Rhetoric Race and Religion
I sometimes remark to friends that I must be the only Christian in the world who participates in three or four Passover seders a year. Even active Jews don’t attend so many. Why would they, after all, unless they’re working, as my wife often is—leading them.
My wife is a rabbi, and when I’m at a seder, I am gathering together with my primary congregation, even though I’m not Jewish. The other reason why I attend seders is that I like them. I find them spiritually meaningful. Every religious tradition marks God’s activity in the world as something akin to freeing slaves, and Judaism does it memorably.
One particular seder two years ago became a turning point for me. My wife and I were fresh off a painful experience in Florida where she hadn’t gotten a pulpit job because of me, because her husband was a Catholic. For the first time in my life I felt judged for my religious orientation because although I am about as supportive of a clergy spouse as one could be, it seemed that all they saw was a cross on my forehead.
So as this seder was about to begin, one of the men around the table said, “I notice that we are all interfaith couples around this table, that we are all Jewish-Christian.”
He went on, “So, I’m wondering, you Christians who are here, why are you? I mean . . . I’m Jewish and I know why I’m here; I know what I get out of these things. But what do you get out of this? What brings you here?”
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