Religious Studies 101

I give my college students a religion quiz every semester, and, for a country theoretically operating on Judeo-Christian principles, I’m hard-pressed to find folks who are clear on the Christian stuff, let alone the Judeo. Despite our nearly 80% self-reported Christianity, we don’t really know a whole lot about our own religious history, so how can we possibly be open to and embracing of other worship forms? Growing up in a religious tradition that strongly discourages outside theological exploration, I was always the oddball interested in what everyone else was doing in the worship department. That may come partially from being raised with Southern roots and not being an evangelical. It may come from a natural curiosity. It could definitely be part of my contrary nature. But, at the heart of it, I think my intrigue with other religious traditions started in earnest the moment I opened my first All of a Kind Family book. Sydney Taylor’s series centers on a turn-of-the-century Jewish family, full of children, in working-class Brooklyn. They are devout, close-knit, and have little but each other. I love them and find myself reading about their adventures even as an adult. It is from them and those in their circle that I learned about the forgiveness of Yom Kippur, the celebration of Rosh Hashanah, the bounty of Succos, and the sanctity of Passover. In Rabbi Francis Barry Silberg’s The Story of Chanukah, a simple board book tells a powerful story of a great people. Yevarchecha hashem. Amen.

http://www.amazon.com/Story-Chanukah-Francis-Barry-Silberg/dp/0824942256

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