Ethik Arbeit

I have to take Ethics twice a week. It's supposed to be all religion-neutral, but in my opinion it's not. Our classroom is big with blank walls and a stylish chalkboard like all the other classrooms in our school. The window looks out on the Synagogue Pforzheim. Every morning the teacher wishes us a lovely good morning, and we say good morning back. Then he scolds us on how lame our "good morning" was and we all shout, "GUTEN MORGEN!" This quality in a person always irritates me a little, but I am still pretty fond of the ethics teacher. He brings out a big, industrial-looking bucket full of Bibles, and we need to read certain passages and discuss something. He writes on the board in illegible handwriting and I copy Aline's notes. Then I go home and attempt to translate them into English and learn charming phrases like "Opfer Christi für die Sünder der Welt" (Christ's sacrifice for the sin of the world.)

Today we had a big test in Ethik -- let's just say my knowledge of Christian Ethics makes me look like a jazz historian. He didn't even give me a test to write, and when I meekly said, "Er, entschuldigen Sie?" he didn't hear me. Sonya and Verena had to kind of shout in unison and then he handed me one. In the first section we had to write who Constantine was. I wrote an extremely charming, historically correct "Constantine was a king of Rome. He became king and then the Jews must to go out of the great city." I don't even know if that's true, I might be mixing him up with other antisemitic Roman kings.

Next I skipped some things, and anncounced that the Lamb symbolizes "Innocense and purity," the fish "the start and Jesus Christ." I next had to describe the differences between Catholicism and Evangelicism. I wrote, "In Catholicism the church is more necessary. In Evenagelicism it is also necessary, but not so very. In Catholicism it is a political power" (but I used the word like "magic power") "and it makes one's belief. Mary Mother of Christ is not so necessary in Evangelicism. She is the mother of Jesus and a good woman, but in Catholicism she is totally necessary. In Evangelicism there is no pope, and no defined ceremony to become a priest. In Catholicism there's a really defined ceremony with necessary words, and it's all especially necessary and defined."

Next came a poem we had to interpret. I wrote, "I'm sorry. It will take me maybe two hours to read that poem, so I can't do this!"

And, the "give your opinion": How do people use Christian ethics in their day-to-day lives? What do you think about these rules? I wrote: "I believe that for many people a God is good in that to believe. It gives them order and peace in the world. They know someone watches them and they can know they are a good person. Then they are good. They like to know what is good and don't have to deicde alone. So Christian ethics can be good for them. For people middle in America it is sometimes like this. Sometimes it is harder if you don't believe in a God because you need to decide without a God who says." (I had to throw that in there, maybe next time he quizzes us on our religious beliefs he'll offer "atheist" as an option!) "I find the Christian ethics sometimes too strong. We need to understand that they are from another time and understand them for today. Sometimes people don't understand this and think they are too defined."

So, maybe the ethics teacher (his name is Herr Häfner, which I think is funny even though it's a completely everyday name) will get a good laugh. Or maybe he'll think, "This girl's an idiot." We'll see.