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Iowa City West High's newsmagazine - December 2012 insert
Citation preview
SHADES
DOF
EV
OTI
O
N
{DESIGN BY FIONA ARMSTRONG-PAVLIK}
Yes
No
Sometimes
28%11%
61%
Judaism: 2%
Do you feel
uncomfortable expressing
your religious beliefs (or lack
thereof)?[857 students surveyed]
BY KAITLYN MCCURDYkmccurdy@wsspaper.com
BY AMIELA CANINacanin@wsspaper.com
A look at West High’s comfort level with publicly expressing religious beliefs.Speaking of faith
While years ago the two-week retreat from school was referred to as “Christmas Break,” most students now know the time off as “Winter Break.” With increasing diversity in belief, religion is becoming a sensitive subject of discussion in society.
According to studies conducted by the Pew Research Center, atheism and agnosticism are on the rise in the United States. However, the majority of Iowans still consider themselves followers of organized religion. At West High alone, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism and other faiths are represented.
Strict rules stemming from separation of church and state cause many students to be unaware of other students’ beliefs and their
“People look down on people who are religious because it’s not the cool thing to be. It’s like if you’re religious you can’t be intelligent about the world,” she said.
Despite this, a WSS survey showed that the majority of West High students do feel comfortable talking about their religion. “I don’t necessarily bring it up, but I do tell people when it comes into the conversation and they ask about it,” Guymon said.
presence at West.Azzah Nasraddin ’13 believes
many Muslims feel uncomfortable discussing their faith because of the stereotypes associated with Islam.
“Sometimes people ask me if I’m going to have an arranged marriage, or they ask me if I am forced to wear this,” she said, pointing at her hijab, “or people ask me what happens if I take it off, and I’ll make up a crazy story about it.”
Jason Guymon ’14, who practices Mormonism, also considers his religion less prominent among West students.
He said that many people remain ignorant of “minority faiths” because they do not want to ask about them.
According to Nasraddin, another reason for this reluctance to express faith is the growing atheist sentiment among young people.
Which religion do you associate yourself with?[859 students surveyed]
Religion by the numbers
When politicians take the oath of office, they say “so help me God.” On American currency, you can find the phrase “In God We Trust.” Congress opens sessions with prayer. Gay marriage and abortion are huge social issues due to their religious connotations. Whether we like it or not, religion surrounds us.
“If your religion is that much of who you are, there’s no way to get around it influenc-ing society,” said Erin Cook ’14.
Debate has surrounded reli-gious influence in the government for a long time, especially in re-gard to the Pledge of Allegiance.
“The little ways that religion influ-ences society are great, and our fore-fathers were right in putting those things in our Constitution. A lot of our country was based on Christian views and beliefs, so I believe these little things are important. People take these things as a joke and it frustrates me when people laugh during the Pledge of Allegiance,
One society, under Godthe Star Spangled Banner, or when people are praying because religion should not be judged or denied to anyone,” Jonathan Neese ’16 said.
There’s also the idea that these influences are based on tradition. As Neese pointed out, America was built on the idea of freedom of religion, but it was still predomi-nantly Christian in the beginning.
“Things like ‘one nation, under God’, and ‘In God we trust’ are just kind of ground into our cul-ture from way back when. Saying these things should be optional for people that don’t believe that way, but they shouldn’t be banned or anything like that,” said Cook.
The idea of complete separa-tion of church and state has been thrown around for a long time. The question you have to ask yourself, however, is would you prefer a so-ciety with religion less involved?
“[I would] because there’s been a lot of conflicts based upon reli-gion, and a lot of people have died because of [it]. I don’t think people who are super religious and they
think their religion is against [some-thing] should be able to control oth-er people,” said Colin Waldron ’16.
