DRSS Students Open Up About… Religion

Have you or anyone else you’ve ever known had trouble finding their identity? By identity, I am referring to their religion. Religion can be a difficult topic for some, while it can be very easy to others. For some, their families share their same faith, making it easy to practice and can practice freely. However, for some students, their families do not agree with their choice of faith. This is a common issue for many students around the world. In this story, multiple juniors at DRSS will be opening up about one of the hardest and most controversial topics out there… religion.

To start off, here is a statistic according to NPR, "’As of 2010, Christianity was by far the world's largest religion, with an estimated 2.2 billion adherents, nearly a third (31 percent) of all 6.9 billion people on Earth,’" the Pew report said. “’Islam was second, with 1.6 billion adherents, or 23 percent of the global population.’” However, Christianity is a very broad term when used to talk about religion. There are many different types of religion that people identify with as I looked into this topic. From the small group of juniors I interviewed, two identified as “Christian,” while one identified as “Nondenominational Christian.” Chloe Johnson, the junior who identified as Nondenominational Christian describes it as, “This means I have no specific denomination of Christianity. The religion of Christianity has been around for centuries. I believe the Lord (Father), Jesus Christ (the Son), and the Holy Spirit are all three separate beings. The Lord is in Heaven and watches over His children. Jesus Christ came to Earth and blessed many people. However, He died on the cross for our sins and rose again the third day to go be with His Father. Finally, the Holy Spirit is in all of us. It helps us make decisions to please the Lord. I attend Sunday church services, and I will soon begin participating in praise dancing for New Season Ministry.”

Terence Wilcoxson and Devin Wade both identified as “Christian.” They describe their religion as having a relationship with God and following the Bible. However, just because all three of these juniors have family who have the same faith doesn’t mean that they did not struggle with finding themselves and their faith. Terence says, “I struggle not with finding my religion, but finding the line between what I am capable of and what is considered the power of God. I want to understand everyone’s thought process which can sometimes seem like I lose faith in my own religion.” He is not the only person who has ever struggled finding their religion.

Chris Kaempf is a “self-proclaimed atheist.” Being an atheist, according to Dictionary.com, is “a person who denies or disbelieves the existence of a Supreme Being or beings.” “My family used to believe in Christianity, then I was forced to go [to church] and that led to this and that, and I became atheist,” describes Chris as he talked about how he found his religion. Even though Chris is atheist, he isn’t the only one who has struggled with finding their own identity and has disagreed with their family. Adya Panchal, also an eleventh grader said, “Yes, my family and I share the same beliefs, but even though this may be true, I still disagree with my parents on some things. There are just different things that change with the times. Most of the time, we agree on our religion. Despite this, we tend to disagree majorly on the topics of other religions. Maybe it is me and my beliefs or just something that changes over time and through generations.”

Adya, said, “I identify as a Hindu. To be more specific, I am Swaminarayan, which is a relatively new branch of Hinduism. To be even more specific, I am part of the BAPS Swaminarayan Sanstha—this is a branch of Swaminaryan. Hinduism, or the Sanatan Dharma is the oldest religion. Because of this, there are many different sects and branches. In general, all Hindus have the same basic core values. Thus, people of different branches respect each other and their beliefs.” She said that her biggest struggle with her faith is “My religion has a lot of rules and complicated concepts to understand. To be honest, being religious is hard. I have a lot of expectations to live up to and sometimes I just want a break. On top of that, bad things happen—they happen to everyone, let’s be real here. This leads to doubt and uncertainty, luckily for me I have a great support system that can get me back on my feet and help me figure out where I am going.”

However, I found that when I asked the question: “Do you believe that any other religions are under attack?” They all had the same answer. “Islam.” I found this interesting since the second religion with the most number of followers according to the Pew is Islam.

To put it in the words of Chloe Johnson, “Yes, I believe religions are under attack. Specifically, I feel upset for the Islamic community. The people who believe in this religion are very misunderstood due to terrorism. Many terrorists say they do horrific acts in the name of Allah, but the Koran never says to kill innocent people who do not believe in the same values you do. I believe that Islam is a peaceful religion, and that it does not support the behavior of the terrorists who identify with Islamic extremism.”

Finally, I guess there’s me. I am like Chris, who identifies as atheist. I was raised Baptist Christian. My entire family, including those inside and outside of state, are Christian. In seventh grade, when I realized I was atheist, I struggled tremendously. I tried to be Christian; I read from the Bible with my grandma, learned Bible verses, went to church, etc. Then one day, my grandma died. I was angry at my mom, God, everything. I stopped believing in God as a way to cope. Over time, I realized that I actually didn’t believe in God, nor did I want to. So, I didn’t. It was during my sophomore year when I told my family. My mom had a hard time accepting the fact that I was atheist. As did pretty much the rest of my family besides my siblings. As time moved on, I realized no one had to accept me or my religion for me to be happy.

In conclusion, throughout this research process of religion, I realized how different we all are. However, I also realized how similar we are. Our religions may not be the same, we may not feel the same way about certain topics, but we all seem to get along.