{"id":547,"date":"2011-02-15T22:44:00","date_gmt":"2011-02-15T22:44:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/2011\/02\/not-quite-wrestling-with-god.html"},"modified":"2011-02-15T22:44:00","modified_gmt":"2011-02-15T22:44:00","slug":"not-quite-wrestling-with-god","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/2011\/02\/not-quite-wrestling-with-god.html","title":{"rendered":"Not Quite Wrestling With God"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Last night I participated in a program for a local Reform temple\u2019s youth group called \u201cSumo Wrestling with God.\u201d\u00a0 I will alway have a fondness for this congregation because I grew up there.\u00a0 I was, nonetheless, a little flabbergasted that they invited me to sit on the panel.\u00a0 I was also greatly impressed.<\/p>\n

In the tradition of all gargantuan suburban Reform temples worthy of the name, this one boasts four or five rabbis.\u00a0 Three of them were there.<\/p>\n

Let me just say that all three of these rabbis are delightful people.\u00a0 They are smart and, from what I could see, they\u2019re good teachers who care deeply about all things Jewish.\u00a0 I\u2019m not just saying this because they are part of my community.\u00a0 I\u2019m not THAT nice.<\/p>\n

We met very briefly before the program and after niceties and chit-chat we started in on the Big Guy.\u00a0 There was some talk of Kaplan, Buber, psychology, etc.\u00a0 I made a comment about the program notes\u2019 use of \u201cG-d.\u201d\u00a0 By and large, I detected a dearth of theistic conviction on their parts; certainly nothing that would lead to raised tones, much less a Sumo match.<\/p>\n

Based on this and their subsequent presentations, I can report that the state of serious theistic commitment in the Reform movement is right where I would have pegged it: low to non-existent.\u00a0 Are they believers?\u00a0 I suppose they are, though the depth of their belief left almost no impression on me.<\/p>\n

A couple of them described a strong feeling of being guided by the \u201cvoice\u201d of God from within; they shared it as one would with a friend, not as a rabbi making an argument for God\u2019s empirical existence.\u00a0 Another, who described herself as a very rational person with a scientific background, seemed about a hair\u2019s breadth away from secular humanism.\u00a0 I joked with her that I\u2019d check on her progress in ten years.<\/p>\n

When I introduced myself as an atheist, no one fainted.\u00a0 I kept my tone light, focusing on the content of Secular Humanistic Judaism.\u00a0 Out of respect for the format of the program I didn\u2019t challenge my colleagues.\u00a0 I\u2019d love to be on a panel like that where we could really lay it all out on the table, but this was not that discussion.<\/p>\n

Shortly after, I met with the the older teens.\u00a0 More than half self-identified as non-theistic.\u00a0 One young woman said she believed in God, but when she went deeper into it, some of the others (impressively!) said, \u201cNo, you\u2019re a deist.\u201d\u00a0 On issues of personal autonomy, none expressed the slightest disagreement; none felt that there was a text or entity with an authority claim on them.<\/p>\n

Afterward I was asked by a couple of the adults and some of the kids for my website address.\u00a0 I hope they will check it out.\u00a0 It\u2019s difficult to draw a lot of conclusions from such a brief program, but since it was a rare opportunity, I\u2019ll give it a shot.<\/p>\n

First of all, the invitation alone was a strong statement about where young Jews are heading.\u00a0 Recently I was the subject of a heated debate among some not-so-teenagey Jews about whether I should be invited to speak at their Reconstructionist synagogue.\u00a0 Friends report that my position received a very fair hearing (you would indeed expect that the heirs to Mordecai Kaplan could handle a little radical theology).<\/p>\n

Secondly, I was overcome with nostalgia and a strong sense of what could have been.\u00a0 The latter relates to my view that Reform Judaism made the wrong move when it rejected a Secular Humanistic congregation for membership<\/a>.\u00a0 I don\u2019t think we would have overrun the movement, but we sure as hell would have kept it honest.\u00a0 We would also have gained a foothold in a highly developed institution to develop a non-theistic wing of Reform Judaism (such as is found among Unitarian-Universalists).\u00a0 As the saying goes, \u201cCoulda, shoulda, woulda\u2026.\u201d\u00a0 It wasn\u2019t in the proverbial cards and it was a heck of a lot more possible back then.<\/p>\n

Finally, it reminded me again of the opportunities awaiting the Jewish community for a real Post-Theistic Religion\u00a9<\/sup>.\u00a0 For liberal Jewish young people, the stigma of non-theism is gone and it is not inconceivable that they will seek outlets for Jewish identity that don\u2019t conflict with their world views.\u00a0 To put it crassly, the Society for Humanistic Judaism needs to heavily exploit this.\u00a0 It\u2019s time to give the next generation the non-theistic alternative that it deserves.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last night I participated in a program for a local Reform temple\u2019s youth group called \u201cSumo Wrestling with God.\u201d\u00a0 I will alway have a fondness for this congregation because I grew up there.\u00a0 I was, nonetheless, a little flabbergasted that they invited me to sit on the panel.\u00a0 I was also greatly impressed. In the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2281,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[6,24,30,34,39],"class_list":["post-547","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blogentries","tag-atheism","tag-liberal-judaism","tag-non-theism","tag-post-theistic-religion","tag-secular-humanistic-judaism"],"yoast_head":"\nNot Quite Wrestling With God<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Last night I participated in a program for a local Reform temple\u2019s youth group called \u201cSumo Wrestling with God.\u201d\u00a0 I will alway have a fondness for this\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/2011\/02\/not-quite-wrestling-with-god.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Not Quite Wrestling With God\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Last night I participated in a program for a local Reform temple\u2019s youth group called \u201cSumo Wrestling with God.\u201d\u00a0 I will alway have a fondness for this\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/2011\/02\/not-quite-wrestling-with-god.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Atheist Rabbi\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-02-15T22:44:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jeffrey L. 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