And think about this whenever progressives — such as we are dealing with in US Orthodox Christianity — say that we have to get with the times, and change our faith and practice to make it more suitable for contemporary America. But remember also the experience of the Conservative Jews: if you don’t both teach and practice your faith — that is, if faith is simply a matter of vague cultural and ethnic commitments and going to the temple on holidays — it will die in your children’s generation.
Rod Dreher, “Moralistic, Therapeutic Judaism” (Jan 10, 2020) HT: D. G. Hart.
*”…if you don’t both teach and practice your faith — that is, if faith is simply a matter of vague cultural and ethnic commitments and going to the temple on holidays — it will die in your children’s generation.”*
And die it did in my conservative-Jewish, middle-class suburban family! My mother routinely lit Friday evening Sabbath candles, covered her head and recited benedictions…but never said anything about Jewish traditions/faith. Much later in life she would confess that she knew nothing about God or her Jewish faith…it was just the way she was raised: Rote, ritualistic religion. We didn’t keep kosher except when my mother’s parents were visiting; my older brother and I went to synagogue only on High Holy Days (Jewish Chreasters); my brother was sent to Hebrew school but I wasn’t — I was just a girl. And so on. Moreover, my father was physically/psychologically abusive; praise God that he upped and got a Mexican divorce (replete with souvenirs for me and my brother!) when I was 13…and was bordering on suicidal. Who could believe in a kind, loving HEAVENLY Father with a dad like that?
Thanks be that in the immediately-ensuing years, the Lord began spiritually tapping me on my shoulder, asking me to look, listen and pay attention — mostly through music (primarily Bach cantatas), and errant readings.
I was well into middle age when I met a lay Bible teacher — an Orthodox Catholic escapee who often bellowed “The sacraments don’t save!” — who asked: With my nominal Jewish background, did I have any knowledge of/curiosity about the amazing continuity of the Old and New Testaments? Studies ensued — which soon included my somewhat-lapsed-in-Christian-faith husband — and we were both baptized in early 2004. And after a long, often-painful set of faith journeys — including a brief talk with a Methodist minister who told us he was “a bit rusty on the Old Testament” — we’ve been members of a PCA church since 2015.
If I were any more blessed, I’d be twins!
Thanks for sharing. It’s amazing, looking back, we see how God has worked in our lives. I think it’s one of the perks of getting old.