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The great blessing of travel is to return home with grace and greater clarity of vision. Having been away from routines, even from happy routines, having seen different sights, walked different terrain, having listened to different conversations and heard different concerns, can, if you're lucky, lead you back home, which you now suddenly SEE! The returning traveler notices things that had once been obvious, but which had gradually been erased by familiarity. Travel shines up your eyeglasses, and suddenly your old dull world has new sparkle. And on top of that, you're happy to see once again the folks you left behind.
Travel done correctly and mindfully is a lesson in seeing without judging. A good traveler reduces the tendency to be self-referential to a minimum. She simply sees, hears, smells and tries to absorb what she can of the new culture, knowing (if she is both a mindful and an humble traveler) that she can't really "get" all that's going on around her or interpret the many levels of meaning that hide in even the smallest cultural or interpersonal exchange. The older woman climbing up the steps to a city bus in Jerusalem announced her need for help lifting her shopping cart. The tone of her announcement sounded rather rude and aggressive to our North American ears, which are accustomed to hearing the expression of neediness in a rather apologetic, or even pleading tone. I'm sorry to disturb you, but might you give me a hand here? But the bus lady was not apologetic; she was simply stating a fact. Help was required. A young woman, who turned around to help, was brushed off. Our bus lady had standards - her bag was heavy. "A boy should lift this heavy bag, not a girl," she declared. And a boy came forward.
When I left Jerusalem, where it seems as if the very dust is religious, I was headed back to DC, a secular city of politics and government, and a city that has been called "godless" more than once. But what did I see? Washington, DC is filled with houses of worship. We are indeed a nation under God. If you stroll a few blocks from the White House you will pass
St. John's Church, Lafayette Square
Universalist National Memorial Church
Christian Scientist Church
Metropolitan AME Church
Cathedral of Saint Matthew the Apostle
Foundry United Methodist Church
Washington DC Jewish Community Center
House of the Temple, HQ of AASR, SJ, USA,
The national headquarters of the Supreme Council, 33°, Southern Jursidiction, Scottish Rite
I apologize to any institution I may have left out.
Washington's a highly educated town, so it's natural to think that it would be less religious than some other places. Natural, but incorrect. A new study challenges the long-held notion that as people become more educated they are more likely to abandon their faith. A soon to be published study by the University of Nebraska analyzed a nationwide sample of thousands of respondents to the General Social Survey. They found that religiosity had a complex relationship to education. For example, more educated people are less likely to believe that theirs is the one true faith, but education was positively associated with belief in the afterlife. Contrary to conventional assumptions, education had a strong positive effect on religious participation. With each additional year of education, the odds of attending religious services increased by 15 per cent.
The highlights of this study are fascinating. We can look forward to reading the full report in a forthcoming edition of the journal, Review of Religious Research.
