Religious Diversity (RELS 2400)
Reflection
For one of the projects, we were asked to go to two religious services. I decided to watch two religious ceremonies, one was Catholic and the other was Hindu (links below). After watching the two videos, I became very aware of the differences between these two religions as well as my own. I learned that the Catholic mass has many similarities to my own religion including the blessing and distribution of a sacramental bread in remembrance of Jesus Christ. Although I did not see many similarities between the Hindu religious ceremony and my religion, I learned a lot about what happens at their meetings, including drum music, dancing, and much decoration with flowers and leaves.
Over the semester, we have learned about various world religions, their histories, and how they came to America. My main goal for the semester was to learn more about other religions than mine and to see the world from different perspectives. Through this, I have been able to increase my appreciation for other religions and what they believe in. We looked at different case studies about times when law and religious freedom have been pitted against each other. The main idea in this class is pluralism, the idea that different cultures and religions can coexist peacefully. I believe that taking this class has helped me increase my understanding and my desire to be pluralistic. One assignment that brought this to my attention was our religious liberty essay, this can be viewed by clicking on the “Religious Liberty: Amish Schooling” button below.
For my last project, I got a family tree for Reform Judaism and wrote a summary of the timeline of Reform Judaism in America. I enjoyed learning about this topic because I share many of the beliefs of this religion. It was interesting to learn about the differences between Orthodox Judaism and Reform Judaism. I can see why many of the changes were made, it would be extremely difficult to keep the whole of Hebraic Law in our modern society. Learning about Reform Judaism helped me better understand and appreciate the Jewish beliefs and practices. Click on “Family Tree for American Minority Religion” below to view the family tree and historic summary.