COMPILED BY//AMELIA MOSER
Hinduism: 1%Buddhism: 2%
None 31%
Islam
Other Christianity
5%
6%
53%
2 INSERT DECEMBER 2012
It’s likely that religion will be in-volved in our daily lives and society for a while. Students at West can choose to ignore it or be less influ-enced by it, but you most likely won’t be able to get away with from it.
“I just feel like everybody needs to remember to think and make decisions for themselves and not just do things because ‘the bible says so’ or ‘that’s what my reli-gion wants.’ [...] I don’t want any of my actions and beliefs influenced by anybody but me,” said Cook.
{DESIGN BY TYLER VOSS}
ART BY//LEELA SATHYAPUTRI
{DESIGN BY KATIE MONS}
INSERT DECEMBER 2012 3
Religion through their eyesStudents share their personal experiences with their religion
BY AMELIA MOSER amoser@wsspaper.comAs a little kid, mess-ing up can seem like the end of the world. How-ever, breaking a win-
dow and then having to confess to it while in the midst of a major religious experience is even more scary.
Yannik Encarnação ’14 attended a Catho-lic elementary school in Rhode Island. “I did my Reconcili-ation there [in third grade],” he said. Rec-onciliation is the pro-cess of confessing your sins to a priest, and receiving forgiveness. “[It] was very intimi-dating, especially at a Catholic school,” he said. “You had to recite [an introduc-tory prayer]. … I was very, very nervous.”A week earlier, Encar-nação had been tossing rocks at the school with his friends – until one of his throws went a lit-tle too high, and broke his teacher’s window.He didn’t say any-thing. He thought no one would ever have
Catholicism
PHO
TO BY//A
BBIE SKEMP
Yannik Encarnação ’14
JudaismBY LUSHIA ANSON lanson@wsspaper.com
After years of
preparation, on June
10, 2010, Molly Lipman
’15 finally held her Bat
Mitzvah. Lipman had
been working for this
event since second grade.
To prepare, she took
many classes, studied
scriptures, learned songs,
chanted in Hebrew,
volunteered, and even
had extra homework.
“It was like another
subject,” Lipman said.
As well as learning
about Judaism itself,
the experience taught
Lipman about what it
meant to be an active
member of the Jewish
community.“It was kind of hard to
balance, but it definitely
paid off,” Lipman said.
The Bat Mitzvah itself
consisted of a religious
ceremony on Friday
night and a big party on
Saturday. “It was really fun,
because I got to invite
my friends … so they
got to see exactly what I
was training for all these
years and how hard I
worked,” Lipman said.
Another set of
experiences Lipman feels
have played a big role in
defining herself are the
Jewish summer camps
she attends. “In the morning, we
wake up, we do a short
little service, and
then we … do
activities,” Lipman
said. “[Judaism]
just kind of ties
in everywhere…
it’s a different
experience, every
single person being
Jewish … you seem
to relate to other
people more.”Lipman adds that
the camps have
helped her form
many valuable
r e l a t i o n s h i p s .
“Some of the
people I call my
best friends are
from Kansas City
or Milwaukee,
because of this
camp,” she said.
These events have
helped Lipman come to
an important conclusion.
“Judaism is a huge part
of my life,” Lipman said. “I
never really realized how
big it was until a couple of
years ago … it really plays
into everything.”
Molly Lipman ’15
PHO
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ITH PERM
ISSION
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OTO
GRA
PHY
to know it was his fault.Then it came time for Encarnação to con-fess his sins. He told the priest that he “beat up on [his] brothers” and he “disobeyed [his] parents,” but hesitated to tell of his mishap from the week prior. “I didn’t want to tell him [about the win-dow] … I was a little third grader and I was about to pee my pants, and the priest was this big, brooding guy … I thought I was going to be punished,” he said. But, after being reminded that in his Catholic faith, confessing was all right, Encarnação told the truth about the window.He wasn’t punished, and, like many Catho-lics before him, he re-ceived forgiveness.
