Christ Of Nations
September, 2008

I must disagree with James Carroll, that this is a fight over the identity of suffering servant. He speaks strictly as a scholar, looking at broad sweeping truths rather than individuals. I have never experienced a Pole who held resentment towards the Jews because they have made the Holocaust their own. I'm sure they exist, but I pray you, do not judge the group by the worst of its people. The individual nature of the disquietude amongst the Polish is our loss of life: our friends, our relatives, the families that would never be, the children that would never have their own. The Genocide of the Poles was not played out on so grand a scale as the Jews. Of 3.3 million Jews, 90% died. Yet, we live with the knowledge that we too were slated for extermination. This is impossible to let go for any people, particularly when they have a bloody history, as both the Polish and Jews do.

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The Christianity I Never Knew
August, 2008

In this portion of James Carroll's work, I am introduced to a Christianity that is alien to me. The novel takes on the daunting task of exploring relations between the Christian Church and the Jewish faith over two thousand years. In this early part of the novel, the church's "religious contempt" for the Jews is carefully explained. Contempt for homosexuality, sexuality and abortion I knew well. But... Jews? This concept struck me as completely foreign, and somewhat stunning. I am not shocked to learn that there are intolerant, ignorant and murderous people in religion. However, the institutionalized nature of this ancient hate was something I'd managed to be completely ignorant to.

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09/08

Tisha B'Av
August, 2008

I have not seriously fasted since my early childhood, when the Catholic faith still filled me with a sort of wonderment. From time to time, I deprive myself of certain pleasures, a symbolic fasting before immersing myself in private spiritual thought. However, after a dear Jewish friend educated me about Tisha B'Av, and I realizing it was soon coming around the corner, I decided to try a more serious form of fasting than I'd ever participated in before.

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The Nature Of Human Piety
May 18, 2008

"There is a world of difference between learning to repeat "God is an omnipotent Being" and learning to address oneself straight to God and say: 'Thou art my rock."

I cannot say that I am a firm believer in an individual all powerful being and creator. Even so, the value of theology and philosophy does not escape me. It is folly to imagine that reality ends at us and the material world we can perceive. Intellectual and spiritual pursuit is an expression of our celestial nature.

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