A Rabbi, an Atheist and some Army guys were all at a football game this Sunday. This sounds like the beginning of a joke, doesn’t it? Well, it’s actually how I spent my afternoon and it started me thinking about what we take for granted and the judgments we make about people not like us. It started with the announcement that we should stand for the invocation, which was delivered by a local Rabbi. This was the first time I’ve ever been at a game for an invocation. I’m not sure if this is because I’m usually not in my seat that early, or other teams simply do not have one, but whatever the reason I was a bit surprised and unsure how to handle it.
As everyone else rose, I remained seated, not to be disrespectful, but simply because I am not a believer and it seems both compromising and disingenuous to pretend otherwise. A sharp look from the husband, who was there with a group of Army troops and I slowly rose to my feet. I did the respectful thing and it did not hurt me to do so, but I was beginning to anger underneath. Why do I have to show respect so as not to offend everyone else? Are my beliefs not to be respected as well? Had I remained sitting down, there would inevitably be people shaking their heads in disapproval and possibly even one or two who felt the need to chastise me verbally. My own husband was embarrassed that I did not want to stand up and would have felt uncomfortable had I chosen to remain seated in front of his soldiers.
I have no issue with respecting your beliefs, my issue is that no one seems to respect mine. I am in a minority group when it comes to my chosen religious beliefs, but since when is being in a minority group a crime? We live in a democratic society, which says I cannot be persecuted for my religious beliefs and yet I am repeatedly put in situations in which I am expected to just “go along” or “not make a scene.” I do not want to make a scene. I am not choosing a path simply to be different, I am following what I believe in a relatively quiet way. I do not canvas my neighbors to join my cause, I do not expect guests in my home to renounce God. By the same token, if I am a guest in your home and you choose to say grace before dinner, I will stand or sit quietly, not praying, but not objecting either. That is respect. If I asked you or my husband to sit down with me during the invocation at a public venue to support me, would you do it? Doubtful.
I am not respected as a member of a minority group, I am considered an outsider. Where is the respect for my right to believe there is no higher power? True, we have freedom of religion in this country, not freedom from religion, but I look at atheism as my chosen religious belief. You don’t have to agree, but you do need to respect it.
Have you considered substituting the word culture for religion? In my experience, only the truly fanatical religious zealot takes offense to another's actions...choosing to associate simple customs to an eternal statement. Prayer, in my experience, is simply an internal reflection, a dialogue between the conscience and the 'other' part of our spirit with whom we converse. As I've taught yoga for years, I've occassionally encountered the (usually) Christian fundamentalist who takes issue with the word 'meditation'; they experience the word as an Eastern-religious practice that they feel called to identify and strike as a New Age abomination to the cross. In my reality, it's simply a quieting of the mind, a letting go of the superficial stories that create the insanity of the human experience to find a place of peaceful coexistence with the energy of all Life.
ReplyDeletePerhaps standing for an invocation is similar to removing your shoes in a Japanese household, or your hat in a midwestern farmhouse. If you were to visit a muslim country, would it be an issue to don a burka before hitting the streets at high noon? A simple gesture of respect to the customs of the predominant culture such as standing during an invocation or prayer is not nearly of the same consequence as NOT standing.