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| Religion Forum Index » Mormon Forum » MOJEW STILL MISSING THE BIBLICAL JESUS....... |
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| Sword of Laban... |
 Posted: Sat Oct 31, 2009 9:47 am |
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Guest
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Karen Nielson-Anson: A "Mo-Jew" who co-leads services at her synagogue
and feels at home with Mormons
When I was young, I was at home in the Mormon Church, but as I grew
older I became less comfortable. The lack of egalitarianism (women
aren’t allowed in the priesthood) was distasteful. You were also more
or less told from age three to have faith and to not ask questions.
A quintessential moment occurred during my farewell talk to a
community of missionaries when I was departing for a private Mormon
college. I can’t remember the topic, but I remember saying that I
couldn’t say that I knew the true church. You could have heard a pin
drop. However, I added that I was certain that if Christ were alive,
I’d probably want to hang out with him. This did not go over well with
the family who had adopted me, particularly my mother, a dyed-in-the-
wool Mormon.
My final break with Mormonism came in my early 20s when I decided to
make my home in Salt Lake City, a liberal island with a thriving gay
community in a Republican state. My Mormon bishop asked that I report
incidents of my lesbian roommate’s inappropriate behavior. That was
the last he saw of me. I left the church.
I grew up in the San Francisco Bay area and my dearest friends were
Jews. My first love was Jewish. I also noticed that my Jewish friends
seemed more well-rounded and happier than my Mormon friends. From high
school through college, I acted three times in Fiddler on the Roof.
The experience of being Fruma Sarah probably lit the fire. But I
didn’t know for years that I wanted to convert. That happened when, at
age 33, I met David, probably the only single Jewish male in Salt Lake
City.
I had just been floating, acting professionally in Salt Lake City for
10 years along with taking other jobs. Then I got a master’s in social
work at the University of Utah and found David working at the same
mental health agency where I was employed. We hit it off. It was like
“Wow, I really love Jewish men. Are you really Jewish? Where have you
been hiding?”
We were dating seriously when, unbeknownst to David, I called the
rabbi. I left a message. I called a second time, then a third and he
finally called. It was like the midrash: You’re turned away three
times.
At his Introduction to Judaism class, I was like a starving person who
couldn’t get enough to eat. One of my biggest loves about Judaism is
that everything is up for debate. I sift through everything that comes
before me so I can decide what makes sense to my mind, my heart, my
soul, my body and not feel that I’m abdicating any part of myself.
David attended class with me because he had stopped his Jewish
education after bar mitzvah. When class ended in 1996, I had my “new
age” conversion in the mikvah with four friends; we blessed the four
ends of the earth.
And I got my Hebrew name, Debra. During that same period, I had been
researching my birth parents, hoping that they might have been Jewish
but found that they came from hand-cart Mormon pioneers. I discovered
that my birth name was Debra. So in a way, I returned to my name.
Later, we named our daughter Devora in Hebrew and Deborah in English.
People mistakenly call me Debra, and I say, “No mistake, that’s my
Hebrew name.”
When we married in 1998, my adopted mother was too sick to attend. She
had loved David. When I told her that I was converting to Judaism, I
thought she would say, “What about your savior?” Instead, she said,
“At least you’re going to be religious.” The most tension comes from
my deeply observant Mormon relatives. I get the feeling that they’re
still praying that I will eventually come back to the fold. But they
attended our wedding and uffruf.
Mormons put in an incredible number of hours doing volunteer work.
That’s in me. I look at the insane amount of volunteering that I do in
the synagogue; people think I’m crazy. For example, I am co-leading
services tonight, co-leading selichot services tomorrow night, and
playing Sarah in this open tent greeting for our Sunday religious
school.
I get around a group of Mormons, and I feel at home. It’s not only the
volunteering, there’s also the work ethic and “Jello.” Mormons believe
that they are cousins to Jews, that they are descended from the tribe
of Ephraim, one of Joseph’s brothers. Mormons also pay 10 percent in
tithing to the church, which derives from the Jewish tradition.
Mormons as a whole have a strange love affair with Jews. My neighbor
was born a Jew but raised Mormon, then left the church. We call
ourselves “MoJews.” In a way, the more deeply Jewish I become, the
more I realize that a part of me is always going to be Mormon. It’s
like looking at a beautiful fabric and seeing that that yellow strand
is always going to be next to the blue.
http://www.truthandgrace.com/ |
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