Individuality is hurting our society and our houses of worship

Religious Views, by Rabbi Abraham Garmaize

I came to the United States 42 years ago. I hardly spoke the English language. I got married, I had children and got my ordination to be a rabbi and I became a rabbi.

In spite of my defect, the lack of the language necessary to compete for the job, I was treated with respect and understanding. All the congregants pitched in to help the congregation and the rabbi, united by patriotism and friendship, affection and esteem as well as goodwill.

As the new millennium entered our lives with all the aspects of science and technology that goes with it, there are individuals and businesses calculating, but it still works. For the unloved and forlorn, money talks. Respect is gone, as is respect for the elderly, religious authority, government authority and the family. To avoid inuring, offending or disturbing the job, the Holy work of a rabbi, or in the case of the church, is respect. This respectfulness is that which is united, harmony and the state of being one. We go back to the individuality.

I am talking about a new era for all. Yes, I am generalizing but I am not running away with general righteousness. I know we live in a new age when people can't criticize the immoral and unethical, because we are called "modern" and asked to understand.

Attendance in the houses of worship is less and less. We understand that we have to pay the doctor, but we don't want to understand why we should pay the religious leader when we are a materialistic society.

There are nasty splits in congregations. People are shaken and have gotten used to it. Denomination and tradition are changed a great deal. Houses of worship are divided in small groups and many of them are called social groups. The traditional are fewer and fewer, the secular social groups are growing faster and faster, and at the same time, more and more go out and belong to no one.

So does it happen in school from the beginning of life. Children do not feel family, no obligation and no real education. The result is that teachers are afraid of the principal, the principal is afraid of the parents, the parents are afraid of the children and the children are afraid of no one. I do not preach fear, but as I said, the society is growing without respect.

It used to be that the goal of the congregation was to help the church, the temple and the synagogue. Now, everyone wants to be by themselves, while the rest may fall apart.

In this new era everybody hears himself or herself. They dance to themselves, not together. "What do I like, not what is the betterment of the family, the congregation or mankind," is the thought.

Today, the individuality is strong among the young and the old alike, in different ways. The rich is in a different way, living with an attitude and manner different than the middle class, which means everyone goes in a different direction. Breaking off is the result, with toppling the congregation and society happening in the process. They do not build new and better things.

The new way becomes a danger to the society. No one is doing it on purpose, but that's the new era, new millennium and new society we are living in.

We woke up for a while after the Sept. 11 attacks and we realized how much we need each other. Yes, it is not the building that is the most important in religion, every human being is an individual, but we have to obey some things we don't understand. The Bible is old fashioned to some people, and because of that, there is no glue to hold us all together.

We need all this old-fashioned stuff to hold on to and see with open eyes the danger of breaking away, of losing respect, of losing unity, of losing the guide and instruction in our lives. The result of this breaking away is that 60 percent of marriages end in divorce, families are falling apart and the morals of the society are gone.

There are businesses and companies that are destroying the country more than the terrorists, and we are afraid of he leaders of the stock market and the insurance companies more than anything. Everyone will hold the money and not trust anyone, which will bring a depression in our economy.

The announcement of a cloned human being was the other day. I heard them say, "We created life." That is the culmination, the result of false education and complete individuality, no house of worship, no respect to the elderly and book to live by. Instead of the book of the Bible, we've got a book -- a checkbook -- to live by.

Those who are sincere and honest by separating from the church in order to worship God or for a Christian to have Jesus is very much understood, and they should go in that right direction if they want. As a society, it will not help, it is not the right direction to take, however.

A person who has no book of truth to follow will find new truths every single day to follow, and never have a group of people to worship with, a place that becomes holy by the pouring in of goodwill, the heart and soul of each other, giving instead of taking.

We need to help instead of hurting each other, and bring each other light into the darkness as God wanted in the first place.

In conclusion, if we don't need churches and synagogues and temples anymore, then the only place to socialize will be the bar. Hence this is the genius of the outcome of Moses, Jesus, Plato, Aristotle and Socrates -- a very great accomplishment for mankind.

Rabbi Abraham Garmaize leads Temple Knesset Israel. He can be reached at 357-9079.