Religions

As globalization grows more and more each day we realize the world gets smaller. We are able to reach places we never thought of in very little time. So does the variety of people we meet each day. Unfortunately not everybody’s tolerance grows as much as this. Provably one of our most commons sorrows comes from dealing with everybody’s judgments. We can find ourselves very lost on today’s society, we are misunderstood, but still we love to play judge on people’s lives. It seems Babel’s tower story is reflected on the daily survival. The story explains the origin of nations, their languages, and displays the Lord's contempt for human pride. Although religions have different interpretations of it, most of them agree the Lord punished humans for their daring by confusing their languages and scattering the people throughout the earth. (Genesis 11:1-9).But it seems we haven’t worked that much on our pride and prejudice. Especially on homogeneous societies some people find really hard to accept others cultures, costume, and even more, religion. But what amazes me even more is the fact many people seem to think talking about this is a great taboo .After the trip I made last summer I feel I should share with everybody my experience and I hopefully it will help my society to grow on values such as tolerance and respect, love and acceptance.
I spent 3 months in San Diego, California a state on the West coast of the United States, along the Ocean. It is known for its varied climate and geography, as well as its diverse population. California has the largest minority population in the United States as well as the largest population of Roman Catholics of any state .A large Protestant and American Jewish community, the largest Muslim community population in the US and a growing Hindu one. The state has more Temples of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormon) than any state except Utah. But of course I didn’t know any of this; it didn’t seem to be of any relevance before. I already knew the family I was going to stay with; my host mom had spent almost a year at my mom’s house when she was my age. Everyone was very nice and kind to me, I was extremely happy. On the 1st Sunday I went to church with them. They were Christians, not Roman Catholics as me, but I thought it would be nice to go with them anyway. When we got there I was a little shocked, the building was far away from what I would usually call a church, it looked more like a school building. People were divided by ages in different rooms. When I opened the door of the youth group I looked around and thought “This can’t be serious”. The walls were blue, red and white; there were four LCD screens, drums, electric guitars, brightly colored sofas and a pool table. Anyway I sat down and listened to the minister. His speech was some of the most heartwarming and touching words I‘d ever heard. On the way out I told one of the girls sitting next to me that I was Roman Catholic. She looked at me very confused and said “Whoa, Isn’t that were they sit down and stand up all the time?” I didn’t answer anything. Even though I knew she wasn’t trying to me mean I felt offended and hurt. The rest of the day I continued thinking about that question. The fact that people recognized my religion, the one 83% of Argentineans relate to, as a ceremony of standing up and sitting down had shocked me.
Some days later I realized how unfair I had been. Hadn’t I been as prejudiced when I first stepped into that colorful room? I didn’t know much about other religions either so, how could I expect others to know more about mine? After that day I not only left all kind of judgments and prejudice, I also opened myself to new ideas, cultures and religions.
One of my best American friends was Jewish and the other one was Mormon. They both taught me amazing things about their faith with great passion and patience, love and enthusiasm. Their ways of understanding and finding God are very opposite, but no one is to tell who’s right or who’s wrong. They have two of the biggest and purest souls I have ever met and taught me one of my most precious lessons.
No matter what we believe in, we all feel, suffer, cry or laugh. We look for ways to reach happiness and joy. Even if you don’t believe in God or any other superior power, by judging others faith or their ways to search that happiness only keeps as away from having a higher standard in life of whom we want to be. We have to work on our tolerance and open our minds to new ideas. I know I did it and I enjoy every moment of it. I am thankful of diversity, freedom of faiths and thought.