The Piedmont Highlander

The Student News Site of Piedmont High School

The Piedmont Highlander

The Piedmont Highlander

livin’ on a prayer

Freshman students in the World Cultures and Geography class scatter throughout Room 15, hunting for signatures to fill the neat boxes lined up on their paper. Typed in one of the boxes is the characteristic, “Believes in God,” with a blank line underneath waiting for a signature.

During this mingling activity, students who believe in God readily admit that they believe, yet when it comes time for class discussions these students have a hard time expressing exactly what they believe, said World Cultures and Geography teacher Janine Sohn.

“I think a lot of times students just tend to like to be under the radar as far as their faith,” Sohn said.

Although 60 percent of PHS and MHS students surveyed a week and a half before publication said that they are not religious, 24 percent of them said that they are, while 16 percent said they do not know.

Junior Addie Christensen, a Mormon who attends morning seminary classes every weekday, said that she could not imagine her life without religion. Junior Joseph Chu, who is a member of Church of Latter Day Saints with Christensen, expressed similar feelings about his religion.

“It’s not just something that I do on Sunday,” Chu said.

His religion gives him a good sense of direction and is a source of strength, Chu said.

Similarly, junior Sam Wen, a member of the Presbyterian Church (a denomination of the Protestant Church), said that his religion provides a good moral structure and helps shape his opinions by emphasizing loving others.

“During [social psychology class] sometimes [Ms. Aldridge-Peacock] would ask why we chose something or responded in that way,” Wen said. “For me, often it was because of my religious background.”

Each student’s faith adds another layer of processing that they have to go through when learning about new ideas or different religions, Sohn said.

“There’s a new reality that has been taught to them,” Sohn said. “They probably ask themselves the question, well how does this fit with what my beliefs are?”

Director and Principal Investigator of the General of the Social Survey at NORC at the University of Chicago, Tom W. Smith, said that the percentage of people in America who claim to have no religion, has risen from 7 percent to 20 percent in the last 40 years.

“However, the category that’s been growing is people who say they are not religious, but they are spiritual,” Smith said.IMG_3882

Smith said this decline in organized practice of religion can be associated with what he and his colleagues call the “cohort turnover”: the transition between two generations.

“Organized religions have become less attractive to the newer generations than they were to the older generations,” Smith said. “That idea of a stable, organizational body that you follow is perhaps not the way that the younger generation tends to think.”

This is reflected by the secular tendencies of metropolitan areas such as the Bay Area, Smith said.

“[Religion] represents a very traditional established [part of American society],” Smith said. “Areas which are a little bit more modernistic tend to be less religious, at least in traditional senses.”

Rabbi Bloom, Micah’s father and the rabbi at Temple Beth Abraham, said that in the Bay Area, the center of the religious spectrum getting weaker, while the devout religious and completely nonreligious are increasing.

“I still love the Bay Area, but it is a little bit of a caricature of itself these days as it was less extreme when I was growing up here,” Rabbi said.

This decline may also be related to the media’s influence, said Redfern. The media draws people’s attention from the spiritual value to the material value, Redfern said.

“Modern culture in America judges everything by its material value,” Redfern said. “The people serve the economy, not vice versa.”

He said because everything in American society has to be justified by its material worth, religion is often regarded as frivolous.

Smith said that he thinks the trends observed will continue for the next two to four years because they have been continuous for the past twenty years.

Wen said that learning about different religions and teachings can be uncomfortable at times.

“Especially if it’s something like evolution, where science is based upon it, or if it’s a huge part of a culture or land that I am interested in,” Wen said.

He said that he believes in the creation story and not in macroevolution, the theory that distinct species can evolve from one, but he does accept microevolution, the adaptations a single organism makes over time.

“To me, if there is microevolution that is because of the way humans have warped the Earth and God is letting it happen so it’s a part of His plan,” Wen said.

He said that he often feels conflicted in class when learning about Middle Eastern and Asian cultures because the different religions in those regions interest him, but also challenge his own religious beliefs. This is ironic because he is Asian, Wen said.

“There is a conflict between learning about my culture and preserving my religious beliefs,” Wen said.

Besides adding another level of complexity to learning, religion can also provide extra background information that students can apply to classes. Christensen said that she enjoys being able to pick up on biblical references in books that she reads in English class.

