Source: During the past 3 months while getting to know my friend Jefferson more
Relation: Observing how religion can shape a person's point of view, morals, and norms.
Description: I spend a lot of time in my boyfriend's dorm floor. I have become good friends with all of the boys on his floor, one in particular by the name of Jefferson. Over time, we have learned a lot about where each other has come from and our family life back home. We were both brought up in a strong religious-oriented family, me with Catholicism and Jefferson with Christianity. We talked about having to go to church every Sunday, youth group every weekend, and religious classes at the church one a week. The main difference,although there was many other differences, between our religious practices is that he was forced to attend Sunday mass until he left his home. Jefferson told me about his cousin who was destined by his uncle to become a priest when he gets older and how he told Jefferson about how he didn't believe in his religion anymore. Jefferson was excited about this news because, like Jefferson himself, his cousin was standing up to his families influence and beliefs and turning away from the religious views. Jefferson was happy to stop going to church and not practicing in an organized religion because he felt like his family was forcing their beliefs on him too harshly and some of these beliefs Jefferson didn't necessarily believe in. This was also the reason for me leaving the Catholic beliefs and practices. Unlike me though, Jefferson still holds his faith closely but not practicing in any organized form of it. I abandoned my church about four years ago. Jefferson is still sent Spanish Bibles in the mail from his family who still hopes that he follows their religion. I took the picture directly under and Jefferson put it as his facebook profile picture. Soon after he did this, his Father called him and told him to take the picture off the internet because he didn't like the femininity of the flower in his son's hair. Jefferson was astonished by this and refused to take it off. He isn't homosexual but Jefferson approves of it and many other things his religion usually doesn't accept. I took the picture of him last Friday when we dressed up for Halloween. He dressed up as a girl and told me not to put any of the pictures on facebook because he didn't want his Father to see it which shows that he still cares about how his family views him and his new beliefs.
Analysis: Jefferson is an example of how religion can influence a person's point of view, morals, and norms. He is not afraid to share his past religious experiences with me and told me how his views have changed when experiencing independence from his families influence. Yet, Jefferson has not fully abandoned his faith. His upbringing and religious background has shaped him into continuing to believe in God and Heaven and other religious philosophies that he will probably believe in for the rest of his life.
This shows how powerful a religious upbringing can be to a person. I was brought up to follow Catholic views, therefore I know a lot about the practice of that certain faith, and I probably won't fully forget most of the things I was taught for about 12 years. In mine and Jefferson's situation, it also shows how religion is usually passed down from generation to generation and how parent's views effect their children's views.
