Many people seek out religious freedom when they are looking for a country to live in. The United States was founded partially for religious freedom, so what happens when a culture has there religion ridiculed and taunted by countries in different parts of the world? In Haiti, one of the popular religions is Vodou. It is a mix between West African religious beliefs and Roman Catholic Christianity. Throughout the world, however, people associate Vodou or Voodoo to have a negative connotation and link it with black magic. When Africans were being subjugated and discriminated against, people would often say they were doing "black magic" by practicing this religion because it was so uncommon. Unfortunately that stigma of Voodoo being magic and not taken seriously as a religion still occurs today.To whoever is reading this response, post a reply as to how you would feel if your religion was viewed as dark magic and was not a "real" religion because it was different. For me, I would be very embarrassed at first and if I heard that stuff at a younger age I would probably start to believe it by the time I was older. If somebody started to say my religion was dark magic I would be offended and that would be the extent of my reaction. For Haitians, this is an everyday struggle for some people practicing Vodou.
Zach: My only experience with religious discrimination occurred when I was a freshman in college at Baylor University, a school run by the Southern Baptist Convention. When I told a group of students that I was Roman Catholic, they basically responded that I was going to hell because I wasn't a true Christian. My first reaction was one of anger and I wanted to go home immediately. While I eventually found lots of more tolerant Baptists at Baylor, I never forgot the shock of that first encounter. I can only imagine how it must have felt to experience the level of discrimination the followers of Vodou have experienced over the centuries.
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