Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, November 25, 1995 TAG: 9511270023
SECTION: RELIGION PAGE: B-9 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DAVID BRIGGS ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: NEW YORK LENGTH: Medium
Some parents have chosen to raise their children in both faiths, with the expectation the child will choose later on.
But some religious leaders, who claim fundamental differences in religious beliefs make it impossible for a person to be, for example, both Christian and Jewish, are encouraging parents to make a choice.
In Reform Judaism, a leader in reaching out to interfaith couples, a committee is recommending that congregations offer enrollment in religious schools and day schools only to children who are not receiving formal religious education in another religion.
The proposal from the Commission on Reform Jewish Outreach will go before the Biennial Convention of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations next week in Atlanta.
``We happen to believe parents should make up their mind and determine which tradition a child should be raised in,'' said Rabbi Eric Yoffie, president-elect of the Reform Jewish group.
As members of various religious groups have assimilated into the mainstream of American society, the intermarriage rate has risen rapidly. In the Jewish community, it has risen by a factor of 10 in the last 30 years, and about half of all Jewish people today marry non-Jewish spouses.
Among the interfaith couples who have children, 28 percent bring their children up in the Jewish faith, 31 percent raise their children with no religion, 21 percent raise their kids in a religion other than Judaism and 20 percent raise their kids with a combination of religions, according to a UAHC estimate.
One can no longer assume even children enrolled in Jewish schools are being raised exclusively as Jews, Reform officials said.
``We basically have made the assumption that if people are enrolling their children in Jewish religious schools, they intend to raise their children as Jews.'' said Dru Greenwood, outreach director for the Union of American Hebrew Congregations.
But incidents in synagogues show the assumption no longer automatically holds. For example, she said, in one synagogue a girl came for her bat mitzvah wearing a cross.
Although Reform Judaism has been noted for its outreach to interfaith couples - including passage of a controversial policy on patrilineal descent recognizing that Jewish fathers, as well as Jewish mothers, pass on Jewishness - the proposed policy on religious schools recognizes limits need to be set, Reform leaders said.
``It's a matter of retaining our integrity,'' Yoffie said.
``I think they're drawing a line: Outreach, yes, but it has to be, from our definition, authentic,'' said Rabbi James Rudin, director of interreligious affairs for the American Jewish Committee.
There is a difference between a religious school and academic classes about religion, Rudin said.
``When you go to school with another child, you're making religion.'' Rudin said. ``It isn't just comparative religion anymore. It's a community. That's what makes religion work.''
Few religious groups have official policies on the issue.
In the Roman Catholic Church, couples are strongly encouraged even before their marriage to raise their children as Catholics, but the final decision is up to the parents, said Robert Colbert, executive director of the Department of Religious Education for the National Catholic Education Association.
If an interfaith couple chose to give their children religious training in both the Jewish and Catholic faiths, they would be welcomed ``with open arms,'' he said.
The Rev. Jay Rock, co-director of Interfaith Relations for the National Council of Churches, said Protestant churches have not taken a position on the issue although the growth of interfaith couples means more pastors are confronted with the sensitive decision.
``So what are you going to do, tell them their child cannot enroll in church school. Unlikely, very unlikely,'' Rock said. ``If you do, you're likely going to lose that couple.''
Rock said he thinks a policy prohibiting children from receiving training in two faiths is short-sighted because many interfaith parents will then choose to raise their children with no religious training.
``It doesn't help anyone. It doesn't help the couple. It doesn't help the child,'' he said.
In the nonbinding resolution before the Reform Jewish group, however, the outreach commission says it is theologically inconsistent for a person to identify as both Jewish and Christian.
And placing such an ``impossible decision'' on children imperils their healthy spiritual development, Reform Jewish leaders said.
``Wittingly or unwittingly, the two religions are pitted against one another in competition, and the parents are pitted against one another in competition,'' Rudin said.
by CNB