By: Chloe Heller –
The world is rocked by tragedy and hardship on a daily basis. Some impact only the area in which they occur, while others become the headlines of newspapers circling the globe. Communities can easily be shattered by disasters, but on the other hand, disasters can form even closer, tighter-knit relationships within the community when a problem threatens the group.
One type of group that is commonly recognized as one that splits apart and turns on each other during tough times are religious groups. However, according to students at Southeast, their religious groups do just the opposite; many find strength in their beliefs and find it to be a great source of comfort during personal turmoil or major national and world disasters. Southeast is a school with a wonderfully diverse population of religious and non-religious students, but for the sake of the length of the article we are only featuring three, chosen by accessible sources. Religion can be portrayed differently from home to home. While some people are born into and accept their religions, other families are split by religion, and some even practice multiple religions.
Jolee Little (10) was born into a Christian home and officially dedicated her life to God in third grade. Religion has played a huge role in Little’s life. She has gone to Haiti with her youth group the last two years, and says it changed many things for her.
“When you go to a third world country, coming from a place that has virtually everything, it really changes your perspective on what’s important and what’s not,” Little said.
This mission trip to Haiti is what really brought Little to the realization that her religion is a place of hope for her and is what she wants to be important in her life. She says that during any time in her life, she knows she can lean on her church group for support.
“[It’s great because] if you’re having a rough time you just have a really good community to fall back on,” said Little, speaking of her youth group. Even though she didn’t start really appreciating going to church until her late elementary years, she now realizes that she would not be where she is today without religion and the people within it.
This dependency on religion is not just for Christianity or people who follow one religion. For example, Sarah Al-Hilfy-leon (11) practices Islam as well as Catholicism. “I go to church every Sunday and then I go to the mosque every chance that I can… once a month at least,” she said. “I always wished when I was younger that I was just one religion because it would have been so much easier. As they are both different in their own aspects, it gets confusing of when I should be Muslim and when I should be Catholic. Sometimes I ask myself, maybe I shouldn’t even be religious! But then I remind myself that I do love God and that is who I’m trying to follow. In both religions they are trying to be with God so that’s who I am gearing towards.”
Al-Hilfy-leon finds strength in Catholicism when she leads Catechism, or bible study, for little kids on Saturdays, and finds strength in Islam when she asks her fellow Muslims for advice during rough times. “I sometimes ask the priest at the church some questions of stuff that I’m dealing with personally, like home stuff, and how to not be angry at my parents all the time.”
Besides personal struggles, the LSE junior depends on her religion during hard times in the world too. “With the issues on both sides, I can see them from both perspectives and decide where I stand with an issue, so that’s a really big advantage I have in my life.”
For her, it is important to realize that religion is not meant to be bad or used in violent ways and she wants people to understand that you can’t assume things about people based on the religion they practice.
“Sometimes religion can be… a looked down, hated thing and be used for hatred… but when good people use the religion well and see the good aspects in it, it’s an amazing way to spread around positivity,” said Al-Hilfy-leon. “If you just focus on the bad it’s not really going to get you anywhere.”
David Crable (12) is another Southeast student whose religion affects his world view. “I have been Jewish since I was able to make that decision in fifth grade…For the majority of my life, my parents had me go to church on sundays but then they also had me go to synagogue on fridays. They wanted to give me just about enough understanding of both religions that I could be like, which one do I fit with? Ultimately, Judaism seemed to make more sense to me and it seemed to really work better for my beliefs and my feelings.”
Crable says being Jewish brings him hope when things in the world are unstable. “Throughout the Torah, there’s a lot of really amazing stories in there. Some of them make me think about life in a new perspective. I see a lot of good in the world and I see a lot of things that we as people can do to help out those in need. I guess I just have that optimistic outlook on life and I’d say that I have gotten a lot of that from Judaism.”
When disasters strike, a very normal response is for people to question their faith. Crable has experienced this. “I definitely sometimes question it because as the world is changing and as my viewpoints are changing, so are my thoughts on religion and what comes later, and how we should act as people. I consider my values , I consider the things that have happened to me and i consider my previous knowledge on religion and I use all of that to form my beliefs and my opinions.”
When it comes down to it, Crable enjoys what being a part of a religion brings to his life, and to the world in general. “I’m really fascinated by religion and what beliefs other individuals may hold, and I think it’s so awesome to see how many different perspectives there are and how many similarities there are as well. I think they all have their own aspects that are really cool.
So regardless of what religion you practice, faith in a higher power can provide the peace and hope that people need in a world full of disaster. It can bring people with little else in common together. There are many walls that still need to be broken down amongst the different religions, but sometimes it can build up a community too.