Foggy Day Ruminations

Foggy day in Copenhagen - made me feel like I was in London, yet it was very beautiful. I woke up this morning for a walk (Copenhagen is often at its prettiest early when most are asleep and you can appreciate the city without all the people) and decided to attend the English Church services on this Palm Sunday. Quite interesting to learn about those last days of Jesus (pbuh).

The church did the reading of this gospel with various people, so that there was a different voice for each role, i.e. one guy played Judas, one woman played Pilate's wife, a group of old ladies playing the crowd etc. As they read, I could feel the emotions in the voices and it vibrated in me. I was angry at the Disciples for running away, I was frustrated that Pilate ignored his wife and I was befuddled by the betrayal of Judas. Also, I was mad at the temple leaders and mob (made of Jewish people) who wanted Jesus (pbuh) dead. This made me remember something I had read about before WWII. How Jews in Poland would disappear or lay low during Easter because they would often be targeted. I could see how this story kind of raises that fervor of the ignorant and given the right sermon or church leader fueling that rage - one could leave the Church very mad (you know the same kind of people who stampede or think all Muslims are guilty for 9/11 and should be watched).

Living in Europe, I am reminded so much of how despite claims of liberalism, these countries are quite religiously intolerant in that they don't really work to learn about other faiths or integrate very much, i.e. the white Danes hang with the white Danes, the Muslims hang with the Muslims, the people of Asia hang with the people of Asia; and those in the minority don't feel a part of Denmark. Its a sense of us vs. them syndrome.

Unlike what I feel in America, where everyone is an American, regardless of religion and where we work so hard to honor all religious traditions (i.e. wishing Eid Murbarak on the television). Perhaps because everyone in America is an immigrant from somewhere, there is a group mentality, similar to what I see here in the Exchange program, were we all bond together no matter which part of the world we are from, because of this shared experience of being foreigners in a foreign land. Maybe its Pollyanna-ish but I think of us Americans as saying, "yes we are different but we are all in this [life] together."

What I mean to say and am doing so poorly, is that unlike in America where people would leave the church and I don't think they would go and desecrate the Jewish temple down the street, I DO think they might do that still in Europe.