Let me tell you a little bit about what I know about religion. I know that there are many types of religions and that I am Catholic by default because my parents are Catholic too. My parents and I would go to church on Sunday but when we would come out my parents would start to argue about every little thing going on in their lives. So in effect I ended up not believing in church, I actually thought church would bring more problems to my life especially because every time we went they would keep asking for money. Well that's me and religion.
Though this experience with church didn't go so well, I still felt safe, like something or someone far but close was taking care of me. I got to go to college, I learned to drive, I got a great job cutting hair, I met my loving boyfriend, my family has gotten a bit better, and I have great health, I never go hungry, and I always have someone to go to when I'm scared about something. Soooo, how does this all connect, well it turns out that I do believe in GOD, it might be that I don't believe in the church system but I know that somewhere somehow God is taking care of me and my loved ones. I believe God is within me in my heart and that he will always take care of me. I not only believe in him I believe in myself. And I think I am ENOUGH just like Brene Brown said in her Ted talk.
The readings:
I liked how professor G mentioned the different myths in our society that "there is freedom of religion" like the Constitution states and that "there is separation between church and state" (yea not true at all)!
Wow, really intense readings in the Adams chapters. As I live in this society I didn't fully capt how embedded we are with religion. Of course now it's obvious because the foundation of our nation began with religion; it'still very common today to use religion for many reasons: to do bad things and to do good things. It was interesting to know that Thomas Jefferson was the person that began the now famous myth about "separation of church and state" when what he really meant was that there would be a wall between the state and church no true separation (correct me if I am wrong).
About "everyone can practice their religion they want" I was really astounded about how much hatred has been implicated on people who practice basically any religion that is not Protestant in this country. I could not believe how religion was used to justify murders, discrimination, hate crimes, and just any horrid things done to people who were different. It's true but a lot of the times we see that someone was beaten or hurt because they were seen as different; going against the norm. The normal religion in this country has been Christian and that's just not right. Our country if full of diverse people and cultures that there should not be one religion that can take over others. I was really upset at how there was a lot of hatred after 9/11 against Muslims, Jews, Sikhs, and Hindus because they were also seen as targets of danger. It's just sad to see this all happen and keeps happening still. Diana Eck wrote " Different may trigger uncomfortable feelings or fear...we are afraid of ourselves'' (pg.240) That is really strong because I feel like that when I see something I don't know I am suddenly afraid of it, but what do you do with that? Do you run away? Do you stay to find out more about it? Or do you fight with it and try to destroy it because it's not like you? This is tough and yea, to be honest, I would probably run away scared.
Oh holidays in the US. Columbus Day, (which I now will dedicate the rest of my life to tell everyone I know that he was not a hero but a killer who should not be celebrated ever!!!!), Christmas, Thanksgiving, President's Day, Easter, Sundays= no work days...Oh the list goes on. I really did not see how many holidays there were already dedicated to Christianity it's quite amazing.
I mentioned that religion can be good too and I mean that with all of my heart. I can kind of see all of this how Brene Brown said in the Ted talk: that when you see negative things it's really hard to see the good things because the negatives blur out the rest. I can see how many Christians are discriminated against too; so the tables turn. My friend was a very faithful Christian, very devoted to his religion. He is a very loving person and really polite I have never seen him offend anyone. I basically always see him smile. So one day another one of my friends asked him things about the bible and about different things that made him uncomfortable about his faith; questions like "did you know in the bible it says nothing about going against slavery... did you know that Christianity is the most corrupt religion in the world..." Man I could tell he was not liking the conversation so I decided to just talk about something else. A few weeks later my friend decided to talk to me very seriously about his religion and he had decided to become Atheist. I was just in shock. I asked myself, did that uncomfortable talk really affect him so much to make him change his religion affiliation? I could just see how the tables had turned and how Christians are also discriminated against, in some form of revenge, and that just doesn't make things good either.
So to end this blog I leave you with this last question. When faced with something that one doesn't know enough about does one run away? Does one stay to find out more about that/it? Or does one try to destroy it because they fear that they are too different?
HAVE A GREAT SPRING BREAK EVERYONE!!!
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