Jenaicklefritz’s Weblog

Hello, and once again, long time no see. First I want to get an apology for my absence out of the way by saying, “You know, I’m damn glad that this is officially my last quarter in college so I never have to worry about taking another four week course again. They are too freaking time-consuming, and I don’t like them.” Okay, so that wasn’t really an apology, that was an excuse, but let’s get real here. I rarely apologize for what’s out of my hands.

Seriously, though, this last three weeks has been hell. (Note: I didn’t even sign up for the four week course until a week in, which made me 25% behind the rest of my class.) I’ve busted my butt, and the only time I had to write a blog… well, I decided to get a tattoo instead. It was my seventh tattoo, and of course, most people don’t even know I have any. They’re all hidden in very strategic locations.

Actually, there’s a story about the locations of my tattoos. A buddy of mine (back in Montana) told me I am brave for tattooing low on my hips. She thinks their locations are in a compromising area, I guess. Anyway, my response to her was this, “Well, I wouldn’t call it brave, actually. You see, the reason my tattoos are where they are is to hide them from the scrutiny of the male-dominated white Anglo Saxon Protestant society that shuns things like body art, masturbation, and minorities. So in a way, the placement of my tats are more due to my being a pussy rather than being anyone brave.” And that’s the truth.

Oh, and speaking of persecution and the WASP society… my Indian Studies night class was a touch tense this evening. There are five of us total, and the instructor actually graduated with me this year, so the class on a whole seems almost like a group-study, rather than a class, but I’m getting away from my story. Let me explain what went down tonight.

First, we watched a very mind-opening film about the persecution of indigenous American tribes and the raping of their religions. (Rape is my word to describe it, not the film’s. I just want to make sure no one thought the film was overtly pretentious; in fact, the film was diplomatically presented and very insightful.) Anyway, basically, what we learned was that the religious freedom that America boasts about is available to everyone except the Natives. This film was two hours of non-stop examples of how religious freedom does not exist for American Indians.

The kicker for me was that the Pope in Italy decided that the Apache’s worship grounds on Mount Graham in Arizona were not really holy grounds, and that the site was no more a religious and ceremonial location for the Natives than a common ant hill, and therefore the Catholic church would be justified in building a telescope (The Vatican Observatory) to study the heavens there, thus taking away a very important landmark from the Apache.

After the film, the five of us and our teacher discussed how when dealing with other religions, we must always remember to keep an open mind. I have to agree, because obviously the Pope didn’t have an open enough mind to recognize a legitimate religion and give it the respect it deserves. Before this film, I thought the Pope was generally respected for his acknowledgement of other religions, but now all I can see is how he completely passed off the Apache’s faith, mostly on the grounds that they had no tangible proof of religious practice. But how could they? Many indigenous tribes’ religions are oral based traditions. They do not put the same emphasis on tangible proof and material goods, like the idol-shunning Catholics do. (Does anyone else see the irony here?)

Anyway, again, I’m getting off topic. So the instructor (who is half Native and half Catholic), the atheist student at the back of the class, me (who is a spiritual person), and the Christian girl to my right held the floor for most of the conversation while the two other classmates kept their heads down and tried to become invisible. The instructor, who was raised Catholic and Chippewa, brought up how important it was for him to remember that Christian and Catholic does not equal bad people, when considering his Native background. He said it was still difficult for him to be comfortable with the idea of the Christians and their treatment of the Natives, especially after discussing the Vatican Observatory. I can’t blame him for his biases, because the Vatican Observatory is just shitty and not fair.

I had to agree with him openly, and mentioned that I have many Christian friends who are by no means bad people, and often find myself trying to beat back my own biases whenever they remind me of the Christianity—mostly because of all the negative stigma the word carries. And then both the teacher and I agreed that a select few Christians have given our Christian friends a bad name through their racism and close-minded behavior, acting in the name of the religion. The atheist in the back of the class agreed and said that there are just some extremists out there who are too busy telling everyone else how wrong they are in their beliefs.

