This is Stephanie, the author of our second entry on chapter 2, helping her husband light the Unity Candle at their wedding. You'll learn a little more about her faith as you read along, so enjoy!
I was a little nervous starting this blog, because I chose the first entry and I have no other entries to grab an example of what I should write about. The first two chapters of the book, The Faith Club, have been very interesting and gave lots of back story about the three women. I could start by giving a little back story about my religious background. I was baptized Catholic, but shortly after that my mom stopped going to the Catholic Church. Both of my parents had previously been divorced and the church didn’t recognize one of their marriages, I don’t remember which one. When I was in middle school we started going to a Protestant church, which I didn’t care to go to. I was young and I valued sleeping in on a Sunday morning more than going to worship. I just recently got married and my husband is Catholic so we had ourselves a big fat Catholic wedding. People would ask me, “Do you have to become Catholic to be married in the church?” Depending on the church you don’t have to, but you do have to say that you will raise your children in the Catholic Church, so that is what I did. To prepare for getting married our church required us to have marriage prep classes where we would meet with our father, and also participate in a weekend long class where we learned about each other and about the faith. I would come back from those classes with so many questions, because I know very little about Catholic customs or about the bible. I became very interested in learning more.
I think it is important to learn about other faiths and religions because knowledge brings acceptance and decreases the ignorance of others. This book has been very valuable in its ability to educate others on the Muslim, Jewish, and Catholic faiths. Growing up in a tiny cow town never gave me the experience of interacting with people from other faiths. There was one family I can think of, and I believe they were Muslim, but I could be wrong. There were three sisters and they wore the shawls over their hair and wore long dresses, and I thought they were absolutely beautiful. Unfortunately, after September 11 we were freshmen in high-school and I think things changed for them. I never saw deliberate discrimination but teenagers are not necessarily known for their kindness, and I am sure things were said among the small clicks of our tiny high school. Looking back I wish our high school would have made us read a book like The Faith Club. It could have sparked conversation and interest, and maybe as a whole or school could have become more culturally competent.
Once I am done with school, which seems like lifetimes from now, I hope to either be an ABA therapist or a marriage and family therapist. I am already starting to think about how I can incorporate being aware of others’ differences and similarities in my therapy techniques. Of course I need to learn much more before I can be effective in teaching others how to be culturally competent. I have only read the first two chapters but it has already inspired me. I know that I will definitely teach my own children how to value others’ differences and to see the similarities that we all have in common.
I have always loved the sentiment behind the lighting of the Unity Candle, Stephanie, so appreciate your picture. And I also appreciate your reflection that it would have been good to read a book like "The Faith Club" in high school. The younger we talk to children -- and teenagers! -- about the value and challenges of differences, the better. And high school...my goodness! There is so much potential for conflict between kids who are different than each other, yet also so much potential for positively impacting how they respond to that conflict. After all, they are becoming critical thinkers at that age, and are finally beginning to be able to think in "What if?" terms. We need to take advantage of that!
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