| ROGER ROSENBLATT:
As a secular Jew, a distinction in Judaism as unspectacular as that of a lapsed
Catholic it fascinates me how religious the world seems to be growing, or if not
growing, at least showing a religious face more boldly. That face was most
recently observed in the TV coverage of the death of Pope John Paul II and then
the ascension of Pope Benedict XVI. You can tell me otherwise, but I do not recall
such worldwide attention paid the Vatican, even when the ecumenical Pope John
XXIII came and departed. But the assertion of other religions seems equally strong.
Americans and Europeans are more aware of militant Islam since Sept. 11. But
in contradictory response, Islam has been eager to show its benign and spiritual
identity as its true nature. Judaism too has become more committed to itself.
Not long ago, American Jewish leaders were concerned that the faith was disappearing
by assimilation at the hands of secularists like me. Now young Jews assemble in
greater numbers than ever to pray not in reformed synagogues, but in the much
stricter and more ritually austere conservative and orthodox temples.
AD
SPOKESMAN: A number of United States senators are preventing the confirmation
of appellate court nominees not because of their professional qualifications but
because of their faith.
ROGER ROSENBLATT: Elsewhere in America the political
power of the evangelical churches is so much in evidence that it is spoken of
as one used to speak of the political power of labor unions. But evangelism's
apolitical purely emotional identity shows a separate power of its own. Religion
is everywhere. The president avers his faith frequently.
PRESIDENT GEORGE
W. BUSH: Yet I have found my faith helps me in the service to people.
ROGER
ROSENBLATT: Members of Congress, once leery of the subject, are almost defensively
eager to announce their faith. Separation of church and state, be, you should
pardon the expression, damned.
Were I an atheist or agnostic, I might
feel isolated or even imperiled by such a turn of events. My faith being real
but inquiring, I'm more curious than anything else. History often displays periods
of overheated religious activity as heading towards wars and mass murder. Leaving
those dire possibilities in abeyance, I simply don't know what to make of the
phenomenon.
It's not that one can't come up with reasons. All these manifestations
are arising at a time of insistent individualism shown in everything from the
iPod and bloggers to efforts towards the perfectibility of one's appearance, one's
health, one's sex life. So religion may offer the countervailing force of community
and of dependence on a higher perfection.
REVEREND: The body of Christ.
ROGER ROSENBLATT: Or it may arise out of the power of ceremony in reaction
to decades when ceremony was abandoned, or in reaction to a time of threat. Terrorism
can make believers of us all because it's so random and sudden. God may be random
and sudden as well, but one feels that God has our welfare at heart.
Finally
there's another possibility. Religion may be on the rise because of secularists
like myself, who, it may be thought, have been in charge of public life too long.
We certainly don't feel in charge these days. I'm Roger Rosenblatt.
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