life, I would go down the street and see people who looked like me. My nose, my mom's nose, chins, eyebrows, hair... it was shocking, really. I wasn't there long enough for that feeling to really sink in and let me totally figure it out, but I will never forget it.

scarlettina March 10 2008, 14:15:11 UTC

It's a fascinating sensation. When I was in Jerusalem, I felt completely at home and completely safe in part, I think, because I saw so many people around me who looked like me. I was mistaken, more than once, for a native. There was a comfort in it that I hadn't felt in years.

mysticalforest March 10 2008, 07:39:17 UTC

I'm an atheist and I celebrate (well, Solstice) and Easter because in one you get gifts and the other you get chocolate bunnies. Those are very awesome.

Now, of course I don't do the whole Jesus thing for either one so I guess I don't really celebrate either, I just enjoy the trappings. And by trappings I mean gifts and chocolate bunnies. When I think of Easter I think of bunnies and chocolate, not of any sky fairies. When I think of Christmas I think of Solstice instead but then of red and green decorations and pretty lights and gifties.

So ... am I really celebrating either? Not really, but I fully understand the idea of celebrating without necessarily attaching religion to 'em.

scarlettina March 10 2008, 13:38:09 UTC

Here's the challenge for me: When I see a church that includes on its calendar Maundy Thursday, Easter, and a Christmas service and a Hallelujah chorus sing-and-play-along, what I see is a Christian approach. You just don't celebrate those days--in any way--if you're Jewish or Muslim or Buddhist. And when a theoretically flavorless church includes observance of no other tradition's holidays on its calendar--like Chanukah, Passover, Ramadan or Obon--I find it challenging to accept the idea that a church celebrates aspects of every faith. It seems to me that there's a contradiction there ( ... )

mysticalforest March 10 2008, 16:34:14 UTC

Eww, yes, it certainly looks that way... :(

willowgreen March 10 2008, 17:10:15 UTC

What a great post! And thank you, on behalf of UUs everywhere, for doing this class with your friend ( ... )

Thread 6

mevennen March 10 2008, 10:12:02 UTC

I'm sorry about the cup - that's rotten. :-(

but overall it sounds like an interesting experience and I bet the children will never forget it. I was very kindly invited to a Passover supper in London a few years ago and found the whole thing fascinating. I sometimes get invited to schools to talk about Druidry etc and that's always rewarding - last time was a Catholic school in London and they were great.

scarlettina March 10 2008, 13:42:53 UTC

I always enjoy an opportunity to talk about faith. dochyel woke this up in me, and it's one of the (many) things about our friendship that lives on in me.

Yeah, the cup breakage, even this morning, still makes me sad. It's hard to lose a ritual item you've put love and time and thought into. I can't throw it away; I may end up burying it the way one does a torah that's no longer kosher or too old and delicate to handle. It seems the only respectful way to handle it.

caryabend March 10 2008, 15:58:21 UTC

That's a great thought. I'd like to think that David would be glad you're using your heart and your head together.

What was the cup made of? I'm presuming a ceramic of some kind. That would make it hard to incorporate into another ritual item.

scarlettina March 10 2008, 17:02:22 UTC

I made it at one of those paint-your-own-ceramics places so, yes, it was ceramic. I'll need to find someplace appropriate to bury it.

As regards David, well, while I was teaching, I was wearing the Jewish star he gave me and the one I gave him (which I always wear together now), so I know he was there in spirit.

Thread 7

neutronjockey March 10 2008, 12:01:29 UTC

I think I'm the closest thing to being Jewish that Tulsa has seen in ages--- and that's not very close. (j/k, I'm pretty sure there's a synagogue and a chabad or two)

If you need something leathery done for your Cup of Miriam let me know... I happen to know this guy who can get Hebrew letters:

( ... )

scarlettina March 10 2008, 13:44:58 UTC

Thanks for the offer. That means a great deal to me. Let me think if there's a way I can accept that makes sense in context.

In the meanwhile, please feel free to come back and read the post again when you're more caffeinated. I'd be curious to hear your thoughts.

pt I neutronjockey March 11 2008, 00:18:53 UTC

I can't think of a way to integrate leather with a cup of Miriam--- but for some reason (well, okay the reason being your post re: Judaism) I remembered several Hebrew letter sets sitting in the local leather shop gathering dust. Here in Oklahoma---imagine that. The offer of course, if you can find a need for it, still stands ( ... )

Re: pt I scarlettina March 11 2008, 04:41:09 UTC

I think having an athiest teach at a Unitarian (I assume Unitarian Universalism) church is made of win.

Me, too.

Inviting guest speakers of different denominational backgrounds is also made of awesome.

I loved doing it.

I think one of the important things for a guest to do in a teaching/learning environment is to get together and discuss how the class should unfold.It wasn't for lack of trying, believe me. I love JT, but he's sort of an on-the-fly kind of guy. Sadly, I'm not quite psychic enough (or avian enough) to maintain formation as perfectly as I would have preferred. I am, generally speaking, a plan-it-out kind of instructor; I've taught locally at continuing ed programs and, of course, at conventions, and I've had a little training as an instructor, so putting together a lesson plan was something I wanted to do. But without more specific input from JT than "we'll wing it," and it being his classroom, I was a little hamstrung. We did fine in the end. The kids seemed to get it and and enjoy it. Was it ideal? No, probably ( ... )

Thread 5