Seeking
As said here recently, I'm reading two books. And I'm reading them slowly, for different reasons. One book is "Darkness at Chancellorsville," a novel about that battle of our American Civil War when General Stonewall Jackson was mistakenly shot by his own Confederate forces and died soon after, a real blow to the Confederacy. The author, Ralph Peters, takes us into the minds of soldiers of all ranks, private through general, on both sides. I'm reading it slowly because it's an adventure that happens to me as I read, and I'm not anxious for it to end. From days in the senior classroom of Bill Weeks' World History class at Bay High, and continuing interest over the years, I already know the story anyway, so the novel is itself the adventure, not rushing to find out what happened.
Not up to the authors of "A Soldier of the Great War" or "Midnight's Children" by far, Peters does a really good job of keeping me reading slowly and trying to keep up with who each next paragraph is about, because he shifts characters almost that often; and turning pages, and setting aside Time to open it at my bookmark and disappear into it again. It's hard to put it down except when the battlefield gore goes deeply realistic - - the surprised young soldier looking down at his torn-open chest and watching his exposed heart still beating as he takes his last breaths.
The other current book is Christian Wiman's latest, "Zero at the Bone," which is not speed-readable anyway. It's going into a gallery of modern art to sit down and work out, say, all the angles and details of a Picasso, or of an abstract painting with even less objectivity than Picasso, zero objectivity, just slashes and splots of paint, all imaginable colors and some never imagined. So, pick Wiman up and read a while.
In reading it, I've gone on line to read any number of articles about Wiman himself, and Wiman being interviewed including podcasts where I can hear him speaking, and other people reviewing and commenting on Wiman and his work. Some reviewers are extremely critical, most praise him; some of those who praise him, I'm wondering as I read their words, whether they're actually ignoramuses praising the emperor's new clothes because Wiman is "in" at the moment and the Dean of Yale Divinity School has said that Wiman is their treasure.
Wiman currently is a lecturer at Yale Divinity School, and has been teaching there a decade. I wanted to find out how the divinity students there feel about him, whether they could actually take him seriously or just as a lovable and enjoyable distraction from the usual theological studies, but I'd forgotten that Yale Divinity School itself is "off the main track" as it is, so much so that one of our bishops refused to let Yale Divinity School graduates into the diocese as priests. So, it didn't surprise me to read a line that included the phrase about "half-atheist divinity students ..."
Anyway all that came to mind as I opened my email this morning, including the article from Haaretz that I copy and pasted below. As a serious "Seeker" (seek the truth, come whence it may, cost what it will), odd subjects and strange wanderings fascinate me. This one did and does.
Why would it be so? I don't necessarily identify with it, but it takes me into my world where there is no room for certainty, and, knowing some Jewish history, I can understand. Which brings me round to why I thought of Wiman as I read the Haaretz article.
In chapter [1], titled "I Will Love You In The Summertime" (pages 6,7), Wiman describes a night when his two year old daughter Eliza comes into his room because every time she closes her eyes she sees terrible things. Trying to help her, Wiman suggests that she pray to God, get down on her knees and ask God to give her good thoughts. Eliza says, "Oh, I don't think so Daddy." When he asks, "why not?" Eliza says, "Because in Tennessee I asked God to turn me into a unicorn and" - - she spread her arms wide in a disconcertingly adult and ironic shrug - - "look how that's worked out."
In chapter [6] "Issues of Blood" Wiman tells about Etty Hillesum's diary. She's a twenty-seven year old Jewish woman voluntarily working with Jews who are penned in a transit camp as they wait to be transported to one of the German death camps. Never religious before, Etty prays, and she writes about the Jews praying and singing as they board the death trains. What's the point?
Many Jews in the German concentration camps asked, "Where is God? Where is God now?" as , tormented by evil, they lived into the experience of what's often called "the absence of God." For many Jews who grew up hearing about The Exodus from Egypt when the God of Israel saved them, and at the holy supper hearing the youngest person at the table intone, "Why is this night different from all other nights?," God's absence during The German Holocaust is their gate to pragmatism.
