Writings from Rabbi Glickman

I am sorry to inform you that American religion has been hijacked.  On Friday, Feb. 6, Rodger Findiesen, pilot of an American Airlines flight from Los Angeles to New York, got on the loudspeaker before takeoff and asked all Christians on the plane to raise their hands.  He then reportedly called everyone whose hands weren’t raised “crazy,” and encouraged them to “make good use of the flight,” implying that they should speak with the Christians sitting near them to learn about Christianity.

Understandably, many passengers on the flight were terrified, confident that Findiesen was going to give them all a one-way trip to a place quite different than New York. American Airlines later apologized, and suspended Findiesen pending investigation. 

Obviously, Findiesen’s words were horribly insensitive, if not downright cruel.  These days, people tend to get a little upset when pilots criticize the religion of their passengers.  These days, when pilots preach, passengers just assume that they are about to die. These days, religion and airplanes tend not to mix very well at all.

By “these days,” of course, I refer to the post 9/11 era – a time when we know all too well the horrors that religious fanatics can perpetrate when they are in control of passenger jets.  In this post 9/11 era, we don’t want our pilots to proselytize, we don’t want them to preach, we just want them to fly the plane and get us down safely.  These days most of us would probably find it most comforting to have a pilot whom we know to embrace no religion at all.

You see, despite their military failures abroad, Al Qaeda is nevertheless succeeding here in America.  Had this incident occurred prior to the horrors of September 11, 2001, I imagine that the passengers on that airplane would have found the pilot’s words troubling, but not nearly as terrifying as they found them last month.

Nowadays, thanks to the terrorists and many others, we Americans have good reason to believe that preaching, proselytizing pilots are religious madmen bent on murder.  With our 9/11 memories still so fresh, today many of us understand requests such as “Christians, please raise your hands,” to mean, “I am going to kill you all.” Sadly, religion has come to connote strife, oppression and bloodshed rather than love and hope.

Of course, the passengers on that plane made it down safely, but the events on that flight remind us that religion has been hijacked in this country – it has been taken over in the American mind by people who have used it to inspire evil and hatred in the most unholy of ways.  Oh sure, it’s still OK – and perhaps even quaintly pleasant – to be religious as individuals, but only so long as we keep our religion inside the walls of our homes and places of worship.  When religion enters the public arena, however, we tend view it far more negatively.  Think about it: recent news stories on religious topics have focused on topics such as pedophilia, the role of extremist clerics interested in governing their nations, and the horrific, gory death of a great religious leader and teacher.

Those of us who embrace religion as a force of goodness and love often respond meekly to these events.  Sometimes, we sit quietly, not wanting to speak up and be associated with those who have given religion a bad name.  At other times, we join forces with those who would silence religion, knowing that we can keep it safe if we but keep it private. 

My friends, this is not the time to silence religious voices of goodness; it is the time to amplify them.  In an era when religion connotes hatred and division, those of us whose religion embodies love and reconciliation must let our voices be heard.  To do otherwise would be to cede religion to the terrorists and fanatics; it would allow Al Qaeda, abusive clergymen and Hollywood’s religious gore-meisters to win.  I, for one, refuse to allow this to occur.

I am not arguing that sectarian religious teachings should infuse all facets of public life.  What I am suggesting is that we religious people who are good must now reclaim religion for what we know it can be – an embodiment of all that is noble and sacred in life, a powerful tool to bring love and reconciliation to the world.

Then, when people think of religion, they won’t think of terrorists, but of saints and heroes, instead.  Religion won’t conjure up images pedophiles and theocrats, but of teachers of great truths that the world needs to learn.  Religion will help give us a vision of a world as good as it can be, and inspire us to make it that way.

And then, maybe – just maybe – we won’t get so scared when we travel on airplanes.

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