Rabbi Jennifer Clayman

January 1, 2010

This Year in God

Before the advent of The Colbert Report, back when Stephen Colbert was just a correspondent for The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, Mr. Colbert sometimes led a segment called “This Week in God.”  The segment would catalogue, with typical Daily Show irreverent humor, the foibles of one world religion or another—and all of the world’s major religions (including Judaism) got their fair share of ridicule.

Well, it’s New Year’s Night, and the new year—Jewish or secular—always brings with it the desire for retrospective.  The blogosphere is full of top ten lists that have appeared in the last week or so, like “The Top Ten Scandals of 2009” and “The Top Ten Awkward Moments of 2009.”  I therefore think it’s time for “This Year in God,” a review of some of the top religion stories of 2009.  The purpose here is not to ridicule, but rather to reflect on the ways in which religion impacts our world and our lives.

One of the top religion “stories” of the year was the publication of new research about the religious lives of Americans.  The Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life released the results of a survey of more than 35,000 American adults which asked about their religious beliefs, practices and affiliations.  One of the key findings, in the words of the report, was that “More than one-quarter of American adults (28%) have left the faith in which they were raised in favor of another religion—or no religion at all…

44% of adults have either switched religious affiliation, moved from being unaffiliated…to being affiliated, …or dropped any connection to a specific religious tradition altogether.”  In other words, the data tell us that religious life in America is dynamic.  Religion matters to us, and perhaps more specifically, finding a religious home that speaks to us, resonates with us, and helps us make meaning of life—this matters to us.

The report had some findings about American Jews: seventy-two percent of us believe in God with some degree of certainty.  When asked how often they attend worship services, the majority of Jews who responded (69%) said they attend a few times a year or less.  As a rabbi and educator, I am concerned that so many American Jews are searching for meaning and not finding it in our synagogues, or at least not in worship.

Cross the Atlantic Ocean, and we move from a study of the ways in which Americans exercise our religious freedom to a place where religious freedom, surprisingly, is in danger.  A month ago, the Swiss people passed a referendum outlawing the building of minarets at mosques.  A Jewish equivalent might be telling us that we’re not allowed to have an ark, or a bima, in our synagogues.  The Swiss government has said that the ban (which legally must now become part of the Swiss constitution) does not represent “a rejection of the Muslim community, religion or culture.”  Nevertheless, anyone concerned with the rights of religious minorities has cause for alarm.

I am pleased that the Federation of Swiss Jewish Communities opposed the referendum, and that Robert Sugarman and Abraham Foxman of the Anti-Defamation League issued a statement after the vote urging the Swiss government “to be vigilant in its defense of religious freedom.”  As Jews, we know the price of allowing bigotry to flourish in any corner of the world, and we should add our voices to the cry for tolerance.

The world did cry for tolerance—or at least for clarification—when Pope Benedict XVI revoked the excommunications of four bishops who were members of the anti-Vatican II group, the Society of St. Pius X.  One of those bishops, Richard Williamson, denied the scope of the Holocaust, including the existence of the gas chambers, in a televised interview.  The international uproar this caused—including criticism from Angela Merkel of Germany—led the Pope not only to make a strong statement that Holocaust denial will not be tolerated among Catholic clergy, but also reaffirming Nostra Atatae, the Vatican II statement that absolves the Jews of liability for the death of Jesus.

The Pope made other news this year by making overtures to Anglicans who are angered by their Church’s acceptance of gay priests and bishops, saying that they can rejoin the Catholic Church but still use their own liturgy.  Even married Anglican priests will be accepted.

The relationship between organized religion and the gay and lesbian community has seen other interesting twists and turns this year.  The controversy continues over the role of conservative churches in the passing of Proposition 8.  Reverend Rick Warren, a supporter of Proposition 8, offered the invocation at President Obama’s inauguration, much to the dismay of the LGBT community.  But Reverend Warren also made news by campaigning against legislation in Uganda that would criminalize homosexual behavior.  In an open letter to the Ugandan government, Reverend Warren called the legislation “un-Christian.”   The bishop Gene Robinson, the first openly gay bishop in the Episcopal Church, also offered an inaugural invocation, this one at the  “We Are One” ceremony at the Lincoln Memorial.  In his prayer, he asked God to bless our country with anger at the injustices of the world.

These stories—about the Pope, the Episcopal Church, the Inauguration—they highlight the intersection between religion and political power.  It’s not surprising that they appear on lists of the “Top Religion Stories of the Year” produced by Time Magazine, USA Today and other news organizations.  But I’m also interested in less “newsworthy” stories, some of them political, some not, about how people of faith have acted in the world in the last year.  These stories can be harder to find, but they are out there.  There are hundreds, if not thousands, of examples of people of faith doing things to make the world a better place.

Just one example: The town of La Oroya in Peru is called one of the most contaminated places on earth.  It is home to an American-owned metal smelting plant that’s been operating since the 1920s.  Pollution from the plant has been extensive, and a 2005 study estimated that over 90 percent of the town’s children had lead poisoning.  In 2009, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights examined a complaint against the Peruvian government for violations related to the case.  Despite many setbacks, there is hope for justice for the town’s citizens.  This is a religion story because the plight of La Oroya was first brought to international attention by Presbyterian missionaries from St. Louis who have been working in the town since the late 1990s.  Their advocacy, rooted in the idea that suffering in one corner of the world is a moral problem for us all, is slowly making a difference.

In our own country, as we have engaged in the debate over health care, people of faith have added their voices to the conversation in ways that haven’t always been picked up in the news.  In September, a group of Jewish, Muslim and Christian clergy from the Tampa Bay area joined together to call for health care reform as a moral imperative.  In a signed statement, they said, “Our faith traditions teach us that care and compassion for the sick and injured is a basic human responsibility rooted in the foundational principle of affirming human worth and dignity…As people of faith, we envision a society where each person is afforded human dignity, health, and wholeness.”  May those words come to fruition in the next year.

One more story: In January 2009, there was a conference on Baptist-Muslim relations held just outside of Boston.  According to Roy Medley, General Secretary of the American Baptist Churches, the conference consisted of “…eye-opening moments for [members of each faith] as Muslims asked to learn more about religious liberty and the separation of church and state in democratic, pluralist societies [and] Baptists were challenged to think more about submission to God, the regular practice of prayer, and the practice of charity as essential to love of neighbor.”  The efforts of members of both groups to heal past hurts have been filmed in a documentary called “Different Books, Common Word” which will be on television soon.  As of right now, there is no broadcast scheduled for the Bay Area, but you can see most of the film at http://www.ethicsdaily.com/news.php?viewStory=15076.  It is possible for people faith to learn from one another, to deepen each other’s humanity, and to enrich each other’s experience of God.

The New York Times’ Nikolas Kristof recently wrote, “Religion has often been part of the problem, but…it also can be part of the solution.  I’ve seen people kill in the name of religion, and I’ve seen people reject condoms in the name of religion even as a tool for fighting AIDS…But I’ve also seen Catholic nuns showing unbelievable courage and compassion in corners of the world where no other aid workers are around, and mission clinics and church-financed schools too numerous to mention.  And in Islamic countries, I’ve seen mullahs who are hypocritical misogynists, but also some imams who are leading a push for education and justice.  In short…religions can be a force for justice and equality…”

When I was a teenager, my rabbi taught my Confirmation class that religion is “how human beings change the world from the way it is to the way it ought to be.”  In the past year, in some places in the world, people let their faith be a force for good.  May the next “Year in God” be one of justice, compassion, and peace.