This week we explore the role of religion in America and there are many directions we can go. However, it seems only fair that as students at the largest Catholic University in America we spend our blog discussion on the role of religion on campus. We have already discussed the role of various socializing factors in our political values and ideology. Outside of our parents it is hard to argue that anything has much more of an impact on our political outlook that our education and our religion (including those of us who are nonreligious). And for much of us those two elements have been linked through parochial schooling at various levels. Obviously we all have various religious affiliations and range in our religious observance from extremely observant to completely nonreligious.
I would like you to address the role the religion plays in your views about society, and by extension about political issues. Have these beliefs been affected by your schooling, whether parochial or public? Please share any thoughts about the nature of religion and politics at DePaul. We are clearly a Catholic institution that leans fairly heavily toward more liberal social politics (generally speaking). What have you discovered about the religious life on campus that is is either surprising or particularly notable in terms of our school culture or politics? This should be a general discussion and you can feel free to expand or elaborate on any aspect of the prompts above or any comments of your classmates.
Religion is historically the ultimate unifier and divider. It brings people together and pits them against one another. Yet, religious views are not limited to a group’s faith, but rather the predominant religious view of a nation impacts its respective societal structure and political laws. Our founding fathers may have divided church from state, but they did not exclude their Judeo-Christian ideals in forming this nation. They used these ideals as building blocks to create basic societal principles we hold dear (i.e. equality, “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness”). This does not infer that people of non-Judeo-Christian origins are held at a societal disadvantage. Rather, these are the building blocks our nation have decided to be based on, similar to other nations building on their own set of ideals (many of which are shared). Hence, no matter what school we may have been a part of, religious ideals have affected the way we think and act within an American society.
ReplyDeleteI don't know about y'all, but I tend to fall into routines, be it during my school days or my work days. I see and interact with a lot of the same people, I partake in the same activity during my down time in between classes in the same place, and I take the same route to my apartment, eating dinner at around a usual time as well. Seems boring, yah, but I suppose I am a man of patterns. During my mundane essential autopilot, I rarely come across anything religiously impactful. If I do, I evidently ignore it, or at least do not consider it an eventful part of my life despite DePaul's presence as the largest Catholic university. Certainly, I know people that attend mass or make a notably religious activity a part of their weekly agenda, but that is not me, and I have not been urged to trend that way either. One will notice that DePaul has strong Catholic ties, from their mission statements, to the president being a reverend, to the origin of the school and, you know, active services and such... but otherwise, the religious aspects are there, yet do not have to be strong factors in daily activity. I'm still going to play Pokemon in between classes, which is a game about brutality, slavery, and world domination. The college loan I had to take out to afford this place kind of reflects the same values, so I suppose it is fitting! GRANT USED RAMEN AND REGRET! IT'S SUPER EFFECTIVE!
ReplyDeleteAs a couple people in class mentioned the pattern, there were patches of Catholic counties found in larger cities dotted in not so Catholic states. I believe this to occur because in large cities there is plenty of unpleasant work that many people do not wish to do, thus immigrants taking these low paying mundane jobs. Also from past classes we have found that many of these immigrants come from Latin America, where the religion is predominately Catholic. That is my belief on why these dotted Catholic counties can be found in large cities.
ReplyDeleteEven though I do attend DePaul, I am not Catholic. In my opinion if one acts in a way that is ethical, moral, and respectful, their religion (or lack there of) does not matter. As a nation we were founded with freedom of religion, but also taught that there is a separation of church and state. A couple instances I find interesting about this is when running for the presidency, how JFK had to defend that he was Catholic and how it would not affect his office term. Also how the currency that we produce with the inscription of "In God We Trust". Religion is embedded in our society, even though its originally intention was to be a private matter.
Believes are based on what we have been taught, our religion, and our experiences. I think these three factors shape our identity, and affect our choices. I do think that religion is a big part of American History because America was founded with the idea of a country that is free and like the video “God in America” said “The United States has a special relationship with god.” The United States is diverse in race and it only makes sense that religion is diverse as well.
