Struggling

I have been feeling so uneasy for awhile now about religion, but it just keeps getting worse.  The more anti-semitism rears its head worldwide, the more Christianity feels like it's enveloping me from all sides.  It may just be an American thing, but with Mark Burnett producing all of his epic tales of the Bible and going mainstream on NBC this time, I am feeling uncomfortable.  With the anti-LGBT legislation signed into law by the Governor of Indiana, swastikas painted on walls of Synagogues, fraternities, etc., my breathing is getting more and more shallow.  

Look, I have many questions about religion and faith.  I question it all the time, but what I don't do is thrust my opinion, feelings, or beliefs on others.  Why do we have to continually be subjected to so many others' faiths?

This week on The Today Show (I'm sure to promote NBC's The Bible), the team is sharing what faith means to each of them.  Don't want to hear it.  I particularly don't want to hear it as a subtle, covert promotion of a TV show.  But I really don't want to hear it.  Don't care.  Enjoy your faith, privately.  Cherish it, privately. 

I feel that our country has tilted so far towards religiosity, that I feel when I step outside NYC, I don't belong here anymore.  Can you imagine that?  Me?  I was born and raised in America, but in my 55 years, this Country has shifted so much, that I hardly recognize it.  The crazy religious right who espouse Jesus are 100% hypocrites and they and those that believe them don't even see that.  There is no hate in Jesus.  There is only love, acceptance, and tolerance.  That men took those words and twisted them into unacceptable  rhetoric is the problem.  

As I spend my time preparing for our own Passover seder, I have been thinking so much about religion.  Am I being a hypocrite? I don't think so.  If I didn't write it here, you'd never know what the hell I was doing in my home. I am not a religious person. I like tradition.  I like getting together with family and friends and recounting the story of Passover and eating great food.  Am I a spiritual person? Do I think there's something greater than us?  Maybe. I'm open.  I'm open like I am open to mediums.  It's all possible, but will never know truly.  Whatever works to get you through the day.  BUT why do your beliefs trump mine?  I feel that about everything.  I feel that about guns and the NRA.  I feel that way about separation of Church and State.  I feel that way about abortion.  I feel that way about vegans and vegetarians.  I feel that way about the "drug war."  If I'm not bothering you, than why is it anyone's business? 

I have gotten off track a bit here, but more and more I feel like a marginalized person in this country.  With the new anti LGBT law in Indiana and Arkansas right behind them,  what's happening?  How can these laws be interpreted any other way?  I've always felt that those who are racist are also homophobic and anti-semitic.  They follow the same path.  Did you see how fast the President of University of Oklahoma came down on the fraternity that was caught singing racist songs?  Did you see how slowly the Chancellor of UCLA has reacted to the anti-semitic students on the student council?  Have any of the students that asked completely inappropriate questions to a young Jewish student paid any price for their bigotry?  Seems to have been swept up under the rug, even from the national press.  Very little reporting compared to the racist frat boys at Oklahoma.  Anti-semitism has been allowed to simmer for centuries.  The fact that it's on the rise again in the lifetime of World War 2 survivors with little attention is very disturbing.  I am struggling. I am sure you can tell.