Half and Half

While my friends and I rarely talk about religion, it was basically inevitable that the topic would eventually come up. The last time my friend and I had a debate about religion was when she said that she was half Christian and half Jewish. She believed that since her mother was raised in a Christian household and her father was raised in a Jewish household she was both. I however did not really see this. When I think of religion I think of a set group of beliefs and practices. One either follows the words of the Bible, Torah, Koran or other religious document or they do not. In my eyes religion is not like a genetic trait or ethnicity; while, someone can be German and Hispanic, they can’t really be Christian and Jewish.

My friend had a Bat Mitzvah, and was confirmed, both practices of the Jewish faith. hasn't been to church since she was about 4 years old. While she does celebrate both Christmas and Hanukkah with her family, I don’t think she is really a Christian. I believe she was raised Jewish, yet has a Christian mom; while, she argues that she is both Christian and Jewish. The conversational tone was one of a friendly debate between friends who have know each other for years. It wasn't angry or meant to offend anyone, or even make us change our minds, we were more or less expressing are views. When we were not talking over each other, we were listening to one another and I did try and see a few of her points.

The main point I was trying to express was that religion is not like genetics and while it is most often passed on by one’s parents; our true religion is what we choose to believe and live by. Our religion does not have to be same as the religion of either of our parents, and if this is the case it is still our religion. My friend tried to make me see that someone can be raised with “two religions in their life”. While they may not include all aspects of both religions, people can, to some extent, pick and choose what they want to believe and that is no less of a religion then any established religion. While I don’t think I left the conversation with a profound change of heart, the conversation did make me think differently about how we define religion for ourselves. One’s religion does not always have to be categorized; it can be, for the most part, what each individual believes and the set of values they live by. After this conversation I did respect t her opinion, but not because I entirely agreed with her, but because she was so passionate about her view and she truly believed she was right. The clear stance she took on the issue and the emotion she presented was more persuasive to me then the ideas she used to support her view.