ReplyDeleteI come from a family of Immigrants and like many even though I live in the United States I live with the traditions of my family and culture. Religion is like tradition to me, for example its tradition to go to church on Sunday. Also part of my family tradition is to spend my holidays with the family and with friends. My parents were both taught that family comes first but in order to maintain a family united you need a close relationship with god. I grew up knowing I am a catholic and never was given any reason to question it. Now that I am an adult I know there are many other religions and that I do not have to be a catholic and I feel like the only reason why I know is because I live in the United States. In Mexico being a catholic is “normal” being another religion is “wrong”. That is something my parents as well have taught me because that is what they were told. When I was younger I thought that gay marriage was wrong, but now as I have grown up and have had the experience of living in a diverse urban area, I think people have the right to be happy. The United States Stands for freedom and even thought we might not all agree we should not make someone unhappy because of personal believes. In conclusion I believe that my views on social issues are based on my religion but can also be based in my experience.
Religion plays no role in my views about society and political issues. I am not very religious, and therefore religious values do not shape my beliefs about political policy issues. While there is no religious base for my personal values, many people do base their values and morals off of a specific religion, even here at DePaul. For example, the Divest protest and counter protest I feel like were very religiously motivated. It seemed as though it was Islam vs Judaism. People are both sides of the argument were no doubt in part on that side due to beliefs and values instilled in them by their religious beliefs. What surprised me most about DePaul was the fact that it is the largest Catholic University in the country, but you would not be able to tell when visiting. I have been here three quarters and I have rarely ever seen even any reference to religion here on campus. Another thing that I find very interesting is how some of my friends who are very religious support more liberal social politics, such as gay marriage and the right to choose. I think that DePaul fosters an environment where all students, regardless of their religion or lack thereof, can feel safe and express their views.
ReplyDeleteReligion really doesn’t play a huge role in my life. My Dad’s Catholic and my Mom is Presbyterian, where I was baptized I'm my moms church and went to an Episcopal grade school and then a Catholic high school. I think the only thing I have gotten out of my experiences with religion is that I now have a diverse outlook on certain beliefs and practices that different religions are comprised of. In turn, I feel like I can relate this to my views about society and politics by being able to understand people’s beliefs in a respectful manner. I’m really not active in any sort of religious organization here at DePaul so I really don’t know much about how it affects the school. However, I do know that we tend to be more liberal on issues than many conservative Catholics would like us to be. Furthermore, I truly do believe in the separation of church and state. America is a diverse melting pot of ethnicities and beliefs and the fact that we don’t have a national religion makes us closer to what our founders intended our country to be. By allowing everyone to practice and believe what they want to believe without out the fear of being ostracized or detested.
ReplyDeleteI was born into a set of parents that had very different views in regards to religion. Therefore, they decided not to baptize us and to let my brother and I choose our own religious path. Consequently, I very rarely attended church as a child and didn't prioritize faith until much later in my teen years. Still to this day I would not consider myself religious, and I am who I am today based off of the values my parents have instilled in me, not what my church has taught me. I attended a public school that was very careful not to offend anyone by avoiding any type of endorsement of religion. I did not attend DePaul because it was a Catholic University. I came here for the city life on top of scholarships that I had received. Because my childhood nor my schooling effected my religious beliefs, I can positively say that my religion has not effected my political beliefs. I found it extremely surprising how lax this University was due to it's religious affiliation. I expected to find a lot more Christian symbols around the campus and a few stricter rules. While observing my Italian Catholic family over the years it was clear that they were extremely Conservative. Here, all the students seem to be quite liberal. I believe this just goes to show you how young adults are prone to altering their beliefs as they become old enough to understand those beliefs. It was not surprising to read in this week's reading that many people transition from one religion to another or from one to none at all. As children we believe everything our parents say is correct and as we get older we start to develop our own opinions, even if it conflicts with what we were taught. It seems to me that my generation and those preceding are more and more accepting of the differences and choices of individuals. We tend to value social liberties more than anything else. I truly believe that over the next few decades this country will become even more liberal than it already has, no matter what the religious makeup of this nation is.
ReplyDelete• My beliefs have always been a foundation of who I am, but I didn’t let them stop me from listening and finding my way. I think religion/beliefs sets a foundation for a person, but as you go through life you have different experiences which help you strengthen or weaken your beliefs. my beliefs haven’t affected who I was or how I was with others. I think DePaul does a really good job of not forcing religion down onto students. Even though DePaul is a catholic school, it offers students to take different religion course if they desire to do so. Students don’t have to take catholic classes but they can take classes on Buddhism, Hindu and Islam. As a commuter student, I don’t really know much about religious life on campus. I think its great how DePaul doesn’t force students to take classes on being a catholic but instead it leave it up to the students to choose what they would like to take and learn about, Which I find something surprising for such a big catholic school.
