Religious Diversity Experience

Religious Diversity

For the most part, I was raised in the Southern Baptist sect of Christianity. I must say that by the time I was 9 years old, I was disillusioned about religion because of the hypocrisy I saw in how my mother (and others) lived their lives, in contrast to the words they spoke in church. By the time I was a teenager, my mother had stopped attending church, and I had long since quit. I went through a period of time when I was truly an atheist and did not believe that there was any kind of god or "higher power." Now I'm 30, and I believe God exists, and that Jesus Christ was his son and the Savior, so that makes me a Christian, but I do no belong to any particular sect, and I never attend services. I am still repulsed by my mother's (and others') hypocrisy and narrow mindedness, which they cloak with their "religious beliefs". Please understand that I am referring only to my mother and some other individuals I know personally. Obviously, I have strong opinions about organized religion, and most of them are not positive. Don't get me wrong, I think organized religion has historically served a (mostly) good purpose, but I do not think that any one particular religion is 100% correct, nor do I think any one particular religion is 100% wrong.

I have worked at a Jewish social service agency for about two years, now. It is a non-sectarian agency, which means they will help anyone who comes to us seeking help, but they are guided by the principles and beliefs of Judaism. For me, this means I get major Jewish holidays off from work, because the agency closes for them, but I have no obligation to observe the holiday in a religious way. Lucky me. Before I started working there, all I knew was that Jews don't believe Jesus was the Savior and son of God, and that some Jews were "kosher." I have since learned more about the Jewish belief system than I ever guessed existed.

As a result of my exposure to Judaism at work, I decided to attend Friday night Shabbat Services at a local synagogue. I went to Midbar Kodesh Temple with my friend Charlene. It's a Conservative synagogue. There are different denominations of Judaism, which include Orthodox, Conservative and Reform. From what I understand, Conservative is sort of in the middle between Orthodox, which very strictly follows the old teachings and rules, and Reform, which is much more modern and relaxed about the strict rules and customs. The service started at 7:30 PM on Friday, which, at first, seemed very strange to me as I'd never gone to a religious service at night before. The Jewish Sabbath starts at sundown on Friday, and lasts until sundown on Saturday. There are also services on Saturday morning. Actually, they have three official services throughout the day. They are Shcarit, Mincha, and Mariv, which are Morning, Evening and Night.

Someone greeted us at the synagogue as we entered. He handed us a sidur and a flyer that detailed upcoming events at Midbar Kodesh. The service was started with a candle lighting, and the Cantor singing. Then the rabbi greets everyone and the service is in full swing. A sidur is a book of prayers and songs that are recited during the service. There were no long pews for everyone to sit in; there were individual chairs set up instead.

At the front of the