Religion Reflection Paper

Raised as a Christian, I am not a traditional Christian that attends church every Sunday, but attend church sometimes. I believe in God and living with a genuine caring heart along with his words from the Bible. The ultimate goal of my belief is to have everlasting life in Heaven. Christianity is considered a dominant religion; therefore I hold privilege in this area. As a Christian, I do not have to worry about being judged by my belief or the way I live my life. People do not try to convince me to change my belief or show discrimination towards me. According to Jun (2010), there are “religious people, and groups, who, due to their religious ethnocentrism and ingroup loyalty, minimize, oppress and discriminate against people with different

One day, my history teacher asked students to raise their hands if they were Christian. Majority of the class raised their hands while very few did not. An estimation of five students raised their hands for being Muslim and an even fewer amount raised their hands for being an atheist. I remembered the Christian students responding negatively towards people with different beliefs. I remained quiet because I felt uncomfortable for being privileged as a Christian to have the power to discriminate towards others from non-Christian faiths. As a Christian, I felt this behavior was contradicting to the Christians values. Christians are assumed to show love and accepting toward everyone. Jun (2010) stated that the essential theme of most religion is loving others and being compassionate toward and indulgent of others. When I see Christians behaving in such matter, I do not want to associate myself with the Christianity faith. My thought process reflects that I am ashamed of my privilege as a Christian. Sometimes to avoid my privilege, I would tell people I am a believer of God and do not claim a religious

I try to avoid the topic of religion because religion brings up judgments and makes me feel guiltier about my privilege in religion. In Fukuyama and Puig (2016) article, Fukuyama mentioned being aware of her audience members, mental health professionals and mindful about the topic of spirituality and religion. “Don’t talk about politics or religion in mixed company! I am aware that the potential for offending members of the audience is very real indeed” (p. 2). This is a skill I will like to develop and not avoid the topic of religion. In order for me to increase my comfort level, I have to become uncomfortable about the topic. Learning the difference between shame and guilt in religion and spiritual orientation is significant in further my multicultural competence. Keller et al. (2015) stated that, “guilt involves a negative feeling after a specific action, such as a moral or ethical violation, whereas shame is a more all-encompassing negative feeling about oneself” (p.2). Distinguishing the terms will allow me to gain understanding my feelings of privilege in this area. Also the article continuous to articulate that negative self-evaluation inherent in shame, it is important of individuals in the helping professions to understand the foundation and influencing of shameful feeling and to assess whether these feelings might be associated to their spiritual or religious