Are We Just Too Sensitive?

I've been quite amazed and honestly quite annoyed over the whole political correctness thing here in the U.S.

Of course, recently this has come up again over the issue of whether or not to say Merry Christmas. I'm not going to beat that dead horse, but it is one example of what has become a culture of walking on eggshells, because some person or group of people may be offended.

I'm not for intentionally offending people, but I do think that maybe, just maybe, people need to thicken their skins a little and not be offended over simple greetings and holidays that have been part of America since its inception.

I've heard people who balk over "Christian" terms lament about what it is like to be a minority (e.g. an atheist) in a country that is predominantly Christian. They have an "oh, but you're a Christian, so you wouldn't understand" theme going.

Little do they know that I do understand. I understand very strongly what it means to be a minority. My husband, two children and I have lived in India. In our city of three million, there were less than 20 white people (from different countries), counting our family of four. Anytime someone new was going to come visit me, I let them know that as long as they got within a couple of miles of our place, all they had to do was ask someone where the foreigners live, and pretty much anyone on the street would be able to give them directions to our home.

We were not only ethnic minorities; we were also religious minorities. As most anyone knows, India is a mostly Hindu nation (approximately 82%), followed by Muslims (approximate 12%) with the remaining 6% of the people in the nation made up of a mixture of religions, including Jains, Buddhists, Sikhs, and Christians. In the state where we resided, only .005% of the population was Christian. To say we were a little different would be an understatement.

Religion is not hidden or apologized for in India like it is in the U.S. Trips to the grocery store, Internet café, bank, clothing store, vegetable market, and just about anywhere else I went included "encounters" with the ever present Hindu deities and the burning of incense. As a Christian, I personally see no beauty in the Hindu gods and goddesses, and I'm not particularly fond of having my senses bombarded by the perpetually burning incense 365 days a year.

But guess what? I dealt with it! Although I didn't really like it, I didn't feel that I was being personally attacked or insulted. I actually rather appreciated the fact that people openly practiced their religion, even though I didn't agree with it.

The Muslim call to prayer rang out five times a day, starting very early in the morning. Up and down the streets, I saw women in burkhas, and as I walked past Muslim mosques, or even in the middle of busy marketplaces, people bowed in prayer at the appointed time. Was I offended by this? No, why should I be? I'll admit that the first call to prayer is awfully early in the morning, and I didn't always appreciate having my sleep disturbed by it, but I never felt insulted by people openly calling out (over loudspeakers no less!) for people to pray, even though it was a call to prayer to a god I didn't believe in. Instead of being offended, I used the sound of the Muslim call to prayer to remind me to pray, so I always prayed at least five times every day, just like the Muslims did.

There are numerous Hindu festivals, so if as a Christian I was as easily offended by a different religion being thrown in my face as many people in the U.S. are, I'd be one unhappy person in India. Usually at least one day a week, I'd hear a loud commotion going on in the street outside our home, and when I'd look out the window, I'd almost always see a parade of sorts, where the particular Hindu god being celebrated was carried through the streets, accompanied by chanting and singing. Some of the festivals lasted 10 days, so for 10 days, everywhere I went, that particular god would be loudly honored. A few days or a week later, another god would be honored. I got used to it.

Neighbors invited our family to celebrate the various religious holidays. They might come to the door and say, "Come play Holi with us." We'd go outside and join in with the rest of the neighborhood in throwing colored powder and colored water at each other as we yelled, "Happy Holi!" There wasn't a single person there who had any strange delusions about our family being Hindu, but they all expected us to play Holi with them. In fact, it would be downright rude for them not to include us in their religious celebration and it would have been downright rude for us not to join in the fun when invited. So we ran around and threw colored powder on our neighbors while yelling at the top of our lungs, "Happy Holi!" It was great fun!

Going into a friends' home, I would need to remove my shoes if I needed to enter their "puja room" (shrine) for any reason. I have no respect for the Hindu gods, but I do respect my friends who happen to be Hindu. So I adapt, and do things the Hindu way, without compromising my Christian beliefs. Again, even though I was not Hindu and they obviously knew I was not Hindu, I was not offended by the open expression of their worship in my presence. In fact, I felt honored that they liked me enough to include me in their private place of worship.

America was founded on, among other things, the principle of religious freedom, but I think we've forgotten what the truly open practice of religion looks like. Perhaps we could learn a few lessons about religious freedom and free speech from our friends in India.

Happy Diwali anyone?