Kesher Talk

More SelectSmart. I got a nice note from the SelectSmart folks, whose Presidential Candidate Quiz I took last week.:

Dear Ms. Weiss,
Thank you for your kind mention of the "2004 Presidential Candidate Selector" in "Kesher Talk".

You may also be interested in visiting our Belief System Selector and our American Judaism -- Movements/Affiliations Selector. We'd certainly be interested in knowing your results and your opinions of the selectors' accuracy.

Best Regards,
Curt Anderson
SelectSmart.com

I took the Belief System Selector test. Here were my results:

# 1. Reform Judaism (100%)
# 2. Unitarian Universalism (98%)
# 3. Liberal Quakers (97%)
# 4. Bahá'í Faith (88%)
# 5. Neo-Pagan (86%)
# 6. Sikhism (82%)
# 7. Secular Humanism (76%)
# 8. Mainline - Liberal Christian Protestants (75%)
# 9. New Age (73%)
# 10. Islam (70%)
# 11. Orthodox Judaism (70%)
# 12. Mahayana Buddhism (65%)
# 13. Jainism (58%)
# 14. Scientology (58%)
# 15. Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Mormons) (56%)
# 16. Taoism (55%)
# 17. New Thought (54%)
# 18. Orthodox Quaker (53%)
# 19. Theravada Buddhism (53%)
# 20. Non-theist (53%)
# 21. Christian Science (Church of Christ, Scientist) (43%)
# 22. Hinduism (43%)
# 23. Mainline - Conservative Christian Protestant (38%)
# 24. Jehovah's Witness (32%)
# 25. Seventh Day Adventist (27%)
# 26. Eastern Orthodox (26%)
# 27. Roman Catholic (26%)

I took the Jewish Movements test and came out with:

#1 - Reform
#2 - Reconstructionist
#3 - Renewal
#4 - Conservative
#5 - Humanistic
#6 - Orthodox
# 7 - Hasidic

Well, I daven Conservative, go to Renewal retreats on occasion, study with Conservative and Orthodox teachers, and after years with a Reconstructionist havurah, I still find Mordecai Kaplan's theology describes my belief system pretty well. I used to occasionally attend a Reform service because that's where the Jewish singles in my town would hang out. I was a Neo-Pagan for 10 years, but I have never had any interest in Unitarianism, Quakerism, or Bahai. So, Curt, I do believe your quiz needs some massaging, and I'll have to think about specifics.

Off the top of my head, you may be mistaking the official Jewish denominational positions for how Jews actually practice or why Jews choose a particular movement. Many of us live Reform (don't observe halacha stringently and have liberal political positions), but find Reform services too "churchy" and prefer more traditional liturgy. At the same time many of us relate to the Reconstructionist approach to Jewish identity and practice, but again, prefer more traditional liturgy or congregations large enough to make a daily minyan. I think the quiz would be more accurate if it focused more on what Jews actually do.

posted by Judith @ 7/17/2003 04:46:26 PM