"As the son of a woman who was changed forever by her time in a concentration camp, I am wary of flags, wary of national pride, wary, frankly of god. Six days out of seven, I am an atheist. On the seventh day, I am an agnostic.
I believe in holy writ in any language because I believe in poetry, and the power of myth and allegory to express idea that ordinary narrative cannot express. But organized religion makes my chest tighten. I freely grant it produces more figures like Mother Teresa and Saint Francis than it does Torquemadas and Hitlers and Osama bin Ladens, but I fear the scars left behind by the latter are beyond the healing balm of the former. Between Crusades, jihads and pogroms, the great religions have muddled their missions - and their messages - in ways that are impossible to explain away"
- Peter Freundlich, Washington Post, October 7, 2001