ReplyDeleteReligion has always played an important role in my life. I was raised Catholic, and went to a Catholic high school. In my opinion, having faith is very important because a gives a person a prospective on their life. It is fitting that even though I have been raised Catholic, my parents always looked at faith very holistically. Now that I am in college, I do not have to worship as a Catholic, and I am considering leaving the Catholic Church due to doubts which I have regarding their beliefs and practices. While I may have doubts now about the role of religion in my life, I applaud DePaul for welcoming people of all faiths.
ReplyDeleteReligion to me has always been one of those topics that people don't feel comfortable openly talking about. One of these reasons is the role it plays in our society today. When we see religion being played throughout media, at least from my experience, they always focus on the aspects that make each religion different. While there are clear differences in different religions I think that is focused on way too heavily in our main stream media. We only see clashes of ideas and cultures in different countries and wars that have been started over the name of religion. I grew up in a muslim household but went to a catholic high school and now the largest catholic university in the country. It most probably a result of my past experiences but i see more similarities in religions then i do differences. However obviously admitting there is differences is the first step, the second is to find a positive relationship in these differences.
ReplyDeleteIn my life, I define myself as a Catholic, but I try to keep my religion and political views separate. An example of this is what was touched on in class by another student with abortion. I being a Catholic would prefer not to have an abortion myself and hope that nothing drastic like rape ever happens that would incline me to get one. However, I do not want to take that right away from others who may need an abortion for their health or other reasons of choice. I do not think it is appropriate for me to force my religious views upon others. I understand that the United States is based upon Christian values to an extent, but I think it makes for a very subjective government if religion is deliberately placed in arguments meant for the general public.
ReplyDeleteI think my schooling has affected my religious beliefs because I went to a Catholic high school and we were required to participate in many different aspects of Catholicism during the school year such as monthly mass for the whole school and for religious holidays and confession once a semester.
I think here at DePaul there is no large emphasis on a certain religion over another. However, there is a large emphasis on Vincentian values and being a socially responsible leader. These Vincentian values are related to religion because they are based on how Vincent DePaul lived his life, but there are more about living morally in humanity with things like love and serving others, which are not necessarily part of religion. Overall, I think DePaul does a great job of giving students good values and moral ground without forcing Catholicism on the students.
I've grown up in a Catholic household and went to Catholic schools starting in 7th grade. Before that, I only knew a couple other Catholics. I grew up in a heavily Methodist and Baptist rural town in Oklahoma. Being Catholic was weird there. Now, I identify more with being Catholic. Most of my friends from home are Catholic, but at DePaul many of my friends are not. I still can always find friends to go to Mass with and I feel very comfortable going to Mass alone at DePaul. I think it's amazing how religiously diverse DePaul is. I don't think DePaul forces values onto its students. I think that DePaul allows students to be comfortable expressing their religious/spiritual beliefs, even if they are not Catholic or Christian. A reason I chose DePaul was because of its more liberal way of expressing the "universal" meaning of Catholicism.
ReplyDeleteI identify with the unaffiliated group in religious demographics, probably more with the atheists. I grew up Catholic because of my parents. I went to church every weekend as a little kid and it wasn’t until I moved to Washington from Chicago that we stopped going. Even though I didn’t go to church I still identified myself as a Catholic. It was not until I had some bad experiences with friends and youth groups did I realize my religious identification. I think religion is a great thing for people to be involved in if they use it in a way to better their and other people’s lives. However, I also believe that religion is the reason behind many huge social problems and it can be very destructive. Also, I believe it is best for people to make judgments off of facts, but that is just my own opinion.
ReplyDeleteEven though I am not religious, I have no complaints about going to a Catholic school. I really have not done or had to do anything religious since I have been here (except for religion classes, but even then I took an Islam class). This is what I like about DePaul; they do not force specific beliefs on students. Also, most of my friends that go here are Catholic and I respect their beliefs and they respect mine.
