Faith Club

Met with my "outside the church" book club today. The book for this month was The Faith Club by Ranya Idibly, Suzanne Oliver, and Priscilla Warner. It was written after September 11 by 3 mothers who got together for the purpose of writing a book for children about the connections between Judaism, Christianity, and Judaism. I hadn't finished reading the book because I kept going back and re-reading parts because I would get confused about who was writing, so I don't know if the Children's book was ever written. I just checked on Amazon and didn't see one mentioned.

What was fascinating was the discussion at our table regarding the different rules of different religions, even the different rules within Christian religions - and the logic behind the differences and the rules. There was a lot of pain regarding rules that separated families from their church affiliation. All of us were Christian. And being a person who listens to other table conversations, I wondered if other people were listening to us.

I enjoy being around smart women, especially smart women who read books of all kinds and can discuss them openly. What became even more evident in our discussion is how religion divides people. Religion brings people together in big and important ways, but our beliefs carry a passion that can be difficult to open up and discuss. After all - who is the authority?

As always, I choose to err on the side of love and understanding. The more we can talk to each other, the more we understand.

I am thankful for my faith background. Our next couple of books will not be on religion. Probably a good thing.