Passover

My supervisor is Jewish, and while she is a self-proclaimed "ambivalent Jew" she does enjoy many aspects of being Jewish.  We have a lot of interesting conversations together about her Jewishness, and how Jewish people are.  One day, she was telling me about something her daughter, Lena, said.  She pointed out that many Christians, in general, more comfortable with the idea of lying.  Santa Clause exists.  Instead, as a Jew, she is taught to ask questions, and the most important thing to the Jews is truth.  As my supervisor said, "You may do something bad, but if you lie to me about it that's worse", referring to her kids.

It seems that Christians are taught to just accept things, whatever is told to them, while Jews are taught to question everything.  In my brief involvement with Christianity (went to church, youth group, hung out with tons of church kids), and my experiences with my (now) very Christian mother, I have never felt like I was really taught to question anything about the bible, about the religion, what the pastor says.  I was taught to reflect on it, but never to question it.  According to my supervisor, though, Jews believe there are five kinds of children, and the worst one is the one who doesn't ask questions.  Jews, she said, are taught to sought out the truth and question everything they're told.  As Lena says, "I can't help asking questions, I'm too Jewish".

If Christians ever decided to really think about some of their "sins", like homosexuality, they will find there is absolutely no real justification for their belief.  Now I'm not saying every Christian doesn't question what they're told, or that every Christian is against homosexuality, but let's take a deep look at, for example, my mom's argument on why homosexuality is a sin.  I asked her why it was a sin.  She said, because God says so.  Now, why would God make it a sin?  Homosexuality is not only something hard-wired in the brain and, ultimately, unchangeable (science articles, experiments, brain scans, etc. say so!), it occurs in every species of animal known to man (well, I guess would hermaphroditic or one-celled dividing animals count...).  Now is every species on Earth ultimately sinning?  And is it really a sin if it's as natural as your gender identity or drive for food?

To happier things, I attended my first Seder today, presided over by two of my housemates, an Israelian Jew and an American Jew (crazy wicked bass player + drummer/guitarist/singer).   Also in attendance were most of my other housemates, plus our friends and, for many, family members.  It was fun, spiritual, delicious, and a great mind-opener.  Great night...

Good night.