Ethiopia

When discussing Ethiopia in class on Monday, I was moved by the pictures of the women at the church. I thought that it was most telling that these women had tattooed crosses on their foreheads. Obviously these women thought that it was absolutely necessary that everyone knew their religious belief. In our culture, individuals go to great lengths to not be associated with their religious beliefs. In the United States, we are taught to keep our social life separated from our religious life. I realized that this is a major difference between our culture and Ethiopia's. These women wanted everyone to know that they were Christian and where obviously very proud of it. I admire their extreme devotion to Christianity to have it displayed on their faces in a most obvious way. In our culture, religion is a completely separate part of life than any thing else but in Ethiopia religion becomes part of everything these women do. I thought this was a very telling picture that showed the difference of America's religious culture compared to Ethiopia's.