Running head: Social Diversity Interview Paper: Religious Freedom 1

Social Diversity Interview Paper: Religious Freedom

Katrina Herzog

21.SP.PSY.1100.501 General Psychology

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We read and write about the religious freedom in America and how all faiths are welcome

in the United States. However, when you make a statement like that, you need to accept that

some people believe in gods or goddesses, some believe in Jesus, and some believe in something

totally different. Religious freedom is not just accepting that everyone has a different belief

system it is also accepting that someone who believes different than you are not wrong. From

the Encyclopedia of Diversity and Social Justice, the problem begins when people begin to

believe that another faith is worthless, immoral, or evil. The “us” versus “them” mentality. This

is when religious intolerance, violence, and discrimination begins to happen. The Organization

for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) stated that hate crimes motivated by religious

intolerance were the second largest types of hate crimes. However, the FBI reports that hate

crimes are only about 20% across the US. These statistics tell us that religious hate crimes are

fewer in number in the US than in Europe for now. In the magazine feature titled, A Matter of

Life and Death, two scholars with completely different backgrounds talk about teaching religious

literacy and how there is a dramatic increase in religion related hate crimes in the US. They

believe that learning about the different religions make us more accepting of things outside of

our own beliefs. Murali, one of the scholars, believes that the attacks on our democracy can be

prevented with a more culturally aware and religiously literate society.

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Social Diversity Interview Paper: Religious Freedom

Interview

I conducted an interview with Rebecca, who has been a member of several different

churches in the local area. They have included Pentecostal, Methodist, Non-Denominational and

Nazarene. I asked her to tell me about her experiences as a member of each of these churches.

She stated that some of the denominations were easier to connect than with others and she got a

sense of belonging with only a few of them. Rebecca has always been Christian but has moved

around in the denominations. She said that all of the churches she has attended believe in God

and all of them believe in serving or helping others. She said that everyone assumes because she

goes to church she doesn’t drink, cuss, talk about others or any other negative trait. Her concern

is that this is the belief that others have of her, but that when they get to know her, they find that

she is just as human as they are and makes many mistakes. There are some disadvantages of

being a Christian. She stated that she is sometimes not invited to things because people feel like

just because she is Christian, she will judge them not following the Christian ways. Some of the

friends she has only call her when they are having problems and then they ask her to pray. It’s

like she can’t be in their life until they need help. She stated that’s not a problem for her because

she accepts them either way. Her hope is that as people see her being non-judgmental of their

ways, they will be less judging of her beliefs.

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In studying this social group, the biggest thing that has changed for me is understanding

where the problem is with religious freedom. Everyone understands that there are different

religions out there and believe that you can choose whichever one you want. That is not where

the bias comes from. They can accept that you are Hindu, Buddah, Christian, or Jehovah.

However, if any of those differ from their beliefs or lack of them then there is this belief that it is

wrong. There is bias on both sides of the social group. The person attending the church could

believe that any other belief is wrong if it differs from the church. They could judge that person

for not attending or believing. But also, the person not in that social group has a bias against that

social group of putting them on this pedestal of purity. When that person falls, because they are

human and will, they laugh and poke fun at it questioning their true intentions in that social

group. All of us are human, regardless of our social religious belief or lack of one. We will all

make mistakes and make questionable decisions. Those mistakes should not be blamed on the

religious social group that we belong to.

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References

A Matter of Life and Death. (2017, May 3). Learning for Justice.

https://www.learningforjustice.org/magazine/summer-2017/a-matter-of-life-and-death

Çakar, B. (2014). Religious intolerance. In S. Thompson (Ed.), Encyclopedia of diversity and social

justice. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. Credo Reference: http://sinclair.ohionet.org/login?

url=https://search.credoreference.com/content/entry/rowmandasj/religious_intolerance/0?

institutionId=6043
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