Author's Note: This article contains some discussion on suicide and might not be suitable for young readers. Please, have a parent go over the article and decide if it's ok to read. Thank you!
Greetings. Ichigo66 speaking, here to talk about a rather important and personal issue. It's something everybody deals with in one way or another, but it seems that some people have to put up with it more than others. What is it I'm talking about? It's simple, really. I'm talking about discrimination. Not just any kind of discrimination. Religious discrimination. It's very real and very hurtful. People have gone to court, been kicked out of towns and even killed themselves over this particular brand of discrimination.
I know there have been a lot of religious articles in the Times the past few weeks. Trust me, I know. And I know that most of you are probably sick of reading religious articles. But I feel this issue must be addressed. Many people have been the victims of religious discrimination, in real life and on Whyville. It hurts when somebody taunts your beliefs, whether it be to your face, behind your back, or over the internet.
Whether you admit it or not, most everybody has discriminated against somebody for not having the same faith as you. There are always preconceived stereotypes that all spiritual paths must overcome. Stereotypes such as "Christians are Jesus freaks," "Muslims are terrorists," "Pagans eat babies," "Jews are cheap," and "Atheists are immoral". People of these and other faiths know these stereotypes to be false. But they are often in the minds of people you meet who do not share the same beliefs.
Very often, when you discriminate against another's faith, it is out of ignorance and fear. You don't understand why this person doesn't see things the way you do and you find their ways of practicing to be strange. On some level in your mind, it scares you. Like a fear of the dark, you fear what you cannot see or comprehend. So what do you do? You react to your basic "fight or flight" instinct and lash out. You find something about this person's beliefs and belittle, demonize, and crush it. Inwardly, you feel as if you have driven back some unspeakable foe and saved yourself from an enemy force. You are safe from the unknowable once again.
But do you have any idea how what you just did affected that person? Anyone who has had someone do to them what I have described in the above paragraph knows. It stings like a million daggers stabbing you in the heart. You want nothing more than to either cry uncontrollably or slap them in the face. But neither of those options solves the problem and you are often left there seething in fury.
Now, before I go on, I would like to tell you all a story that is close to my heart. It is about a girl who I have never met and will never get the chance to. This girl was a victim of religious discrimination, but she did a little more than just stand there and seethe.
Her name is Tempest Smith. She was twelve years old, and in middle school. She had a penchant for wearing black clothing and was labeled as "goth" by her peers. She was interested in Wicca and considered herself a follower of that faith. Day after day, she went to school and was tormented by her classmates about her dress, shy demeanor, and her beliefs. They sang Christian hymns at her. Songs that were supposed to be a worship to God were now an instrument of torture. According to her diary, this had been going on since elementary school. She took the abuse and kept it to herself until February 20, 2001. On that tragic day, Tempest decided to make the pain stop. She didn't go off on a killing spree like other victims of bullying do. No, Tempest quietly made it stop by taking her life.
Tempest is just one of possibly hundreds of people who couldn't take the verbal, emotional, and sometimes physical abuse that comes from religious discrimination. Religious discrimination is real, it damages, and, as in Tempest's case, can even kill.
I'll be honest, Tempest's story came very close to being my story as well. I had a bit of a nasty run-in with three Christian boys in my English class junior year. Three boys whom I had never really spoken to and had no problems with. Actually, I thought they were rather entertaining and funny, even if their preppy attitudes did irk me a bit. Now, I was (and still am) very open about my Wiccan faith. Not that I go around telling everybody about it, but all my friends knew and I incorporated my beliefs into my daily life like any other religious person would. I carried my books about Paganism and Wicca around with me and discussed it with my close friends occasionally. Never did I flaunt my beliefs or anything of the sort. In fact, I have no idea why all of a sudden what I believed in attracted their attention. But something did and it led to what could be considered the worst end of the school year of my life.
Everywhere I turned, people I didn't know were saying mocking things about me and my faith within earshot. I wanted nothing more than to grab those people and hurt them. But I didn't. I knew better. After a week of direct abuse, I talked to my vice principle. He talked to the boys and it stopped. At least, it stopped being said loudly. The only thing I really had to keep me going was my friends. One of them even offered to assist me in taking legal action against the boys. I was touched, but didn't take him up on the offer.
I haven't had an incident like that until I joined Whyville. There was a recent influx of religious articles declaring the existence or non-existence of God. Like any opinionated Whyvillian, I gave my views on the topic in the BBS, as did many others. I noticed a bit of a trend. All of the posters where either Christian or Atheist. And I thought, "Well, that's a bit narrow, only one definition of the divine. I think I'll let them know about a different take on it all." Ok, I didn't think exactly that, but it's close. So, I put my two cents in, trying to be as inoffensive as possible, and left it at that. I come back the next day to read the BBS and what do I find? Utter horror. It seems that some people have taken the liberty of discriminating against me and claiming my beliefs to be "evil" and the deity I worship to be a "demon". Rather harsh. And Atheists suffered no better. "Immoral" was the word that came up most often. It is also safe to say that while the Christians did not receive as much abuse, many were called "brainwashed" and other names.
It sickens me to think that such discrimination goes on, even though I know it to be true. Also considering the fact that many Whyvillians are in their early teens and thus have a limited knowledge on other beliefs and how to respectfully respond. We live in a world that is more accepting of different faiths than it use to. Yes, I know, total religious harmony will probably never be reached. But who says that is to keep us from respecting others? We are taught to not discriminate against skin color and the like, why are we not taught to respect other spiritual paths or lack there of? It is a question that tugs at me every day and one day I hope it can be answered.
-Ichigo66
Keep pure your highest ideal; strive ever towards it, let naught stop you or turn you aside.
Author's Note: Sources:
http://www.wicca-chat.com/tempest.htm
http://www.witchvox.com/va/dt_va.html?a=usfl&c=passages&id=3353
