Bernard Chasan wrote:

>The Passions in particular are so wedded to the central Christian story,
>and so clearly derive their expressiveness from that narrative, that I,
>also a Jewish agnostic, choose not to listen to them.  For me the glory
>of Bach resides in the keyboard music.

especially since I am a German (38 years old but aware of my country's
history) I can do nothing but humbly respect your opinion.  Nevertheless
some thoughts: so much music is propaganda, propaganda for religious
cases (Christian, Muslim, Jewish and atheist), for politic cases
(imperialism, communism, music celebrating battles, music celebrating
pacifism) that I find it, speaking only for me, necessary to ignore a
lot of the occasions this music was written for to just enjoy its beauty.
I certainly do not like the infamous "Let his blood come upon us"-passage
in the St John Passion.  Sometimes I skip it when listening to the work.

Robert