I suck. I'm sorry. It's been a long time. I'm back at school and it's crazy and I'm a senior so it's super busy so I'm sorry.
I'm gonna jump to the point. Recently, students at Duke University have been refusing to read their assigned text, Alison Bechdel's Fun Home. I'm personally a fan of it since it won Best Musical at this summer's Tony's- but what's the fuss all about? The story surrounds a young girl and all the sturggles she faces growing up. Probably her biggest struggle is coming to terms with being a lesbian, but the story also deals with abuse, dysfunctional families, lack of emotion, and a lot of real issues. Students at religious universities are claiming that it 'compromises their religious beliefs' to read the book.
I went to Catholic school, and I go to church, but that doesn't mean I can't read a book without it hurting my religion. That's like saying if I'm on a diet and I look at a picture of cake, that I've ruined my diet. I'm not a conservative Christian. I don't believe that homosexuality is a sin, or sex before marriage is a sin, but I'm still religious. I certainly don't believe that religion should be in government or in schools. Duke is a Christian school, and is still assigning the book, so it's obviously okay with their administration, so I ask you- why are the students making such a fuss of it?
I wrote about this because I recently got assigned the book in class and I am really excited to read it, after which I will be able to say if I really think a fuss should be made over it (although I can already tell you the answer is no).
I want to suggest watching a recent video by Buzzfeed titled I'm a Christian, but I'm Not. The video features Christians explaining that they can be religious and be faithful, but still believe in equal rights and other things that Christians today seem to be against. I'd ask you if you think it's possible, but I know it is, because I'm in the position.
