Blog post #1 "Freedom of Religion in Montenegro"

If someone told me that I would be studying religion, in English, I would tell them that they were crazy, and yet here I am now, writing  my first blog about my experience in Religion class. I was raised in Montenegro, a country strongly influenced by the Serbian Orthodox Church and Tito’s communism. Freedom of religion was very limited, and should you ever get the idea of suggesting anything new to a priest or a monk about changing things, you’d better hope that you are Jesus himself, since that would be the only way to save yourself from public judgments and shame.

“Equal rights, hmm, what is that?” Almost every intellectual Montenegrin would joke about it. Growing up in Eastern Europe was difficult; Montenegro was a country influenced by war, scarce food, conspiracy, and corruption, causing many people to look for better elsewhere, including myself. Though my family and I struggled for most of our lives, it didn’t stop us from hoping for a better life. And that’s why I ended up here, where I met my wife, who changed my life completely.

Claire and I met in Portland, Oregon, where she was attending Reed College: one of the most liberal and intellectual colleges in the US. She studied Religion and Anthropology for four years. Her knowledge gained through those years of intense studying informed her approach to life, even including how she approached me, though I didn’t realize it at the time. Though I had never liked school, I started wanting to take many different classes, because I wanted to explore more about life, and about other people’s cultures and their approach to life. One absolute Truth didn’t seem right anymore.

This led me to the Santa Rosa Junior College, where I decided to take an introduction to Religion with Sarah Whylly, the most enthusiastic professor I have ever had.

I love everything about the class: its topics, my classmates, and the process of thinking and working in groups. For me personally, it is still miraculous that we can all sit in the same classroom, with different backgrounds and races, and not grab each other by our throats. This would not be taken for granted where I grew up. Freedom of interpretation is the most important thing I have discovered about my faith, without the fear of being shamed, or even beaten up by hotheaded bigots.