Open and Closed Religious Borders

These days, people feel free to leave their birth religions to investigate, explore or join another religion.  Some have left religion all together and decided to be agnostic or atheist. Some have grown up without any religion.  Some people mix one religion with another.  There are “dones and “nones”, people who are done with the Church, synagogue or mosque and others who claim to have no religion at all.  Intermarriage between religious believers is rampant.  This wild west religious migration is happening right in front of our eyes.  The world is getting smaller.  We are learning what other people believe.  Religious borders and boundaries are open!

In my own life, I left my religion and community, explored and joined Lutheran Christianity for many years, and finally returned to the Jewish community and tradition.  This has been my religious journey.

I felt free to run away.  And by the way, running away is not always bad.  For some it is the only way to remain sane. There are so many different stories.   Sometimes, like me,  you just need to leave your religious tradition, come to feel completely empty and lost and even join another religion before you wake up. I ran away from the craziness of my family.  I ran and ran as far as I could get. I returned to Judaism when I could no longer run away from my own soul. 

We need to think about how we look at the world’s religions.  We need to avoid two extremes, religious absolutism and religious relativism. No religion has the absolute truth. Religions contain a glimpse of certain truths.  At the same time, it’s wrong to say that every religion is as good as another. Some religious interpretations endorse hatred and violence. Some religions should be avoided.  We need to listen to what others believe with wisdom and discernment. 

Members of each religion should be loyal to and defend their own tradition. That’s fine.  But, at the same time, believers need to be honest about the strengths and weaknesses of their own religious tradition. Religions are, after all, tentative, diverse, and disputatious.  Religions have much to learn from each other. And, remember, God is not a member of any religion.  God is God!

So, I am not upset by all the religious exploration and migration going on.  In its disruptive and sometimes ignorant manner, it demonstrates the importance and vitality of religious questions.  Neither science or secularity will do away with these questions.  Mistakes will be made, there will be regrets, and forgiveness necessary for doing the best you could with what you knew.  People will leave and sometimes return to their traditions.  Such is our life together.  Such is my life.