Kyle Koch

7/28/2017

Civic Engagement Activity

Provide information about your Civic Engagement Activity (the name, place, date, hours
of time, etc). Give an overview of the event that you attended, or the volunteer
organization that you supported, including your participation / support / duties /
responsibilities / etc.
I did my civic engagement activity at the Good Shepherd Lutheran Church on 7th East in
Sandy. I went on June 30th Sunday morning at 8:30. My participation was simply going and
sitting through the service and trying to understand what they believed and what their religion
was all about. I wasn't super excited to get up early for this experience but I did it to get this
assignment done and to experience something that I haven't before. I learned multiple things
and found out what it was really like to encounter another religion and be part of their religious
practices. I went alone and just sat near the back for the whole meeting. It lasted about an hour
and was pretty interesting. They had classes after but I didn't feel totally comfortable going to
these classes with complete strangers. So I decided to bring my civic engagement activity to a
close after this meeting. I felt that I had gotten a sufficient taste of the religion and that my
knowledge of this religion has been expounded upon very much.

How did the event or volunteer service connect with the topic you choose? (Make
reference to course materials).
This even connected with our fundamentals of religious belief topic. The Lutheran church
is monotheistic Monotheism is the belief that there is only one God (Monotheistic Religions,
2017, Peterson) The study of monotheism is common within our day and it was interesting to
gain another perspective. Monotheism comes from the fusion of two Greek words, 'mono'
meaning single and 'theism' meaning god.(Monotheistic Religions, 2017, Peterson). I thought it
was interesting that we did not specifically learn about the Lutheran church in our study of
religion unit. Although then it struck me that Lutheran church is very similar to the Catholic
church. This branch was created by Martin Luther. Martin Luther at the time did not agree with
things the Catholic church was doing so the Lutheran branch was created. They believe that
god is triune. Lutherans believe that humans are saved from their sins by God's grace alone,
through faith alone, and on the basis of scripture alone. Today Lutheranism is one of the largest
denominations of Protestantism. They have approximately 80 million members. Lutherans
believe that salvation was made possible solely by the work of Jesus Christ this is where the
phrase Christ alone came from. They also believe that god's mercy and forgiveness and not
the works of righteousness save us. I did not personally agree with this because where I come
from I was taught that our actions do matter and that we must atone for the things that we have
done wrong in the past. They believe that a personal action of deciding to follow Christ is
sufficient.
Did you feel that your participation made you a more responsible citizen in terms of
promoting your own freedom or the freedom of others? If so why, if not, why not?
Yes I do believe that this activity was me exercising my freedom and freedom of others
because I am using my right to freedom of religion. I chose to experience this religion and
worship with them which is my right and I actively exercised that right. Not always has freedom
of religion been a right. My participation in whatever religion I want is a huge privilege that I
value highly. Another right that I practiced was freedom to peaceably assemble. I met with these
people peaceably in worship. This was a good use of my rights that I used to the fullest of its
extent. I think that it's important that we don't have a specific religion of the United States or of
Utah for that matter. In a state that is predominantly Latter Day Saints, it would be unfair to
people of other religions to suggest or require them to worship as the majority did. Whereas in
the past sometimes it was mandatory for others to practice the official religion of the country or
state. This was inappropriate and wrong for them to do. People cannot be controlled to believe
what a state wants them to believe. This is wrong and just doesn't work. People should be free
to choose, believe what they want, and freely practice their beliefs.

Did you enjoy this experience and would you do it again? Why or why not?
Yes I enjoyed this experience it was really interesting to see another religion in practice
and understand what they believed and how their beliefs differed from my own. Although I
enjoyed this experience I think that I am going to stick with the religious practices that I have
been attending my entire life. I liked being open to their beliefs and understanding what they
believed and why they believed what they did. It was a really interesting experience for me that
changed perspectives and opened my eyes to different beliefs first hand.
Although I did not feel completely comfortable going to the classes this did not mean that
I was specifically uncomfortable during this experience. I just did not want to go to the classes
where I would not know much and might subtract from the experience. I did not want to infringe
on the rights of others to practice their religion how they wanted.