Great Message; Wrong Messenger

Isn’t it ironic that the forces that drag us apart are the ones that are always preaching about how we need to get together? 

I was reminded of this the other night as I listened to a Rabbi’s sermon decrying the recent horrible hostage taking at a Texas synagogue. The Rabbi eloquently made her point about the community of humanity. Unfortunately, she made it as a leader of one of the very sectarian factions that make that goal of community much more difficult.

The Rabbi denounced the Texas situation, as well she should, but she did so as if the religious animosity exhibited by the hostage taker was some kind of new, unique event. She did so as if Jews, and others who adopt different forms of belief should now change their sense of security; that now we are more threatened than before. She even alleged that this was the first time a synagogue in the United States had been so invaded. The error in this last observation is self-evident. Did the Rabbi forget the tragedy of the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh? 

But even that is hardly the point. The history of religious sectarianism is replete with animosity and violence. It is cliched to say this, but it needs to be said here – religious affiliation has been one of, if not the, greatest source of war and prejudice than any other single idea. For a leader of one of those sectarian bands to be preaching human community is like Mitch McConnel preaching bipartisanship. 

Maybe that’s overstating it. Unlike Mitch, these various groups often do reach out to one another. That’s good as far as it goes.  It just doesn’t go far enough. As long as we feel the necessity to reach out to separate factions, the problems will continue. Why? Because as long as there are separate factions there can be nothing else.

How can we expect to be communal when we constantly define ourselves separately, when we stamp ourselves religiously as us rather than them? And as long as we do that, there will always be lunatics who take it to heart and invade synagogues, or churches, or mosques, or wherever a sect decides is the proper building for them to gather.

Oh, there is so much more to say (volumes have been written) about the distinctions between religions; about whether those distinctions exist at all; about whether any of us are capable of comprehending the ultimate mystery of what life is all about. There is so much more to say about how so many of us ascribe a particular sect as part of us without even understanding what that sect even believes. During the rabbinical service that I talk about here, there were people mouthing the Hebrew words of the prayers. I don’t know this for sure, but my guess is that at least some of them were simply making sounds, the meanings of which they did not know. As someone once said, “Going to Church doesn’t make you a Christian any more than standing in the garage makes you a car.”

We need to see each of us as just another member of the human family. Of course, that’s not easy. We have been tribal from the very beginning. But we are no longer at the very beginning. Why cling to those beginnings? Have we progressed at all? How long will it take for us before we realize that ancient tribal groupings, no matter how important they may once have been, are counter-productive now? It won’t be tomorrow, that’s for sure.  But we can’t assume that it will never happen. We have the power to at least start to make it so. 

The Rabbi’s sermon was beautiful. Unfortunately, it was delivered by the wrong person.