The idea of reclaiming has presented itself to me in a myriad of ways recently. First, I stumbled onto Monica’ Lewinsky’s podcast, “Reclaiming” (haven’t heard that name in a while) and I’ve become a dedicated listener. If you get the chance, check it out.
Second, I’ve been thinking about how so many Christians in this country are seeking to reclaim Christianity from the Christian Nationalists who are attempting to co-op it for nefarious purposes. I went to a lecture last year at St. Peter’s by the Sea here in the South Bay. The speaker was Amanda Tyler, the author of the book, How to End Christian Nationalism and the executive director of Christians Against Christian Nationalism, a nonprofit whose focus is defending religious freedom for all people. If you want to be inspired by people doing the work to reclaim Christianity, check them both out.
I also heard from our very wise Pacific Unitarian youth about reclaiming the idea of “church” itself in the face of this onslaught of Christian Nationalist and Christo-Fascist ideology.
Finally, in the wake of the latest war in Israel/Palestine, as a Jew by birth, I’ve struggled greatly with my Jewish identity. I decided back in August to start re-reading the Torah – the Hebrew Scriptures – and have been shocked by so many things I did not realize were in there including the direct parallels to Israel/Palestine in the stories of a God that commands dispossession of land from those who do not believe in him. At first, I was so disturbed that I wanted to distance myself completely from my Jewish identity.
But, I know there are many Jews who interpret their faith as teaching compassion and love. Recently, IfNotNow asked me to speak at the Israeli Consulate here in LA decrying the weaponization of food leading to famine in Gaza. Here is some of that speech, paraphrased.
My name is Joshua Berg, and I stand before you as a Unitarian Universalist minister. I also stand before you as a Jew – a heritage I carry with conflicted emotions, but one I feel I must reclaim.
I have never been able to connect with Judaism religiously. Recently, I’ve wrestled hard with the Torah’s calls for conquest and exclusion, the derision of other faith practices, and the idea that divine promise can justify domination.
But my Unitarian Universalist faith demands that I look again – that I re-examine my Jewish heritage with an open heart. And when I do, I see a modern tradition that has reimagined itself in the name of compassion and justice – a Judaism that lifts up the same values Unitarian Universalists espouse including equity, interdependence, generosity and, above all, love. Love that demands justice, but only justice that preserves what love unites.
I came here today to address the Israeli government and our own government complicit in the horrors in Gaza. I say this as a Jew and as a minister: No more.
No more faith twisted to justify cruelty.
No more silence while children starve.
No more worship of borders and bombs.
I reclaim my Judaism as a faith that refuses to rank human beings by race, religion, or geography. Although I don’t believe in the divine as many others do, I reclaim my Judaism today as a faith that sees the divine in every living soul.
As so much ideology is being twisted, including what so many of us have understood to be “The American Way” and so much history is being erased including what many of us have always known as American history, the process of reclamation is necessary and powerful. What, if anything, are you reclaiming?
