Intercultural Negotiations - Lancaster, UK

One of the more interesting aspects of my time here in the United Kingdom has been the instance of religious stereotyping. While in the US, many people are vocal and open about their religion, and one of the most important aspects of identity is one's religion, and the public display thereof, in the UK, it is kept more secret, and the public display of religion is looked down on. Not to say no one is religious, but wearing religious jewelry, speaking about religious topics openly, and demonstrating publicly is done less, if at all. It's jarring to me, to enter into a culture that puts religion on such a back burner. When Tony Blair ran for government, and he was elected as prime minister, he did his best to hide from the public sphere that he is Catholic, whereas in the US, invoking the name of God is a prominent part of our political culture. In the article Intercultural Communications, the author speaks about cultural identity. "Cultural identity influences behavior including choices of symbols, heroes and heroines, rituals, and even the values one chooses." The culture of England to place religion on a lower level of importance means they identify different things as important symbols, different people as heroes and heroines, and different values in their daily lives. The politics change as well. Social issues tend to take a back seat to the economic values of English politics. This created a unique perspective for me, because the classes I'm taking look at the role of religion in American politics, and the way that English students and academics view America's emphasis on religion in our cultural lives. For me, this seemingly straightforward shift in ideology is confounded a bit when I look at the cathedrals in the towns and village throughout the country side. By now I've seen two cathedrals up close, and while beautiful and intricate, the two I've seen are very minor when compared to other important cathedrals and churches in the UK. The Lancaster and Sheffield cathedrals are beautiful (Sheffield Cathedral Pictured) but pale in comparison to other places of worship.  

This does make the academic distance on religion seem forced, but the message is clear: religion is to take a backseat in English cultural identity. Adjusting to that has been interesting, as I am peppered with questions in classes about my and my family’s religion (which is non-existent or also unimportant to the identity I put forth). When studying the rise of the New Christian Right, many students felt the need to ask me about my opinion on the role of the church in American politics. “Do you like big churches?” “What do you think of Creationism?” “Did you learn about evolution in school?” The biggest culture shock for me was the inability for people to understand that the NCR doesn’t speak for all people in the US, and that my opinions might vary from theirs.