People tend to be slightly uneasy when it comes to an introduction to something that they view as radical or extraordinary, especially when it deals with religious beliefs and customs. Pluralism involves not only the diversity of the many different religions in a society, but also a harmonious engagement among the different religions that happen to be located near one another. T.S Elliot perfectly describes the reasoning why pluralism is difficult to achieve due the fact that people are “plagued by feelings only partly explicable in any rational terms”. In other words, people were sacred. People were afraid of the new religious values that new immigrants bring with them and perceived some of those religious beliefs as “socially threatening behavior”. After the 911 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center, Muslims encountered a countless amount of harassments due to their religious connection with those responsible for the attacks. Some of the main indicators for their religion are the hijabs and buraks that the women and men wear on their heads and their distinguishable names (1). After this event, Muslims around the U.S were continuously being targeted for their beliefs due to peoples’ inability to understand that not all Muslims were terrorists with a mission to destroy American society. 

What can people do to shift away from the judgmental and disrespectful attitude that is burdened on immigrants who bring new religions with them? How can one go about accepting other religions without a prejudice mentality with regards to an event that manipulated a religion’s values?

      1- http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/08/naida-hosan-muslim-harassment_n_3239521.html

The Catholic religion and its church do not have a definitive date of when it came to exist but scholars and historians alike have endlessly debated whether Catholicism began when Jesus Christ appointed Saint Peter, one of his most trusted followers and disciples, to become the first pope of his new religion on 32 CE (1). Or whether it started after Emperor Theodosius of Rome published one of his edicts in which he established Catholicism as the official religion throughout the Roman state on February 27, AD 380 (1). Regardless of when the religion was truly created, Catholicism has spread on a global scale with the number of its committed members rising over a whopping 1.2 billion people worldwide. 

My immediate family is part of the 1.2 billion people that actively practice the Catholic religion and aspire to live by the sacred creeds and cultuses that the priests and the Bible aim at teaching its followers. Latinos are the last ethnic group to migrate to the United States. Their recent migration to the U.S created an enormous surge in the amount of Catholics living in the U.S. Although most of the Latino people that I know are Catholics, a stereotype among the general public that the “Latino population is overwhelmingly and immutably Catholic is inaccurate and misleading” according to research done by the University of Tennessee, Knoxville (2). Their set of data also indicates that Latinos who were born and raised within the United States were more inclined to “leave their traditional Catholic roots and embrace other religious traditions” (2). This may be connected with the numerous non-Catholic religions that Latinos are being exposed to in the U.S. These statistics give good insight into the situation that my family and I are currently in. My parents, who immigrated to the United States in the late 80s, still maintain their Catholic views and haven’t considered alternating their religious beliefs. My siblings and I are a slightly different story; our beliefs have indeed modernized as we grew older in part due to the exposure to other religions and the natural occurrence of people seeking their own faith without necessarily committing to any religion. The study done by the University of Tennessee, Knoxville reflects my family’s current condition on our religious values and holds true its analysis of Latinos religious demographics in the U.S, which states Latinos born and raised in the United States are more likely to shift away from the Catholic church than those who were bred and nurtured in another country. 

One of the many reasons to the religious shift among the younger generations of Latinos might be due to the Catholic church’s inability to “improve the status of Latino immigrants” and of their families (3). The loyalty of the Catholic Church’s Hispanic flock can prove to be vital to the religious influence that Catholicism holds in America. Without the full commitment of younger generations of Latinos in the United States, the Catholic Church will start losing a considerable amount of followers and eventually will end with the “failure of the Catholic Church” to help improve the lives of its members in the U.S (3). My mother’s exemplary persistence in keeping the Catholic lifestyle within my family will prove to be crucial for the continuity of the religions impact on many newer generations to come. The future success of the Catholic Church lies in the hands of its many dedicated followers who try to draw members on the micro level in which the heads of a household attempt to convince their offspring that their values are indispensable to their faith. 

Works Cited

1-    Kodesh, Ben Ruach Ha. "The Origins of the Catholic Church." The Origins of the Catholic Church. John of AllFaith, Feb. 2007. Web. 24 Aug. 2013.

2-    Kelly, Nathan J., and Jana Morgan. "Religion and Latino Partisanship in the United States." Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange (2005): n. pag. Political Science Publications and Other Works. Web. 22 Aug. 2013. <2- http://trace.tennessee.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1014&context=utk_polipubs&sei-redir=1&referer=http%3A%2F%2Fscholar.google.com%2Fscholar%3Fq%3Dcatholic%2Blatinos%26btnG%3D%26hl%3Den%26as_sdt%3D0%252C5#search=%22catholic%20latinos%22>.

3-    Alba, Richard D., Albert J. Raboteau, and Josh DeWind. Immigration and Religion in America: Comparative and Historical Perspectives. New York: New York UP, 2009. Print.

Blog Post #1- Maternal Miracles

The belief of a higher power has always existed in my mind, I’ve just never indulged in the same practices that my parents tried accustoming me to as a kid and also now as an adult. Catholicism involves believing in an all-knowing and all-powerful god who is viewed as the creator of humans, animals, plants, and Earth among many more things. Believing and practicing the many sacred creeds that go along with being an active member of the Catholic community didn’t correlate swiftly with the personal views and morals that I believe to be important. 

My mother endlessly tried persuading me that Catholicism is the religion I ought to believe in due to the fact that my entire family followed the same religious path and for the many miraculous encounters that she has experienced throughout her lifetime. For example, my mom has the utmost faith in a divine figure of the Catholic religion named the Holy Virgin of Guadalupe. She claims to be certain that the Virgin Mary has helped her overcome all her past endeavors as a child and now as a mother of four as well. An intimate case in which she sought the help of the divine figure was when she was at the brink of undergoing an abortion procedure due to complications throughout the process of her pregnancy. Coincidentally, the incident that drove my mother to the hospital and get a check up on the status of her child took place at a Catholic church, also known as the House of God. After receiving news that the possibility of her baby boy being born were extremely slim, the doctor recommended an abortion to spare my mom the agony of seeing her creation drop out of her vagina at any point in time when using the restroom. Upon hearing this tragic news, my mother began attending church much more frequently, clinging onto the shear hope of my brother being born safely and healthy. Miraculously, 5 months later my mother gave birth to an eight and a half pound baby looking as healthy and happy as any other child. 

My mom doesn’t believe that her views as a Catholic will ever change, in fact, she feels as if though her connection with these divine entities has grown stronger than ever. Every twelve of December my mother demonstrates her respect and gratitude towards the Virgin Mary by taking part in a ceremonial gathering of Catholic believers in order to celebrate the divine birth of Jesus Christ. Some of the many items brought to the feast are candles to represent the birthday of Jesus Christ, elegant flowers to offer the Virgin Mary for enduring the burden of having the child of the almighty God, and delicious treats and plates for everybody to enjoy. The maternal and caring image that the Holy Virgin of Guadalupe represents is one that my mother tries to mimic by they way she attempts of nurturing her kids. She states that she vows to continue being the same Catholic believer that she has been ever since she was a little girl.  The Virgin Mary has never neglected or rejected any of my mother’s pleads for guidance or help so my mom’s loyalty to her shall never decease. Even though most of my family members are committed and active Catholics, I can’t help but question the authenticity of these miraculous events that have occurred in my mom’s life. To this day, I haven’t found myself in a situation in which I prayed for guidance or a miracle to happen when I felt I was out of options. Who knows, maybe I might find myself in need of help from a higher power sooner than I might expect.