[being written]

What does it really mean to be "offended?" It is one of those rare emotions that can stir people to action, to create a desire for some kind of justice when the issue touches deeply the roots of a person's sentiment. Recently, protests were staged against Ambercrombie & Fitch, after the release of new shirts bearing Asian stereotypes both written and drawn (for examples, see this article). Perhaps it is, as many things are, a question of emotion versus logic.

To that point: why is it that we react when we see race-specific caricatures? What is it about the slanted eyes, the straw hat, and the buck teeth? There are two interepretations of the problem at hand: first, it is a reaction to how Asians believe others see them; or second, it is a reaction to how Asians perceive themselves.   ¶ 12:24 AM

  I've met people who've come to resent their church-going childhood, turning from avid Christians to almost anti-religous zealots. I've heard them complain that they were brain-washed by their Sunday school teachers, locked off from the light of secular knowledge. Some of them may have a point; some of them are exaggerations. But going from one extreme to the other rarely seemed deserved.

My Sundays were also spent at church as a boy, and I certainly met my share of religious conservatives. There were parents upset at their children for listening to Christian music too loud, others who had knee-jerk reactions to swearing and sex, and still others who believed that the Earth really is only 10,000 years old. And it certainly wasn't just the parents. Part of my dislike for that church came during my senior year, when my fellow youth group members started "feeling sorry" for non-Christians who weren't able to see the light to salvation. In fact, they were so enlightened that they, unlike the poor secularists, were able to shed popular music for Christian music.

But even so, I am far from being an anti-Christian. I still share much of the same moral code (the ten comandments seem practical as well as moral), and I still believe in a god, if not exactly the God of the Bible. And I've only recently realized that a good part of that credit goes, surprisingly, to my youth pastor. Eric was young, logical, and approached his faith with a critical mindset. He always tried to present both sides of an argument and never once told us what the Bible meant, but rather encouraged us to question deeply held beliefs. Of course, he would prod us in the direction of a religious interpretation, but he still left things open-ended when no factual answer existed.

Naturally, this got him into trouble with a lot of the concerned, conservative parents. I remember one particular occaision which illustrates well what I mean. He brought up a topic in bible study that was considered taboo for most of the rest of the church: evolution. It must have been around my freshman or sophomore year in high school, which meant my exposure to evolution had been minimal up till then. It was in bible study, ironically enough, that I first learned about macro- vs microevolution, punctuated equilibrium, and irregularities in the fossil record. Eric presented us with evidence both for and against evolution, and concluded that there was room for a religious interpretation of evolution that need not contradict scientific facts. I think we all felt afterwards that a very educated compromise had been made, and that we were better informed on the subject than we had been from our biology classes.

Of course, this caused quite an uproar from the parents, many who demanded that Eric resign on the spot. Apparently, he was poisoning our minds and deflecting us from the true path of God. Fortunately, cooler heads prevailed, and he stayed on for several more years. So here I was presented with two opposites within Christianity: blind faith and reasoned faith. The experience could have embittered me towards religion, but Eric's skeptical viewpoint showed instead how religion can be tempered with critical thought.

I find now that charges of brainwashing and totalitarianism against religion are no more than stereotype. It is true of some followers, but not of others: faiths do not rise and fall with the temperament of their masses, but of the individuals who give weight to their meaning. How you choose to incorporate religion into your own life is not yes or no, is or isn't, but a gradation along the spectrum between blind faith and atheism. That may seem obvious, but meeting someone who lies in a balanced spot can change how you view your own place.  ¶ 10:45 PM