I spent more than a week talking to people who follow different faiths and hold different spiritual beliefs. It was all part of the interviewing process in preparation for my article about religion on campus.
The conversations were enlightening, inspirational, thought provoking and often made me ponder, even question, my own worldview.
Many of my sources expressed similar frustrations with a disconnect between the way they practiced their faith and the way it was portrayed in society and the media.
“I truly believe that those pastors and ministers who make the headlines do not represent the Christian church as a whole,” Intervarsity Christian Fellowship member Karl Gurney said.
He is right. If one Christian-gone-wrong appears in the news, they do not, and should not, represent the entire Christian population. Just as one terrorist group in the Middle East does not represent the faith of Islam.
But as soon as he mentioned something about Christians making headlines, a montage of headlines from articles I recently read ran through my head.
Uganda’s Anti-Homosexuality Bill of 2009, which is still under consideration by the Ugandan government, makes homosexuality punishable by death in the east African nation, a place that is already very dangerous for LGBT people. It is widely believed that American evangelical Christians largely influenced the bill’s creation.
Three evangelical Christians, who are known for their widely discredited teachings on how to “cure” homosexuals, spent three days in Uganda talking to the people about “family planning”, which really ended up being speeches condemning homosexuality, according to The New York Times.
People who attended the talks said gay people were presented as evil, rapists and sexually promiscuous. Shortly after their visit, the bill was introduced.
The Americans in question are now on the defensive, saying that they are against the bill.
I have always been suspicious of the motives of religious groups that target poor communities in developing countries. And honestly, I momentarily, like we all have before, stereotyped, grouped and categorized based on the media reports of these extreme members of the Christian population.
Maybe talking to various religious groups was just what I needed.
Rev. Jane Voigts of the San Luis Obispo United Methodist Church said she believed that society has created a negative stereotype of all religious traditions.
“It drives me crazy when I watch T.V. and all religious figures are shown as boring, out of touch with reality, hypocritical and fundamentalist,” Voigts said. “Church is looked at as a place where boring people go and bad things happen.”
Voigts said that while there are indeed people who live the extreme sides of religion (like the Americans who preached against homosexuality in Uganda), it is not fair to leave out the good things found in religious communities.
Overall, the interviews for my article were judgment-free. Both sides of each conversation seemed fueled by honest curiosity and a willingness to not only share, but to listen.
It is refreshing to reflect upon those interactions, and I think it’s a good start considering the world we live in. Where the media (and the people who are the subjects of media reports) gives us so many reasons to judge each other.