Verbal Snippets & Snapshots

As I’ve mentioned many times throughout the past four years on my blog, college is a time for exploration and learning both inside and outside the classroom. At a secular university like Johns Hopkins, some of the lessons I’ve learned outside the classroom have had to do with religion. Surprising? I’ll admit that on first thought, I myself think that the notion is a tad shocking–however, on second thought, upon realizing that Hopkins is supposed to be an institution where students and professors are open to learning new ideas and discussing the ideas they have, it’s not so surprising after all.

I attended Catholic schools all the way from Pre-K to Grade 12, and my family was–and still is–a traditional Filipino Catholic family. Not surprisingly, I was raised knowing a lot about the Catholic religion. What I knew about religions besides Catholicism mostly came from conversations with my non-Catholic classmates, reading National Geographic magazine articles (I’ve been an avid reader of the magazine for years), and the comparative religions course that I took in my sophomore year of high school.

Despite my upbringing, being actively involved with the religious life scene at Hopkins wasn’t one of the first things I did upon arriving here. Throughout my freshman year, I simply attended Catholic Masses that were celebrated at the Interfaith Center. Starting my sophomore year, however, I became more involved with the Hopkins Catholic Community–and not only did I increase my interaction with other Hopkins students of the Catholic faith, but also I became more aware of events being held by other religious groups, and I learned some more about what students of other faiths believed. The best part about all of this was that I was learning about how other people lived their faiths, and I wasn’t simply reading about it.

Here at Hopkins, the staff of the Interfaith Center regularly meet with representatives from different religious groups, and they strongly encourage student religious groups to interact with each other and share their faiths with each other. By becoming more involved in the Hopkins Catholic Community, I also became more aware of announcements from the Interfaith Center about various interfaith activities; furthermore, more friends and acquaintances of mine became aware of my involvement with the Hopkins Catholic Community, and so I started having even more conversations with other Hopkins students about what they believed (or didn’t believe) with regards to the presence (or absence) of a divine being. Because I’ve only gotten more involved with the Hopkins Catholic Community ever since my sophomore year, I’ve also become increasingly aware of events that other religious groups have been holding around campus. (By the way, on a side note, I’ve found myself doing the same with regards to multicultural groups and dance groups; the more I’ve gotten involved with the Filipino Students Association and the JHU Classical Ballet Company, the more interested I’ve become in what other multicultural groups and dance groups have been doing. I guess it’s only natural that when you find a deep interest in an area, you become interested in similar areas.)

Over the past few years at Hopkins, I’ve found myself attending a Shabbat held during Ramadan (so there were elements of the Jewish Shabbat as well as the Muslim evening prayers breaking the Ramadan fast); going to lectures on Christianity, Hinduism, and Islam; listening to Buddhist students share their philosophies; and conversing with friends and acquaintances about many different views on religion. Last week alone, I attended two events in which practitioners of other faiths talked about their religion: (1) a dinner at the Interfaith Center in which members of the Muslim Students Association gave a presentation the differences between Sunni and Shi’a Islam and then answered questions from the dinner attendees, and (2) a talk by Professor Uma Saini–who’s a Hindi and Sanskrit professor at Hopkins, an advisor to the Hindu Students Association, and an ordained minister of the Vedic faith–in which she discussed the main characteristics of the Vedic faith as well as the differences between Vedic philosophies and the Hindu religion that stemmed from ancient Vedic beliefs.

What moved me the most about the two events of last week was the joy in which the MSA members talked about their religion as well as that in which Professor Saini discussed her beliefs. Even more moving was the openness in which people attending the dinner at the Interfaith Center as well as Professor Saini’s talk in which Hopkins students had in listening to what had to be said about Islam and the Vedic faith, and it was nice to see that the questions they were posing were truly ones of inquiry. Depending on the circumstances, religion can be a volatile conversation topic, but it did not seem to be the case in these two events–nor has it been the case in most of the interfaith events that I’ve attended while I’ve been at Hopkins.

There will be many things that I’ll miss about Hopkins after I graduate in a little over two months. One of them will be the ease in which students can attend events geared towards students learning more about different religious faiths–and the scholarly open-mindedness that I’ve seen many Hopkins students display when learning about what religions other than theirs believe. By witnessing students of different religions being able to talk about their differing beliefs in smooth-flowing conversations, I’ve come to see how people can have strong convictions in their religious beliefs yet be able to discuss their similarities and differences with other people.

As history and even current events have shown, differences in religion can lead to conflicts. It doesn’t always have to be that way, however. Since the students of today are the leaders of tomorrow, I hope that what I’ve witnessed at Hopkins isn’t an anomaly, but what would become a trend someday.

Photo Captions: All of these images are taken from the JHU Campus Ministries website. (1) This nine-pointed star is a symbol of the Baha’i faith. (2) This image is of the Wheel of Dhamma, which illustrates the eight-fold path of Buddhism. (3) This image is of the Christian cross. (4) To both people who practice the Vedic faith as well as Hinduism, the word “Om” in Sanskrit is believed to be the best word describing God. (5) This image is of the “Palm of a Hand” that’s a symbol of Jainism. (6) This image is of a Jewish menorah. (7) This image displays the beginning words of the Qur’an in Arabic. (8) This image is of the phrase “Ik Onkar”; it means, “God is one,” and it’s a central tenet of Sikhism. (9) This symbol is used by Unitarian Universalists.