When I was small and attending Sunday school, about seven years old, I looked down at the picture in my prayer book. All the people were white, and the thing that struck me, where, and what God did all the other people in the world worship.
My history as an adopted child was kept hidden from me but I was adopted by a Jewish person called Maurice. I cannot tell you much about my would be Belgian stepmother for she died when I was very young. She was called Catherine.
The tale told by my grandfather, for that is all I remember him as, was that they had fled the German soldiers whilst living in Belgium. They had taken the new car and with a mattress tied on top of the car made their way to a ship and escaped to England. Catherine had a small dog snuggled in her fur coat.
At no point in my childhood was I ever introduced to Judaism, it was as if it did not exist. My schooling was Catholic all the way. I remember the nuns at nursery school, moping up after a child had peed on the floor. The kind nuns at Brewood nursing me back from illness for months when the family broke down once more into divorce.
I despise religion for what happens in its name, a belief system that makes people do terrible things, as we are witnessing today. Whichever branch is called upon, there is an arrogance of belief that dictates terms,
Like the child I was then I would say with absolute conviction that that funny man with a beard up in the sky does not exist. That good comes from a moral code, not of righteousness, but because instinct knows how to behave.
Somehow along the way we have been - the human race - corrupted by greed and power. It doesn't happen to everyone, thank goodness, but its simplistic sway on the human race is most manifest in the arena of war.
While our hearts break because of the killing of people both in Israel and Palestine, it doesn't mean we support one side or the other, rather we want the evil that is war to stop and for those in power to see sense.
I think that it is mostly untrue that conflicts such as Palestine/Israel are a fight between two different religions. It is very convenient to call someone anti-Semitic or anti-Islamic. True Moslems and true Jews would abhor what is happening as any other human would, and I can only think of one or two formal religions which do not condone violence or warfare. God is always on their side.
ReplyDeleteWell now I enter into judging, Tom. The present trouble is about territory but behind this is surely religion. A claiming of land. Somewhere back in history, the confident West drew lines in the land of other people and caused misery. Now - the whole world is rocking on its heels as immigrants flood from one country to another, as it will be with the Palestinians. Maybe it is not directly about religion, the cruelty would certainly bear that out.
ReplyDeleteEvery day in this country I read about homelessness, the government are also putting legal immigrants out on the street because of accommodation restriction. How do we cope? apart from sending money to Medecins Sans Frontiers to patch up the broken people?
"God is always on their side." Sounds like Bob Dylan.
DeleteAs far as everyone else's governments are concerned, it is ultimately about money. They all want to be on the winning side, not that there will be any winners on a humanitarian level.
DeleteJust to have to hope that for most people their religion is helpful to them and is peaceful.
ReplyDeleteYes that is true Sue. Religion is there to comfort I suppose.
DeleteI gave up my religion a while ago as eventually it made no sense to me with its rules and fairy tales. It angers me sometimes all of the silly things that I was taught and that I believed for so long. Once I started really looking at it, it fell apart in my mind and I couldn't follow it anymore. Now I just try to treat others the way I would want to be treated and be kind to others.
ReplyDeleteI suppose like Pat, we tend towards Humanism, a secular viewpoint that doesn't believe in the storytelling. I accept the fact that war is fought on many levels but it always seems so pointless Ellen.
ReplyDeleteI can sympathize with those who find the questions overwhelming. Some of it surely comes down to upbringing, whether a particular faith persuasion is nurtured in family of origin or turned into a nightmare. My Dad's French Canadian family was Catholic; my mother was of a very active Wesleyan/Congregationalist background, and that is how we children were brought up. Daddy was fine with that, but his family were not which caused some coolness and distancing, something I learned about much later.
ReplyDeleteThere are deep questions that have no easy answers. At this point late in life I've come to think that 'faith' of any persuasion becomes very individual.
Christianity Sharon has some how flown the nest in the West. We become more secular as time passes. But, as given the rise in being a pagan in this country, people do turn to belief systems, mostly in nature of course. One thing I do know in America Christianity is much more of a ruling force and not always for the best.
DeleteI add my voice to that. My country was born out of the concept of freedom of religion and a separation of church and state. Now we have people demanding that our country must return to God, that we must follow God's law. We have seen that in other countries and decried it. Even fought against it. One of the names we called it was the Taliban.
DeleteI applaud you. Putting it out there takes courage. I do not understand a world where someone can look at a dead child and not grieve. I do, and I am called anti-semitic.
ReplyDeleteI doubt it is courageous not like the photographer in Gaza yesterday. He was from a charity group called Avaaz and was killed but before he died he sent back those most heart rending photos of children he had just photographed. Innocent, smiling, beautiful and telling us what they wanted to grow up to be. All children are beautiful and I am glad that there will be a release of the Israeli hostage children and females. Though now it seems to have been pushed back.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was five years old I met one of my best friends. His mother had been sent out of Germany just before war began, the rest of her family perished. They were not Jewish, but her father opposed the Nazi regime. My friend's father was a German soldier who had been a POW. Just eight years before I was born our countries had been at war. When my mother had to spend time in hospital I was cared for in that family. One day we were at school and the teacher told us a new boy was starting school and he knew that we would be kind to him. That was no problem, our new friend was a witty, charming young boy. He was also black. I often think about those happy days and wonder when the world got so complicated.
ReplyDeleteSome would argue there is just too many of us. I think before social media became such a frenzy, that people accepted each other on their merits. And that of course is not forgetting the racism that was also part of the cities and towns. From there resentment grew, till, we have today different generations calling for recognition John.
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