COLUMN: Learning to be tolerant
Before I spent this past summer as a camp counselor in California, I thought I was a very open-minded person. I was born and raised in Madison, Wis., and therefore felt I had experienced more culture than the average 19-year-old Latter-day Saint resident of Utah. And while that may be true, I was still in for a shock.
As I drove my Geo Prism across the Salt Flats, I imagined a carefree summer of fun, flirting with golden California guys, making friends and changing the lives of the kids I was going to be in charge of. These ideals went out my rolled-down window as I learned I was one of only 7 counselors coming from the United States. I panicked as I realized I had never been in close association with anyone that was not from the 50 states. I also realized that, while I did have non-Latter-day Saint friends, all of my best friends shared the same religious beliefs I did.
The first week of staff training – when all 17 of us counselors were crammed into a one-room ghetto cabin – was amazing. There were people from Croatia, England, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Russia, South Africa and the United States. Everyone spoke English, but because of the different accents, it was very hard to understand one another. It reminded me of MTV’s The Real World, only, that show should be called Melodramatic Americans. Here, nestled in the foothills of the Sierra-Nevada mountains, I was living The Real World.
Religion was a big topic of conversation among us, and our talks would last all hours of the night. We would debate the origin of the world, if there was a God, who God was, why we were here and where death would take us. Ideas of reincarnation, evolution, a female deity, no deity and an endless abyss of nothingness were thrown around. At times, the discussions became heated. At other times, the atmosphere became very solemn and emotional as we bore our hearts out to each other. The most important lesson I could learn was derived from those talks: We are all in this thing called life together. While I “know” my religion is true, they also “know” theirs is. No amount of yelling can change this fact, but discussion can open our hearts to be more accepting.
Linh, from Canada, was born in a Saigon concentration camp. Her family is Buddhist, a religion she knew nothing about. This summer was a time for Linh to find herself. We went to the library together, and as I borrowed Mary Higgins Clark, she checked out books on the Dalai Lama and the origins of Buddhism. Mohammed, from South Africa, was Muslim. He would go into the one-room cabin five times each day to say his mandatory prayers. Everyone called me “Mormon girl” or “crazy Sara” because my lifestyle, to them, was crazy. Irene, from Russia, belonged to the Russian Orthodox Church, and had the strongest faith in God I have ever seen.
Before this summer, I never thought I really needed to know about other religions. What a stupid idea. Religion shapes my life. It is the driving force behind most of what I do. Why, then, would I not want to know about other religions? If I ever wanted to understand other people, shouldn’t I know what shapes their lives? In the end, it didn’t matter what religion we were. We were people from all over the world who were trying to have an adventurous summer.
Now, when I think about all of the religion-based hate crimes around the world, I am baffled. What is the big deal about believing differently than someone else? How is it that religion, something that supposedly fills our lives with joy, brings such resentment? It is because of ignorance. My fellow students, let’s get out of our religious clicks and embrace those different faiths.
We are all guilty of ignorance, myself included. But religion, like it or not, affects everyone, everywhere. So, open your mind and start accepting other people for who they are. If we, a small group of 19- to 24-year-old camp counselors, could actually embrace our differences and draw closer because of them, why can’t the rest of the world? Come on people, learn to accept our differences. It sure makes life more exciting.
I’m sure a newspaper column won’t change anyone’s life or thought process. You have to do that on your own. A summer job worked for me.
Sara Price is a sophmore studying English. Comments can be sent to
features@statesman.usu.edu