Rhetoric Race and Religion
I was raised as a Lutheran and my life growing up was filled with religion; I not only went to church and Sunday school every week, I also went a Lutheran school. This meant that I had religion class every day in school and also that the values my school proclaimed were based in the Lutheran doctrine. The messages I was receiving about people, society, love, acceptance, my body, sexuality and more were coming from this perspective.
You can probably guess that the messages were neither the most positive nor productive. We were taught the sex is bad and if you don’t save yourself until marriage, then you is sinning against God. Women were the teachers and men the leaders of the church and we were told that’s the way God intended it to be. Christianity was the only way and that if you didn’t believe that Jesus died to take away your sins, you were going to hell. It was important to abstain from drugs and alcohol, because otherwise you would die or go to jail. As girls, we had to always be dressed appropriately, because showing too much cleavage or leg would entice the boys to look at us with lust (which was always bad). Jesus loves and accepts everyone, but somehow we don’t.
These philosophies were things I had never bothered to question, until I was 13. I remember the exact catalyst that lead me down this journey, all the way to where I am typing now, this on my computer. I was on vacation with my family and it was the start of my absolute insatiable desire to read. Needless to say, I brought an epic amount of books with me and one of them would change my whole perspective on life; Conversations with God for Teens. The book gave a new idea of God and Christianity and emphasized holistic living and love above all else. It took liberal attitudes towards sexuality, politics and education. It opened up this whole world I didn’t know even existed, full of radical ideas and a nuanced perspective on the world. I was so fascinated and curious about everything and I suddenly saw myself as a citizen of Earth instead of just one meaningless person. I saw that the world I thought I understood was in reality was completely unknown. I knew I had to keep going and I also knew my relationship to my faith would never again be the same.
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