Honesty is Truth with Vulnerability: A Survey of Religious Beliefs
by Maggie Minor and Brynne Callahan
Photography by Maggie Minor
Since the founding of the United States, religion has existed within our culture. For many, religion is taught at a young age. At what point do the ideas and teachings of one’s (often given) religion really set in or become a part of one’s life? We feel for some people, like ourselves, it never really does and the busy-ness of life somehow sweeps one away from those seemingly endless hours spent at Sunday school doing religion related activities or watching Veggie Tales with one’s Sunday school friends.
After a short period of time passed wondering around on East Broad Street, we ran into a young girl named Pam. We first asked her if she’d be willing to answer a few questions. Fortunately, she was very open to answering all of our questions and even happened to live right off of East Broad street with a few other people. After a short initial conversation, we asked for her name, address and phone number, so we could set up a time to talk more deeply.
Upon our first visit, we did not know where to start, so we began with small talk and polite chit chat. We found out some basic information about her: her age, where she grew up, and a little bit about her family. Although she has resided in the United States for a while, she is not an American citizen, but actually Canadian. Of her vast interests, Pam had a few that really stuck out. One of them was her faith. It was clear by the way she zealously explained her faith that she was excited by and devoted to her religion. Despite our complete lack of knowledge, she patiently explained even the most basic concepts of her faith.
Until recently, Pam was never very religious. The majority of her upbringing focused on being a good person, not faith. In fact, her family attended church for the social aspect. In eleventh grade, her journey with her faith began. Her best friend continually begged her to join youth group, which were followed by Pam’s endless refusals. Therefore, her friend ended up tricking her into coming to a youth group gathering. After being tricked, Pam decided to explore the ideas being shared at youth group. The fact that she was not always devout was surprising, given the way she was so passionate about her faith now. Before meeting Pam, we both felt people who were religious had always been religious, and we never bought into the stories of people “finding their faith.”
Pam identifies herself as nondenominational and truly finds her faith to be about having a relationship with Jesus. Her views on god and faith are in deep contrast to the religious figures seen in the media who protest gay rights and abortion. She explained that she tries to love everyone equally and does not discriminate against others for their own beliefs or lifestyles. The media has presented countless stories of religious followers discriminating “in the name of God,” but Pam argues that is impossible. Pam explained that none of these discriminatory acts can actually be done in the name of god because nowhere in the bible do you see people protesting funerals or asking gay people to leave restaurants. She believes that you have to be accepting and loving of all individuals no matter what the circumstances.
We found the way faith helps her deal with tough situations interesting, since we have both lost family members who were close to us. She talked about losing a person to whom she was very close to and how her religion helped her through that time. With her belief system, death is not the end of the line. When someone passes, she hopes to see that person again in heaven and knows that they are in that better place of paradise. This lead to questions about whether or not she thinks everyone she knows will go to heaven and how that makes her feel. She prays that deep down her close friends and family have Jesus in their hearts so that she can be reunited with them, but knows that she can only do so much and she cannot force individuals to have the same faith as her.
Pam belongs to the City Church of Savannah, which is now at the Savannah Theatre. Although it can be tough with her busy lifestyle, she tries to attend church frequently and also go to Warehouse and Amplify Group, which is similar to youth group. She was very welcoming and invited us to these events, so we could speak with other members of the church community. We gladly accepted and met her that following Tuesday.
We arrived to Warehouse on a brisk evening, unsure of exactly where to go, we waited for Pam outside the doors. Upon walking in, we were introduced to several people in the group and were served refreshments. After a short time waiting for people to gather, the service started and we all took our seats. Neither of us knew exactly what to expect and were filled with anticipation for what was about to happen. A band took the stage and began playing Christian pop songs and the words were projected on the wall for the audience to sing along with. To our surprise, everyone rose and began dancing and singing along. After three songs, the band took their seats as well, and the main speaker, Melissa, rose to give her talk. Her topic was about comedy in the bible and she spoke for about 20 minutes. After her talk, the band played one more song and, essentially, Warehouse was over. Once the band finished, we approached Melissa, the leader of the Warehouse event, and asked her for an interview later in the week.
We met Melissa after work and walked around for a short time before starting the interview. We made small talk and got food on the way to a quiet location. We noticed what a generous person she was as we walked along the sidewalk. She stopped several times giving spare dollars that she had just earned in tips to homeless men and women that lined the streets. When the place that she got food messed up her order, we even back tracked to give the food to a couple of the people that she had previously given money to. It was these small acts that gave us insight into what Melissa was for, before even sitting down to really speak with her.
Melissa’s story was much more complex than we thought. Her family’s religious practices were never anything strict; her mother gave her the choice to believe in what she wanted. She described God as being “the uncle of the family,” someone you say you love because it would be rude otherwise, but you don’t really know him that well. She explained that she had a rough childhood, and hated her father growing up because of her parents’ broken relationship. Melissa admitted to not being a very good child and having various struggles. She was emotionally bullied throughout her childhood and realized now that she was kind of a rebel, stating, “I’d rather be hated for who I am than loved for who I am not.” When she was 14 years old, she went to a church service on Halloween and everything changed for her. Her conversion was, as she explained, pretty normal. Melissa described the event stating that she did not remember much, but at that time for her, it was a “no brainer, why wouldn’t I want to know and why wouldn’t I want to follow a God that loves me so much?” In that moment, she had little going for her, so giving religion a chance made sense. She explained that it was not anything dramatic, but after that day she began leading a completely different life.
“It feels like I wasn’t alive before that moment,” Melissa tried to explain to us what it was like before she found her faith. She told us that if it was not for that moment of when she found God, or He found her, or they came together, that she would not have been able to accept or appreciate anything. She had two loving parents, but could not accept it until that moment. Even if she had the best friends in the world, she could not have seen that or appreciated it if it was not for the love that God gave her. “Everything that I was before that moment didn’t matter until that moment,” she continued with her explanation, “I feel I’m alive now and I can live now.”
The conversation touched on what religion is to her, and much like Pam’s answer, it is about having a relationship with Jesus. She described in detail some aspects of religion, like how it is seen by the book and how she sees Christianity. “It’s about accepting who Jesus is and what he did for you; you can’t fix yourself and God doesn’t want you to fix yourself,” she began, “Jesus saw me and responded to me in my poorest state.” Her final statement on the matter was that, to her, religion is not just about doing, it is about accepting God’s love and living a life that reflects that.
Many of the words we heard during our field work were not only informative, but they were also powerful. We would not say that the time we spent with Pam, Melissa, or the other people we met at Warehouse changed our views or beliefs, but they did influence our life, if only for a moment. Pam and Melissa are two wonderful, bright, giving, and loving women living out their beliefs to the fullest.
