Misconceptions About Moral Millennials
- Dec 5, 2016
- 2 min read
For Christians, it’s ‘Homophobic.’
For Mormons, it’s ‘Polygamous.’
For Jews, it’s ‘Cheap.’
For Muslims, it’s ‘Terrorist.’
These religious stereotypes can be found in all forms of media in Canada. It seems like there isn’t a single religion that comes without a label these days.
Melissa Ytsma, pastor for Richmond Hill’s The Meeting House, knows just how damaging these sorts of stereotypes can be to one’s religious reputation.
“It’s not often you hear ‘love’ or ‘grace’ when you ask somebody the first word that comes to mind when you think of Christian,” she explained. “It’s often ‘judgment’ or ‘hypocrite’, and those kinds of things.”
Negative connotations like the ones Ytsma mentions are often used to appeal to a sense of conflict that the media uses to keep eyes and ears tuned in. But these stories come at a higher cost than the revenue they generate.
Aima Wariach, a 19-year-old Muslim student at Ryerson University, has faced similar scrutiny because she wears a niqab. She is no stranger to the conservative-minded Canadians who have been quick to call her expression of faith a risk to national security.
“To me, its just part of my identity. To others, its been politicized as terrorist propaganda,” Wariach explained. “I was not forced to wear any of this. At any point I can take it off and walk the streets in booty shorts and a crop top, but I choose not to because I feel empowered in this state.”
Sabrina Harvey, a 19-year-old Mormon living in Toronto, has also felt the need to explain herself to other people because of her faith. As a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, she has met several people who only want to know one thing about her.
“A lot of people ask me about my sex life, which is really uncomfortable,” Harvey confided. “If somebody was Atheist, you wouldn’t ask them about it, so why does it make it ok just because I’m religious to ask that kind of stuff?”
Zora Trocme, a 21-year-old Jewish-Agnostic art student living in B.C., wrote in to Tandem to share a comparable stereotype.
“A lot of non-Jewish people get confused when I say that I am Jewish and also I am agnostic. They ask, ‘How can you have religion without having faith in God?’” Trocme reflected. “I don’t agree with all aspects of Judaism, but that doesn’t make me any less Jewish. Religion at large is a community of people who share specific beliefs, but how each person interprets those beliefs is unique.”
Melissa Ytsma believes that it is important for young people of faith to embrace and acknowledge the stereotypes that exist about them, and letting that be a conversation starter.
“I think the younger generation today is quicker to say, ‘Yeah, that may be what you believe from this group of people, but that’s not who I am,’” Ytsma explained. “And then it’s an opportunity for us to then live out something that’s different, to stand in the area of hypocrisy.”
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