Bringing Different Faiths Together

The author of our first entry on chapters 14 and 15 is Jennifer, and this is a childhood picture of her with her family in front of their church. She said that this picture is for chapter 14, and the picture at the bottom of the blog -- with Santa! -- is for chapter 15's "Happy Holidays" theme. Happy reading!

When we were assigned “The Faith Club” to read and then blog about the three authors and their search for understanding, I did not think that I was going to be able to relate. However, I was completely wrong. I chose to blog about chapters 14, Day of Atonement, and chapter 15, Happy Holidays. In these chapters Ranya, Suzanne, and Priscilla have made me think of the religious views of members of other ethnic groups in a completely different light.

These three ladies remind me of my friends and me; although we are all the same race, we have very different views on many different things. We never like to talk about things that are controversial such as religion, because growing up we were taught in school to not talk about these things. After reading these chapters it made me think that if Suzanne and Ranya could overcome their biases about Priscilla’s religious holiday, Yom Kippur, and actually take place in observing it and explaining to their children what was going on, why couldn’t other people let down their guards and be educated on others’ views?

Living in the Central Valley we see diversity every day, especially in Fresno, but we still see people of the same race or the same religious views hanging out together. You very rarely see people of different ethnic backgrounds or religious views going to a church or hanging out with someone outside of what they were taught. Reading this opened my eyes to how we as Americans say we are culturally unbiased. If you go down a street you can see different places for worship, but you never see a Catholic walking out of a synagogue, or a Jewish person walking out of a Catholic church. I am so happy to see a book out there that is letting adults and children know that our views are so skewed. We are telling our children that we are all equals, when in reality people are still looking down and being biased towards others just because people choose to be a different religion.

In chapter 15, Ranya, Suzanne and Priscilla are starting to celebrate Christmas. Ranya speaks of always having had a Christmas tree when she was growing up, and how she never really felt like it was the right thing to have considering she was not Christian. I am glad to see she has overcome that hesitation and realized it is okay to have a tree. If anything, this proves to her friends that she is really here to understand where they are coming from in each of their religious views. In my opinion all this celebration is for the birth of Christ, and if she believes in Him like she says she now does, then having a Christmas tree up should be no big deal.

In conclusion, reading this book has made me look at myself and our society in a different light. We need to see where we’re each coming from by coming together like these three ladies. Maybe then we will see ourselves for what we truly are, and that is very biased.