Growing up and out of the conservative Black church, I feel this so much. I’m about to dig into D. Danyelle Thomas’s The Day God Saw Me as Black that touches on how this is looking for a lot of us Black folks socialized as women.
I’m glad you’re feeling what I’m feeling, Kristen! While I mourn the loss of ritual and community, I also appreciate that we live in a time that we can question our upbringing without being shunned from the larger community, which may have happened two or three generations ago.
I was raised Jewish, but I have walked away from organized religion for several reasons. Not least, the Temple prioritized those who supported the Temple financially. Even now, when I refuse to "Stand with Israel" (I stand with all the victims regardless of citizenship or religious affiliation) and point out the atrocities of the Netanyahu administration, I am vilely, and I mean words I won't write here, by friends and family. I've asked them how their blind loyalty differs from MAGA's, and that pisses them off even more. Tribalism helped humanity survive and flourish for millions of years and may eventually destroy us.
Thanks for sharing your perspective, Harry. I agree that religion is being manipulated right now. It's especially troubling to see how Zionists are using the trauma of the Holocaust to justify the current genocide and how many people refuse to see the parallels.
Most US cities and medium-sized towns that had courthouses sited them on the highest point; now it's usually a bank. Solstices & equinoxes remain constant, scientific events, without man-made tales of supernatural phenomena surrounding them. Plenty of worship occurs over sports, performing arts, celebrities, etc.
Growing up and out of the conservative Black church, I feel this so much. I’m about to dig into D. Danyelle Thomas’s The Day God Saw Me as Black that touches on how this is looking for a lot of us Black folks socialized as women.
I’m glad you’re feeling what I’m feeling, Kristen! While I mourn the loss of ritual and community, I also appreciate that we live in a time that we can question our upbringing without being shunned from the larger community, which may have happened two or three generations ago.
I was raised Jewish, but I have walked away from organized religion for several reasons. Not least, the Temple prioritized those who supported the Temple financially. Even now, when I refuse to "Stand with Israel" (I stand with all the victims regardless of citizenship or religious affiliation) and point out the atrocities of the Netanyahu administration, I am vilely, and I mean words I won't write here, by friends and family. I've asked them how their blind loyalty differs from MAGA's, and that pisses them off even more. Tribalism helped humanity survive and flourish for millions of years and may eventually destroy us.
Thanks for sharing your perspective, Harry. I agree that religion is being manipulated right now. It's especially troubling to see how Zionists are using the trauma of the Holocaust to justify the current genocide and how many people refuse to see the parallels.
Most US cities and medium-sized towns that had courthouses sited them on the highest point; now it's usually a bank. Solstices & equinoxes remain constant, scientific events, without man-made tales of supernatural phenomena surrounding them. Plenty of worship occurs over sports, performing arts, celebrities, etc.
Good points!