[Vision2020] Religion and morality

[Chasuk]

On 9/28/05, Joan Opyr <joanopyr at earthlink.net> wrote:

> I wouldn't describe myself as an ex-Christian, but rather as a
> convinced Jew.

When I was a teenager, still deeply involved in the tongues-speaking,
rolling-on-the-floor brand of Christianity (inherited from my mother;
my father was a Baptist) I fell in love with a Jewish girl named
Andrea.  Her parents, I think, both embraced Reform Judaism, but I am
almost certain that I detected a longing for Conservative Judaism in
her mother.  Andrea was teaching me Hebrew, and bought me a "pocket
Talmud" for my birthday, and we were both wonderfully, naively happy. 
Then my mother informed Andrea one evening that she would burn in hell
forever because "her people" had murdered Jesus.

Andrea's mother said to her daughter (while I was within earshot)
"stop dating the goy," and Andrea, being dutiful and sensible,
immediately complied.  Of course, I was devastated, but  I survived
the heartache.  I did eventually name my eldest daughter after Andrea,
with my wife's approval (first, because she liked the name; second,
because she is not the jealous type).

Anyway, I pondered my mother's pronouncement, and this led me,
ultimately, to my own atheism/agnosticism/freethinker status.  I've
shed the labels due to boredom with continual and fruitless debate of
their meanings, but they still essentially apply.  Along the way, I
read every Jewish author that I could get my hands on, including
Herman Wouk, Howard Fast, Saul Bellow, Chaim Potok, Issac Bashevis
Singer, etc., and still find that Judaism resonates with me more than
any other organized faith.

Andrea also was entirely accepting of my bisexuality, and, in fact,
recognized it in me before I had named it to myself.  I owe her a lot
for helping me set the course of my own self discovery.

I'm gay and nearly-Jewish and you are a lesbian and Jewish.  Does that
mean we have a few things in common, Joan?  ;-)