One thing that stands out to me about politics and religion is that most every politician has a religious affiliation. And most of the time, this does not matter to people who are not religious. However, I believe that if a politician stated he or she was an atheist or agnostic, a lot of people would not vote for he or she based on that classification. However, with the increasing amount of nonaffiliated religious people, it will be interesting in the future how politicians will use the religion card.
This has been discussed in class, but I agree with the notion religious ideals, morals and conservative beliefs of Christianity have been embedded into our popular American culture,. I feel if you have not thought critically about religion for yourself, your subconscious mind inevitably shaped from American culture might follow these norms or beliefs. However, I feel America has done a good job not emphasizing religion, particularly worth noting since there is a wide diverse set of religions in America. My parents are Catholic, have stressed this on me but not too much, since they are not extremely religious. I am even less religious. I came to DePaul because of scholarships, not because it was a Catholic university. Popular issues revolved around morality and beliefs around religion such as gay rights and abortion, I believe, are more about the individuals own beliefs and morals shaped through experiences (much like our reading this week has discussed where people are changing religions), rather then what the religion stands for and the standard for a follower of a particular religion to follow these set of beliefs. This extends to our university being liberal and having activism on campus. Adding on from before, because it is acknowledged there are many religions, it is condemned for institutions to have a policy where one religion is to be followed, detailed with the 1st Amendment; Freedom of Speech! I have not seen much emphasis to Catholicism here on campus, but is present, open and there for followers. Being students, we can get the idea ourselves DePaul has liberal social policies which is great because again even where it is made evidently clear DePaul is a Catholic school, the school is very liberal and open. Recently, we have been having political activism revolved around religions on campus, but these campaigns have stressed on the beliefs and what is actually going on with impacts. Its good DePaul has been responding respectfully and positive to the activism. I feel this recent level of activism is good because it enforces the school to respond to their students, but more importantly it opens student’s minds and helps shape their beliefs through thinking critically, if they are paying attention, for that matter. If being liberal means anything, it means you are open-minded. It goes to demonstrate educated people shape their beliefs.
ReplyDeleteRaised as a second generation American by deeply religious Catholic parents, I learned social norms and political issues according to my faith. But as I grew older, I began to realize that there existed a barrier between my parents and I which was created by my parent’s faith and culture. Both of my parents grew up dirt poor in rural parts of Mexico. In their time, the schooling system only went up to 5th grade so it was inevitable that my parents received and retained most of the information about the world through the Bible and their culture. The men at an early age were taught all aspects of physical labor whereas the women learned how to maintain a household while the men were outside working. It’s this same patriarchic mentality, supported by their interpretation of Catholicism, gender roles, and social norms, in which my parents brought over to the big city of Chicago.
ReplyDeleteAs children, my siblings and I accepted this way of life because we grew up in a neighborhood that was filled with familial structures similar to ours. It wasn't until high school where I began to denounce my parents’ mentality. Briefly put, it’s a mentality that subordinates women and I connected it with Catholicism as a whole. Every single time I would question my father about why his permission only mattered and why my mother’s permission did not, he repeatedly referenced the Bible and how since he makes all the money, he has all the authority. Luckily, I was intelligent enough to attend a great high school where I learned how to set aside my faith when it came down to making decisions about political and social issues. Although I still consider myself a Catholic, I have this fear about becoming too religious because I have seen firsthand how religion can shroud one’s judgment. In terms of the political realm, I wouldn’t want someone imposing their beliefs and ideals down on me so it would be hypocritical for myself to support religious-orientated legislation that would suppress certain groups just because I have a different outlook at life. Religion should play a moral role in our lives on how to become helpful members in a community but it shouldn't shroud our judgment when we see something that goes against our religion. We need to make decisions in which every single individual and groups in our society are treated equally and fairly whether we agree or disagree.
I grew up Catholic, going to Sunday school and church every weekend. I also attended a private, Catholic high school for two years before going back to public school. Growing up I also believed in everything the church said, but as I've gotten older and experienced life I realize that I don't agree with a lot of what the Catholic church does and says. Honestly, I don't really even think of DePaul as a religious university, but that's probably because I am not active in campus ministry and I also do not pay attention. When it comes to my own personal beliefs, it is very different from what I used to believe. I still belief in God and a lot of what I learned as a kid, but now I ask more questions and I've kind of created my own beliefs that are separate from the Catholic church. I also do not let my religious views affect my political views. When it comes to politics I think with my brain and in regards to religion it is more feeling in my heart.
