Dec. 14, 2012 Religion Insert

SHADES

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Yes

No

Sometimes

28%11%

61%

Judaism: 2%

Do you feel

uncomfortable expressing

your religious beliefs (or lack

thereof)?[857 students surveyed]

BY KAITLYN [email protected]

BY AMIELA [email protected]

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 [email protected] 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

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Yannik Encarnação ’14

JudaismBY LUSHIA ANSON [email protected]

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

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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.

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{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 [email protected]

BY VELARCHANA SANTHANA

[email protected]

the Quran, the Muslim holy book. She added that she is passionate about her religion because it re-minds her to be humble.

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{DESIGN BY LUSHIA ANSON}


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 [email protected]

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{DESIGN BY OLIVE CARROLLHACH}


BY AMIELA CANIN AND AMELIA [email protected]@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


“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 [email protected]

{DESIGN BY VELARCHANA SANTHANA}

PHOTOS BY//FIONA ARMSTRONG-PAVLIK

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Dec. 14, 2012 Religion Insert