The hackles on my neck raise up when I hear some congressman - or our president - describe the United States as a good Christian country. The United States is a good country - no argument there – made up of Christians and Jews and Muslims and so forth, but to characterize it as connected to one specific religious sect is not just inappropriate - it goes against the constitution, the separation of church and state. As a Jew, I find the implication that I’m not a good person if I don’t adhere to Christian values, particularly offensive. As a human being who believes in free choice, I want to be able to believe in Pantheism or Atheism or any ism I damn please without feeling guilty or ashamed.

Being a part of some organized religion and going to church or temple or a mosque on a regular basis does not necessarily mean I’m a kind or good person, it means that I’m religious, and that doesn’t preclude my coming home to kick my dog or abuse my family. We have things sort of mixed up in our society. Reading a Bible and studying religious doctrine is not a guarantee of a loving nature. What we feel in our hearts and how we express that feeling to those around us would seem to be a better barometer of who we really are.

That said, I would like to turn to the Passover Seder at our house, more beautiful than usual because of its ecumenical nature, as used in its most universal sense. My family was there as were friends of varying religions and I was particularly touched by one friend who went to the trouble of researching the meaning of Passover and its origins. The history of a religion has always been fascinating to me and as we spoke, I realized again how much mythology and mysticism exists in all religions. Did the waters really part when the Jews exited from Egypt or was there some major sand spit that enabled the Jews to cross? Who was that amorphous angel of death who flew over the houses of the Israelites and seeing the marks made from the blood of the lamb, left untouched those children and killed only the firstborn of the Egyptians? A Christian friend spoke of the three Kings, or the wise men who came from the East on the night that Christ was born. There was a discussion of Stigmata and the cause and explanations. There was curiosity regarding the differences and the similarities. One friend was surprised to learn that the Last Supper of the New Testament was in actuality a Seder. She wondered at how Christians and Jews did not always respect each other’s traditions, considering how they emanated from the same place.

When I thought back on the Seder night I realized that there were two characteristics that we all shared. Tolerance and acceptance. We did not proselytize in an attempt to show that we knew the way, no, more strongly, that we owned the way, and that any way other than ours was false and lacking in a sense of the Divine.

How we pray - if we pray - and to whom we pray. That must dwell within us and should never be legislated or brought into a court of law. We may display our belief through symbols or we may keep it hidden in our hearts, and we must battle for this freedom of choice. In the hierarchy of values, the numbers may shift and the definitions may vary but we must decide for ourselves and let others do the same.