I left the church and organized religion for many reasons, decades ago.

I can’t embrace my enemies.

I sometimes feel hatred (I try not to hold onto it, but it often persists).

I resent being scolded for not mourning those whom others think I should mourn.

When I don’t like folks, I don’t like them and I can’t pretend I care what happens to them.

I won’t harm people, even those I dislike, but I might not help them, either.

And it feels like hypocrisy to pretend otherwise.

The good news is that I don’t generally dislike people for no reason; that’s too much work. They have to really have earned it. 🤨

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samueltyler2 · 80-89, M

I feel the same in many ways, but feel a need to be part of a community. My religions ability to survive despite the number of times we were attacked, the rich heritage holds me in.

bijouxbroussard · F

@samueltyler2 Catholicism doesn’t really do that for me.

samueltyler2 · 80-89, M

@bijouxbroussard i once told you about a movie we saw about a black woman near Chicago who was Jewish Be finally was accepted into the rabbinate. My temple's cantor is an African American gay man.

bijouxbroussard · F

@samueltyler2 Yes, I remember.

samueltyler2 · 80-89, M

@bijouxbroussard people can choose what they personally need. Jews do not proselytize. However, who would even want to be a member of a group that has for so many thousands of years been hated.

bijouxbroussard · F

@samueltyler2 Jewish people have been able to retain their faith and sense of community. Our religions, languages and cultures were prohibited when the ancestors were brought here. A partial exception occurred in the countries with large Catholic populations, where some African slaves were able to quietly combine earth religions with Catholicism, substituting saints for the traditional Orishas. That’s also happened a lot in Louisiana.

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