11-05-2025
The Many Meanings of ‘True' Religion
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.
