Bowlin 1

April Bowlin

R. Schaner

AP Lang & Comp -1st

18 Nov. 2019

The Whole Truth and Nothing But The Truth?

In a world enveloped by a dark cloud - terrorism, corrupt politicians in power, poverty -

people yearn for a moment of light. At a time where the world is so isolating yet the people yearn

for a place of comfort, how is anyone to feel like they belong? Among a group, people will

always attempt to find their commonalities with one another; searching for this belonging.

Therefore, when tasked with the challenge of defining culture, I originally believed it to be

simply a uniting cause for groups of people - small to large. It is the commonalities and

consistency a group shares with one another to feel a sense of togetherness. This idea is

exemplified by religion. Religion has played a part in unifying empires, countries, towns, and

simply people since the beginning of civilizations. These motifs have shaped the entire world

and society for ages, making it one of the most evident pieces of people’s cultures. Throughout

world history, religion has been a belief that people have been able to look towards when all else

is lost. This gives them something bigger than themselves to believe in; and in turn, it gives them

purpose. People want something bigger than themselves to believe in, and religion is just the

beginning of answering the hard questions. Yet, for me, not going to church has always been that

consistency in my life. Thus, when I chose to go, it felt like a cultural shock. Taking me out of

my comfort zone, my cultural experience shook me from my normalities, and it opened my eyes
 Bowlin 2

to the connections possible by shared beliefs and the way these ideas are prevalent and repeated

in society.

Throughout my childhood, like all children, my parents’ beliefs shaped my own. My

step-father Mike had very solidified ideas of religion, and there was no moving him. He had

grown up Catholic; however; as soon as he was allowed, he stopped going to church: traumatic

events in his life led him to questioning the existence of a god. The combination of his ideas and

a curious eight year-old led to philosophical conversations much over my head that implemented

many of these same questionings onto me. My mother, on the other hand, was driven away from

the church due to the hypocrisy. She found that people were often not held to the same standards:

somehow the church leaders could define a “good person;” yet when her youth-group leader

stole thousands of dollars from the church, she got off with a slap of the wrist. My mother

noticed that things like this happened frequently, making her question the true reflection of

“Christian” beliefs. With these biases already in the backburner of my own mind, I began to

notice patterns of my own and draw conclusions based on them. For example, I started to believe

that some people used their religious beliefs to justify the mistreatment of others, making me,

and others, feel badly about the way we choose to live our lives. Noticing the patterns was

inevitable, and it seemed impossible not to connect them. Thus, making not only these

connections was easy but making generalizations was too. It appeared to me that if one religious

person was this way then they must all be. And more so, I was caught up on the more complex

questions: if there is a God why would He let the monstrosities of war, like the Holocaust,

happen? Why do children die of starvation or cancer before they even get the chance to sin?

What makes that holy? What is the point in believing in something that is not even there, when
 Bowlin 3

there are so many tenable things directly in front of us? If religion is supposed to be this beautiful

thing, why are so many people making it into something ugly?

Due to these ideas, choosing to go to church was slightly discomforting. However, my

aunt had suggested my mother and I look into Harbor Unitarian Universalist Congregation

months prior, but it always seemed like we never had the time. Yet when looking for a cultural

experience, I was reminded once again of this place. As the Unitarian Universalist Association

(UUA) explains, the purpose of this religious sect is to create “open-minded, open-hearted

spiritual communities [that] help people lead lives of justice, love, learning, and hope”

(“Unitarian”). And more specifically, the congregation in Muskegon has its doors open to people

of all denominations, from Christian, to Pagan, to agnostic, and more. The choice of this church

was purposeful. My limited experience in religion and my mother’s negative experiences from

her teenage years combined to create a less than enthusiastic outlook of God and connecting to a

true church service. Truthfully, it was anxiety inducing. I had no idea what to expect, and my

lack of experience made me apprehensive and indecisive: prior to leaving, I changed my clothes

five times before deciding on a button-down and what my mom calls “nice jeans”.

Yet when we got there, my fears slowly faded. Despite arriving two to three minutes late,

we were kindly greeted by a nice, older man as we walked in. As we sat, I quickly scanned the

conglomeration of people and noticed there were not a lot of people there; however, the people

that were there appeared incredibly diverse. There were people of several different ethnic and

racial groups, sexual and gender orientations, as well as people of all ages. My surprise of this

took me by surprise: did I have, even subconsciously, pre constructed ideas of what a typical

churchgoer looked like? Although I was unaware, I must have - making me wonder, does this
 Bowlin 4

say more about me, personally, or society as a whole? Also taking me by surprise, the service

leader spoke to every person, except my mother and I, using their first names, connecting

personal details, and wishing several happy birthdays. It was evident that the community was

strong among this group of people. For some reason, I had an idea of church that was strict and

non-personal. Yet coming to this service, I felt as though I was intruding, in all honesty. Almost

as if this was known, she then encouraged everyone to take a few minutes and speak to the

people sitting near him or her. A woman sitting behind us reached forward to shake our hands.

