Just like my title describes it, religious is not a something I am not very competent in. What I know about the Catholic church (what I identify with) is what I grew up with. At the moment I don't fully practice my religion but do find a sense of spirituality from it. When I read the syllabus that the upcoming topic was religion I got a bit nervous for that reason. The thoughts that ran through my mind: "How was I suppose to discuss religion when I myself wasn't sure about it? I don't know anything about other religions. What will this section entail?" Little did I know that my knowledge about religions wouldn't be necessary.
Just like Professor G informed us, many of these topics will interconnect and there you have it. Religion interconnecting with oppression. The thought of being part of a dominant group because of my religion (one of the most common ones down in the Southwest) and being "privileged" by belonging in this group had never really crossed my mind. This struck my mind as I read the "Breaking a Sacred Taboo" essay in the Adams text with eighteen examples of the "Christian privilege." Things as small as having restaurants provide fish during lent like mentioned during class as well was mentioned in the list. Other things mentioned in class and also in the list was having Sundays off with the connotation of our religion. One of them that made me think was the fact that a child receives all these Christian holiday symbols from school and that's okay. I understand that the Easter bunny or eggs doesn't mean much for a 6 year old other than a holiday where they hide plastic eggs filled with candy but in the background sense of it its a Christian holiday. So much for separation of state and religion huh?
Something that was address quite a lot in the text and also during class was the Jewish religion. I can't help but try to imagine those days that the Jews were oppressed and ask myself how these people would be identified. Sorry for the stereotype but like Proffessor G has stated, usually people think of Jews as white, blue eyed and blonde (our typical white person). This topic in class has sparked an interest in learning about more religions, for example that of Jews, to not only become more informed for the purpose of my career but also for my own personal growth. I leave you with a quote that hit me close to home just for the fact that I don't know who I am completely; "...the fear that we do not know who 'they' are or perhaps that we do not know who 'we' are. As Americans, we are literally afraid of ourselves."
I hope that this nation becomes aware of who they are and allow others to identify with what ever they may identify with without fear of themselves or of others.
-I leave you with your thoughts...
Irene,
ReplyDeleteI totally see where you are coming from. In my culture box I noticed many people put stuff about their religion and I didn't for the same reasons as you; because I am not fully practicing my Catholic religion and I don't know enough about it to say much about it, personally. I can now see that it's really not necessary to have to know fully about your religion as long as you are doing good for yourself and spiritually connected in all ways with yourself then it should not matter. The Adams articles are really interesting and I too am very sad about what happened to the many Jews in the Holocaust and to the many that were discriminated against for many years in the past. I hope to learn more about more religions and culture too because it will be important to know when I work with various clients and also like you said, for personal growth.
Great Post!