ReplyDelete-Katelyn Schweitzer
I grew up Catholic but I attended public schools my whole life until I came to DePaul. Even though I’m a student at the largest Catholic university in the nation, I am considerably less religious now than I ever have been. I’ve noticed that DePaul focuses far more on diversity and Vincentian values than it does on Catholicism and I think that is where the liberal stances on social policy come from. For me (and I believe for a lot of people) religion is a means to developing a set of moral principles or something along those lines and it is something that applies to every part of your life. I think that is why faith matters to people in politics and when choosing elected representatives. I believe that religious people do not see religion as something that can be separated from politics because it is not only one aspect of their lives, but rather a part of nearly everything. It serves as a sort of guiding principle and people want to see that the person they are represented by has some sense of that. Religion, of course, is not the only way that a person can develop morals and many religious people may have questionable morals. But since voters often cannot get to know a candidate on a personal level, identifying a person’s faith is a convenient (if not entirely accurate) way to get a sense of a person’s moral character.
ReplyDeleteTo me sometimes religion is related with values, even when in the real world we see a lot of people who is prominent religious without values. That is way I consider that religion something is private. We have our own beliefs, I am catholic but not the kind of a routine going to the every weekend or doing something related. I try to be the person who has respect for the others. I grew up in Mexico my parents are Catholics but the first thing they taught me is respect for the rest of the people. I think religion has not affected my political beliefs, living in a Country with a big diversity in people, religion we have to accept differences between us even when we agree or disagree that is why we live in a democracy. DePaul is has diversify of students that permits us to have a broader criteria.
ReplyDeleteGrowing up I went to church every Sunday. My mom was a teacher at the Sunday school, and once me and my brother joined youth group my dad became a leader of that. The church I went to brought my family close to a lot of people, but after my sophomore year of high school it became less of a priority in my household. The majority of the people we loved seeing every week were gone, and the people who were left became concerned over things that weren't concerns for us, for instance Gay marriage. Even while I went to church it was about seeing my "sunday friends" and had really nothing to do with God or Religion for me. Both my parents connect with their christian faith still, but I consider myself to be agnostic. Through my own experience with life its the one thing I feel like I've really come to determine on my own, what my faith is. My parents, specifically my dad, do not agree with my choice of being agnostic. I went to public school so religion was never shoved down my throat, it always seemed like it was up to me to decide. I think religion is one thing we have control over as individuals. We can decide what we believe in. Others may try to manipulate that belief, but in the end its up to us.
ReplyDeletePolitically, religion does play a factor. I do not believe in ones religious beliefs getting mixed up in their political decisions which often happens. Social issues like gay marriage and abortion always seem to get mixed up with religion. I will absolutely not vote for someone who thinks they can take away a woman's choice to an abortion because its against their own religion. Its funny how religion is supposedly meant to give people a moral compass, when I think many times it messes with the freedom, safety, and choice of others in order to protect its own set of moral code. In my experience I have only seen religion get in the way of the greater good, rather than help it.
Religion has never influenced my beliefs about what is right or wrong, when it comes to my personal life or politically. For a year and a half, I went to a Catholic high school where I met people who were very invested in their faith, and when it came to subjects such as gay marriage and abortion were very conservative, also identified as liberal. To me, that was refreshing: religion wasn't all-cosuming to everyone. I grew up without a set religion. My father was raised protestant and my mom was raised with many members of her family becoming Jehovah's Witnesses, but she never actually identified with that religion. Since they were of two different faiths, I was never forced to go to church-- of any type. I was free to dabble in what I wanted and what I found suitable. I was never taught the bible and didn't really know much about the stories within in until my Freshman year in high school, so I think it's really safe to say that religion has never played a part in how I formulate my political or personal opinions. There are already so many outside factors that try to influence one's opinion that I'm glad I didn't have to deal with one more. However, I do realize how big a part religion plays in other's beliefs and opinions and how it affects representation. I think it's completely fine to practice your faith and be devoted but when it begins to infringe on another person's rights as a human and over their body, then I think that it's taking it too far. I don't think there will ever be a time when people learn to separate the two.
