Some thoughts on faith and mourning in Binghamton

I was in Binghamton on Palm Sunday and attended three different religious services: a Baptist, a Congregationalist, and a ceremony at a public school that involved all the city’s faiths.

The ceremonies were beautiful and profound and comforting; the religious leaders there were warm and welcoming; but the experience for me was also deeply awkward and even troubling.

I grew up in a Fundamentalist church (my aunt used to try to predict my future using randomly chosen passages from the Old Testament) and was later an altar boy in the Episcopal church.

I’m deeply read in the Bible and consider it a beautiful, even awe-inspiring work.

(I also spent time in a Buddhist monastery in Malaysia and have been a passionate reader of other religious works.)

But like more and more Americans (as many as 15% according to one recent survey) I no longer believe.

I’m not a Christopher Hitchens type. I respect the rhythms and rituals of faith.

But my own moral and philosophical compass no longer pivots around traditional ideas of divinity or faith or supernaturally inspired teaching.

Which is why last week’s remembrances felt so awkward to me. I wanted very much to gather with other people. I wanted to honor the people who had died.

I wanted to share thoughts about the complexities of human life and the painful realities that surrounded the death of those fourteen people.

But I’ll be honest: I didn’t want to do it in the context of someone else’s mythology, no matter how beautiful and welcoming.

If current trends continue and the number of secular Americans continues to rise, I think we may need to develop some new traditions.

Not to replace the religious institutions and rituals — which are essential. But to create a public space for those of us who use a different sent of mental tools to think about the hardest things in life.

Your thoughts? Post below…