Assumptions are made everyday. For some reason, religious assumptions seem to be even more prevalent in Hawaii than in Illinois which is a surprise. Hawaii is such a melting pot that I would have assumed there would be more sensitivity.
Not from what I've seen. It seems everybody is assumed to be Christian here. At our high school reunion, there was a Christian invocation to begin the celebration. That was fine, but it made me wonder if I was the only Buddhist there.
I guess coming from Illinois where I had friends who were Jewish, Hindu, Muslim, Christian, Buddhists, Agnostics, Atheists, etc. the effort was made to be sensitive and inclusive.
I remember a Catholic neighbor 30 years ago encouraging us to send our children to his Catholic private pre-school. He informed us happily with a broad smile, "We accept Muslims too." I don't think he ever figured out that we weren't Muslim, but that was OK. He didn't know the difference anyway.
Here in Hawaii, I get quite a few forwarded mail from friends assuming that I am Christian. Art gets some pretty radical forwarded mail assuming that he is as conservative as his classmate's wife is. I've told Art that he should just tell his classmate, but he says it's good to keep an open mind and hear out what people say who don't believe as you do.
I try my best to just go with the flow because that's really all part of being Buddhist. But sometimes... it's a little hard when the flow is too strong.
On the bright side, Hawaii has sent the first Buddhist and Hindu to Congress.
I like that.
Not from what I've seen. It seems everybody is assumed to be Christian here. At our high school reunion, there was a Christian invocation to begin the celebration. That was fine, but it made me wonder if I was the only Buddhist there.
I guess coming from Illinois where I had friends who were Jewish, Hindu, Muslim, Christian, Buddhists, Agnostics, Atheists, etc. the effort was made to be sensitive and inclusive.
I remember a Catholic neighbor 30 years ago encouraging us to send our children to his Catholic private pre-school. He informed us happily with a broad smile, "We accept Muslims too." I don't think he ever figured out that we weren't Muslim, but that was OK. He didn't know the difference anyway.
Here in Hawaii, I get quite a few forwarded mail from friends assuming that I am Christian. Art gets some pretty radical forwarded mail assuming that he is as conservative as his classmate's wife is. I've told Art that he should just tell his classmate, but he says it's good to keep an open mind and hear out what people say who don't believe as you do.
On the bright side, Hawaii has sent the first Buddhist and Hindu to Congress.
I like that.
You made me think of the movie I just saw, The Life of Pi. I do hope to hear from you when you see it. The message I got from that movie is that whatever way we see God is okay, as the truth remains the same. I think people should be more tolerant of other people's views. Fundamentalists don't agree with me, it seems. :-)
ReplyDeleteYae! I'm going to go see it today, DJan.
DeleteOne of my many strong objections to my own conservative politics is the rantings of the religious right who "claim" to be Christians and do not recognize the separation of church and state. Tolerance and inclusiveness seem to be forgotten and they embarrass me to no end as I am often lumped with them when I say I am a Christian. This is one of my favorite quotes: “I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ."
ReplyDelete~ Mahatma Gandhi
Our youngest granddaughter, a Methodist, attends a Catholic school and while they promise not to proselytize, she does refer to herself as Catholic now.
I embrace you my Buddhist friend and give thanks for the religion that brings you peace and makes you such a wonderful person.
Thank you so much, Annie. I'm sending you a cyber hug this morning too. You are beautiful!
DeleteThat surprises me. I just *assumed* that Hawaii would be full of Buddhists. No?
ReplyDeleteOr, as my Jewish friend Andrea in our Chicago high school always sighed, "Nu, it's a Christian world..."
Welcome to the minority.
What would a Buddhist invocation sound like?
Funny that you should ask about the invocation. I started to write about a Thanksgiving grace and thought of something that happened. This comment got so long that I decided to just turn it into a post which I'll post tomorrow.
DeleteThank you for the idea, Dina.
I guess thats another ignorance of our society, I would have thought it would be different but I do know its bad here in our little towns, where I grew up there were no Catholics, the only church our village had was The United church of Canada, if you were not you were out of luck.Its different now of course, that little church is closed and there are all faiths now, Art has a lovely way of thinking,
ReplyDeleteintolerance shouldn't be tolerated in the US because the US is a nation founded by people fleeing religious persecution in England against the majority religion. Inclusion or lack of is not thought of as a form of intolerance as strongly as it should be.
ReplyDeleteThis is so true, Ron!
DeleteI am surprised that religious assumptions are so prevalent in Hawaii with the diverse population there. Kudos to both you and Art for your patience with people's assumptions.