We spoke for those few minutes; and without noticing, by the time we came back together for the

service, the feeling of intrusion had faded.

The service revolved around guest speaker and distinguished reverend Emmy Lou

Belcher's sermon on truth. Yet despite her obvious months of research, she was still unable to

define truth. She began by contrasting “facts” and “truth” and explaining that facts are

data-driven information, confirmed as the truth; so in order to know the full truth we must first

know the facts. And still, the definition of truth becomes even hazier as one takes into account

the various biases and perspectives of all people, such as confirmation bias. All of these

confounding factors contribute to draw the conclusion that there cannot be one specific truth for

all of mankind. She explained this further with an Indian fable. The gist of this fable delineates

the idea that when six blindmen are brought to an elephant, they will all claim it is something

different: the man feeling the tail will believe he’s grasping a string, the man touching the leg

will believe he’s feeling a tree trunk, and the man gripping the tusk will believe he’s holding a

spear, and so on. Taking away from the story, all of these men were experiencing parts of the

same thing; however; each was able to have their own reality that they strongly believed as true.
 Bowlin 5

If applying the ideas of this sermon, none of these men were wrong, and it took connecting all of

their realities to create the truth. Thus, demonstrating that it takes much more than one person to

discover the information every person is eager to know.

This harsh look at truth immediately reminded me of how in today’s political climate, it

seems to be a constant search for which variation is the real truth. Everywhere I look, there is a

new sort of “witch hunt”. This is defined by Merriam-Webster as, “the searching out and

deliberate harassment of those (such as political opponents) with unpopular views” (“Witch

Hunt”). And if one reflects on history, this has been prevalent forever: from the Salem Witch

Trials, to the Red Scare, to the current attack on various presidential nominees’ characters.

People are constantly and have always craved truth. Recently demonstrating this exact problem

is the 2016 presidential election. During the election, despite the FBI closing the investigation on

Hillary Clinton with no proof of illegal behavior, the Trump Administration continued to push

the idea of the illegal emails to the public. They continued to look for something, ruining her

reputation, and making the public seek the truth - despite the FBI already giving it to them

(Blake). On the opposing side, despite President Trump’s technical win, the democratic party has

yet to give up a search for a truth that fits what they are looking for. These parties are so

polarized that they refuse to come together and cooperate. It makes me wonder: both parties

searched adamantly for what they wanted to find, and still, neither has found what they wanted.

This likely is because neither party is fully correct in what it believes is the truth; they are both

only looking at parts of the elephant and refuse to come together to see the full picture. This

makes the search for truth never ending, but is it holding us as a society back? Obviously, people

use their political party to define who they are; in fact, a study done at Stanford showed that
 Bowlin 6

people’s political opinions provide more identity and unity than any other. Likely, this is because

people have the most choice in this identity than others, such as race. This creates people who

are firmly stuck in their own political ideas, and thus creates immense polarization among the

parties. In fact, through a behavioral study, they found, “Among U.S. participants, the

researchers found Americans’ animosity toward players from opposing political viewpoints was

stronger than favoritism shown toward politically like-minded players. In other words, they

disliked their enemies even more than they liked their friends. American players provided an 8

percent bonus to players with the same partisan affiliation. However, Republican participants

were penalized 10 percent by Democrats and Democratic participants were penalized 16 percent

by Republicans” (Stanford University). Within the U.S., people are so polarized by their political

views that they allow for distinct separations between themselves. Again, reiterating the obvious

lack of compromise in America’s political landscape and providing some reasoning. Similarly,

people closely tie their identity to their religion, and often close their minds to seeing the side of

the story that contradict their own. Making me wonder, if the purpose of faith is to give people

the answers they crave, why do most religious people not question the ancient holy texts they

conform to? How can one accept the words of one source as the know-all truth? Perhaps, this is

where faith must take over, and therefore, I will likely never know the answer. Yet still, I wonder,

does closing one’s mind to these different ideas and cultures, lessen his/her ability for

questioning and make him/her ignorant?

With this kept in mind, when those who are religious use their religion as a primary factor

defining who they are, they limit those important interactions that can expand their thinking. This

is exemplified by early civilizations. While they used religion to unify single empires, it often
 Bowlin 7

caused conflict between others. Their religions caused distinct separations in the world, lack of

shared ideas, and conquests. It happened in the early centuries with a conflict-driven world, and

it still is seen in America: "[A]mong those who do find a great deal of meaning in their religious

faith, more than half say it is the single most important source of meaning in their lives” (“Where

Americans”). These people who use their religious ideas to define them are restricting

themselves from new ideas and new truths. Furthering this idea, “these people” are not just

random pieces of data, “these people” are those similar to my grandmother, who is so stuck in

her ways she will eschew a loved family member for something she does not agree with: for

simply being gay. She is not alone in this either: in just the United States, 13 states and counting

have various “religious refusal” bills in the process (“Legislative Tacker”). The Supreme Court is

still hearing cases on this type of discrimination as well, such cases as: Ingersoll & Freed v.

