oh the places we will go

It started with a belated Seder dinner and 5 screaming kids.

It was a conversation on the idea of jewishness being a racial identity or a religion. And then the question was asked by the buddist, yes there was a buddist at the Seder and there was also a very doubting jew (we also had a couple of unitatians sprinkled in there too), “Can you be jewish and not believe in God? And then that question led to “Can you be a Christian and not believe in Christ being the Son of God?”

And oh the places we went, oh the places we went.

The conversation led to the point of “The 2nd commandment does not go far enough. God should not even be spoken of in words. Because he is incomprehensible. Music silence, is a better fit.” Said the doubting jew

“But man has to tell of what he sees and moves him” said the christian.

And then the conversation went to other places
Where is God?
Is free will a crock? How can He not be beyond us and that we do? Isn't God bigger than that?
God is uncontrollable and his incomprehensibility is seen in the fact that he is a God of love yet also the God who killed the first born of the Egyptians. Remember he is incomprehensible? What about suffering?
Can I believe in a God who killed my unborn child? Where is he in our miscarriage?

Oh the places we went in the conversation

And the evening ended with two statements/thoughts. The first one was said at the table, “if you can show me where God is in the suffering, where his glory is, what his glory means, I could believe and be a happier man, can you show me that nnena”

Second thought(i guess it is actually a set of statements) "I studied Christianity because it was what I was not supposed to do and the eastern religions scared me. and I started reading the gospels and thought “This is what it means to be a Christianity. This is the jesus of the bible? He is so radical, so different than the Christianity of the west. Someone comes up to you and hits you and you turn the other check? That does not appeal to my ego. George Bush can’t be a Christian. But what I think gives him an escape hatch is John 3:16. But what about social justice and all this other stuff that is not about personal salvation that is in the bible? Is in the new testament and the words of jesus. It is easy to believe in personal salvation, I want to believe in the gospel being about my personal salvation, I mean who wouldn’t. It appeals to my ego but what about the rest?”

Oh the places we went, oh the places we went.