Recently I have found myself stuck on what to blog or reflect on. I wanted to talk about my experience when I went back home to my Church after months of not going and the beginning of Lent in the Catholic Church, but didn’t know how to go about it. So, ultimately I’ve had writers block for this blog even after studying for the midterm and reading the chapters. But then, last weekend (3/15) I was in Virginia for a Mock Trial competition from Friday to Monday. We landed at the Dulles airport and then had to drive two hours to Richmond, Virginia where the competition actually was. Driving down one of the roads someone in the car commented about all the Churches we were passing, and then I started paying attention to what they were. Many of them were Christian, being in Southeast America that wasn’t very surprising. But, there were also many other religions evident which kind of surprised me. We passed by a Sikh temple and I recalled the time I visited a Sikh temple for my religion class my senior year of high school. We also passed a beautiful temple of some sort but, I couldn’t find the name on the outside. As we passed by all of these religious buildings and Center’s of people’s faiths and beliefs it got me thinking about this class and everything we’ve learned about in regards to the importance of religion for some and changing religion.
Religion comes in many forms and it is not a “one size fits all” scenario. Whether one is religious or spiritual, there is a changing dynamic in what people are looking for and in America today. Examining religion through the sociological perspective as we have been doing has been eye opening to see how deeply religion truly affects people and their way of life. Religion provides a community, experience, and beliefs for people to help them intertwine these with society as a whole. I’ve been enjoying what we are learning about in this class as it has also made me more aware of religion around me.