"Your God Is a Stupid God"
...ing right here in Europe, where everything is so close. Perhaps the way I was brought up had something to do with the way I looked at the world. Religion was not an important issue for me, so I was not aware that it was crucial to others. I grew up in Czechoslovakia during the communist era. Religion was never a big part of my life, even though I was baptized in the Catholic church. The baptism of my brother and I symbolized my parents’ protest against the regime, more than an expression of their faith. People were not free to practice their religious beliefs in our country at that time. It is not surprising that after forty years of totalitarian rule, religion in the Czech Republic was in decline but it would be too easy to blame that only on communism. The truth is that even before 1948, people in my country had quite a liberal relationship with their church, no matter what denomination they were. As many of my countrymen, I believed in God but would not describe myself as a churchgoer. I was convinced that people could believe in different things but still get along together. London is a cosmopolitan city but on closer look religious prejudice is still evident even there. When I moved to London, I was amazed how culturally rich the city was. So many wonderfully different people were living in the same town and at first glance getting along together perfectly. The incident with young Joshua was like a wake up call for me. I learned quickly that some people could be very sensitive about their religion and not everyone was as open minded as I was about this issue. I started noticing that on my walks around our neighborhood, a Muslim lady who lived one street over, would say hello to me only when I was walking alone. If I had the children with me, she pretended she did not see or hear me. I saw Jewish families cross the street so they did not have to meet face to face with their Muslim neighbors. Would you say that I was imagining things? One day, I was advised not to take the children to a certain park nearby because strange people go there. I knew exactly what the strange meant - goyas - non-jews like myself. I have to admit that I felt hurt, not only for myself but for all the other people that go to that park. We were labeled as strange and bad because we do not share the same views. I discussed it with my French friend Catherine who did not understand the blind devotion to their faith either and made fun of it. My reaction was a little different. I started to read more from my Bible every time I had this goya experience. Since I was referred to as a non-jew I wanted to behave as Christian as I could. Today I really think it was foolish but at that time it made sense to attach myself to my faith the way the family was attached to theirs. Since I lived with orthodox Jews, I had a chance to witness their prejudice towards others but that does not mean that there is none elsewhere. At the beginning of summer we went on a short vacation to the south of England. The children and I spent a lot of time playing on a beach. One day as we were going back to our apartment, a young man roughly pushed Joshua. I did not understand his behavior. The boy was not in his way, as a matter of fact the man had to go ...