Cross-Cultural Exchanges

My girlfriend is from the Deep South. Not originally, but that's where the family wound up. We went for a visit to North Caro-Missi-bama last year and it was a little bizarre. I had been told ahead of time that I was expected to go with them to church. They're liberal Episocpals, not something loopy like Southern Baptists or Pentacostals, so I knew that at least I wouldn't have to worry about being outed in the sermon. Still, the fact that I had been told, not asked, bugged me a little.

I turned out to be there on Youth Sunday, where, as a way of acknowledging that some of the youths have stayed past their Bar Mitzvah confirmation, the adults let them do things, like singing stupid songs and giving lame sermons. The highlight came when a friend of one of the gf's younger siblings gave a talk about responsibility. She knew about responsibility, she said, because she was the assistant manager at Pizza Hut. At some point she threw Jesus in there, and I heard a Pharisee reference once or twice. I was annoyed that she didn't know what she was talking about, but amused myself by looking at the nice color maps they have in the backs of their Bibles- "oh, so David's kingdom was that big? And Saul took this route when he was preaching the gospels? Wait, Corinth is where?"

The gf's parents apparently get a little weirded out when they hear how Jew-ey she and I (or at least our conversations) tend to be in everyday interaction, so we've been trying to tone it down when we talk to them- I'm not supposed to tell any specifically Jewish anecdotes about my crazy relatives, and the gf isn't supposed to let on that she's learned how to bake challah or sing the prayers for candle-lighting. I also started emphasizing just how nonreligious my family is. "One year we had burritos for Passover." That turned out not to be very effective, since they didn't know anything about Passover, but hey, I'm trying.

But the last time I saw her Dad (whose idiosyncracies reach far beyond mere regional and religious divides), we started having this weird conversation about this Jewish writer I've been reading up on. Apparently he really, really liked Jesus and decided, in the 40s, that the best thing he could possibly spend his time doing was to bring Jews and Christians together. So he wrote some historical novels about Jesus, Paul and Mary, and pretty much rewrote the Gospels to make Jesus super-Jewey, and the Pharisees much nicer than they appear in, say, John.

Now the gf's Dad, who for my own reasons I'll call Habakkuk, has never heard of this guy, and doesn't really have much to contribute as I'll telling him about him. The one thing he does say is, "Hey, that's just like this book by X, a Christian author I like! He rewrote the Gospels, too!"

Sounds neat, sez I, being polite.

"Yeah, you should totally take a look at it."

I'm sure I will, sometime when I have time, money and interest.

He goes back to his hotel, and the gf groans. "I can't believe he told you about X!"

"Why, what's the big deal? It's just another fictional vesion of the Gospels, right?"

"No, he's this weird super-Christian religion professor , and he wrote this as his "vision" of what the Gospels should have been like. I don't even know why my Dad reads him."

Hmm.

The next day, Habakkuk gives me a copy of said book. Thanks.

I mentioned all this to my father the other day, and hesmiled. "I wonder if he's evangelizing you?" Thanks Dad, you always know what to say.

So now it's getting time for the holiday season, and I've decided I need to give Habby something- and I think I know exactly what.

Now I just need to expand the glossary. It turns out 'highly accessible' is a relative term.