All this, not only my good experiences but the Other experiences and stories of the disenchanted disillusioned, and my ongoing gaze into the night sky, are part of my Seeking. As I've said often before, the cost can be immense. Though fascinated by Jewish thought, I am not Jewish or inclined to be. Neither am I atheist, half-atheist, or agnostic. But I'm intrigued with what the "originator" of Progressive Christianity wrote (progressive Christianity is not synonymous with progressive politics).
The term was first coined by German-American, Lutheran pastor and scholar, Rev. John H. W. Stuckenberg. “I favor a progressive Christianity based on the living teachings of Christ and his Apostles. I am opposed to the stagnation created by religious dogmatism and traditionalism." I well remember reading Thomas Merton in "The Seven Storey Mountain" years ago; Merton reflecting on the New England family of Episcopalians with whom he lived for a while as an impressionable boy and young man; Merton wrote that we have no religion, that all we do is go to Sunday church, rote through the Prayer Book service, and go home satisfied that we've checked off our religious obligation, that it has nothing whatsoever to do with our lives, and that doesn't even occur to us. Merton had no use for us! Myself, I disagree with Merton, I hope our Baptismal Covenant with creedal beliefs and life commitments is changing and saving us. RSF&PTL.
At any event, here's the Haaretz article from this morning's online edition.
And as always and ever, remember that I don't ramble down these byways for you, but for myself: it's part of my own journey that helps keep me thinking I'm still sane.
T89&c
image above pilfered from an online podcast during which Christian Wiman is speaking.
Jews Less Likely to Believe in God Than Any Religious Group in America, Survey Shows
According to the latest Religious Landscape Study, conducted by the Pew Research Center, Jews are more likely to be intermarried and to support abortion and gay rights than most other Americans. After Hindus, they earn more money than members of any other religious group
Jews are less likely than members of other religious groups in the United States to believe in God, to be married to members of their own religion, and to pray regularly, according to an in-depth study published on Wednesday by the Pew Research Center.
The study also found that Jews were more likely than most Americans to believe in evolution, to consider immigration to the United States as a positive phenomenon, and to support gay, transgender and women's reproductive rights.
The Religious Landscape Study was conducted between July 2023 and March 2024 among a nationally representative sample of nearly 37,000 respondents. It was last conducted in 2014, and before that, in 2007.
It found that 62 percent (the figures have been rounded off) of Americans identify as Christian, 29 percent as religiously unaffiliated, and 7 percent belong to religions other than Christianity. Jews account for 2 percent of the U.S. population, while Muslims, Hindus and Buddhists each account for 1 percent.
The percentage of Jews has remained virtually unchanged from the previous two surveys. After declining over a period of many years, the study found that the share of Christians in America has levelled off.
Although Jews were less likely to be "believers" than members of other religious groups, the study found that they were more likely than most Americans to belong to a house of worship.
It also found that Jews tend to be far better educated than most Americans, bigger earners and more likely to identify as gay, lesbian or bisexual.
Here are some of the key takeaways from the study:
■ Jews are less likely to believe in God than members of other religious groups in the United States. Among the Jewish respondents, 18 percent said they did not believe in God. That compares with 8 percent of Americans overall, 3 percent of Protestants, 6 percent of Catholics and 2 percent of Buddhists. The survey shows that Americans overall are becoming less convinced of a divine existence. In 2007, more than 70 percent of the respondents said they were certain God exists. By 2014, only 63 percent did, and in the latest survey, their share had dropped to 54 percent. Among Jewish respondents, 41 percent said they were certain God existed in 2007. Seven years later, only 37 percent were, and in the latest survey, their share was down to 29 percent. Jews are also less likely than Americans overall, the survey found, to believe in the concepts of heaven and hell.
■ Jews are more likely than members of other religious groups to say that religion is not too important or not at all important in their lives. Among Jewish respondents, 43 percent said that was the case for them, compared with 11 percent of Protestants, 17 percent of Catholics and 13 percent of Muslims.