Similarly, sophomore Micah Bloom, who is Jewish, said that he often compares literature to the Torah because his religion is constantly on his mind.

Wen said that at first, religion was just part of the life he had been born into, but in middle school, when he became conscious of making decisions for himself and not others, he chose to embrace his religion.

“I chose Christ and he hasn’t led me wrong since,” Wen said.

Sharing a similar experience, DeBare said that throughout his childhood Judaism had been something he was taught to believe in.

“Recently, however, I’ve been able to explore what I really believe God does and what I really believe Judaism means,” DeBare said.

Christensen said that her belief was strengthened by summer camps spent at Brigham Young University (BYU) in Provo, Utah. Operated by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, more commonly known as the Mormon Church, BYU is the third largest religious university in the U.S. The nightly devotionals, meetings with other Mormons her age, helped connect religion to her life, Christensen said.

“[BYU] is a really cool place, you can feel the spirit so strong,” Christensen said.

This powerful sense of spirit and emphasis on family in her religion brings her family members closer to each other, Christensen said: they do a lot more activities as a family compared to her friends’ families.

Sophomore Maya Guzdar, who is Zoroastrian (a monotheistic religion popular in India and Iran), said that although her family has difficulty practicing the religion because there are no temples in the area, the stories and teachings of her religion keep her family united.

“In fifth grade I did a huge research paper on Zoroastrianism and I called my grandparents and talked to them and got information from them,” Guzdar said. “[My religion] forms a connection with them that I wouldn’t have otherwise.”

Also discussing the importance of religious community, Bloom said that a majority of his friendships were formed because of a common religion.

“It is a gateway to a larger community, so basically a good 80 percent of my friends are Jewish,” Bloom said.

Christensen said her religion does not affect her friendships, but does influence the choices she makes when she is with her friends. Because of her religion, she tries to avoid swearing, watching R rated movies, and drinking, Christensen said.

“It’s really cool when studies show the scientific effects of alcohol, and then you can say, ‘Oh, there is a reason,’” Christensen said. “I’m very logical, so having that is important.”

Most people respect her choices, but sometimes she does not get invited to parties because of her reluctance to drink, Christensen said.

“People think it’s like you can’t, you can’t, you can’t, but it’s really just guidelines to make us happy,” Christensen said.

People definitely have misconceptions about the Mormon faith, Christensen said. They associate Mormons with polygamy and other practices that are no longer a part of the religion, Christensen said.

“People have asked me if I have horns and if I wear magic underwear,” Christensen said.

Chu said that he finds it irritating that people define Mormons by these stereotypes. It makes him reluctant to admit his religion, Chu said.

Overall, though, both Chu and Christensen said that people at PHS have been fairly accepting.

“Everyone’s very supportive and there are definitely activities that are supportive of the religion, such as the Jewish Student Union,” Bloom said.

The PHS student body is not very religious, so she feels that her connection with God is unique, Christensen said.

Similarly, Guzdar said that her uncommon religion is what truly makes her stand out as an individual in Piedmont’s homogeneous society.

An rare instance in which religion became the focus of discussion occurred last December, when the a cappella group the Piedmont Troubadours sang Christmas carols in classrooms during the holiday season.

Math teacher Bill Marthinsen said that he disapproved of the idea of bringing one religion or another into the classroom because he felt that others were not represented.

“[It] is the same as one political party or another being brought into a classroom and one side presented without the other,” Marthinsen said.

He said that he thinks tolerance is the most important quality of a school climate because it is a place where all students should feel safe.

“Sometimes tolerance gets the short end of it from a religious point of view,” Marthinsen said.

Reverend Charles Redfern, an Evangelical writer and pastor living in Connecticut, said that in order to have tolerance people must get out of their cocoons (their subculture) and learn the art of respectful disagreement.

“I would appeal to people to not dismiss religion as anti-intellectual, and to stop believing in stereotypes; that’s too easy,” Redfern said. “I would say to the open-minded, ‘Open your minds.’”

Donate to The Piedmont Highlander

Your donation will support the student journalists of Piedmont High School. Your contribution will allow us to purchase equipment and cover our annual website hosting costs.

More to Discover
Donate to The Piedmont Highlander