My day at church?

A guest post by TikunOlam

The way our first day of foster care training began, my husband and I would have thought that we had walked into Rev. Wright's church rather than a state sponsored training session.

As soon as we walked in, we were greeted by the trainer who was complaining that she wished she could have put on gospel music in the background first thing in the morning instead of the jazz she was playing - but of course she couldn't do that because then (sarcastically) someone might complain since we were in a state building.

Ok. Fine. She likes gospel music, nothing wrong with that.

Then we were each asked to introduce ourselves by answering for the group:

1.What was I doing here?

2.Who influenced my life?

The trainer, to set the tone, decided to introduce herself first. She went into a whole long monologue about how God had brought her to this state on a visit from another state where she had been working as a salesperson. . .how God had ensured that she were offered a job doing social service work while she was on the visit. . how God made it possible to sell her house in just 2 weeks and close in four so she could move to this state and do God's work for these children. . .how she had never planned to return to this state but she had accepted that this was God's plan. . .

Praise the Lord.

And she continues. . .And I don't care if you call him "God" or "Elijah" (yes, she said that) or "Atheist" - no one can tell me that God doesn't make the sun come up everyone morning. . .

Praise the Lord.

And then the first participant introduces herself . . . brought up in the church. . .doing God's work. . .

Amen.

And the next. And the next.

All brought up in church. All apparently doing God's work. Every one of them. Very nice.

And then finally, three people left, my husband, myself and a sweet older woman to my right and it is my husband's turn to introduce himself . . .

My name is (his name) and I was also brought up in the faith community. In fact, my father is a Jewish ra. . .

Fine. Normally I am all for shining the spotlight on my Jewishness, especially in a situation where I (in this case we) am clearly the only Jew and am doing something positive, against stereotype, while surrounded by folks who may not know much about Jewish people. But something (not something, previous experience - and I almost hate to say it cause y'all know how P.C. I usually try to be) told me that here was probably not the place to shine that spotlight.

But fine. Now everyone knows we are Jewish.

So later, the trainer talked about a woman who had 10 kids with multiple fathers, all of whom had been absorbed by the system. She said that some had asked why the judge couldn't have her tubes tied.

And then the trainer abruptly turns to me and says, "because that would be like saying you should have your tubes tied because you are a Jew."

You know when your gut gives you those little warning signs?

Well if I was unsure at that point as to whether that comment might have stemmed from the trainer trying to overcompensate for some (no so) latent anti-Semitism, she did a dandy job of confirming her notions of Jews during the mid-morning break.

Great. Training is going to be just super.

Well, seven hours of training down, twenty to go.

Praise the Lord.