Different Practices of Praise

Nathaniel Caldwell Zack D ePiero ENG 101-108 11.19.16 Different Practices of Praise When I was growing up, I never paid too much attention to religion. It was always around. My family was heavily involved in the church scene and I attended just about every religious based school as my family's way of seeking "better" education. As I reflected more on my childhood, I realized I experienced different religions in single religion areas such as school. Then it wouldn't only be school but in every day life. I'd experience different religious practices or opinions while I was borderline uninterested. With all of the controversy on religion, I'd like to gain a better understanding as to how people who interact with those of different religious practices perceive each other. My family, as a whole, believes in Jesus. There isn't one person in my family who has swayed away from religion or doubted the events of their life happening through anything but Jesus. As for me, I chose to take a different path that some of my family doesn't agree on. This isn't saying I'm choosing a different religious practice. It's saying that my beliefs and their beliefs just may not be neck and neck with each other. I believe in a higher power and that life couldn't be what it is without there being a higher power beyond my understanding. But with understanding, there must be knowledge. For those who weren't exposed to religion as much, they may not have the same beliefs that I do and there is nothing wrong with that. America is becoming one of the fastest multi-religious countries in the world due to diversity. There are the well known religions: Christian, Catholic, Muslim, Protestant, Jewish, etc. For the breakdown of American homes, you are likely to experience either one religion to a household or a multi-religious household. In this country, adults polled acknowledging what kind of religious homes they were raised in. In a recent study on Pew Research Center, http://pewrsr.ch/2eLkx8P, one-in-five adults were raised in interfaith homes. The chart above shows the breakdown of mixed religion homes. As you can see, religion can go any way an individual chooses for their belief in a household. The parents can share the same religion as the child in a storybook world. In reality, every person in a household can have a different belief. Even the parents can be conflicted for their religious belief. The child could choose to pursue a different belief system than the parents. The list of variables goes on and on because there really isn't a way to document all multi-religious practices. According to this study, the breakdown for how multi-religious background homes are set up is that either one or both parents could be or are not religiously affiliated. The father may not be religious but the mother is. How could this cause a conflict? What if the tables were turned? What if the father is religious but the mother isn't? How could the child, if one, be affected by this rift in the household? For these households, it's difficult to begin to think of how every one is affected at different points of life, good or bad, due to the lack of understanding of one's religion. The child is the base of what the household religion will be so some families may attempt to force religion on the child. In some cases like this, the child may adhere to the requests to choose a religion. In other cases, the child can either take a different religious practice or not take one at all. For those who can relate to this study, how do you believe they feel when approached about religion? How may a Catholic nurse approach an Atheist professor? How might a Muslim doctor approach a Jewish store supply owner? There isn't a way of identifying an individual's religion unless there is a visual that gives away their religious preference. Most people may wear a cross or crucifix if they're Christian, Catholic, Baptist, etc. Others, like Islam, Hindus, Buddhists, may have a different way to express their religion visually with accessories or style of dress. As religion has grown in America, so has the different opinions and views on each of them. A group of young adult writers from NPR have talked to individuals who have opinions on how religion has been shaped and is currently shaping America. David Greene, a writer at NPR, writes that one-fifth of Americans are religiously unaffiliated. He also writes that those under the age of 30 are drifting away from organized religion more than ever. His way of seeking understanding was to gather six adults --three woman and three man-- who were all struggling with religion. He didn't take them to a meeting room for this or even a church. Greene chose a location that was a venue to many events to lighten the thick religion atmosphere; a synagogue. All of these individuals had different religious backgrounds and upbringings. One of the woman he questioned was raised Jewish. Mariam Nissly stated "I realize maybe there's a disconnect there — why are you doing it if you don't necessarily have a belief in God? But I think there's a cultural aspect, there's a spiritual aspect, I suppose. I find the practice of sitting and being quiet and being alone with your thoughts to be helpful, but I don't think I need to answer that question [about God] in order to participate in the traditions I was brought up with." This woman was raised Jewish, as I said before, but describes herself as having an "agnostic bent." She believes but chooses to pursue the spiritual aspect of religion. Yusuf Ahmad, raised Muslim but turned Atheist, says he couldn't believe some of the stories told."Like the story of Abraham — his God tells him to sacrifice his son. Then he takes his son to sacrifice him, and he turns into a goat. I remember growing up, in like fifth [or] sixth grade I'd hear these stories and be like, 'That's crazy! Why would this guy do this? Just because he heard a voice in his head, he went to sacrifice his son and it turned into a goat?' There's no way that this happened. I wasn't buying it." In most cases, that's a deciding factor. Stories that aren't easily explainable can cause a person to stray away due to the unbelievable aspects. For two different writers from two different perspectives and as readers, how could these two authors approach each other? Would it be numbers versus opinions? Digits versus experience? Every writer has their own style and way of approaching different aspects? The PRC wants to have hard facts for their pieces. This type of writing isn't about personal experiences unless they pertain to the numerical breakdown of what's being studied. There were many different topics documents but not many had any personal experiences or stories for readers to connect to. Greene, on the other hand, gave individual's personal words as a way to connect to his readers. His method of seeking clarity was by hearing out from different religions that may have stuck to their religion or struggled to understand it. Religion is never easy to understand and may always conflict with a person. He searched for those stories for people to understand that sticking a religion isn't like having it taped to your body. It's an everlasting struggle in every day life.