Divided We Stand

By Emma Lattin

As of 2012, here are the statistics.

In The United States of America:

·      78.4% are Christian

o   51.3% are Protestant

o   23.9% are Catholic

o   1.7% are Mormon

o   0.7% are Jehovah’s Witness

o   0.6% are Orthodox

o   0.3% are Other Christian Denominations

·      1.7% are Jewish

·      0.7% are Buddhist

·      0.6% are Muslim

·      0.4% are Hindu

·      1.2% are other faiths

·      And 16.1% of us are unaffiliated with religion

So let’s review. The majority of us are Christian. In fact, it’s quite obvious this country was built upon Christian foundations, considering we’ve got “In God We Trust” inscribed on our currency. But we are religiously variant in the fact that we’ve got people of several different world religions living within our borders.

But having those many religions (with one dominant one) in a single country causes for a bit of a problem with toleration towards each other.  So here’s the real issue: Are we Americans religiously tolerant of each other? It seems we’ve all got this general expectation for everyone to be tolerant of us, but that rule doesn’t apply to us, because, well, “I’m right”.

People are always going to think that they’re right, so we can’t really change the fact that they think everyone else in the world is wrong. But what we can change is generalizations.

Don’t know what I’m talking about? Just look at the years following 9/11. In 2001, the FBI reported that immediately after 9/11, “the anti-Muslim hate violence skyrocketed some 1,600%” (www.splcenter.org). 1,600%? How does that even happen? The percentage should be 0%, if we were actually as “religiously tolerant” as we claim to be. Just because some people in another country happen to be the same religion as the Muslims living in America, doesn’t mean they both agree on the value in terrorist attacks. But people tend to generalize, and because you’re a Muslim, guess what? You’re a terrorist.

            We can think we’re right, but we cannot allow ourselves to generalize about other people in other religions. We cannot determine what or who someone is based solely on their beliefs. Everyone is an individual, with individual thoughts, hopes and dreams. Every person has the freedom to express their beliefs as they wish, without being bashed on by someone of another faith.

             This video describes what this country should be, based upon its promises of religious 

tolerance. 

We must stand UNITED, not DIVIDED.

Works Cited 

"Southern Poverty Law Center." Southern Poverty Law Center. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Mar. 2013. 

"Summary of Key Findings." Statistics on Religion in America Report. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Mar. 2013. 

Courage to Speak

By Ethan Bradshaw         

(watch 3:19-5:58)

This nation is too full of people who are overly sensitive.  Simple greetings and well wishes cause offense to people who don’t believe what the speaker believes.

            For example, a person may cause offense to someone who isn’t Christian if they say “Merry Christmas.” I don’t understand why that should be offensive.  They don’t mean it to be offensive, but simply want to be kind and say hello.  

            The founding fathers weren’t afraid to say how they felt.  It’s thanks to them and people like them that we have such a great country.  They plainly wrote on the front of the dollar, “In God We Trust.” In our pledge of allegiance we say, “…One nation, under God…”  I don’t think that we should be ashamed of that.  This country was formed to have the right to express ourselves the way we choose.  The founding fathers believed that it was thanks to God that they won their independence, and who are we to tell them otherwise and attempt to remove that detail from history just to make it so people aren’t offended.

            I believe that we as a people should respect others’ beliefs and not find offense where none is intended.  This nation would be much stronger and more united if stopped trying to attack each other and just accept one another and their views.  We shouldn’t shun the very thing that brought us our freedom.  We must be able to speak what we feel to be true in our own ways without worry of causing offense to others.  We must thank people for their kind words and for expressing their views.  It’s ok to disagree, but it’s wrong to attack, belittle, or humiliate others for their beliefs.  

The Right to Life

 by Nate Stoven

fig 1: http://www.ultracare4dbabyimaging.com/blog/

            Religion has, and always will play a role in politics. A political topic that has been repeatedly argued about is abortion. This topic has been argued back and forth for years, and will continually be a subject of debate throughout the United States. 

Abortion was legalized by the Supreme Court on January 22^nd 1973 in the court case Roe v. Wade, but there were stipulations put in place. The court ruled that:

•       During the first trimester of pregnancy the state could not regulate abortion.
•        During the second trimester the state could regulate abortion if the mother was going to have health problems due to the pregnancy.
•     When it came to the third trimester of pregnancy, the court ruled that the state could regulate abortion and that the right of the potential human life outweighed the mother’s right to privacy and the state could prohibit abortion.

        This has since been changed again to allow women to have an abortion through all nine months of pregnancy for basically any reason.

        The government has been the main authority on the topic, as it has been the Supreme Court who have been those deciding if abortion is constitutional or unconstitutional over the years. This topic will continually be debated because there hasn’t been an agreement on when a fetus is considered a human being.

      My personal belief is that when there is a potential of human life, it is morally wrong to have an abortion, because it is taking the life of a baby.  My conviction is that abortion should be illegal, and if there is potential of life we shouldn’t kill it. Those who are pregnant and don’t want their child should do something morally correct, such as putting the baby up for adoption. A baby shouldn’t be punished for your mistake.

Introduction

fig. 1: http://www.shestokas.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/bill-of-rights.jpg

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof…”

Amendment I, Bill of Rights

By law, we are entitled to worship as we please. But are we really? Are we truly free to express our religious views and feelings?  Throughout this blog, we will explore the facets of this idea: whether or not we, as Americans, have the full ability to express our religious opinions, whatever they may be and however we want.

Our purpose is not to offend, but to express.