All Are Welcome

Task 27, June 28 to July 5

"Few people can be happy unless they hate some other person, place or creed". Bertrand Russell.

I am a Catholic. Or a Cat-lick, as the old man next door calls me. He's about 80 years old, and moves around with a walker, but he's still spry enough, and mean enough, to pour motor oil on his stoop every Halloween just to watch kids slip and fall.

But it's not Catholics that I want to talk about. I just want to talk about religion in general. Some of us worship in churches, some in temples, others in mosques. Some don't worship at all, and some of us don't believe in any religion. Your personal feelings about religion are immaterial in terms of this task.

CHECK OUT OUR PODCAST, OLD PEOPLE THIS WEEK, ON YOUTUBE, SPOTIFY AND APPLE PODCASTS

In my circle of friends are Catholics, Jews, Born Again Christians, Muslims, Mormons, Presbyterians, and a couple of Lutherans. No Jehovah Witnesses, however. And when I was a kid, there was a wooden church that my friends said was a church of Holy Rollers, whatever that meant. Plus there's my dentist, who is an Indian, and when I asked he told me that he practiced Hinduism, which, he proclaimed confidently, is the oldest religion on earth. All of these people exist in a small town of under 40,000 people. In short, whether we like it or not, our worlds are populated by people of other faiths. But what was the last time you entered a house of worship other than your own? Have you gone to a wedding at a temple? A baptism at a church? A funeral at a mosque? If you have, that's great, but it doesn't count. You were probably invited and weddings aside, you were probably forced to go.

So I thought that I should--on my own and without an invitation--check out another religious service. I asked a Jewish friend take me to Shacharit Shabbat at his temple. It was instructive. Solemn. Not particularly interactive but heartfelt and inclusive. I wore a yarmulke. And I looked good in it.

TASK:

Now it's your turn. Go to a church or a mosque or a temple or the cinder block building out in the country where they consider fiddling with rattlesnakes a religion and attend a service. If you can, go with someone of that religion so that you can ask questions. Be respectful and try to learn something, then go home and write it all down in your notebook.