In the early days of the December that my father was to die, my younger brother brought me the news that I was a Jew. I was then a transplanted Englishman in America, married, with one son and, though unconsoled by any religion, a nonbelieving member of two Christian churches. On hearing the tidings, I was pleased to find that I was pleased. Christopher Hitchens
About This Quote

In the early days of the December that my father was to die, my younger brother brought me the news that I was a Jew. I was then a transplanted Englishman in America, married, with one son and, though unconsoled by any religion, a nonbelieving member of two Christian churches. On hearing the tidings, I was pleased to find that I was pleased. The joy was not only that I had not been born a Jew but also that my father had been spared from death.

My mother had died before he left for America, and as a boy I knew only the trivial details of his going away and his coming back, and this made it possible for me even at an age when most boys have outgrown their interest in their parents to be still emotionally attached to him. But I was not really a Jew. My sense of being a Jew—my sense of being related to people who had been rejected by Christendom because they belonged to the Chosen People—had been too strong for any other sort of identification.

Though I was never consciously anti-Christian, I think what really made me feel Jewish was the fact that my father had left Judaism behind him in America. He did not belong there socially; he refused to speak Hebrew; he would not pray; he refused all identification with anything Jewish. It seems to me now that if he had chosen America as his new home and chosen all Jews as his new compatriots it would have been no great tragedy for him (though it would have been a tragedy for me).

The point is that now at forty-four years old—and perhaps now more than ever—I feel no sense of loss at all about having lost my father to Christianity or at least Christianity as it is practiced in England.

Source: Prepared For The Worst: Selected Essays And Minority Reports

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  1. What do you most value in your friends? Their continued existence.
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  5. My own opinion is enough for me, and I claim the right to have it defended against any consensus, any majority, anywhere, any place, any time. And anyone who disagrees with this can pick a number, get in line, and kiss my ass.
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