The Many Meanings of ‘True’ Religion

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Religious believers have a renewed power in Washington. Credit…Haiyun Jiang for The New York Times

To the Editor:

Re “Religion’s Role, Revisited,” by Lauren Jackson (Sunday Styles, April 20):

About a third of the way into this essay, I realized that the author was on the wrong track. Religion is not about the individual but about the community.

The Torah begins not with the creation of an individual but of an ecosystem within which individuals can thrive. And all major religions, in both scripture and practice, emphasize the importance of a common community.

Because the author focuses so intently on our national illness of narcissism, she misses the simple answer to her question: Religion is to be found in the people next door, the ones in need down the block and across the sea, the ones who need just laws and an end to violence. To be authentic, religion needs to be not about “me” but “us”; it needs to make us better neighbors, better lawmakers, better lovers and better at self-reflection.

Alexander M. Jacobs
Milwaukee

To the Editor:

I’ve long noted the unsettling contradiction between people who extol the community they find in their religious lives and their need to judge and stereotype those outside their community.

Lauren Jackson first lost me at “elite liberals,” a reductive term that dismisses humanity’s rich and complex experiences, beliefs, family influences, education and ethical framework. Further, as someone who has lived in or adjacent to large cities my entire life, I’m deeply skeptical of her claim that “many said they left religion because they moved to places like major cities, where people were more hostile to it.” This makes me wonder about the demographics of her self-selected survey respondents.

I, along with my family and friends, have always been able to access and participate in warm faith communities. The “hostility” I can think of has been in cases where Americans’ professed religious beliefs have impinged on other Americans’ rights, beliefs and welfare.