ReplyDeleteIs it just "assumption", or "intolerance" as was suggested above. Assumption is easily remedied, just by saying that the assumption is not correct, but if it's intolerance then is it better to get different friends, or just to consider the source. I would like to think the latter, as to do the first would seem to make me intolerant, too. I'm sure that it's not easy to be a minority, and it would be nice if people were able to embrace the differences and to be sensitive and inclusive as you had stated that your friends in Illinois were. Maybe, your new friends will learn from you and become more so in time. I am LDS or Mormon, and we meet with intolerance, but many times it turns into friends who are sensitive and inclusive. We are Christian, but many other Christians don't consider us so, usually one on one time is educational to both parties. Bulk mailings and large groups would be more difficult, but maybe enough one on ones and it'll be like the old commercial where a friend tells a friend.
ReplyDeleteFrom my point of view, one of the better things about the UK is the lack of religious assumptions and going along with that the general religious toleration. Most people aren't really anything, though they'd probably put of C of E (Church of England) on forms that ask for it, but we have a sizeable minority of Muslims and Jews along with many other minorities. Sadly, the established church - protestant Christian - is dwindling due to apathy. Although I'm not a church goer, I'd like to think that I uphold the humanitarian principles of all of the world religions.
ReplyDeleteI've never understood racial or religious prejudice???? I was born and raised in Texas, but I married a black man in Texas in the 1960s -- well, actually we were married in California because it was still against the law in Texas at that time. Our four racially mixed children have fortunately had a much better life than many racially mixed people do. And they are a beautiful blend of both races. I'm not a church goer either, but like Amanda I do feel that I uphold the humanitarian principles of all religions.
ReplyDeleteit's more difficult to live religious principles than to spout them...lol!
ReplyDeleteI like that a lot. Love the holiday header too.
ReplyDeleteDear Kay and Art -- Please keep educating your readers. At least we are open to learning, and can, in turn, spread the proper information when we run into the differences within our own narrow worlds.
ReplyDeleteI was stunned to read from a "world religions" book for State Dept. children overseas, that by population count, Christianity was NOT the majority religion! So, I could use a lesson on the differences between Muslim, Hindu, Buddist, Sikh for starters.
I know there are extremes, and I'd sure hate to have the world think that all Christians behave and think as some of the conservatives, or that all Catholic priests (and other ministers,) all abuse people.
Seems Hawaii before the influx of missionaries wasn't all bad.
DrumMajor
I wish I knew more about all the different religions too. I'm afraid I'm still just learning.
DeleteI have to be honest, growing up in the Bible Belt, I thought everyone was Baptist but me and my family (we were Roman Catholic). Even within Christianity, exclusion existed.
ReplyDeleteMy father pitched a fit when he discovered I was being taught Protestant Bible studies at school. He got me excused, but not before I behaved very badly when Miss Cherry,the instuctor. told us to work on an assignment one day and I purposely screwed it up. I was in 4th grade and already undersood rebellion when your religious rights are trampled.
I dated a Lebanese boy in high school who was Catholic. I remember standing on the corner waiting for a bus with him as boys across the road yelled at us because he was an Arab.
When I car pooled my youngest son John to the Episcopal day school, one of the kids in the group was Morman and he always got on my case about drinking coffee. The other two kids were Muslim. They said nothing.
A few years back, I joined in a national campaign to get the US government to approve Wicca headstones for Wiccan soldiers buried in national cemeteries. The crosses row on row today are interspersed with the headstones from many religions, including Wiccan pentagrams.
Because I attended grad school at Georgetown, I met many folks from many places all over the world.
Over the years, I have known many people from many different walks of life and the richness of the diversity has made my life better. I love Buddists and even today have a few Buddist friends (from India). Dianne
Thank you so much for your wonderful input, Dianne. There's such understanding here.
DeleteReligious assumptions don't bother me. David and I don't attend church anymore and really don't miss it.
ReplyDeleteI recall clearly what my introduction to World Religion professor said on the first day of lecture on Islamism and Christianity (funny that these two religions were lumped in the same course section), "Christrianity is an arrogant religion". Later I found out he was a Buddhist associated with the Buddhist study center on University Avenue.
ReplyDeleteMy cousin who is Christian did not attend his own sister's Buddhist wedding ceremony because he didn't want to step into a Buddhist church. That same cousin was asked to give an invocation at a recent birthday party which his sister attended.
There seems to be intolerance or at preferential treatment on both sides...I like what our Christian neighbor once said, "Don't confuse the messenger with the message".
