Report on Religious Field Research Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words - 2

Report on Religious Field Research - Essay Example Millions of people in America and the entire world practice Christianity (Dyet, 2006). Being the most popular religion in the world, there are various misconceptions about Christianity, some of which I personally held for so long. This research gave me a great opportunity to try and understand the Christian Religion and try to get answers to the queries I have had about Christianity for a very long time. Most Christians also hold other prejudices against other religious groups, which has led to religious discrimination and wars in areas dominated by one religion (Driscoll, 2009). In order to understand the Christian Religion, I attended a Christian prayer service at a Baptist Church, where I interacted with the Christian community in the church as they helped me understand the basic foundations of Christianity. I managed to have a small discussion with a few Christians in the form of an interview to help clear some of the prejudices I had towards their religion. After a lengthy discu ssion, I was able to understand the Christian religion and change some of the false impressions I had about this religious group. One of the biggest misconceptions I had concerning Christianity is how a Christian Worship Service is mainly centered on teachings about how bad other religions are. I had always believed that Christians are taught to despise other religions (Driscoll, 2009). This is a misconception I had held since my childhood days during my interactions with Christian who held very contempt views on other religions. I was made to believe, from their views, that they were taught such kind of ideas in their churches during worship services and Christian teachings. After attending the Service in a Christian Church, I was able to change this misconception. This was after carefully listening to the message and the sermon of the Preacher. His message was mainly centered on love for one another, understanding and mutual respect and coexistence (Driscoll, 2009). The Preacher e mphasized the point that God created people in his own image and therefore every human being should be loved as he or she represents the image of God Himself. He also stated that it is through loving one another that people express their love for God, and that is how they shall be able to get to heaven (Dyet, 2006). According to the Bible, God created all humanity, so it does not matter the religion one belongs to (Driscoll, 2009). The main point is that all human beings belong to God, and should be loved and respected. After listening to such messages, I had to change my view on Christianity and reduce my prejudices regarding how they treat other religions. I was surprised to find out that Christianity is such a welcoming religion, whose main message is based on love for God and for one another. The other misconception I had regarding the Christian religion before this encounter was that Christians hated other religions simply because they were not believers in Christ Jesus. This p rejudice kept me off from mingling freely with Christians because I could not trust the motives of some of them, just because I was not a follower and I felt they hated all non Christians and treated them like non believers who do not deserve to live. This misconception denied me so many opportunities of making Christian friends and mixing freely with other people and sharing ideas. In the course of this research on religion, I was able to come across some very challenging