Judaism, Islam, and Christianity in their purest forms offer many gifts. The Jewish perspective, beginning with monotheism, has had a profound effect upon western civilization. As Huston Smith says in his definitive book, The World's Religions, "We feel its force in the names we give our children" Michelangelo felt it when he chiseled his ˜David' and painted the Sistine Ceiling; Dante when he wrote the Divine Comedy and Milton, Paradise Lost. Jewish teaching and belief is complex but its essence is this: Morality, justice, meaning, and the hallowing of life.
From the faith of Islam and its Qu'ran, so sadly politicized and corrupted in our time, there is belief in fairness and caring for others, religious tolerance, respect for women and racial equality. (Trust me on this!) As one Islamic scholar has written, "There is something in the religious culture of Islam which inspired, in even the humblest peasant or peddler, a dignity and courtesy toward others never exceeded and rarely equaled in other civilizations. Those who dispute this would do well to keep an open mind while undertaking a guided study of the Qu'ran and the teachings of the prophet Muhammad.
Similarly, Christians (and others) might do well to study the teachings of Christ, leaving aside the machinations and politics of various churches. As the iconoclastic musician Lenny Bruce once noted, "Every day people are straying away from the church and going back to God.
In the end, my daughter chose to be culturally Jewish; my son remains uncommitted. As for me, I am historically and ethnically a Jew through and through. But that doesn't mean I can't partake of the wisdom other faiths have to offer. To paraphrase Virginia Woolf, I have no religion. I want no religion. The world is my religion. How could I go wrong with that temple of possibility?
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