L...w
Your last quote echoes what my priest grandfather said when I asked him if Christianity or Buddhism was better. He said, "It's not the religion that is better but how the person uses it."
DeleteYou have brought up the most volatile subjects of all party-ruining subjects. Once the subject swings around to religion, there goes the party. My mother didn't believe a word of it, and I'm carrying on that tradition I guess. I never saw her in a church, never. Once a Baptist minister ran over my brother with his car and he didn't apologize. Parker was in a coma for three days, but he completely recovered and is still with us today. But, my mother never did forgive that preacher for not apologizing and in her mind it was typical religious hypocrisy. I guess I'm a live and let live kind of guy as long as you don't believe in condemning people to Hell. I'm happy to report there is no such thing or place as Hell, in case anyone was wondering. That doctrine has caused so much misery.
ReplyDeleteThe Golden Rule makes a lot of sense to me. My random thoughts I'm expressing here are complicated by the fact that, because of my literary and artistic interests, I strike some people as being "spiritual." I once knew a Catholic priest who told me I am spiritual. I took it as a compliment and didn't attempt to further enlighten him. I am also very reponsive to church music from Bach to Beethoven's "9th Symphony" to the Carter Family's Appalachian hymns. Their lachrymose and sentimental "I Saw Mom with God Last Night" is perfectly wonderful.What a melody. ("He was mean when he took Mom from me/ but last night I could plainly see....") While I'm on the subject of the Carter Family and other country and western gospel music, what about "Jimmy Brown the newsboy who sold the Gospel News"? Wonderful song, and I don't believe a word of it. My greatest committment over the years has been to the Civil Rights Movement and church hymns played such a big role there. Here's where I end up this morning, wondering why did I even try to say something coherent on this subject: LIVE AND LET LIVE and the GOLDEN RULE will get you through this life. A little of your GO WITH THE FLOW will always help us to accept the things we cannot change.
Thank you for your wonderful input, Hank. You know I always wait for them. :-)
DeleteMr. Chapin -- You did well with your mini-BlogSermon, and it didn't mess up the party. And why did you try to say something? Well, because I just HAD to look up the lyrics to the "I Saw Mom" tune. The daughters of my 85-year-old neighbor, have had a tough time losing their Mom, and those lyrics will help them. You're doing well with your "rules." Mahalo for sharing. DrumMajor
DeleteI love your Chrismas banner!
ReplyDeleteTerry gets many religious tracts and right wing political rants from his otherwise nice high school classmates.
I, too, am annoyed and embarrassed by public professions of Christian piety. Every event on this island seems to open with a prayer.
I am glad you have said something, because this is getting worse and worse. Maybe our reps in Congress can speak up, too.
I've made an effort to buy Christmas cards that are more 'seasonal' than religious.
ReplyDeleteI'd like to think I'm welcoming to everyone, but the truth is that I don't have many close friends who aren't Christian. Even so, it REALLY annoys me when I hear Christian-based invocations or prayers at the beginning of events.
ReplyDeleteWhen someone sends me an email I don't agree with, I tend to delete it without reading.
Our UU minister frequently cites as excellent statements the teachings of the Buddha as well as lessons from other great religions. Some day we may all grow up enough to understand and accept the thoughts of others.
ReplyDeleteThis JESUS domination of public events and affairs has really proliferated here in Hawaii and I find it VERY troubling. It is pushy and it is rude - especially when it is so easy to be inclusive and respectful of all attendees.
ReplyDeleteAloha to YOU
from Honolulu
Comfort Spiral
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I honestly don't know if it is as benign as making an assumption because that means you never took the time to look at others and to realize and then to become educated and then to accept and respect those differences because much of what I hear is plain intolerance robed in religion....it makes me sad and worried about the future...
ReplyDeleteI have many family members who still do not "get" diversity of religion. They are darn sure that their brand of Christianity is the one true faith, and everyone else is going to hell. If that's the case, hell will be a much more interesting place to go anyway. As the religious black sheep, non-believer of the family, I really have to work at keeping my mouth shut at family gatherings. Perhaps that's why I now prefer my own small family holidays.
ReplyDeleteI find such ignorance intolerable. For those who choose it, religious faith should enrich life, not separate people.
More harm has been done in the name of faith.
ReplyDeleteMore Christians, in my experience, have acted like heathens. I have given up organised religion.
I have enjoyed teaching students of all faiths with great joy, dignity and respect. That is what it boils down to.
Cheers from Cottage Country!
When we go to Arlington National Cemetery, we are reminded of all the different faiths there are in the world, because of the many different symbols on each headstone.
ReplyDelete