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December 19, 2008
Is neighbor's grass greener?
Book looks at Christianity through the eyes of an Orthodox Jew.
DAVE GORDON
What's an Orthodox Jewish man, the son of a rabbi, doing spending a year going to weekly church services?
In Benyamin Cohen's new book, My Jesus Year: A Rabbi's Son Wanders the Bible Belt in Search of His Own Faith (Harper One), he chronicles his adventures and the lessons learned and talks of his renewed faith in Judaism from his experiences. The story was made all the more fascinating, as his wife, the daughter of a Baptist minister, had just finished converting when he embarked on his yearlong journey to explore what churches of various denominations offered their congregants.
JI: How did you come to write this book?
BC: I grew up the son of an Orthodox rabbi, religious my entire life. And when people grow up religious, in any religion, children aren't often given the reasons why they're doing things, they're simply told to do them, as opposed to someone who maybe came to religion later in life, they made an adult decision to become religious. So I always had these festering feelings that Judaism was not my own, even though I was brought up Jewish, I kept kosher, I observed the Sabbath. I never really thought of it as my own. I thought of it as something that my family gave to me.
I grew up in the Bible Belt, and there's a church on every street corner. There are more churches than Starbucks here. And so I look across the street at the church and I see everyone, all the children look like they're having fun. The parking lots are full every Sunday. I was really curious – what are they doing in there that's so exciting? And what could I learn from them to enhance my own religion? I know it kind of seems like an odd way to connect with my own Judaism, but for me I felt that it was something necessary to do.
JI: How did your experience change your perspective?
BC: I realized two things. I realized, number one, that the grass is not greener at the church across the street. You know that old parable – people always wish that they had someone else's problems and not their own problems, and if they saw what the other person's problems were, they'd realize that they're perfectly fine with keeping the problems they already have. I realized that the churches aren't perfect either. They have their own challenges.
The second thing was that it allowed me to step outside my religion, so to speak, and look at it with fresh eyes. Hanging out with these truly religious people, who live truly Christian lives and are God-fearing people, it was inspiring to me, to be in their company, get a fresh perspective on religion, and bring it back to my religion.
JI: Are Jews allowed to go to church?
BC: Technically, no. We grew up across the street from a Methodist church, and we were always told it was like a witch's house, like don't ever step foot over there. I was taught growing up that you're not allowed to go to church. So when I first decided that I wanted to go on this little journey and visit churches for a year, the first thing that was stopping me was my own Jewish guilt, saying, "Hey, you can't do that."
I actually asked around to a bunch of rabbis that I respect and often ask questions of, and lo and behold, one of them said, "Sure, you can go," because he knew I was going for educational purposes. He knew I wasn't going to convert. And he also gave me two conditions: to wear a Jewish skullcap, so that people know that you're an outsider and you're not there to pray, you're there to observe. And also to that notion, he wanted me to wear my press pass, so again that they would know that I'm just there to observe.
JI: What were some of the most memorable services that you attended?
BC: I figured if I was going to do this, I'd jump right in the deep end, so the first church I went to was a Baptist megachurch. Megachurches are anything that has more than 5,000 members. The megachurch I went to had about 15,000 people when I went there. So I guess the term is "baptism by fire."
It was otherworldly. It was an African-American church and I was the only white person there, certainly the only Jewish person there. I thought church was going to be easier than synagogue, but to my surprise the service lasted more than four hours. It felt like it was Yom Kippur. It was a lot of singing and a lot of dancing.
I go to a Jewish Orthodox synagogue, so I'm not used to it all – they had a band, a choir, a hundred people singing. I felt like I was at a concert. They had two large Jumbotron screens and cameras taping the whole thing. It was almost like being in a Hollywood version of a house of worship. It was very surreal.
JI: Did you ever run into so-called miracle healing?
BC: I did. I went to a Pentecostal church, and they're usually the ones that do that type of thing. Throughout the year, I would say I had about 90 per cent good experiences, and I think the Pentecostal church I went to fell into the 10 per cent where I didn't have the most spiritually uplifting experience.
It was what they called a healing and miracles service, and everyone starts speaking in tongues and gibberish, which is a Pentecostal trait at some churches. The minute I walked in, I saw a guy in a wheelchair and I said to myself that I'm sure by the end of the night this guy is going to be walking. And lo and behold, he was by the end of the night.
The person who was running this service seemed a bit disingenuous; it seemed to me he was taking advantage of a lot of the people who were there. To me it wasn't the most spiritual service out there but, as I write in the book, the congregants who were there felt that they were having a spiritual experience. So good for them, even though this man may have been a charlatan, who was running the service, but the people who were there truly believed in what he was doing, so they walked away feeling better about it. I guess there was some redeeming factor to it.
JI: What can Christians gain from Jews, or Jews from Christians?
BC: I think there are a lot of things that synagogues can learn from churches. Churches do a great job of reaching out to new members, and I know Judaism by nature is not a proselytizing religion. We don't go out and seek converts. But still there are plenty of assimilated Jews who don't belong to synagogues and there are plenty of synagogues who are trying to reach those assimilated Jews, to get them to join their ranks. Churches just have a better way of marketing.
The first megachurch I went to, they have so many people that they have buses and shuttles and you have to park a mile away. They actually have, next to the handicap spots, newcomer spots, first-time visitor spots. It's just a small little thing that says we're welcoming of new people.
A lot of times you walk into a synagogue and people ignore you, they won't show you what page they're on. That's one thing, a simple thing, that synagogues can learn from churches.
There's an organization based in California, called Synagogue 3000, and it's a Jewish organization that tries to help synagogues become better organizations, more organized, have better financial stability. One of things they do is have pastors and ministers come in and speak to them about ways to reach out to new members.
Dave Gordon is a Toronto freelance writer. His website is www.DaveGordonWrites.com.
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