PHO
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AN
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H M
UELLERLEILE
4 INSERT DECEMBER 2012
{DESIGN BY TYLER VOSS}
Hinduism“[The temples in India
are] so beautiful and in-tricate,” said Apoorva Rai-
kwar ’14. Climbing hun-dreds of steps, Raikwar
would visit the temples surrounded by people and
sometimes even monkeys. “Monkeys … chased
me,” she said. These mon-keys are often fed by tour-
ists and temple-goers; some literally cup their
hands and beg for food. One time, as Raikwar was
eating a fruit, a monkey jumped on her. Raikwar
didn’t know what to do. With her mother’s guid-
ance, she took a giant bite of the fruit she was eating
and threw it. Fortunately, the monkey chased after
it. Despite her encounter with monkeys, her expe-
rience at these temples and with Hinduism has
allowed her to grow.
“I just remember go-ing up to the statue of
God [as a child],” Raik-war said. Following her
parents’ lead, she would bow down to the de-
ity and throw flowers at its feet. At the time, she
didn’t understand why they did these things, but
now, because of Balavihar, Raikwar understands the
purpose of these practices. Balavihar is a weekly
school that Raikwar at-tends, not only to learn
more about Hinduism, but also about humanity
as a whole. Often they fo-cus on Sanatana Dharma,
eternal values, such as good deeds, charity, and
symbolism that are asso-ciated with the religion.
There is an emphasis on the idea that God is within
everyone. Holding her
finger up, Raikwar ex-plains this lesson. “God is
here (in her finger), he is the one making my finger
move, he is a part of me.” As a child, Raikwar of-
ten felt excluded from her friends and peers who
talked about Christmas or Easter, holidays that
she didn’t celebrate. At the same time, she didn’t
know how to talk to oth-ers about her religion. “It’s weird to try and ex-
plain to people [what Hin-duism is],” Raikwar said.
However, Raikwar cel-ebrates holidays that most
people don’t celebrate like Diwali and Holi. Her ap-
preciation for Hinduism makes not celebrating
Christmas not a big deal. “I understand [Hindu-
ism] more and appreciate it more,” Raikwar said.
As a result of Balavihar, Raikwar is not confused
when she goes to the temple and can educate others about
“why there are 3 billion gods.” “Now I think that it’s
cool that I’m Hindu be-cause it makes me
unique,” Raikwar said.
Apoorva Raikwar ’14
IslamSurrounded by Muslims
from all over the word in a place she had previ-ously had only seen in pictures, Sara Elhattab ’13 described her visit to Mecca as “the best expe-rience of my life.” Mecca is the holy place in Saudi Arabia where the Kaaba, a cuboid-shaped place of worship, is located. Fol-lowers of the Muslim re-ligion must pray facing in the direction of the Kaaba five times a day, as part of the five pillars of Islam.
Elhattab said her favorite part of visiting Mecca was that everyone was there
for the same reason: to worship god. However, she said the journey was long and frustrating, fly-ing out of Iowa City, and running through Chicago and London, before final-ly ending in Geda. From there, it was a five hour car drive through Saudi Arabia to the Mecca.
“It is the longest car ride of your life, all you want to do is go to the Kaaba,” said Elhattab. With little to no sleep, Elhattab finally saw the minarets and the hu-dem - figures surround-ing the Mecca. She im-mediately became alert.
“All your worries about the trip are gone when you see it; you just take a deep breath and sigh,”
Elthattab said. She said she was significantly im-pacted by the surreal expe-rience of visiting the place that she has been praying towards her whole life.
“It was the highlight of my year,” Elthattab said, adding that she hopes to visit more in her lifetime.
In accordance with Muslim tradition, Elthat-tab chose to wear a hi-jab her sophomore year.
“It is more than just a piece of cloth on your head,” Elhattab said. She says her hijab represents mod-esty and good manners, as well as encourages others to treat her with respect.
