Religion and Politics

For the first eight years of my life, my family went to church every Sunday. My brother, sister, and I would go to Sunday school from 10am-11am. When Sunday school ended, our dad would bring us to church for the last hour where my siblings and I would sit and fool around because we couldn’t translate the Armenian prayers and hymns fast enough to understand them.  We would take Mas and receive and give the Kiss of Peace all in Armenian, but have no idea what we were saying or confessing. At that point in our lives, we didn’t care much about understanding what we were saying as much as we cared about pleasing our Der Hayr. 
Those years contrast what my views on church is now. I wish I had paid more attention in Sunday school and had asked my dad what the prayers I was saying meant, rather than just repeating them. I love learning new things about my religion and understanding the traditions our church has; even though I am a lot older, I still learn new things about my religion every day. 
During my early teenage years, I struggled daily with depression and an eating disorder. At the time, I thought it was incredibly unfair that all that was happening to me and I lost my faith because why would any God put me through something like that? However, I see now that it was all for a reason and I look to a higher power for that. I am now so much stronger than I was when I was 13 and I believe all that happened for a reason. During the beginning stages of recovery, they ask you to look beyond yourself and find something else to keep you going. My "something" was God.
I see religion and politics in completely different categories. My morals make up my political views, but my morals are not based on my religion. My morals are based on how I was raised- treating everyone equally and fairly, no matter what. Whether it be animals, kids, or the elderly, no matter sexuality, race, ability, or disability, everyone should be treated with respect. My political views reflect how I believe people should be treated.
My parents never discussed politics much, they wanted us to form our own opinions, which we did. My political beliefs are different than my brothers which are different from my dad’s etcetera. Now that I am older and getting ready to vote, I am able to have those adult conversations about politics with my parents and see how similar we are in some aspects and how different we are in others.
I would like to say my religion and political views don’t “shape my identity,” however they have shaped my morality and how I believe others should be treated, which is a big part of my personality. I think a big part of my identity is knowing that others should be treated with respect and my political views and religion reflect that.