Welcome to Religious Diversity in the United States, below I will reflect on how I see America and what I've learned in this class. Then below this is my final project and signature assignment for this class, details below.
If we are using the Oxford Dictionary definition of secular “not subject to or bound by religious rule” then I would say we are a secular country. We allow all religions to come and make a home here by building their churches and holding service. However, it should not be forgotten that America is still 70% Christian dominated but there is not a strict religious hold on the American people like there are in other countries. America as a whole does a medium job keeping church and state separated, sometimes candidates get a bias vote if they belong to one religion or another and sometimes certain states have a really hard time upholding a separation between church and state.
When I started this class I had no idea there were so many buildings belonging to other faiths! I knew of the Buddhist temple downtown because the Japanese festival is held around that area every year but other than that I didn’t know of any others. I was really surprised to find that we had a Sikh Temple down the road from the Taylorsville Campus. Having lived in Utah my whole life and seeing a Mormon Church on every street corner, I was really only aware of the fact that we had a lot of Mormons and then other Christians since I had to attend a Christian church every Sunday. It has been really interesting to me to find that there are more religions around me.
This course will continue to be a part of my everyday life, now that I am aware of Utah’s religious diversity it will always be something I will notice. I have also learned more about other religions and what it is like for them in America. Before this class, mostly after starting at Salt Lake Community College I have noticed more women who wear the hijab and who belong to the Muslim faith and now that we’ve learned that they get a lot of hate here in America and it’s hard for them to attend their churches with their spiritual holidays, I look at them differently. I’m glad I took this class for its religious and cultural insight.
If we are using the Oxford Dictionary definition of secular “not subject to or bound by religious rule” then I would say we are a secular country. We allow all religions to come and make a home here by building their churches and holding service. However, it should not be forgotten that America is still 70% Christian dominated but there is not a strict religious hold on the American people like there are in other countries. America as a whole does a medium job keeping church and state separated, sometimes candidates get a bias vote if they belong to one religion or another and sometimes certain states have a really hard time upholding a separation between church and state.
When I started this class I had no idea there were so many buildings belonging to other faiths! I knew of the Buddhist temple downtown because the Japanese festival is held around that area every year but other than that I didn’t know of any others. I was really surprised to find that we had a Sikh Temple down the road from the Taylorsville Campus. Having lived in Utah my whole life and seeing a Mormon Church on every street corner, I was really only aware of the fact that we had a lot of Mormons and then other Christians since I had to attend a Christian church every Sunday. It has been really interesting to me to find that there are more religions around me.
This course will continue to be a part of my everyday life, now that I am aware of Utah’s religious diversity it will always be something I will notice. I have also learned more about other religions and what it is like for them in America. Before this class, mostly after starting at Salt Lake Community College I have noticed more women who wear the hijab and who belong to the Muslim faith and now that we’ve learned that they get a lot of hate here in America and it’s hard for them to attend their churches with their spiritual holidays, I look at them differently. I’m glad I took this class for its religious and cultural insight.
Below is the final project for the class, we were tasked to attend churches from other religions and to see what the religious diversity looked like in three different areas. We had to start small by looking at a neighborhood, then our state, then anther state and then the nation. Take a look at what the group and I found and what we learned.