Elthattab said her reli-gion gives her peace of mind because she is able to look up any question in
Sara Elhattab ’13
BY BRITTANI LANGLANDblangland@wsspaper.com
BY VELARCHANA SANTHANA
vsanthana@wsspaper.com
the Quran, the Muslim holy book. She added that she is passionate about her religion because it re-minds her to be humble.
PHO
TOS BY/A
BBIE SKEMP
{DESIGN BY LUSHIA ANSON}
INSERT DECEMBER 2012 5
In October, the Church
of Jesus Christ of Latter-
Day Saints lowered the
age of missionary ser-
vice. For men, the age
was lowered from 19 to
18 - for women, from
21 to 19. More people
of the Mormon faith
are heading on mis-
sions now, due to the
age change. For Analisa
Stewart ’14, this brings
her mission even closer.
“They end up learning
a lot about themselves
and other cultures.
They usually find a lot
of success in spreading
[our religion],” she said.
Multiple members
of Stewart’s family
have taken their own
missions. Her par-
ents went to Japan,
her oldest brother
was in Mexico, and
she currently has
a brother in Chile.
He’ll be there for the
next two years, hav-
ing left this summer.
“[Mission trips are]
highly recommended,
but you don’t have to
go. A lot of people do.
They try and share
our message with the
people and have our
church grow. They do
a lot of service while
they’re there, too, but
for most of it, they’re
going door-to-door
and just telling them
what our church is
about ... Most of the
time [we work with]
families or older
people,” Stewart said.
Stewart has no
idea where she will
go for her mission,
but she knows she’ll
be there for about
a year and a half.
“I’m excited about
it. I feel like it’s go-
ing to be a really
unique opportunity.
This summer, I actu-
ally went on a ‘mini
mission.’ We have
historical church
sites in Illinois, and
I went down there
and was helping in
the visitor’s center...
It helps us grow in
our knowledge of our
faith,” Stewart said.
One morning in Guatemala, while on a trip with the Unitar-ian Universalist (UU) church from Iowa City, Kate Thorne ’14
learned some very important les-sons. One, don’t oversleep. The other though, was more pro-found. Her group had planned to climb an extremely tall moun-tain; there were two options to get to the top. People could either trek up the steep incline alone, or take a bus. Thorne opted for the more arduous of the two. However, the day of the climb, Thorne overslept and missed journeying with her group mem-bers. Hurriedly, she commenced the hike. It took the whole day, and upon reaching the top, Thorne had learned about her-self and what she was capable of,“When I got to the top I was re-ally proud of myself for climbing the mountain instead of taking a bus, and now whenever I’m faced with something difficult I tell myself that if I could climb a mountain in Guatemala before breakfast, then I can do any-thing. It was a really empower-
ing experience,” Thorne said.Thorne started going to the UU church as a little girl upon the insistence of her mother, who was raised Lutheran. Thorne is con-vinced her mother’s religious switch derived from the UU’s policy of acceptance, and their lack of governing rules,“I went through the reli-gious education class. We had a class where we were sup-posed to define our beliefs and figure out what we believed on our own - it was differ-ent from most churches who tell you what to believe. [My mother] took me to the UU because you can set your own course to follow,” Thorne said.According to Thorne, the UU church believes in the “inherent worth of all hu-man beings.” Thorne thinks
this mantra is supported by the church’s recognition of same-sex marriage, and their acceptance of all people.“I know a lot of gay couples get married at the UU church because we have a really inclu-sive environment. I think that’s why a lot of people go to UU - we have a lot of socially chal-lenged kids who come to our youth group because we don’t make them feel bad about who they are,” Thorne said.Although walking up that mountain in Guatemala had a powerful effect on Thorne, she wouldn’t have gotten this op-portunity if she hadn’t gone to the UU church, a place where she feels she has learned to “love and respect everyone.”
