Do You Worship G-d or Your Religion?

And Religious Tolerance

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The following post was inspired by the article "Are Mormons Any Weirder Than The Rest Of Us?" by Rabbi Shmuley Boteach. Click here to read the full article.

I would like to start off this article by asking you a question: Do you think you are better than anyone because you are Jewish (or to make it even more specific: an Orthodox Jew)? 

What spurred the article is that there has been much debate over the fact that Mitt Romney and Jon Huntsman are Mormon. A lot of people don't like that.  Bryan Fischer of the American Family Association said that the "ideal profile of the next president of the United States" should be "a man of sincere, authentic, genuine Christian faith." Pastor Robert Jeffress of the First Baptist Church of Dallas called the Mormon faith "a cult" and said he would prefer "a competent Christian to a competent non-Christian."

What is it with other groups hating on other groups? I know that there's not much we can do about other people's prejudices, but the least we can do is make sure we don't have any of our own. We should try to be open minded and see a person for who they are and what they've done. Every religion has weird things that people can point at and say "that's weird" and make fun of it. It's not like people haven't been making fun of Jews for forever. We should try to be more sensitive and make sure that we don't accidentally say something offensive.  I think a lot of us are all guilty of it sometimes. We find ourselves making sweeping,  offensive, generalizations about other religions (or anything that is different) without realizing what is so bad at the time. We should be more careful about what we say. 

Rabbi Boteach brings up an interesting commentary on the Akeida from the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Schneerson. He says that the key to the story is to see Isaac not as an individual but as a religion. Yitzchak was Judaism- the person who would continue Abraham's belief system. With his death, everything that Abraham had taught in terms of his rejection of paganism and the belief in one G-d would be lost.

"The test, therefore, was this: Would Abraham follow G-d's commandment to kill off his religion or would he put his religion before G-d's will? What really mattered to Abraham? G-d or Judaism? And if they were to be put in conflict, what would he choose? The religious fanatic is the man or woman who has ceased to serve G-d and has begun worshiping their religion, making their faith into yet another false idol. Religion is solely the means by which by which we come to have a relationship with our Creator. But when it becomes a substitute for G-d it becomes soulless and fanatical, seeing as there is no loving deity to temper it. It is in this light that we can understand why an Islamic fundamentalist is so deadly, seeing as he is even prepared to go against G-d's express commandment not to murder in order to strike a blow for the glory, not of the deity, but Islam."


... "It does not matter if they are Jewish, evangelical, Mormon or Muslim.What does matter is whether their faith is focused on relating to G-d and, by extension, caring for G-d's children, or whether they see the purpose of their high station to promote their particular religion. It is easy to identify the difference. People who are in a relationship with G-d are humble and do their utmost to refrain from judging others. Their proximity to a perfect being reminds them of their own fallibility. Their experience of G-d's compassion leads them to be merciful and loving. But those who worship a religion are arrogant and think they have the only truth. They are dismissive of other people's beliefs and maintain that advancing the cause of their religion is more important than life itself. The rabbi in Israel who recently made the strange comment that soldiers should face a firing squad rather than listen to a woman sing is a classic example of this heresy.
Those who worship their religion evince the classic characteristic of cult members. Whereas a real faith system is empowering and makes one strong and capable of operating outside their own faith community, cult members can only identify with other members of their group and require the environment of the cult in order to function. They don't have beliefs. Rather, they take orders."

Okay, so I know that Rabbi Boteach said some pretty major things. But looking back and really thinking about it- do you happen to agree with him? If not, what are some arguments you would respond? Do you agree with what he said about people worshiping their religion? Which one is more important to you- Hashem or your religion? I know they both come hand in hand, but at the end of the day, our practices are just a means of getting closer to Hashem.

Making Connections: This article, in many ways, relates to what we're learning in Kedoshim at the moment. Here are some things to consider:
Letter of the Law vs. Spirit of the Law: People who "worship their religion" instead of worshiping G-d may have a case of following the letter of the law and not the spirit of the law. Just because you are following the laws doesn't give you the right to act like a bad person.
Kedoshim T'hyu ki kadosh ani: Be holy for I am holy. We want to emulate G-d and be good people. Yes, we want to make sure we are separate from other nations, but we also want to try to be accepting. You can be separate and still be able to function together.
Can't have one without the other: We learned that you can't be a G-d fearing person without also being a kind person.