my report

I wrote a report for Bunka-Jinruigaku-class. I had to write about religion. I could write anything about religion, so I wrote what I think about religion. I never felt I’m a Buddhist until going to America. I have studied nothing about Buddhism. I don’t know anything. I go to temple or shrine. However if my parent doesn’t make me do that, I will not go there. I really didn’t like I am a Buddhist. When I went to America as an exchange student, I went to church every week. I was surprised about many things at first. I studied about Christ a lot at the church. Sometimes it was hard to understand, but my host sister explained in easy English. At the Church, we sang songs, too. I thought it was cool. I think it is cool that many people go to church every week. I was surprised that many shops are closed on Sunday because they have to go to church. At first, everything was cool to me. One day, my host sister asked me, “Who taught you about Buddha? How did you study?” I think I had never studied about Buddha, but Christian studies about God every week, and they pray for god every day. I want to know about Christianity, and my host sister wanted me to know about God, too, so I studied about God. My host sister taught me a lot of things, too. However as I studied, I couldn’t understand. Sometimes I couldn’t agree with them. For example, Jesus dies on the cross, but he comes back three days later. It could be true, but it was hard to believe for me. My host sister wanted me to be a Christian. I asked that why she wants me to be Christian. She said that she wants me to be Christian because she wanted me to be happy. I was not Christian, but I was happy. She also told me that I can’t go to heaven if I am not Christian. She said that I can go to heaven if I believe in God. I didn’t know that Christian think like that. I think Buddhists believe that people who did good things go to heaven, and people who did bad thing go to hell. I told that to her, but she said she can’t agree with the opinion. She said that every person does bad things. We can’t decide who is good, or who is bad. I agreed with that, but I still couldn’t agree with a thing that only Christian can go to heaven. Talking about religion was so difficult for us. It was hard to understand about Christian for me, but it was hard to understand about Buddhism for my host sister. However I kept going to church, and studied about God. I red the Bible, too. Later, I noticed that I don’t have to believe if I can’t. I noticed that I don’t have to do same thing as Christian. However I should understand the different thinking, too. It is hard, but I think that it is very important thing.