B Charles
We had become good friends when he died, all too soon, but
Rabbi B Charles Herring made a lasting impression on me. He was just plain Chuck and he helped me over
a sticky point in my religious training.
I use the word ‘training’ loosely, since it has been going on over the
past 70 or so years, both in formal settings and informal. In Chuck’s case, very informal; we used email. I had been thinking about the Christian
doctrine of Original Sin. It didn’t make
sense to me that everyone was born into a state of ‘sinner’ so I asked Chuck
about it. Without giving me specifics,
he gave me the opening line of a Jewish morning prayer: My God, the soul
that You have placed within me is pure.
In other words, the Jewish religion rejects the concept of Original Sin,
and I do too. But that is the foundation
upon which Christianity is based. So my
conclusion is that I am not a Christian.
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