Going to Church?

A friend sent me an email suggesting that I read Vanessa Ochs' article in the New Jersey Jewish News (link here). Ochs writes, "It was Bishop Krister Stendal who illuminated the blessings of interfaith conversations with the concept of 'Holy Envy.'” The idea was to articulate what we admired about other faiths. Here is what I envy: the feeling I get when I go to church." Ochs' goes on to write about the feeling that G-d loves each individual churchgoer that is palpable in the church experience and is so missing from synagogue. She envies the deeply ingrained sense amongst church goers that they are, as specific individuals, the object of G-d's love. She writes that when she goes to synagogue, "I am so busy saying all the words of the prayers and noticing all the people I care about that it never strikes me that I have blown an opportunity to feel I am loved by God."

The point of my friend's email was that there were a several critical letters to the editor suggesting that church is no place for a nice Jewish woman. The letter writers, perhaps unfamiliar with Ochs' extensive knowledge of and commitment to her own tradition, suggested that she spend more time learning about Judaism and less time in the place of the Other. My friend wanted to know what I think.

My response to this is nonsense. I welcome, indeed I want to celebrate, all true expressions of faith in G-d. It is not enough to recognize that there are other paths to G-d, we should seek to understand those paths that are different from our own. Each path has something to teach us about G-d's love for the world G-d created and each of us in it. Understanding and celebrating those paths can broaden and deepen our appreciation for our own path.

In understanding the paths of the Other, we learn what is truly transcendent about G-d. We learn that there are foundations to faith that are independent of a particular ritual or community or tradition. We learn that a true faith is one that leads us, in Karen Armstrong's words, to an "active compassion." We learn that any faith that does not build up the world around us is not a true faith. That any faith that would tear down another in a selfish need to claim ascendancy as a truer faith is no true path to G-d.

We also learn about what distinguishes us. We learn why the Other is Other and why that path is not the path that leads us to G-d. We learn why our path is true for us by understanding the truth in other paths that do not speak to us. And we learn that there is much that other paths can teach us that strenghten, energize, and enliven the path that we have taken.

Ochs clearly understands that we have passed through a time when Jewish suspicion of the Other as stronger and bent on our destruction is warranted and necessary. There are still incidents that should concern us (growing anti-Semitism in Europe, hate in the Arab world, Israel-bashing in the world press), but here in North America, we have built a society in which the open exploration of traditions other than our own is not only possible, but will lead us to new understandings that will enrich us for years to come. So, I would say to my friend, go to church. You may find you are a better Jew for it.