Hello everyone!
For my topic, I will be focusing on a certain "Community of Practice," the Christian faith.
I was very surprised at a lot of the comments in class and how so many people felt as though the Church (specifically Christianity based) was a place of hierarchy and forced obedience. I know that not everyone feels this way, but it truly blew my mind that so many people had such awful experiences.
I have always been surrounded in Christianity-- a Community of Practice. My friends are Christian, my parents are Christian, my extended family is Christian, and my teachers were Christian. To me, I've lived in such a strong and happy Community of Practice through the church and through fellow Christians, I have never experienced a disconnect from Christ. I know for a fact that it is not a blind following for me: I have researched and looked at my faith from different standpoints, and my opinions have not changed. This is who I want to be, it has been my choice, and it is what I am sticking with forever.
What pertains to the idea of something I mentioned in class is that with groups that are such strong Communities of Practice, those on the outside looking in may feel as though the membership is very off-putting and hard to break into or feel accepted in. Though I can see how that could be a very big problem in groups of Christians, I do believe that it often comes down as "one part has been bad, so clearly, so is the whole." It really makes me very sad to know that so many people have had these experiences, and it has turned them off and away from the idea of Christianity.
I found an article by Rachel Held Evans for CNN, talking specifically about our general age group of our class (classified as the Millennials) and how Christianity is a dying "fad" among our age group. She says that many people view Christians these days as: "...too political, too exclusive, old-fashioned, unconcerned with social justice and hostile to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people."
This idea seems to be very common with many non-Christians, and it makes me wonder, "Why?!" Am I truly living in my own world, and have had the best of the Christian experiences, or are others on the outside viewing our Community of Practice as showcased in the quote above? I want to stress again that just because one part may have been off, that doesn't mean the whole experience is something bad.
I know this is a very controversial topic to bring up, and I know that many people have very different views from me. I truly hope no one was offended, and if I have offended you, I am very sorry. I will always stand up for my faith, even if that means harsh scrutiny. I am curious to see what your opinions are on this topic as well: am I the rare 1%, do you feel that Christianity is just a dying fad, and what do you think could be changed to make Christianity a good thing in your eyes?
Thanks so much!
-India Anne
First, I love the little girl praying -- such a sweet image. I did not interpret the class discussion in the same way -- I didn't hear a lot of bad experiences -- I heard a lot of questioning regarding the church's views on males and females and that the dominate leadership roles in the Christian church belong to men. If you look at the Communication learning outcomes, the one about Knowledge says: "Understanding how knowledge is constructed within systemic and historically situated processes." Religion is a great example of this. The idea is NEVER about whether you your identity is right or wrong for you -- clearly, Christianity right now feels like a great aspect of your life! And, I assume, it makes you happy! Great! No one would want to take that away from you. The academic perspective, though, is to simply (or not so simply!) understand that your views regarding the "rightness" of Christianity for you has been developed over time through countless interactions -- most linguistic ones. Think about how young you were when you were introduced to church and think about how the people you love and care about believe the same things; now think about all of the Bible stories, and Sunday school interactions, religious celebrations, maybe you went to "church" camp like I did, or maybe to "Revivals" from time to time -- total immersion. So, at some point when we decide to question our religion, it is so deeply a part of who we are for so many years and it is part of what is important to all the people we love, that it's extremely difficult to imagine another way of being. And so, we stay. Which is fine. The question, from a communication perspective, is: Do we get that there is nothing "right" or "natural" about our religion, simply that, when we were born into the family and traditions (the systems), etc. and the historical processes that were already in motion for hundreds, thousands of years, that who we are and how we feel about that have been actively constructed -- and could have been very different?
ReplyDeleteYou always raise some terrific issues with your honesty about who you are and how you feel -- keep it up!
India,
ReplyDeleteFirst of all, I want to say that you are one of a kind girl. Your thoughts in this specific blog are very deep and I love how you are not afraid to say what you believe on and stick to it!
Our class discussion was very interesting last week. I think everybody has different points of views in regards to this specific topic. I am not sure if the experiences that our classmates shared with us were negative, but I do know that we all had some strong opinions about male and female roles in Christianity beliefs and involvement. I do believe that women play a big role in the Christian Church. At least in my household and personal experiences I believe they do. My mom is a very religious person, and she is always the one who brings up God in our house hold. Not that my dad does not have religious beliefs, however, my mom makes sure God is in our lives and she is more open about it. A big question that we all had in class was if social class had something to do with the way we practice Christianity or if it affects our beliefs. In my opinion, I believe that Social Class has a lot to do with our beliefs. In our class discussion, you brought up a very good point that you could not have said any better. You mentioned that social class does have to do with our religious beliefs, when we do not have anything else to hold on to, we hold on to God because he will aways be there for us and it has always been. I could not agree any better with that statement. I think that we as humans can be very selfish and "Forget about God" when we are economically stable and everything else is going well (not everybody, but most people) tend to "forget" about our religious practices. To me and in my personal opinion, I believe that lower class people, hold on to their religious beliefs a bit more since they have nothing else to hold on to but God. In regards to Christianity dying within our age group, I do not think it is. I think each one of us practice Christianity in a different way. For example, I personally do not go to Church every Sunday; in fact, to be honest I have not been to church in a while. Not because I choose not to go, but because I have to work every Sunday and since I gave up my weekends at work so I could go to school full time it is very hard for me to go to church on Sundays. This does not mean my faith or my beliefs are dying, I just practice my religion in a different way. I think by having my mom in my house and her strong religious beliefs, keeps me going with my religious practices.
Do you think that people our age are afraid to express their religious beliefs just because they do not want to be seen as "too political, too exclusive, old-fashioned, unconcerned with social justice and hostile to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people" just like the article you read says? You mentioned that you have always been surrounded by Christianity. Parents, friends, and teachers that are Christian had played a big role in your life. My question to you is: What if your life was not influenced by Christianity? Would you be one of those individuals in your article that think different of Christians? What do you think your beliefs would be?
India, do not apologize for your beliefs or for speaking your mind. Yes, this is a very controversial topic, however, we are all open minded (at least in our class) and we truly enjoy or at least me, getting to know our classmates points of view on different and important things like this specific topic. :)
Itzel