Years ago, in my London days, I remember the young daughter of a friend of mine asking me every now and again questions like: Meirav, can you do such-and-such if you're a Christian?
Which to me, being Jewish, sounded very normal - when you're Jewish, life is full of "can you do xyz" type questions. We don't eat that - we're Jewish. We don't do xyz on Shabbat [Saturday - the Sabbath day] - because we're Jewish. Being Jewish revolves around do's and don'ts (and around finding ways round the don'ts...) - we're used to these sorts of questions. And our rabbis have spent a lot of time on working these things out, laying down guidelines for each and every aspect of behaviour.
There is something about human beings that yearns for clear rules and regulations. There is also something about us that rebels against rules and regulations (whether they are God-given or man-made). And there is something about us that picks certain rules and regulations and places them higher than others...
For some reason, anything to do with sex tends to get a much higher billing. Is it because sex is a more exciting subject than, say, the nicking of paper clips from the office where you work? Or is it because we like to have something we can make a big deal out of, so that we could avoid looking at the planks in our own eyes? It is so much easier to avoid the issues of feuds or gossip within the church if we are focused on those people out there who are sleeping with people they're not married to.
And so, we've got an election looming here and we have topics that are deemed to be "Christian issues" and, whilst all these topics are ones which I believe are important, I feel like shouting: what about the orphans and the widows? what about God's heart for the poor? surely welfare and employment and taxation are Christian issues too? and maybe government policy about social welfare and unemployment benefits is more important than whether or not they will promote marriage?
But that's not what I had in mind when I started forming this post in my head. I was thinking not of the elections but of day-to-day life, of the sorts of choices we make all the time, and thinking how sad it is that you're so much more likely to hear someone saying "I can't do that, I'm a Christian" about, say, going to the pub for a drink than about being nasty towards a fellow human being - sad because if there's one thing that is abundantly clear from the Bible and from Jesus' teachings it is that we are not only to love God but we are to love our fellow human beings as we love ourselves.
We humans are so much more comfortable discussing issues like, is it okay to go to the pub/smoke cigarettes/listen to rock music/etc etc if you're a Christian. From whether or not it's okay to go to the movies, we could then go on some lengthy tangents about exactly what kind of movies it would be okay to watch - do you draw the line at PG, at 12, maybe even 15? And as long as we're discussing these issues, we can avoid thinking about the other, more uncomfortable stuff...
Not to mention the fabulous glow of self-righteousness we can get from counting the specks in the eyes of people we know, and the glee with which we could share that with a Christian friend "just for prayer" - not that we are gossiping, of course...
Now, to go look in the mirror and see how many planks I've got stuck in my own eyes.
Which to me, being Jewish, sounded very normal - when you're Jewish, life is full of "can you do xyz" type questions. We don't eat that - we're Jewish. We don't do xyz on Shabbat [Saturday - the Sabbath day] - because we're Jewish. Being Jewish revolves around do's and don'ts (and around finding ways round the don'ts...) - we're used to these sorts of questions. And our rabbis have spent a lot of time on working these things out, laying down guidelines for each and every aspect of behaviour.
There is something about human beings that yearns for clear rules and regulations. There is also something about us that rebels against rules and regulations (whether they are God-given or man-made). And there is something about us that picks certain rules and regulations and places them higher than others...
For some reason, anything to do with sex tends to get a much higher billing. Is it because sex is a more exciting subject than, say, the nicking of paper clips from the office where you work? Or is it because we like to have something we can make a big deal out of, so that we could avoid looking at the planks in our own eyes? It is so much easier to avoid the issues of feuds or gossip within the church if we are focused on those people out there who are sleeping with people they're not married to.
And so, we've got an election looming here and we have topics that are deemed to be "Christian issues" and, whilst all these topics are ones which I believe are important, I feel like shouting: what about the orphans and the widows? what about God's heart for the poor? surely welfare and employment and taxation are Christian issues too? and maybe government policy about social welfare and unemployment benefits is more important than whether or not they will promote marriage?
But that's not what I had in mind when I started forming this post in my head. I was thinking not of the elections but of day-to-day life, of the sorts of choices we make all the time, and thinking how sad it is that you're so much more likely to hear someone saying "I can't do that, I'm a Christian" about, say, going to the pub for a drink than about being nasty towards a fellow human being - sad because if there's one thing that is abundantly clear from the Bible and from Jesus' teachings it is that we are not only to love God but we are to love our fellow human beings as we love ourselves.
We humans are so much more comfortable discussing issues like, is it okay to go to the pub/smoke cigarettes/listen to rock music/etc etc if you're a Christian. From whether or not it's okay to go to the movies, we could then go on some lengthy tangents about exactly what kind of movies it would be okay to watch - do you draw the line at PG, at 12, maybe even 15? And as long as we're discussing these issues, we can avoid thinking about the other, more uncomfortable stuff...
Not to mention the fabulous glow of self-righteousness we can get from counting the specks in the eyes of people we know, and the glee with which we could share that with a Christian friend "just for prayer" - not that we are gossiping, of course...
Now, to go look in the mirror and see how many planks I've got stuck in my own eyes.
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