Prejudice
So, I have thought about this topic for a long time, and I finally wrote about it for a reflection paper for my diversity class. Good thing it's not graded--I would have been given a failing grade for standing up for the nefarious anti-diversity institution called the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic, full-Gospel, full-Sacramental Church established by Jesus Christ. Below is that paper.
Journal 10
11/22/2010
Before this semester began, I was worried about being in this class. I associated “diversity” with liberal, anti-Catholic rhetoric. Being passionate about my faith-“religion” is the status with which I identify most. Being thrown into the fire of debate about religion is not appealing to me when it comes up in class or in public, especially since the debate is over before it begins, so I do not speak up as much as I would like. It commonly goes something like this: “Catholics discriminate so much! They are against the right of all of these groups...” or “the church has always...” or “the real reason why the church does this is because...” When a Cattholic attempts to reason against any of these claims, sludge which comes from excruciatingly anti-Catholic media is flung: rapist priests (although the percentage of priests who molest children is lower than that of public school teachers), the Church's “anti-woman stance” (though there are many arguments against this), and the Pope's “old-fashioned” ways (which is true, if you call basing your judgments on rational philosophy old-fashioned-it surely isn't the norm these days!). Now, there are many other topics which the media uses to defame the Church. I would like to spend this journal defending the Church's positions.
However, I would like to focus on one particular position within the realm of this course: a status. I feel remiss to call it merely a status, but for our purposes, we will keep it at that level. Over the course of the semester, it has been made clear that western culture, specifically North American culture has prejudices embedded into the fabric of its myths. Most meaningful to me has been discussions and readings about disability, class, and gender. I have also written about my struggle with racism. However, I feel like religion, specifically Catholicism, deserves a place in the discussion of American prejudice.
History books could be written about this topic, and I am not well-versed about the history. I do know that early settlers to the continent were anti-Catholic enough to relegate Catholics to their own territory-Maryland. There was not a Catholic president until JFK-and even then he was subject to interrogation about his faith. I would prefer to focus on a few personal situations.
The time I realized that my Catholic faith made me different was when I was at a resident assistant meeting in college. One colleague brought up the topic of priestly celibacy. The comment ignited the crowd, and the Church was mocked repeatedly. I made some comments justifying the reasons-however, the crowd was not fooled by my attempts at rationality-they were not in the conversation out of intellectual curiosity. Most profoundly in this experience, I lost a little faith in diversity as a value. Throughout our training as resident assistants, and throughout countless hours of in-services throughout the school year, diversity was the main value preached-we learned about GLBTQA, disability, race, etc. Diversity is great! Celebrate and respect differences-as along as you're not Catholic! This seemed to be the contradictory lesson.
It is not uncommon to hear this argument. A few times in classes here at Argosy, professors and colleagues jab at the Church as if it was some bumbling ancient ogre, ready to topple with one more sucker-punch. The hard part is that most of the comments are based on either misconceptions or just complete ignorance of the facts. Almost all of the time, the statements are clearly are assumption-driven. I have yet to hear about a reliable source from which an argument is drawn. However, how can I stand up against that, especially in the context of a graduate program in which I am “being watched constantly” [that is what the training department told us in their introductory meeting] and attempt to engage people in thoughtful conversation, when I am expected to follow suit and sit back and laugh at those silly (only sometimes), irrational (extremely far from the truth-Augustine of Hippo? Thomas Aquinas?), gay-hating (also, not true) Catholics?
What if the same were done to other statuses, such as class? What would it be called if I led a discussion about class demeaning one social class based on inaccurate assumptions which were spinned and supplied by the media? Clearly, I would be labeled prejudiced, a bigot, etc. Why is Catholicism exempt from this status?
Journal 10
11/22/2010
Before this semester began, I was worried about being in this class. I associated “diversity” with liberal, anti-Catholic rhetoric. Being passionate about my faith-“religion” is the status with which I identify most. Being thrown into the fire of debate about religion is not appealing to me when it comes up in class or in public, especially since the debate is over before it begins, so I do not speak up as much as I would like. It commonly goes something like this: “Catholics discriminate so much! They are against the right of all of these groups...” or “the church has always...” or “the real reason why the church does this is because...” When a Cattholic attempts to reason against any of these claims, sludge which comes from excruciatingly anti-Catholic media is flung: rapist priests (although the percentage of priests who molest children is lower than that of public school teachers), the Church's “anti-woman stance” (though there are many arguments against this), and the Pope's “old-fashioned” ways (which is true, if you call basing your judgments on rational philosophy old-fashioned-it surely isn't the norm these days!). Now, there are many other topics which the media uses to defame the Church. I would like to spend this journal defending the Church's positions.
However, I would like to focus on one particular position within the realm of this course: a status. I feel remiss to call it merely a status, but for our purposes, we will keep it at that level. Over the course of the semester, it has been made clear that western culture, specifically North American culture has prejudices embedded into the fabric of its myths. Most meaningful to me has been discussions and readings about disability, class, and gender. I have also written about my struggle with racism. However, I feel like religion, specifically Catholicism, deserves a place in the discussion of American prejudice.
History books could be written about this topic, and I am not well-versed about the history. I do know that early settlers to the continent were anti-Catholic enough to relegate Catholics to their own territory-Maryland. There was not a Catholic president until JFK-and even then he was subject to interrogation about his faith. I would prefer to focus on a few personal situations.
The time I realized that my Catholic faith made me different was when I was at a resident assistant meeting in college. One colleague brought up the topic of priestly celibacy. The comment ignited the crowd, and the Church was mocked repeatedly. I made some comments justifying the reasons-however, the crowd was not fooled by my attempts at rationality-they were not in the conversation out of intellectual curiosity. Most profoundly in this experience, I lost a little faith in diversity as a value. Throughout our training as resident assistants, and throughout countless hours of in-services throughout the school year, diversity was the main value preached-we learned about GLBTQA, disability, race, etc. Diversity is great! Celebrate and respect differences-as along as you're not Catholic! This seemed to be the contradictory lesson.
It is not uncommon to hear this argument. A few times in classes here at Argosy, professors and colleagues jab at the Church as if it was some bumbling ancient ogre, ready to topple with one more sucker-punch. The hard part is that most of the comments are based on either misconceptions or just complete ignorance of the facts. Almost all of the time, the statements are clearly are assumption-driven. I have yet to hear about a reliable source from which an argument is drawn. However, how can I stand up against that, especially in the context of a graduate program in which I am “being watched constantly” [that is what the training department told us in their introductory meeting] and attempt to engage people in thoughtful conversation, when I am expected to follow suit and sit back and laugh at those silly (only sometimes), irrational (extremely far from the truth-Augustine of Hippo? Thomas Aquinas?), gay-hating (also, not true) Catholics?
What if the same were done to other statuses, such as class? What would it be called if I led a discussion about class demeaning one social class based on inaccurate assumptions which were spinned and supplied by the media? Clearly, I would be labeled prejudiced, a bigot, etc. Why is Catholicism exempt from this status?