But then the Christian gal to my right started interrupting with a stress elevated voice. She said something along the lines of “it seems to me that this conversation is taking a very negative view of Christianity, and it’s no better than what is being done to the American Indians. There are problems on both sides here, and I think this conversation is starting to boast of how horrible Christians are, when we’re not! There are many of us who would never do anything that horrible ever. I don’t think it’s right to talk about how bad Christians are, as if they’re all bad!”

I asked her, “Who said Christianity was bad in here?” No one had said that once, and we were trying to say that bad extremists who happened to be Christian were causing negative reputations for the rest of their faith.

She tried to answer my rhetorical questions with, “Well…” And that was all she could answer with. I smiled that she even got the “well” out. We were not insulting her faith. She should never have gotten defensive… but then again, she did because she heard what she wanted to hear, not what was actually said. It didn’t end there, though.

Next, the teacher asked the quiet girl in the corner what she thought about the issue, and she said, “This is a very difficult situation, and people will always say how much better their religion is—”

The Christian girl cut in, “I wasn’t saying Christianity was better—”

Atheist guy cut in, “She wasn’t saying it was you let her finish—”

Quiet girl in the corner agreed, “I didn’t mean you at all!”

By this point I had totally shut up for these reasons:

I hate when people play the victim card when they start misinterpreting a conversation to be insulting or critical of their personal choices in life. The Christian girl was trying to act as if she was the only one who ever had to live in a world of religious scrutiny and contempt, when all of us in the room has had to deal with it at one point. Her reaction was so angry in response to our conversation that was attempting to reach a high point on the very idea that Christians are getting a bad rep due to the hierarchy that is acting as spokesmen for the greater majority of their faith.

We were actually saying how the world would be a better place if the non-Christians would remember that what we see on TV is not a proper representation of the Christian faith on a whole, and to try and break our anti-Christian biases. But the Christian girl in our class was not going to listen carefully, for she was much too busy martyring herself on the classroom alter. She was so busy making a scene that she couldn’t realize that we were not criticizing her religion, but were trying to remove negative stigma from Christianity and resting it solely on higher powered people who just happen to be Christian and just happen to mar the perceptions of their religion. But oh well. It’s not like we were giving credit to her faith for her sake.

Hell, most of my family is Christian. I don’t think they are bad people, but their religious beliefs are definitely misrepresented by some very nasty people who hog the media limelight. When I say that Christians get a bad rep, it’s for their sakes, mostly. And I was kind of insulted that my attempt to participate in a conversation aimed at taking the heat of Christianity ended with a Christian insisting that our conversation was unfair and totally criticizing of the religion. I had that, “Gee, see if I stand up for your faith again” feeling. If it weren’t for my own Christian loved ones, I’d not give a damn about the issue.

I kind of feel like there are too many “good” Christians that are a little too quick to cry persecution sometimes. I mean, my class was discussing the very serious and current persecution of the Native Americans. In this country, Christians hold the most power, so this girl’s attempt to cry persecution after that video seemed really disrespectful. Christians might have been persecuted at one time or in other places, but in America today, they are the privileged.

I wanted to tell her to “shut up, we’ve all felt like you do at one point, but this is not the time or place for sudden soap boxes; and I’d appreciate it if you wouldn’t insinuate that the rest of us are dogging on your beliefs. No one is shitting in your church, so stop misunderstanding us. If you don’t want to discuss the Natives’ persecution and the state and situation of Christians as a result of it, then leave.”

I know there are many good Christians out there… but even some of the good ones, like certain members of my family (or even my annoying classmate), do things that really irritate me and make it harder for me to kill my own personal biases against them. It’s not that I hate most Christians, but I do feel uncomfortable around them when they start talking about religion, whereas talking about religion with non-Christians is always a relaxing, insightful, and a delightful joy. But never with Christians. It’s stressful, irritating, painful, and ultimately leaves me feeling less educated and unfulfilled.

If anyone can explain to me why that is, I’d be thrilled. Thanks.

Anyway, that’s all I have today.