Religion has been a potent force in my life, shaping my identity, values, self-concept, and worldview. Beyond the psychological power of faith, religion has primarily served as a social mechanism in my life. I have always struggled with the more esoteric elements of faith and religion including the efficacy of theological concepts. Especially because I have been exposed now to many alternating views of what God is, how the cosmos functions and how it was formed, and the meaning of human existence, I am less sure now that any one faith, religion, or belief system holds all the answers. This course has further expanded my mind and outlook, exposing me to attitudes and approaches to worship that are totally different from any others I have experienced. Rather than muddle my mind, this course has engendered in me an appreciation for pluralism. Yet ironically, my growing interest in world religions and ecumenism has also strengthened the core of my true faith. I attribute my ability to reconcile an exclusivist heart with a pluralistic mind to several mentors and influential people in my life.
Buddha would not have evolved his faith were it not for his Hindu background, and Jesus evolved His ministry from Jewish roots. No religion sprouts out of nowhere; all are fertilized, watered, and nurtured by human history and the contributing minds and souls of believers. Therefore, this personal religious autobiography begins before I was born. My grandmother practically raised me. Because we were poor enough that both my mother and father had to work double shifts, I would come home each day to the loving home my grandmother created for my siblings, my cousins, and me. She was a pious woman. At times she was strict, but she was always loving. I owe to my grandmother a sense of firmness in my identity and a strong belief in Jesus Christ. However, my grandmother was a Seventh-Day Adventist. Although my parents inculcated their own beliefs into my world, my grandmother taught me the core precepts and practices of Seventh-Day Adventism. The practices include vegetarianism, and the precepts included service. Service is a concept that most—if not all—Christian denominations share in common with one another given the message at the heart of all of Jesus’s teachings (Hattingh, Morton, Ferret, et al., 2016). However, vegetarianism is not a Christian tradition and nor is it an American one—at least in the time and place I grew up.
My grandmother’s dietary practices made her stand...
References
Banta, J., Lee, J., Hodgkin, G., Yi, Z., Fanica, A., & Sabate, J. (2018). The Global Influence of the Seventh-Day Adventist Church on Diet. Religions, 9(9), 251.
“Elijah Muhammad: Biography,” (n.d.). https://www.biography.com/people/elijah-muhammad-9417458
Hattingh, S., Morton, L., Ferret, R., Petrie, K., Heise, J. A., & de Waal, K. (2016). A Qualitative Analysis of Discipleship in the Seventh-day Adventist Church: Responses to a Global and Regional Survey. Journal of Adventist Mission Studies, 12(1), 156-171.
Huntington, S.P. (1993). The clash of civilizations? Foreign Affairs.
Lechleitner, E. (2013). Seventh-day Adventist Church emerged from religious fervor of 19th Century.
Seventh-Day Adventist Church (2019). Website: https://www.adventist.org/en/
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