Harry -

Didn't Hashem tell Cain of all people that 'sin crouches at the door, it lusts after you, but you can dominate it'? I'm paraphrasing, I don't have a Nach handy, but we all remember that one, surely, and several others like it.

I do believe we have the will/ability to save ourselves from sin--at least much of the time. If we didn't, teshuvah would be kind of pointless, wouldn't it? Being powerless over sin=being powerless over repentance, what's the difference? If you're talking about addictions, that's in a whole other category, but I don't think you are.

I think that what we're looking at is religions in terms of functions:

For Judaism, it's the covenant, being co-creators with Hashem. Tikkun Olam--and my own belief is that the salvation of this planet rests on us (humans, that is, not just Jews), G-d isn't going to clean up the messes we make. You know I'm as much of a weirdo as you are in some ways, but I do pray that we will get it together enough that we do have a messianic age, because my own belief is that it depends on us--that's not standard Jewish theology, but I'm not a triumphalist.

Islam follows more the idea of complete surrender to G-d.

Christianity pretty much deals in G-d's grace.

That doesn't mean you won't find all those elements in each of the Abrahamic religions, but if we were going to break it down, that seems to me to be pretty much the focus.

Past histories aside. Now, if we could all see that we all need to be part of what's going on here, maybe the world would indeed start getting better. As in 'what have we learnt?' Why is Judaism important to the world? What mistakes have we made? Why is Christianity important? Can we learn from that horrible misuse of power?

But that starts getting into a whole other territory, and one that all religions corporately have to come to terms with. Quite seriously, because if we don't solve this one, we've failed the big test--in my opinion, anyway.

The reason I'll always be Jewish--because you know someone, somewhere, after whatever decree, and it will be a Yid, will say: 'And why should G-d have the last word in this?'

We're G-d wrestlers--it goes with the territory. It doesn't mean disrespectful, but look at everything from Torah through Nach to midrash to things like Fiddler on the Roof. We talk to Hashem in ways that Christians would probably be shocked by--but shall not the judge of the whole world act justly? How could Abraham have not been the first Jew after saying something like that?

That, my friend, I couldn't give up. Not because of a lack of respect for G-d, but because I feel it would be too much abdication of my own responsibility here. It doesn't mean Hashem never helps us. Just that it's a good idea for us to help each other, that we're obligated to do that. That's what the whole gig here is about.

Personal salvation, whatever that means, I take as a given for all and sundry--I can't see a G-d sadistic enough to send any finite mortal to some permanent afterlife torture-and-crisp. But that's not the focus. The focus is here, and now, and what can we do?