My parents were nonobservant Jews. We rarely saw the inside of a temple. My mother, an anti-Semitic Jew of German extraction, loved all things Christian, so I went to a Catholic grammar school, an Episcopalian high school and an Anglican college. I could play and sing every known Christmas carol by heart.
I didn’t send my own children for any religious training. When my daughter married an Italian, she signed an agreement that she would bring her children up as Catholics. That lasted until the first Sunday, when her husband encouraged her to take the kids to St. Joseph’s, but since he himself didn’t attend church, he’d see them later. My daughter popped her two kids in the car, drove to the next town over and registered all three of them at the Universalist Unitarian congregation, where they remain to this day. It’s a heterogeneous population; their idea of a mixed marriage is a white guy married to a black guy, with an adopted Asian son. There’s a great sense of community, a terrific pastor and lovely services.
What do I personally believe? Do as much good as you can while you’re around because who knows where – if anywhere – you go after that. If you’re going to join an organization that does “good works,” it could as easily be a Kiwanis Club as a church. Why would you do this? Not because you’re going to hell if you don’t, but because it’s the right thing to do.
Sally Haver retired in 2013 after a long career with the The Ayers Group (a divisions of Kelly Services) as a senior business development executive. Since retiring, she has found that there are many people who are working during their post-retirement years, and not necessarily because they have to work.
Religion: A Mash-Up
By Sally Haver