Arlene’s Flowers. These people, so stuck in their ways, are having a lasting impact on others and

on our country; their self-imposed limitations are causing actual limitations on real people.

Yet despite all of this, I still believe religion is a beautiful and meaningful thing to so

many people on this planet. Obviously, these connections are prevalent consistently in society as

it has remained ubiquitous throughout history. It seems as if every person craves the knowledge

of his/her purpose on Earth; this is why religion remains relevant, and I believe it always will be.

People will spend their entire lives chasing after the questions to the seemingly unanswerable

questions. So, perhaps, this is our purpose. We must spend our lives on Earth searching for the

impossible answers; yet in reality, there is no one truth. For some, they may settle for the word of

God and stop asking any more questions; but others will continue scavenging, asking questions,

and learning new things until the day they die - likely still not knowing the answers. Therefore, I
 Bowlin 8

now believe that this is exactly what culture is. Culture, to me, is the things that people look to

for answers, and thus, the things that people find comfort and truth in. Culture is each person’s

variation of truth. Religion offers that constantly regardless of the sect. My experience brought

me out of my consistency and gave me an insider’s look into someone else’s; it made me

question the ideas which I believe and the things others do too. It provided me insight to

someone else’s culture that allowed me to question my own and our society as a whole. All of

these qualities is what made this a cultural experience. Throughout my church experience,

despite all previous ideas of religion, it was obvious to me that while none of the people at this

congregation explicitly shared all beliefs, they still found a distinct unity among one another. The

reverend even noted that they did not want a bunch of people who came together in mindless

agreement; instead, they wanted a diverse collection of people who all possess different ideas,

and could come together to create a bigger picture. They were not coming to sit among people

who agreed with every word that was spoken; but instead, they lived to come together, challenge

one another, and discover new ideas in each other’s presence - reflecting something I never

thought possible of religious people. This church defied all of my beliefs about religion: they

shared a culture that connected the importance of questioning, the respectedness of continued

learning, and the beauty of faith. They morphed into a questioning, safe, and open environment

that settled for nothing and continued to ask questions - and finding both unity and truth amongst

one another. The congregation begins every service by lighting a chalice that symbolizes their

inner light, and to end the service, they must extinguish this chalice. United they read the poem:

“Knowing how quickly the flame of truth may be extinguished,

Let us be vigilant in faith,
Keep peace in our hearts,
And make care for one another
The watchword of our lives together
 Bowlin 9

So our light goes out -

Everywhere -
Into the world”.
 Bowlin 10

Works Cited

Blake, Andrew. “Hillary Clinton Slams 'Witch Hunt' Launched under Trump of Old State

Department Emails.” The Washington Times, The Washington Times, 2 Oct. 2019,

www.washingtontimes.com/news/2019/oct/2/hillary-clinton-slams-witch-hunt-launched-

under-tr/. Accessed 8 Nov. 2019.

“Legislative Tracker: Anti-LGBTQ Religious Refusal Bills Filed in 2019 Legislative Session.”

Freedom for All Americans,

www.freedomforallamericans.org/2019-legislative-tracker/religious-refusal-bills/.

Accessed 17 Nov. 2019.

Stanford University. “Political Party Identities Stronger than Race or Religion.” Stanford News,

30 Aug. 2017,

news.stanford.edu/2017/08/31/political-party-identities-stronger-race-religion/. Accessed

12 Nov. 2019.

“Unitarian Universalist Association.” Unitarian Universalist Association, www.uua.org/.

Accessed 4 Nov. 2019.

“Where Americans Find Meaning in Life.” Pew Research Center's Religion & Public Life

Project, Pew Research Center, 20 Nov. 2018,

www.pewforum.org/2018/11/20/where-americans-find-meaning-in-life/. Accessed 4 Nov.

2019.

“Witch Hunt.” Merriam-Webster, Merriam-Webster www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/witch

hunt.
 Bowlin 11

Works Consulted

“Ingersoll & Freed v. Arlene's Flowers, Inc.” American Civil Liberties Union,

www.aclu.org/cases/ingersoll-freed-v-arlenes-flowers-inc. Accessed 17 Nov. 2019.

Strayer, Robert W., and Eric W. Nelson. Ways of the World with Sources for AP. 3rd ed.,

Macmillan Learning, 2016.