■ Only one in three Jews reported that religion was very important to their family when they were growing up. That compares with 45 percent of Americans overall, about half of all Protestants and Catholics, and two out of every three Muslims. Six out of 10 Jews said that the Bible is not too important or not at all important to them.
■ Among married Jews, 35 percent reported having non-Jewish spouses. Among Protestants, only 19 percent were married to non-Protestants, and among Catholics, only 25 percent were married to non-Catholics. Seven percent of U.S. Jews have Protestant spouses, and 11 percent have Catholic spouses.
■ Jews tend to be geographically concentrated in the Northeast, where they account for 4 percent of the population – as opposed to 1 percent in the Midwest and the South and 2 percent in the West.
■ Jews are more likely than most Americans to attend private religious educational institutions for most of their schooling. Among the Jewish respondents, 18 percent said they had attended private Jewish day schools for at least seven years. That compares with 11 percent of Americans overall and 5 percent of Protestants. Only Catholics attended private religious schools at a higher rate (25 percent).
■ About three-quarters of American adults who were raised Jewish still identify as Jewish. That is similar to the share raised Muslim, somewhat lower than the share raised Hindu, but somewhat higher than the share raised Protestant and Catholic.
■ Jews are far less likely than members of other religious groups to have grown more religious over the course of their lifetime. Only 18 percent of the Jewish respondents said this was the case for them, as compared with 28 percent of Americans overall, 43 percent of Protestants, 30 percent of Catholics and 38 percent of Muslims. Of the Jewish respondents, 29 percent reported becoming less religious over the course of their lifetime.
■ Fewer than half of Jewish Americans attend religious services at least once a month. That compares with more than two-thirds of Americans overall, 80 percent of Protestants, 75 percent of Catholics and 55 percent of Muslims. Buddhists (24 percent) were the only group less inclined to pray than Jews. Jews were also least likely (tied with Buddhists) to pray on a daily basis. Only 22 percent said they prayed at least once daily, half the percentage of overall Americans. Still, 42 percent of the Jewish respondents said they belonged to a house of worship – somewhat higher than Americans overall (37 percent).
■ Among Jewish respondents, 87 percent believe in evolution. That compares with 80 percent of Americans overall, 76 percent of Protestants, 80 percent of Catholics and 82 percent of Muslims.
■ Among Jewish respondents, 82 percent say homosexuality should be accepted by society. That compares with two-thirds of Americans overall, 50 percent of Protestants, 74 percent of Catholics and 41 percent of Muslims.
■ Jews are more likely than members of any other religious group to say that greater acceptance of transgender people is a "change for the better." Among Jewish respondents, 59 percent supported greater inclusivity for transgender people, as compared with 39 percent of Americans overall, 26 percent of Protestants, 36 percent of Catholics and 33 percent of Muslims.
■ Jews are more likely than members of other religious groups to support women's reproductive rights. Among Jewish respondents, 83 percent said abortion should be legal in most or all cases. That compares with 64 percent of Americans overall, 49 percent of Protestants, 59 percent of Catholics and 57 percent of Muslims.
■ Among Jewish respondents, 4 percent identify as gay or lesbian and 7 percent as bisexual. Among Americans overall, 3 percent identify as gay or lesbian, and 5 percent as bisexual. Among Catholics, 2 percent identify as gay or lesbian and 2 percent as bisexual, and among Protestants, only 1 percent identify as gay or lesbian and 2 percent as bisexual.
■ Jews are far more likely to be college graduates than members of other religious groups. Among Jewish respondents, two-thirds had at least a bachelor's degree. That compares with only 35 percent of U.S. citizens overall, 31 percent of Protestants, 35 percent of Catholics and 44 percent of Muslims.
■ After Hindus, Jews have the highest household incomes of any religious group in the United States. Among the Jewish respondents, 54 percent earn more than $100,000 a year (compared with 57 percent of Hindus). Only 30 percent of Americans overall reach this income level.