Question: Many of my friends have either left the church to practice on their own or lost faith entirely. How do you keep your faith when you see so many people doing cruel things in the name of God? Keeping the Faith

Answer: Dear Keeping the Faith,

What a great question! We are living in very challenging times in regard to faith, community and attitudes of people. So many people have become opinionated and dismissive of anyone who doesn’t believe and espouse the same exact “truth.”

So many people doing things that are cruel in the name of God, as you have said, is modeled by our own President who has, for example, as much as closed the agency of USAID that used to give food and medicine to starving people with little to no other options (including babies and children all over the world). President Trump empowered Elon Musk to gut this particular agency along with many other things that provided life sustaining aid to the poorest of the poor in our world. Many deaths have resulted. These actions certainly fit your criteria.

However, we must not give in to the lowest and most inhumane of us. We must aspire to make the world right in the eyes of God, even though there are those who use God to justify the worst of all actions in His/Her name. It is very hurtful to those of us who really do believe in inclusivity and helping those who are less fortunate.

We must all realize there are those among us who do not really love their neighbor as themselves and think of others as less than human. This has always been true. Not everyone sees their way to faith and making the world better.

Don’t let the faithlessness of others lead you to join them. There are far more of the faithful who are the pillars of goodness in this world. Be sure to attend gatherings with them and realize the challenge of our times is to find like-minded people and make the world better with them.

Rabbi Janet Bieber
Temple Beth Emet, Burbank