ReplyDeleteOne thing that really surprises me about DePaul is how it doesn't feel like a Catholic school (until you hear about how groups aren't allowed to pass out condoms because, duh! Abstinence!). I don't feel as though religion, particularly Catholicism, is forced down my throat and even though we have a religious requirement to fulfill, we're given so many options as to which faith system to study. I feel DePaul's religious background and organization is very inclusive, in fact even I, a person with no affiliation, feel as though I could walk into mass and not feel left out (and I've thought about going to services too!) I feel that DePaul has somewhat been able to distance religion from its politics, but not completely.
I think that every individual gets something different out of religion. Personally, growing up we went to church pretty much every Sunday until high school. Having religion be a significant part of my childhood, I absolutely believe that a lot of my values and morals were developed due to being a Christian. Sunday school and events through my church provided me with much more than reading the bible and knowing everything there is to know about the religion. It taught me how to treat other people, what it means to be a good Christian, and most importantly how to be humble and accept others for who they are.
ReplyDeleteMolly mentioned that religion could be destructive and be the cause of huge social problems, which I do agree with to a certain extent. Where I disagree is that it is not the religions themselves, it’s how people use and view them. I am pretty sure that there is not one religion in the world that preaches hate, negativity, or destructiveness. These issues come up when people get so wrapped up in their religion that they lose site of what it is actually about. Religion can unfortunately be used as a weapon, to act superior, or contribute to hostility. But I think when this happens people are not actually representing their religion well at all.
While DePaul is a Catholic school, I do not think they force the religion on to its students. I think DePaul is extremely open and accepting to all students and their religious beliefs. I completely understand that as a private, Catholic school, DePaul requires students to take 2 religion related classes but they have a huge range of what can be taken so no one is force into taking a class about Catholicism. I personally have not been to mass since going to DePaul and I appreciate the freedom we have to be apart of whichever religion I choice,
Although I am one of the many in my family that has attended DePaul, I am the only one not baptized as a Catholic. Both of my parent`s families are extremely religious (you will always find at least one religious article on their persons) so that trickled down to my parents as they raised my sister and I. My mother was a Sunday school teacher and my father converted to Protestantism from Catholicism to please my mother and make a unified household. I never had taken the church seriously, although to be fair I didn't take much seriously as a child, due to the fact that what the church had taught me appeared to be all fables. I had been skeptical of the church from the beginning ( as my parents tell it ) which I don't argue considering I was probably the only child who didn't believe Santa Clause was plausible. I think that this skepticism blinds me from religious interactions within society.
ReplyDeleteI attend a Catholic university but unless I go passed the St. Vincent de Paul Parish or walk by the campus ministry in the Student Center I never see religious encounters happening within students. I often forget that DePaul is a religion based institution especially since we are so liberal (one of the few private institutions that have a gay studies department for example). The only time I have connected DePaul to a religious institution is in my women studies class when the professor announced that women will never be able to break the glass ceiling here at DePaul due to the fact that women cannot become priests and therefore cannot become the Dean. We may consider DePaul liberal but it still holds strong to its Catholic roots.
To be honest, religion has no affect on my views of society and politics. My parents and a majority of my family are Catholic, but I am not. I went to a Catholic school for about 3 years when I was younger. I spent a lot of time going to mass when I was younger, having gone twice a week at school and once on Sundays, but I am not a very religious person. I do not think that DePaul is very religious. True it is the largest Catholic University in America, but it isn’t very traditional. I’m basing that off what I see the few hours I’m on campus. I don’t spend a lot of time on campus so I can’t really say that anything surprised me or caught my attention about the religion and politics on campus.
ReplyDeleteI'm not religious at all. Sure, I believe there's something, somewhere that made all this, but heaven and hell are, to me, ways to feel comfortable about the idea of death and to guide you towards being a good person. When looking at it from a societal standpoint,I acutally get somewhat jealous of those with strong faith. I feel my life would be so much easier and less complicated if I could fully and truly believe that god had a plan for me and he was the answer to my problems. That sounds like a fantastic way to live (I'm not being sarcastic at all).
ReplyDeleteThey haven't affected my schooling at all. When I was in high school, I used to use Yom Kippur (the most important jewish holiday) as an excuse to skip class, but other than that, I don't see any reason for faith to play a part in my day to day life, or my work. Even if I did have a strong faith, I would keep it to myself. I think faith a completely personal thing, and you should only share it when asked.
