I am no stranger to making photos of religious “things.” Be it a baptism, religious charity work, festivals, or just “in church” time. And not just Christian, either. Look back a few months and you’ll find photos from a Buddhist temple or mosque or synagogue in a dozen countries on my travels.
Take all the religiosity out, the ceremony, the rules, the regulations and what do you have remaining?
People.
I like to boil things down to basics. It helps when working on a journalism story. The basic question gets answered: “What is really going on here?”
There are people (families, friends, individuals) in a field in rural Arkansas, hanging out, listening to someone talk or sing. They collected in this field to share in a common belief. And, common to all things, it is encouraging to the human psyché to have like-minded people around. It is also significant that these people are not collecting here in their usual environment; no matter what, repetition breeds complacency and breaking the complacency is refreshing.
The thing that I saw significant was that the children were in an environment where they could see their parents and other role-model types taking part in a collective moment. They were being shown that it is a significant thing to believe in something and believe in it so strongly that you would be public about it, even to the point of doing something that some might find silly.
I have great respect for people who “live” their religion. When a man pauses his life a few times per day to pray. Or a family sends one of their kids to a monastery to become a monk. Or a family intentionally tithes 10% of their income each year and budgets accordingly even when it is inconvenient or the air conditioner needs repaired.
It is not a new argument to say that religious life in the United States is “convenient.” In the land of the free and the home of the brave, that freedom is – in all honesty – freedom FROM religion just as much as it is freedom OF religion. The varying degrees of such things – the fundamentalist zealot to the weekend warrior – is also a byproduct of this freedom.
Raising a child in an environment where “convenience” is the only norm (“Follow this rule when it is convenient…”) is dangerous.
There’s a great argument to be made for the regular practicing of religion, I guess. Maybe it is a healthy thing for kids see their parents “embarrass” themselves from time to time. Seeing their parents participating in a Christian worship service… or seeing his/her dad pause his life a few times a day to pray in solitude… or seeing the giving of few precious coins at the temple at the feet of a statue even though the family doesn’t have it to spare… perhaps there is something powerful and healthy about that.
Belief is not something that you have to do because its “cool” or “convenient” but something you do in spite of the rest of the world. (Not blindly, of course; never blindly.) But belief can sometimes be the thing that makes a difference to your kids, the people around you, or the rest of the world…
Stay tuned…
-Noah D.
