Billy Joel and Religion

I was a baby and my mom was bouncing me on her knee to Billy Joel’s “The River of Dreams.” This is my first memory. Now, it may mean that I was conditioned to love the musician, but I don’t care. I just do. I love his voice and piano skills and brooding album cover gazes. After my first heartbreak, I listened to “And So It Goes” to complement the pain, and then, “Summer, Highland Falls” to get over it. As I was leaving home to enter my first year of college, I blasted “Movin’ Out” sporadically throughout the three-hour car ride. I have “Scenes from an Italian Restaurant” on repeat whenever I cook spaghetti.  So many beautiful chords, so much lyric to life applicability. Needless to say, a motto of mine has always been: if you insult Billy Joel, I insult you . . . until a situation I found myself in this Tuesday.

Once a week, my French service group and I visit Freedom House in Detroit, which is a shelter for survivors of persecution who are seeking asylum in the United States and Canada. Many of the residents are from Francophone countries in Africa, so we help them improve their English. This is something I really enjoy doing. All of the people with whom I work are some of the kindest I’ve ever met in my life. They are so eager to learn that it is inspiring. One of the residents, though, I have always found to be a bit challenging to talk to. He was a pastor in Cameroon and if you even mention the words “Judaism” or “Islam,” he will immediately scoff and begin explaining why Christianity is better.

As part of my lesson this week, I had my group fill in the missing lyrics to “Piano Man” on a worksheet I created. He began giving me a sermon about how anti-God this song is. Essentially, he was saying that the characters shouldn’t be going to a bar to forget their problems, they should be going to church to have Jesus forgive their sins and aid in the soul-reparation process.

I couldn’t believe it and didn’t know how to respond. Of course, part of me instinctively wanted to resort to one of my go-to lines whenever I meet someone who doesn’t share my terrific taste in music: “You don’t like Billy Joel? Well, your sweater is ugly.” But, with him, I found that I could not physically force any insult or even subtle, passive aggressive statement from my mouth. When my volunteer group went to an orientation, we were told not to ask what the residents were there for, but the leader of the session made it very clear that they were all fleeing from some serious hell.

In the liberal paradise of Ann Arbor, I find that is easy to look down on people who are overtly religious. While this is certainly justified in cases where a group uses religion to oppress others, it is not when you are judging someone who uses it as a source of personal hope. This man at Freedom House isn’t privileged. He is trying to find security in a foreign country from the persecution he faces at home. Yes, his apparent dislike of other religions isn’t right, but me arguing with him about the legitimacy of his faith when it plays such an important role in his life would be mistaken as well. And you know what they say about two wrongs.

He finds comfort in Christianity. Good for him. I find comfort in spaghetti and Billy Joel music. Good for me. Whatever works for you, just do it. Become the practitioner of any religion you want as long as it doesn’t hurt anyone else, because the world is often a harsh, cold, terrifying, and unfair place in which to live. Help yourself find some sense of peace, “just the way you are.”