Whose God? - The Thin Edge of Dignity

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

By Dick Weinman, AARP Volunteer and Assisted Living Guru

I winced when I received the Newsletter of my ALF. The Newsletter for the Spring months of March or April is usually devoted to the reawakening of nature, a celebration, both religious and mythological, of what Stravinsky imagined musically, as “The Rites of Spring.” But religion?

The “rite” celebrated in the Newsletter was presented as a poem, which hallowed the Spring Christian holiday, Easter, taking for granted that others make the same assumption about the religious nature of Spring.

I understand why Spring is synonymous with the Christian holiday. After all, 71% of Americans who consider themselves religious, call themselves Christian; only 6% of Americans who declare they’re religious, are non-Christian. But they’re there.

Surveys identify 12 major non-Christian faiths: the Abrahamic religions of Judaism and Islam, and the not as familiar Baha’i, Buddhism, Confucianism, Hinduism, Jainism, Shintoism, Sikhism, Taoism, Wiccan, and Zoroastrianism.

Thus, the religious body of America is composed of a diversity of parts.

And even before there were church going folks, the season of Easter was the time of the year when ancient pagans celebrated the gods who powered nature’s reawakening: Maia for the Greeks, Flora for the Romans, Isis for the Egyptians, Ostara - whose magic was celebrated by painted eggs and white rabbits – in the Celtic culture. . . Hmm!

While there is such a diversity of religious faiths in America, only one is commemorated in the poem that is the core of the Newsletter. Because of length restraints, I won’t quote the whole poem, just segments:

God sent His Son. . . Jesus gave his life. . . . His resurrection proves He is our Lord. . . .

You may have noticed – my name is Weinman, a name associated with the shtetls of Russia and Eastern Europe. Therefore, the poem doesn’t resonate with me; nor, I would think any of the other religions listed above.

Interestingly, many of them celebrate joyous time in the months of March and April. I, a Jew, celebrate Pesach. Bahai’s and Persians celebrate Naw Ruz. The Hindus among us celebrate Holi; the Buddhists, Theravada.

Of course, I’m not blind to the fact that I’m the only Jew in my ALF; that all of us residents are White. Mostly Catholic. The Newsletter represents the majority in here.

But not the majority in our city, or our state, or our country.

Irving Berlin, a Jew, wrote the hymn-like song, God bless America. Whose God was he asking?