Me out front of the Blue Mountain Gurdwara, a Sikh Temple in Bethel Township. My goal in this series of columns was to learn about religious faith in eastern PA, and that included following their customs. WRITING AND PHOTOS BY WES CIPOLLA
Originally published in the Pottsville Republican-Herald on December 26, 2021.
“About 64 roads to the other world. You see how healthy the religious atmosphere is. Anything can live in it.” - Mark Twain, “Following the Equator”
There is a famous cartoon by Paul Noth that was published in the New Yorker magazine. It portrays two opposing armies, swords drawn, prepared for battle. Both bear the same image on their banners - an optical illusion that can either portray a duck or a rabbit, depending on what direction you’re looking at it.
“There can be no peace until they renounce their Rabbit God and accept our Duck God,” a general on horseback says.
The obvious irony is that the two armies have two equally valid perspectives on the same unknowable question. All they have to guide them is an image, with multiple interpretations. Vijay Shah, President of the Vraj Hindu temple in Summit Station, told me that the history of Indian religion is the history of people trying to become something larger than themselves. They portray the same god, only in different forms. I have come to believe the same thing.
Vraj.
Most of us in this region of Pennsylvania are familiar with the highways that lead to Knoebels Amusement Resort. Over the past several months, I have traversed those highways, but I wasn’t looking for rides and funnel cake. I was looking for God. My original idea was to write a semi-regular column about cool places you can visit on the way to Knoebels, but I quickly realized that many of the significant sites near Knoebels are religious in nature. I saw the road to Knoebels as a pilgrimage route - El Camino de Kozmo. And I endeavored to get to the heart of faith in this part of the state. I traveled through Berks, Schuylkill and Northumberland counties. I spoke to Catholics, Protestants, Quakers, Jews, Muslims, Sikhs, Hindus, atheists and even self-described pagan witches. I stood in their places of worship and followed their traditions - when in Rome, right? I discovered that the similarities between faiths were more interesting than their differences. I discovered that the stories of the faithful themselves were as powerful as the religious experiences they professed to have had. No matter how they worshiped, they expressed the same desire for peace, in this life and the next (if they believed in the next life). They believed in racial, gender and religious equality.
No matter how they worshiped, it seemed as if God - whether he be called God, Allah, Krishna or simply “the Divine” - represented the same thing. These names of God are merely different words for a love and mercy that goes beyond mere mortal understanding, that the flawed faithful strive to emulate. Several described God to me as universal - not white or black, not male or female. Vraj promised “the Divine” outright, in the form of Shrinathji, Krishna as a child. To the Hindus, Shrinathji represents the unconditional love of a child.
The altar of Shrinathji in Vraj.
A spiritual center in Kulpmont promises the divine in the form of a finger bone from Saint Pauline Visintainer (her cousin Al lived in Mount Carmel). The finger bone is believed to heal the sick and bring comfort to the dying. Pauline’s tireless service to the poor and oppressed, even as she faced great pain due to diabetes and the loss of her arm, inspires her followers to this day. Vraj and the Saint Pauline Center are filled with beautiful art portraying the agony and the ecstasy of gods and holy personages.
Jesus in the Saint Pauline Center in Kulpmont.
The Islamic Center of Schuylkill County in Pottsville, however, frowns on artistic depictions of Allah (God) and his prophet Muhammad. Instead, they favor elaborate geometric patterns that represent the infinite complexity of Creation.
The Islamic Society of Schuylkill County.
The Sikhs of Blue Mountain Gurdwara in Bethel Township treat their holy book, the Granth Sahib, as a manifestation of God. At night it “sleeps” in a canopied bed.
The bed in Blue Mountain Gurdwara, in which the Granth Sahib rests.
Every religion used its faith to animate them to a higher purpose, a life lived with charity, forbearance and respect for living things. None expressed intolerance towards any group of people. Rather, intolerance towards them was a major theme. Muslims and Sikhs complained of being treated like terrorists. Muslims and Pagans were accused of worshiping Satan. The truth is that if the bigots only bothered to put their prejudices aside and talk to the members of these religions, they would realize just how similar they are. It’s hard to demonize an “Other,” when the Other isn’t all that different from you.
I will never forget the people I have met on this journey. I will never forget Dolores Delin, President of Oheb Zedeck Synagogue in Pottsville. Despite not being religious herself, she sees it as her duty to record the history of the Jewish people in Schuylkill County as synagogue membership declines.
Dolores Delin looks at names on the Synagogue memorial wall.
I will never forget Erich Scherfen of Schuylkill Haven, who was raised Lutheran but converted to Islam after fighting in the First Gulf War. When he nearly died of heat stroke in the country of Georgia, he felt as though he was kneeling to Allah himself.
Erich Scherfen.
I will never forget Patty Beltz of Shenandoah, who learned pagan witchcraft from her Romanian “Baba” and left an empty seat for her during the “dumb supper” on Samhain (Halloween). Beltz compared God to a tree. There are many different paths to the tree, but they all get there.
Patty Beltz. PHOTO BY JACQUELINE DORMER
I even talked to people who were raised religious, but lost their faith for one reason or another. Some were disillusioned with what they saw as corruption in organized religion. Others simply did not believe in the supernatural and miraculous. On the other hand, I meant people who swore to have experienced miracles, that God had guided them to where they are now. Proving any of these people right or wrong is not my job, nor is it my intention. I simply want to understand the feeling that Scherfen called “electricity to the body.” The feeling that Pastor Gloria Alexander of the Church of Broken Pieces in Minersville called “this wind or something, [coming] at me.”
Gloria Alexander.
On the Road to Knoebels, I found God, and came to the realization that God is all of us. Our passions, our loves, our kindnesses and our sufferings. They are all the things that people call God. God is merely the highest calling of humanity, and the values we all must share if we ever want to live together in peace on earth and goodwill toward men, like the carols sing about this time of year. Whatever holiday you celebrate, be it religious or not, have a happy one.
Comments