Jew No?

In the fall of 2001, as an anguished nation came to grips with the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, a slender, soft-spoken economics major named Elizabeth Hanson set out to write her senior thesis at Colby College in Maine. Her question was a timely one: How do the world’s three major faith traditions apply economic principles?

Ms. Hanson’s report, “Faithless Heathens: Scriptural Economics of Judaism, Christianity and Islam,” carried a title far more provocative than its contents, said the professor who advised her. But it may have given a hint of her career to come, as an officer for the Central Intelligence Agency specializing in hunting down Islamic extremists.

-Reported in the Times

I suspect this is the Times' error and not Ms. Hanson's, but it reveals something about the predominant American worldview, this presumption that "Judaism, Christianity, and Islam" are "the world's three major faith traditions." Judaism? There are more Sikhs! And what about the Hindus, yo? What about dem Boodists! What about traditional Chinese religious practices? What about Shintoism? What about African diasporic animism?

I mean, May His Name Be Blessed and Magnified, I was raised a Jew and regard my kooky former faith with the same fondness I regard certain kooky relatives, but as a "faith tradition" it still lags Desperate Housewives, you know?