Reflection: I was able to identify a pivotal point in my growing up and reflect on how it helped shape my identity. I think the paper accurately reflects how one experience can change who we become. I would have liked to have written more about the challenges people face when they encounter people with very different backgrounds and beliefs. It is sometimes difficult for me to write about personal events without making it too personal. I was trying to relate my personal experiences to a larger issue of how people form their identity and how they choose to identify themselves.
Anyone who watches enough U.S. television might notice a curious fact about characters and religion in the various shows: most characters are represented as not particularly religious on an ongoing basis. Generally, characters on television shows do not attend church regularly or mention their religious views most of the time. When there is an episode featuring Christmas or another religious holiday, then the characters may briefly allude to being religious. For example, they may put up a Christmas tree or attend a church service for Christmas or Easter. Once the episode is over, there is generally no mention of religion again until the next Christmas episode. Very rarely do characters on television mention what type of church they attend. On U.S. television, characters almost never discuss their faith or attend church regularly. In real life, though, many people do identify themselves as Christian and attend church often. Being Christian is a critical part of their identity.
My own journey to becoming a self-aware Christian began in an odd way, through a comment from one of my aunts. My mother’s family is extremely fundamentalist Christian; the women do not wear cosmetics, cut their hair, or dress in anything but very conservative clothes showing almost no skin. My mother’s family almost disowned my mother because she married one of those “liberal Southern Baptists.” I grew up regarding myself as a Christian; it was just part of my family identity. However, in my early teens my family and I were visiting one of my aunts; she approved of me because I wore my hair long and used almost no make-up. She took me aside to tell me how much she appreciated my appearance, and I politely refrained from telling her that my appearance had nothing to do with religious beliefs and everything to do with aesthetic preferences. She then uttered a sentence that changed my life: “It’s so sad; your mother is going to hell because she wears make-up and cuts her hair.”
That pronouncement stuck with me for a long time. Initially I just laughed to myself and thought that at least if my mother was going to hell, she would look more attractive than her sisters. As time went on, though, I began to question what Christianity was actually about. It did not seem to me that the kind of Christianity my parents practiced was the same as the kind my aunt practiced. I began reading more about religion and the different types of denominations that exist within Christianity. This was a process of discovery for me, because I had been identifying myself as Christian without really being aware of all the variations in what that word could mean. Reading about religion made me think about how we identify ourselves sometimes with a word, and we know exactly what we mean by that word, and yet other people define that word very differently.
As I grew older, I finally resolved for myself what kind of Christianity I identified with most strongly. Which particular denomination within Christianity does not matter so much to me; I belong to a fairly mainstream church. There have been times that being a Christian has been a challenge for me. I have met people who are Christian but belong to different churches, and occasionally they believe their particular church is the only “correct” version of Christianity. I have met people who are religious but not Christian, such as classmates who are Jewish, Hindu, or Muslim. Sometimes these people have questioned my religious views, and I have had to explain my beliefs to them in a way that does not insult their religious beliefs. My identity as a person has been enhanced by my being a Christian. My beliefs give structure to the meaning of my life and provide me with a way to live my life in a good way. There have been times when I have been tempted to do things that I should not do, and when that has happened, I remind myself that I am a Christian and should not do those things. In some ways being a Christian has also made my life easier. Almost 80% of the population in the U.S. is Christian (Skirbekk, Kaufmann, & Goujon 296), and obviously it is easier to be part of a majority group than to be in a religious minority. If I wear religious jewelry or have a cross in my room, virtually everybody knows what those symbols mean. They are symbols of my religion, and symbols of my identity.
What is interesting to me is that so many people believe that one word “Christian” tells them everything they need to know about me. Some people hear the word and automatically assume they know how I feel and think about many issues. However, assuming an identity as a Christian does not make me into a clone of every other Christian. I have my own opinions on social and political issues; sometimes my opinions conflict with those of many other Christians. We don’t all think alike any more than we all dress alike. We are not all “do-gooders” as some people claim; there is data that shows some groups of Christians do much more volunteer work than other groups of Christians (Guo et al 34). Even though we all may identify as Christians, our behavior can be very different. For example, there are Christians who do not drink alcohol because it is part of their religious doctrine, while other Christians consume alcohol and have no religious objections to it.
In reflecting on how my identity as a Christian has changed, I believe that had my aunt not made that comment, I still would have spent time deciding what kind of Christian I wanted to be, because I am curious by nature. However, her comment jump-started the process for me. Because she did make that comment, I became much more aware of what being a Christian can mean to a wide variety of people, and I developed my own understanding of Christianity and how I could identify with it. My religious beliefs help define my identity; they are a critical part of who I am. Ultimately, though, for me being Christian is one part of my identity, but not the whole. My identity comprises many components: student, reader, employee, and human as well as many components that may yet become part of my identity. For some people, if they know that one word about me, Christian, to them that is all they need to know. But nobody’s identity can be adequately described by just one word. As humans, we are multifaceted creatures who resist easy definitions; I hope that my being a Christian will be regarded as just one part of my identity instead of my entire identity.
Works Cited
Guo, Chao, Natalie J. Webb, Rikki Abzug and Laura R.A. Peck. “Religious Affiliation, Religious Attendance, and Participation in Social Change Organizations.” Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly 42:1 (2013): 34-58. DOI: 10.1177/0899764012473385. Web. 5 Feb. 2013.
Skirbekk, Vegard, Eric Kaufmann, and Anne Goujon. "Secularism, Fundamentalism, or Catholicism? The Religious Composition of The United States to 2043." Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 49.2 (2010): 293-310. Academic Search Alumni Edition. Web. 5 Feb. 2013.
