Get in the God groove

Wildcat File Photo Arizona Daily Wildcat Carrie O'Connor

Kosher butchers, married women adorned with scarves and wigs and young boys with skullcaps all lived and worked in my neighborhood.

Orthodox Judaism in the desert, let alone on the Mall, emerged as a new discovery.

I, too, celebrated Rosh Hashanah this year, despite my Christian identity. I admit that I like to go to synagogue to work on my Hebrew because I currently have a 2-year-old's vocabulary. Temple remains a place where I discover more about my heritage. Judaism continues to provide unique symbolism and a profound sense of history.

Yet in the end, I must say I find three values inherent in all religious ceremony: community, tradition and morality.

I also contend that my high school history teacher was right - there are many paths to the top of the mountain. But unlike my sagacious instructor, I will take it a step further and argue that you need a path. In short, knowledge of and a relationship with Christ, Buddha, Mohammed, the Feminine Divine or Yahweh remains essential to our personal and social development.

What makes me an expert, you ask? Well, I adopted a hobby - amateur religious anthropology - about 23 years ago.

I remember the summer distinctly. I snuck into a Catholic church smelling of melted candles and incense, "snooping" for interesting data.

During the last two decades I have participated in and examined the following faiths: Catholicism, Judaism (in all its forms), Buddhism, fundamentalist Christianity and feminist spirituality.

Such investigations generated mishaps. I cleaned regularly for an Orthodox Jewish family and I brought a non-kosher pastrami sub into the kosher kitchen, placing it solidly on the meat counter. The color drained from Pesche's face as she walked to the phone, dialed the rabbi's office and informed the office personnel what I had done.

She instructed me gently to go eat my sub on the snow-lined porch.

I had an equally interesting time in Crete a few years ago. My tour group, a band of feminists seeking the Goddess, was driven from an Greek Orthodox monastery.

An older, female firebrand accused the feminist theologian of "witchcraft" because someone placed sunflower seeds on an offering stone at a ruin the day before.

Observation can get downright invasive to some people. One black activist informed me in a chilly tone, echoing the sentiments of many feminists, "We aren't animals in a zoo."

I smiled weakly and explained that I just liked gospel music. But that's a half-truth. I also like watching the Black community at worship and the vibrant old women who shout "amen" in the middle of a sermon.

After I earn my master's degree in journalism, I'll go to seminary and know what I'm writing about. Until then, I stand on my conviction that religion essentially provides community, tradition and a sense of morality that all of us need.

We live in an era of autonomy characterized by career flux, divorce and physical relocation. Society challenges the young professional today because he or she must face obstacles resolutely without the traditional structures in place.

Most sacred teaching emphasizes that people are social creatures. Moreover, codes of instruction mandate how we are to treat one another (i.e. respectfully).

Students like to think they don't need something archaic like "tradition." Wasn't that word used in Fiddler and the Roof?

My grandmothers have instilled a sense of heritage in my psyche. It started with family pictures and stories. I consider the legacy I received from my tradition and United Methodist church in a similar light. A sense of spiritual identity continues to serve us and others.

Each religion provides a code of morality. Ultimately, it is up to the individual to refine his or her own code and establish a relationship with God.

We all wrestle with philosophical questions. I almost wore out pages of philosophical discourse, going back and forth over passages this semester. Yet, I have examined many belief systems, maintained a sense of faith in a power, and outlined the necessary societal conventions found in each religion.

Carrie O'Connor is a journalism graduate student and an Arizona Daily Wildcat copy editor. She can be reached via e-mail at Carrie.Oconnor@wildcat.arizona.edu.