Question H

Growing up I was raised Catholic. My Moms side of the family were practicing Catholics growing up and continue today while my Dad was raised Methodist but is not actively practicing any religion. I never thought twice about having Christian Privilege where the work and school week allowed for Sunday to be a day of rest as well as vacations that align around Christmas and other religious celebrations throughout the year. It was never a choice growing up weather or not I wanted to go to Church, make my first communion and confirmation as well as having to go to P.S.R (Public School Religion) class once a week at my Churches school. It was a norm among some of my family's social group but certainly not everyone I knew was part of a religion. As I grew older I found little interest or feeling any sort of positive connection to the Church that I grew up in. Religion is not something that I identify with any longer, but do recognize that people have positive connections to their religious communities, and many of times becomes peoples social group. Our society has been formed around Christianity and Patriarchal religion that still has systems operating around their practices. How can the U.S. present itself as a place of diversity and a melting pot of various cultures and religions when there is continuous acts of oppression towards people that do not identify with society norms, in this case Christianity. Blumrnfeld pointed out that in reality "the United States today stands as the most religiously diverse country in the world," there is a need to reform basic practices in our daily lives to be more accepting and accommodating to people who do not practice Christianity.