Today at U of M we had a dialogue about religion. I was in a small group of 5 people discussing many different aspects of religion and it sparked some great thought for me. Answer some of these questions truthfully.....

1. I worry about the ramifications of disclosing my religious identity to others? True or False?
2. I can easily arrange to be in the company of people of my religion msot of the time? True of False?
3. I can remain oblivious to the language and customs of other religious groups without feeling any penalty for such a lack of interest or knowledge? True or False?
4. I can be fairly sure that some hate group does not exist whose goal is to eradicate my religious group from the planet? True or False?


These are just a few of the questions that we had to fill out before partaking in the dialogue. The main topic was centered around this question.....

Do Christians have privilege in today's society?

I really began to wrestle first with the idea of religion, its institutionalism, and how it plays into my life not only as a person of faith but then as a social worker. I struggle to call myself a "Christian" at times, not because I am embarrassed or not proud of it, but because of the box it puts me in. Yes, I am a follower of Jesus and hold true to the values that he possessed (working with the poor, marginalized, accepting people for who they are, etc) but oftentimes that goes against the grain of Christianity because I don't try to "convert" people. Does that mean that I am privileged because at times, I feel persecuted for the people I hang out with, school I go to, or the values of acceptance that I hold.

One thought came up about Christianity that I thought was very mind-provoking. There is a comic strip with a man pointing at his cat saying, "Now, don't you dare go outside of your box" (meaning his cat litter box). Hmmmm....is that sometimes what Christianity says to people? Growing up, this was very true to me. I needed to stay within the Christian box, only have Christian friends, and abide by the "Rules."


I think of the Baptist Church whose website....www.godhatesfags.com represents "Christianity." Oh my. Is that Christianity? If so, I want nothing to do with that. I don't want to be in THAT box.

We then talked about how maybe we SHOULD let the cat poop outside the box, just like we should embrace the mess that exists when we embrace people different than ourselves. We should be hanging out with "Messy" people who are different than ourselves because that is where "Christianity" or "Religion" really lies. Embracing or Accepting People. This is where real freedom lies.

As I think about Christian privilege in our country I realize that many people would claim to be Christians but most of those people are not truly embracing what it means to live a Christian life. Sometimes I feel that I need to be quiet about some of the work I do or people I work with when I am around Christians just so they won't feel like I have strayed or feel like they have to pray extra hard for me. (Hopefully I don't get Justin fired by saying this!!!).

Maybe Christianity or Religion really means embracing the mess.....Living in the cat poop