Analisa Stew
art ’14
Kate Thorne ’14
Mormon
UnitarianUniversalism
BY KAITLYN MC
CURDY
kmccurdy@wsspap
er.com
BY BLAKE OETTING boetting@wsspaper.com
PHO
TOS BY/ABBIE SKEM
P
{DESIGN BY OLIVE CARROLLHACH}
6 INSERT DECEMBER 2012
BY AMIELA CANIN AND AMELIA MOSERacanin@wsspaper.comamoser@wsspaper.com
Winter has arrived. That blast of cold, unforgiving air that smacks you in the face when you walk out your front door, the white-knuckled driving through treacherous, icy streets, bright and cheery holiday (let’s face it, mostly Christmas) mu-sic playing non-stop on the radio – all the signs of another holiday sea-son come again.
This year, though, fewer Ameri-cans will celebrate as part of a specif-ic religion than ever before. Pew Re-search Center reported, “One-fifth of the U.S. public - and a third of adults under 30 - are religiously un-affiliated today, the highest percent-ages ever in Pew Research Center
polling. … the unaffiliated … now include more than 13 million self-described atheists and agnostics … as well as nearly 33 million people who say they have no particular re-ligious affiliation. This large and growing group of Americans is less religious than the public at large on many conventional measures, including frequency of atten-dance at religious ser-vices and the degree of importance they attach to religion in their lives.”
Hilah Kohen ’14, a self-described secular Jew, doesn’t think you have to believe in God to maintain reli-gious traditions and morals.
“When my family … [practices]
Wholly in the
Amid recent Pew Research Center polling reports showing the largest number of religiously unaffiliated Americans ever, the West Side Story got students’ take on the role religion plays in the U.S. this holiday season.
“It’s less people becom-ing more secular, [and more] a secular aspect grow-ing alongside religion,” Kohen said.
That being said, she contends that religion isn’t going anywhere
soon.
Judaism, it’s as a heritage, not as a religion. Traditions are part of the
h e r i t a g e ,” she said.
K o h e n recogniz-es secular-ism outside her family.
“I think we’re seeing society moving away from religion and loss of principles.
-Karl Wenzel ’14
PHOTO BY//ABBIE SKEMP
PHOTOS BY// HANNAH MUELLERLEILE
spiritholiday
INSERT DECEMBER 2012 7
“I’m not as fond of the commercialization of holidays, because I feel like ... with Hanukkah, the presents are meant to satisfy our jeal-ousy [of Christmas.]
-Hilah Kohen ’14
13 million Americans
are self-described atheists and
agnostics
One-fifth of Americans
are religiously unaffiliated
ment of the popu-lation who does not identify with a religion or does not believe very strictly in a religious doctrine, or is com-pletely atheistic, but I don’t get the sense that that has made us a secular society. That just means we don’t publicly thank God for everything that’s good in the world, even if we ardently believe that in private,” Ko-hen said. “I think there is a societal perception that sort of flaunting your religion will offend those who don’t agree with it.”
Winter holidays are being affected by this lack of religious de-votion.
“The secu-larization of a holiday is not bad as long as it retains its cultural significance and moral significance,” Kohen said.
Karl Ratner ’15 agrees h o l i d a y s don’t have to be purely re-ligious.
“I think [Christmas is] thought of more as an American holiday then a religious one,” he said.
Further, Ratner doesn’t find fault in holidays becom-ing less devout.
{DESIGN BY HANNAH MUELLERLEILE}PHOTOS BY// HANNAH
MUELLERLEILE
“Even if America is becoming more secular, it’s been slow enough and small enough I don’t know if it quali-fies as a movement … in truth, yes, we are becoming a nation in which there is a small[er] portion of religious people, but … I’m even hesitant to say we’re secularizing. I think it’s relevant for us to see where we are, not just where we’re going, because where we are is so definite that where we’re going is unlikely to have much of an effect, at least in the short term,” Kohen said. “There have been historical fluctuations … you could say we were more secu-lar before the 50s than after, when we adopted things like ‘In God We Trust’ as our national motto, and ‘under God’ in the Pledge of Alle-giance.”