The only way religion has played a role in my political views is I become incredibly frustrated when I hear it brought up during political speeches or debates, or anything. While I think that faith is an absolutely acceptable thing to latch on to and have, I do not think it has any place in politics, esp when it infringes on rights.
I haven't noticed any religion on campus. In fact, it wasn't until one of my relatives said, "you're jewish and you go to the largest catholic university in the country?" that I found out that I indeed attend a religious school. But, I can't tell at all, other than the fact that I have to take a few religion courses. But I can take Buddhism, so it's ok, I don't mind.
I am not a religious person but attending one of the largest Catholic institutions in the nation has put something in perceptive. I honestly like studying different kinds of religions but when religious people start to force their opinion upon you then that’s when things become a problem. To me personally I do not understand why people have the need to thing that everything we do should be base on the idea of “what god wants”? Yet, how do we know what god wants from us? Only because there is biblical scriptures stating certain things about what god wants from us, to me personally does not mean anything to me. When it comes to abortion and same sex marriage it annoys me that religious people think that they have any right to determine other peoples’ choices or action of their own lives. If what the bible says about god loving everyone unconditionally then who are we to judge those who have abortions or those who love others of the same sex? For being one of the largest Catholic institutions I feel that DePaul does a great job in exploring many other religions. But then again DePaul hides many of the unknown problems that have been occurring with our student body. Such are this issue of “culture rape”, being a catholic university you would think DePaul would say more about it because it goes against all DePaul stands for and yet as students we get nothing.
ReplyDeleteThis will be the end of my 15 year of Catholic schooling. I'm also from a family of Italian Catholics that grew up down the street from the Italian parish they still attend to this day. For better or for worse religion has played in integral part of both my values and political beliefs. I'm not a practicing Catholic and I didn't select DePaul because it is a Catholic institution but because of its academic record.
ReplyDeleteWhen I say that religion influences my political beliefs it does not mean I adopt or adhere to Catholic views on most mainstream issues. In fact, I think Vatican is at odds with a large majority of Catholics and is desperate need of the sweeping changes Pope Francis is trying to bring to the church. Being from immigrant stock more so informs my Catholicism than anything else. My family subscribes to a more Dorothy Day/social justice faith. A belief that religion should not be judgment but should be a shelter for those in need and that the church's roof is big enough for all peoples. Perhaps that's why I have come to love DePaul so much.
As I mentioned I am not particularly religious and most of the faculty and staff I've met if they are religious you'd never know. There is a sort of live and let live environment on campus. That is probably the most surprising part about DePaul. My other Catholic school experiences are starkly different. In most cases faculty/staff jumped at the occasion to push Catholic values or teachings which almost felt hostile at times. One thing being Catholic and going to Catholic school taught me was respect and reverence for my fellow human, that good works trump any other charity, and that leading a good life is true path to happiness.
Oh boy, looks like I am going to be the odd one out here. I see a lot of people saying that they are thankful that De Paul doesn't impose its morality based on its religion or intervene in controversial moral issues. The issue now becomes an issue of logic. Logically, if the moral standard is not based on religion, then what is your standard? Assuming moral absolutes presupposes the unchangeable and universality of these absolutes, assuming such absolutes presupposes their basis in religion and therefore their basis in God. For instance, I can ask: Is theft wrong? I think we would all agree that it is wrong (I hope). Now, the question is :Why is theft wrong? The answer might be something along the lines of : Because it is hurting somebody else. Now, the question is: Why is hurting somebody else wrong if it benefits me, or my tribe, or my country, etc...? They may say: Our morals come from our shared societal and cultural values. To which I reply: Then you don't actually have moral absolutes, nor can you say theft is intrinsically wrong, because your answer indicates that if a society or culture thinks theft is ok then it becomes morally acceptable, therefore you cannot claim the existence of any moral absolutes without presupposing their basis in religion which is based on God. Since I don't think there is anyway to claim any morality without presupposing God (via logical deduction), I encourage De Paul and other Catholic Universities to voice their opinion on all moral issues including controversial issues where they will get very little support. Unless anybody can give me any other standard by which to base morality on (which doesn't presuppose religious values), I will continue to hold this position (which I feel is based on logical consistency).
ReplyDeleteThere I said it, now crucify me (no pun intended) :)