Living, as I do, in an accommodating community and attending an accommodating university, I sometimes forget just how unreasonable some people can be when it comes to their beliefs. I forget that there are people who can't stand the fact that others have different opinions about the eternal destination of their soul. I forget that there are people who don't know how to stand firm in their own system without imposing it on someone else.
Unfortunately, it's never long before something comes along to remind me.
For instance, last week a religious group in Great Britain issued a list of demands asking Britain's public school system to ban activities that did not follow their religion. Among these activities are dancing, art that depicts human figures, music lessons, science lessons, sex education, swimming, required vaccinations and playground games.
The group also demanded that all students be required to learn about the religion in question - but students of this religion would be allowed to leave the room when information about other religions was taught.
To top it off, this religious group - which will stay unnamed because if I name it I'll get nasty comments, and I can do without the stress - is a relative newcomer to Great Britain and is comprised mostly of immigrants. This adds insult to injury as they seek to impose their system on the nation which took them in. One wonders how well an English religious group would do in this group's countries of origin.
The bigger question, though, is why can't the people in this group - hear me out, now - just quietly assimilate?
Stop screaming and let me explain.
Immigration is when a person leaves his home country behind and moves to a new country. The idea behind this is that conditions in the new country will be better than the conditions in the old country.
Nowhere is it written that the newcomer gets to make the rules. There's no reason immigrants can't keep their religion peaceful; plurality is part of what makes the West unique among world cultures - but there's every reason for him not to force it on his neighbors. Such action only breeds resentment and ends in bitterness and violence. Plus, it's just not nice.
Here at Ball State University, we are blessed with myriad viewpoints, opinions and faiths. But the school takes care to remain neutral in matters of religion, and students generally refrain from beating each other over the head with their various religious texts (or lack thereof).
One major indicator of a culture's development is its tolerance for other cultures. Personal maturity is likewise indicated by an individual's ability to stand firm in his own beliefs without feeling threatened by an opposing viewpoint.
If someone moves to another country and feels his religion threatened, maybe his faith wasn't as strong as he'd thought. If a person is always cocooned in a comforting blanket of like-minded people, he has no reason to examine his faith. Exposure to other ideas, however, can have one of two effects: It either tempers the man's faith like water on hot steel, or it shatters it.
The way to avoid shattering, of course, is to learn more about one's own faith and learn to stand as an individual.
Unfortunately, some don't seem to have grasped this concept, choosing instead to silence those who disagree with them - a reaction equal with stuffing their fingers in their ears and shouting "I can't hear you!" I'm just glad I go to a school where this isn't a problem, where free discourse is valued above silence.
Let's make sure we keep it that way.
Write to Joanna at jllees@bsu.edu
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