Karl Wenzel ’14, leader of the Fel-lowship of Christian Athletes (FCA) at West High, agrees that religion’s influence in society is shifting.
“I think we’re seeing society mov-ing away from religion and
loss of principles - people [are] becoming
involved in other things in communities,” Wenzel said. “I would say
we’re seeing d e c l i n e s [in people going to
church], in part because of misconcep-
tions.”While fewer people ap-
pear to be publicly expressing or practicing their religious beliefs, Kohen says that doesn’t mean those beliefs are nonexistent.
“I don’t think people’s devoutness has de-creased, I just think we’ve become more aware of those of us who are not de-vout. There’s an increas-ing seg-
“very much” becoming too much about expensive gift-giving, aside from the question of religion.
“[Christmas] went from a family oriented holiday to [one] in which a ‘bad Christmas’ is one where you don’t get what you want,” he said.
Kohen said Hanukkah was un-dergoing a similarly presents-based transformation.
“The trend going on now, in par-allel with what’s happening with Christmas, is the commercializa-tion of [Hanukkah] … there’s al-ways been a gift, but it’s something like a dreidel, not an iPad. Even for me, that’s shifted … [my family] use[s] Hanukkah as an opportunity to get something we’ve wanted ... I think the general trend is [Hanuk-kah is becoming more commercial] but a lot less than Christmas.”
If it were up to her, Kohen would avoid the commercial aspects of the holidays.
“I’m not as fond of the commer-cialization of holidays, because I feel like, especially with Hanukkah, the presents are meant to satisfy our jealousy, almost, of our Christian friends or kids we’re seeing getting a large number of presents around the same time of year. And that doesn’t seem to me like something that should be the bedrock of a tra-dition,” Kohen said.
Alex Grady ’14 agrees.“I think Christmas is becoming
about the gifts that you receive. It should be about spirit, not gifts. You should think less about what you’re getting and more about what you’re giving through your faith,” she said.
Wenzel doesn’t necessarily think these changes are detracting from Christmas.
“I don’t think it’s all bad if there’s commercialism, it’s a great opportu-nity for Christians to come together and celebrate Christ’s birth … as well as reconnect with their faith,” Wenzel said.
“I think its bad [for Christmas to only be associ-
ated with religion]. The associa-tion with Christian holidays with
American holidays make it seem like we are a Christian nation - which we are not,” he said.
With this move toward seculariza-tion and lack of religious affiliation, winter holidays are also seemingly becoming more and more commer-
cialized. The appearance of Santa and his reindeer and the ex-change of increasingly e x t r a v a -gant gifts on C h r i s t m a s m o r n i n g leave some q u e s t i o n -ing whether the holiday has become about more than the cel-ebration of
Christ’s birth.“I’m sure most Christians still find
Christmas is primarily important because of the events it celebrates, but then there’s this added com-pletely non-religious aspect of Santa and presents that doesn’t necessar-
ily detract from the religious part, but shows secu-
larization nonethe-less,” Kohen said.Ratner went further,
and said Christmas is
Statistics from Pew Research Center
“I believe in God, but I don’t think you have to go to church to believe in God ... it’s your spirituality and your relationship with whatever higher power you believe in, if you believe in one.”
-Anna Mondanaro ’14
“My faith is my foundation ... it influences every decision I make.” -Cameron Braverman ’15
““Religion is my moral compass, but I try to keep it out of things not related to ethics ... I con-sult my religion when I have to decide what the right thing to do is.” -Jeremiah Anthony ’14
Why I believe...COMPILED BY FIONA ARMSTRONG-PAVLIKfarmstrongpavlik@wsspaper.com
{DESIGN BY VELARCHANA SANTHANA}
PHOTOS BY//FIONA ARMSTRONG-PAVLIK
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