Passaic Park

I spent my childhood in the Third Ward of Passaic, New Jersey, popularly although not officially known as "Passaic Park" (and Third Ward Park was indeed, and I hope still is, lovely). An interesting demographic of Passaic Park at that time, in the 1960-1980 era, is that it appeared to be about half Catholic and half Jewish. That might be a tad overstated, but Protestants were certainly not thick on the ground. Growing up in that environment benefited me in a way that I see all too clearly now that I live in white-bread Wisconsin. It is this: despite my Catholic rearing, I would never, ever on my own generate the thought that "The United States is a Christian nation." How could I? My home town was half-Jewish, and all the better for it. We Passaic kids grew up comfortable with religious difference.

But here in Wisconsin, where many people have until recently perhaps never knowingly encountered a Jew, or a Muslim, or a Buddhist, the default assumption at public gatherings is: There are no non-Christians in the room. I was initially startled to encounter un-self-conscious references at public, ostensibly secular gatherings to "Our Lord Jesus Christ." This disturbs me, in part because no one at a Passaic public gathering in 1970 would have spoken that way (and this has been and is generally true throughout the New York-centered "tri-state" area). It's just not an assumption I was raised with, and although I well understand the reasons why things developed differently here, my private tolerance for the Myopia of the Midwest is rather limited.