Maquinna's Poop du Jour

Sunday Services

Another observation I made upon moving from Canada to the U.S. was that Americans were far more religious, or at least more public about their religious affiliations. Religion also plays a more prominent role in politics here, despite notions about the separation of church and state. This is not to say that Canadians do not consider religion important - many do, although most of those were admittedly outside of my social circle. The difference I found is that Canadians, in general, are far more private about their spiritual beliefs and not as apt to discuss them publicly. It's not shame or hesitancy - it's just a sense that religion is a very personal matter and something one doesn't share with casual acquaintances, much less strangers.

Perhaps this is less and less so now...it's been five years since I lived in Canada and there are political and religious movements there too which run parallel to what I see happening in the U.S. with the rise of the religious right-wing. When I talk to my friends and family, however, things sound much the same as ever, so I'm left believing that that sense of privacy with regards to religion still exists.

So it was last Sunday - Palm Sunday, by the Christian calendar - that I happened to be helping Craig hanging insulation in the ceiling of the room currently under construction (known affectionately as 'the shed room', since historically it was little more than a storage shed). We had the radio on and were listening to NPR, which was broadcasting a non-denominational Palm Sunday service from the chapel at Boston College, where there is a School of Theology. A little background is now in order.

Craig was raised Catholic but has somewhat recovered, and now is essentially an atheist. His parents are still practising Catholics, and his only brother has become an active Baptist in California. I was given a more prototypical Canadian upbringing - christened in the Anglican Church of Canada (that's similar to the Episcopalians in the U.S.), but never attended church or Sunday school with my family. I flirted briefly with the church in my teen years when I dated the son of a pastor, but now I'm completely non-Christian in my beliefs.

We were listening to the service, which was about as white bread as you could imagine. The subject was 'the power of humility', and Craig and I were making remarks about it as we struggled with stapling the insulation to the new beams and nailing up furring strips from which the ceiling would hang. The minister delivering the sermon was weaving scripture and politics throughout, calling the U.S. presence in Iraq 'messianic in the way of David', as opposed to messianic in the way of teaching, which Jesus was. I was rolling my eyes and grumbling about this tacit religious approval of the Iraq situation. I said, as I've said before, that wherever religion and politics become closely intertwined, chaos ensues. It's a polarizing, dangerous combination, which only seems to feed upon itself until people grow ever bitter and more divided than ever. Wherever it happens, there's nothing but a big mess.

Craig says that as far as he's concerned, life is short and we only go around once, and it seems like a big waste of time to him to be spending a few hours a week in church when, hey, we could be having so much fun hanging insulation, ha ha ha. Still, he likes listening to a good sermon if it's well-delivered. This one wasn't particularly great, and we started speculating why we weren't hearing a sermon being delivered at some southern gospel church, where the ministers always seem really passionate in their delivery.

So how do I feel? Well, Canadian that I am, I've deliberately skirted around it throughout this post, playing my religious cards more closely to my chest. Craig is very honest about his beliefs but completely non-judgemental of those of others - he believes religion is very personal and one size doesn't fit all. Me...I believe there's some greater intelligence, some energy if you will, that makes sense of this universe and everything in it, but it isn't some great old hairy Jehovah flying around the clouds. I know I am a little more judgemental about religious people - I find it hard to understand why people feel the need to cling to formal religion when all it seems to do is bring intense misery, inequity, violence, and despair into this world. My first thoughts for anyone who embraces formal religion are rather contemptuous (and this tendency of mine is the prime reason I am very careful not to let first impressions rule me, since I know it is rash and incomplete). I tend to mellow out a little more when I hear more of what they have to say and how it is part of their life, but in the end I cannot be converted, and still find it difficult to understand how anyone can turn their life over to tenets of someone else's making.

posted by Maquinna @ 9:35 a.m.