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Religion and people’s identity

To begin with, it might seem very elementary, but at some point in our life we begin to question what our place in the world is. We begin to search for spiritual answers: who are we? Why are we here? Where should we go from here? Etc. This inevitable search gives all religions the ability to impact our lives. Religion has the most power to answer some of those difficult questions. We get a sense of purpose that extends beyond ourselves. It helps us connect with the all mighty, the all-powerful. Religion has several beneficial functions to offer.

Religion fills a certain void in our lives; maybe this is the reason we begin to associate ourselves with religion in some way. It helps us discover answers to some of the toughest questions in life. Religion has the ability to support us, subconsciously, at a different level altogether. It plays a major role in shaping our internal dialogue and heading us in the correct direction. This helps shape our individual identity. We gain a sense of belonging, to ourselves, and to others.

Like in the book The Color of Water, Ruth married a black Christian man named Andrew Mcbride and converted to Christianity. Her reason for converting to Christianity was that she found a certain solace in the religion and the courage to fight her inner feelings of guilt and grief. She was able to find a new life in Christianity. They moved to Brooklyn’s Red Hook Housing Project from Harlem where they found the New Brown Memorial Baptist Church; it was here that her husband became the first reverend. Ruth began to refer to him as ‘someone who had a vision.’ Ruth, seeing the chaos in her life, let religion gives her a sense of identity. This piece speaks about the significant change that religion brought into the lives of Ruth, her family, and her husband.

This ‘sense of identity’ is also to be found in the article Southern Jews and evangelicals; coming together by Pinsky. It portrays that, due to the rise of the modern suburban evangelical movement, significant Bible-based support for Israel has materialized along with unconditional support for the claims of their government. Relations have improved, and thanks to support from the Christian and Jewish faiths, things have improved significantly. This development is very healthy and has given the residents a new meaning for religion with which they connect to each other, and to their religion, in a very easy manner.

Religion also helps in the assimilation of two different cultures. Assimilation relates to people from two different traditions and spheres, actively or passively, merge into a single entity. This assimilation is very similar, in intent, to pluralism and inclusivism; it stands very much in contrast to exclusivism. Assimilation relates to a very normal religious indoctrination of children, by their parents and the religious conversion that happens from one individual to another. Religious assimilation is the most important form of cultural assimilation, centered on social customs, traditions, and terms within the language.

In the article “Blaxicans”, the Reinvented Americans author, Richard Rodrigues also begins his argument by saying that many immigrants have taken over America. He has although not spoken about religion in particular but in the tensions between the blacks and the Hispanic culture. Culture has come to assimilate all the immigrants from the other races into the culture of the United States. Religion is a pivotal part of the culture. The immigrants got involved into the American culture so much so that they also began to embrace their religion, and this development helped in forming a different identity for them. The information tells us how religion and their connection with people’s personality assist in developing relations. In Color of Water to Ruth got very quickly assimilated into the Christian culture, and the reason this happened was religion. Religion gave her a sense that helped her in the assimilation of the different cultures. Ruth was devastated in the early life. This information helps us in understanding the effects of having an identity with religion. When she began to identify with her religion, she became a new individual altogether.

Human identity is not only the whole of individual peculiarities. Every individual has various several characteristics, yet just some of them are constitutive of a man's personality. Religion turns into one of the identities of people. Christian Identity refers to a wide mixed bag of approximately partnered devotees and places of worship with a white supremacist philosophy. Most advance a supremacist understanding of Christianity. Religious individuals who have not been raised inside a solitary religious convention since childhood have no chance to get of getting away from the multifaceted nature of living with individuals who are distinctive. Unexpectedly, they are pushed into the position of "being more astute": being the ones who are by one means or another obliged to comprehend other people. Moreover they need to manage the unlucky deficiency of any single model as far as a world perspective, and an absence of contact with companions from a practically identical foundation.

The topic of the thesis was what the effects are when religion becomes a part of our identity. The thesis tries to establish a relation between an individual and his sense of belonging to a religion. My ideas demonstrate the effects that religion can have on an individual. How and what kind of changes an individual goes through when he or she goes through a religious metamorphosis. The ideas presented in the essay are essential in practical life as well. We are witness to a lot of differences in opinions of certain sections of the society towards religious differences. If we take a religious discourse, we might find answers to some of the problems that we face every day. When we embrace religion in its true meaning, we become a part of a spiritual change. Religion has the answers to some of the most difficult questions that we might not get a response too. Religion has a lot of relevance in our society even today. In such times when our lives are moving at a rapid speed, religion makes us stop and ponder over some very difficult answers.