Keeping the Faith. The Religious El Dorado

This was the title of a movie that premiered earlier this year, which tells the story of two boys and a girl who were childhood friends in New York. One of the boys became an orthodox rabbi, and the other - a Roman Catholic priest. The girl became a high-powered business executive. The rabbi and priest remained friends in spite of the almost 20 centuries of animosity between believers of their religions. They even founded an interfaith club.

Both men are drawn to the girl from their childhood. The love story among the friends raises problems (an Orthodox rabbi should not marry a gentile, or he must resign as a rabbi, and a Catholic priest can't marry at all).

Both clergymen choose marriage and family at the cost of their religious careers; both were ready to resign. The rabbi was selected by girl, and his congregation accepted this with understanding. They respected their rabbi and accepted a gentile Rebbetzn. (Rebbetzn is the name for the wife of a rabbi.)

This is only a movie. Moreover, it is a comedy. However, the problems discussed in this movie are real for not only Jewish/Christian alliances, but Catholic/Protestant alliances as well. We know many families in which one spouse is Catholic and the other is Lutheran, Baptist or of another denomination. As a result, these families rarely go to either church, and their children end up without of any religion at all.

At first glance, no problems exist for traditional single-faith families, either Jewish or Christian. Presumably only intermarried families have problems, but how many are there? Many! And they are both Jews and Christians.

America is a Christian country, and about 50% of its population go to church on a regular basis. However, another 50% do not go. This means that in the Kansas City area alone about 1,000,000 people do not go to church. One of the reasons is , no doubt, the intermarriage issue.

The problem is becoming more severe because the interest in religion is growing. For example, 20 years ago the yellow pages listed about 100 churches in the Kansas City area, while now about 400 exist!

The percentage of interfaith marriages is rapidly growing in the Christian community, as well in the Jewish community. We do not yet have statistics about the Christian community, but the intermarriage rate in 1990 in the United States Jewish community was almost 50%, compared to 10% in 1965. Nobody knows how to solve these problems , but many scholars, clergymen, and community leaders at least agree that everybody should respect each other's religious beliefs. Ideally, nobody would claim that their beliefs are true and those of others are wrong. Rather, everyone should learn the ideas of their counterparts and teach their own beliefs with mutual respect and tolerance.

Friendship between Christians and Jews is gradually replacing the former hatred. For instance, a couple of years ago during Saturday service in the reform synagogue - Temple B'Nai Jehudah - there were four Christian ministers who came as guests. Rabbi Michael Zedek announced their presence, and the whole congregation welcomed them with applause.

Our newspaper and our Russian - American Club are secular organizations. However, because 95% of immigrants from the former Soviet Union do not believe in God, because of a lack of any religious education or background, we plan to publish a religious bulletin. In this bulletin, we will address the beliefs of all religions and denominations, and their traditions and practices-now, and from a historical perspective as well.

While studying the Bible and religious literature from our own point of view (the point of view of atheists), many of us might develop some interest in religion and become regular visitors of churches or synagogues. Those who continue to proclaim that God does not exist will at least learn something about the different religions, which is interesting itself. Our experiences in this field may be of great interest to other people in Kansas City, who for various reasons go neither to churches nor to synagogues.

We have pastors of different denominations, including Adventist, Baptist, and Methodist, among our guests, while the majority of our guests are atheists. Our Club has no financial support either from Jewish organizations or from any churches. For the second year, our revenue is zero dollars and zero cents. We can meet this second season due to the generosity of the members of the Overland Park New Heaven Seventh Day Adventist Church, and their pastor Jerry LaFave. Their generosity is even more significant when we remember the fact that even now, in a time of religious renaissance in Russia, Russian Orthodox priests do everything possible to fight other religions. For instance, under their pressure, the Russian local government recently demolished an Adventist church with bulldozers.

Lets keep the faith that we have or find some if we do not yet have it.