controlling society

I had a great class the other night.

Last week was Religions of the World week in my class and we were discussing Christianity (and its 34,000 divisions). One of my students raised their hand and said that he grew up as a Christian in Guatemala. He always thought to himself that religion was just a way for people to control a society, a way of outlining rules they thought appropriate to keep people in line.

I had to hold back my applause.

I love my students, and I especially love teaching them how to question things. I'm not trying to convert the religious, not at all. I just love to see their appreciation when they begin to understand other religions and traditions. Or when they begin to understand the lessons they were taught growing up were perhaps not the absolute truth. Maybe the needles of our moral compasses are not set to true north. They are set instead to what others assume should be true north. It might not be enough to change how we act, but gaining the knowledge is at least a start to something bigger.

The students may be more valuable to me than I am to them.