Religion

 Religious Beliefs All Share Common Themes

All are Important

 

Growing up in Southern California in the 1950s, my mother took me to her Episcopalian church for Sunday School and services. I was baptized in her church, served as an altar boy, and joined the youth group. I learned lessons from the Bible and participated in services without ever questioning any of it. I learned there were Jews in Palestine and some of the Old Testament tales of their travails. I suppose I knew there were other brands of Christianity, but I had little exposure to them or their followers.

 

At my progressive high school, I was exposed to many other religious beliefs. The kids in my school came from all over the world. Some were Jews, some Muslim, some Quaker, some atheist, some agnostic and some from a sprinkling of Christian denominations. Some of them went to Sunday services in nearby churches, but many of us went to a patch of woods by the Main House and had our own. Those services were less about God than about spirituality and the many ways that gets expressed. 

 

My post high school anti-poverty work in Southern African American communities exposed me to Gospel and other segments of Black churches. I saw emotional connections to religious beliefs for the first time in their services. I later learned of Kwanza and, Glen Grothman’s criticism notwithstanding, felt their unifying messages. 

 

Later in my professional career, I worked with Greens and Native American Tribes in Northern Wisconsin trying to protect the water and our treaty obligations. I attended many Anishinaabe pow wows with my family and experienced a nature-based spirituality unlike any of my other religious experiences. 

 

Older spiritual systems, Pagan and Druid, added their own elements. We still observe the Solstices and passage of the seasons.

 

My own spirituality combines elements from all of these. I still tear up at the Hallelujah Chorus or Ode to Joy. Other classical music of the season is as familiar as when I first heard it. I do know many of the traditional carols by heart and have been known to sing along. I rejoice in Gospel and the songs of the drum from Africa and Northern Wisconsin.  

 

All of these share, at this time of the year, a thankfulness for the bounty our Earth provides, the joys of family gatherings, and a reconnection with the core tenants of their belief systems. It is a time of giving and sharing that is all too fleeting. 

 

On this Christmas Eve, one of the holiest of the Christian faith, my family and I wish all of you, no matter how or what you believe, all the joys of the season and for a peaceful and healthy New Year.