Discourse Communitites

Part One:
family, friends, college students, Catholics, Women, bartenders, blondes, actresses, gym enthusiasts, couples, Bikram yoga students, communication majors, English 102 students, Chicagoan, volunteers, bi-coastal, gymnasts, Caucasians, adults, Facebook users, bloggers, sports fans, elvis fans, Mac users

Part Two:
I am a Catholic, along with both my parents and grandparents, I was born into the Catholic religion.  The first time experiencing the Catholic religion was my baptism; from then I was a member of the group/community.  From this point on, I was to believe what the Bible has taught us and was to attend church regularly as well as follow the Ten Commandments as sort of my "guidelines" to living a Catholic way of life.   In terms of our easy of communicating, all Catholics, or so we try, to be kind and generous to one another and believe that what we do can only be judged by God himself.  We are taught that there is a heaven and a hell and that we will meet our maker when we pass away and he will be the judge of where we sound eternity.
First and foremost, the person that is the most powerful in my community is God himself, followed by the men of the cloth as us Catholics refer to them.  Starting from the top is the Pope, cardinals, the benedicts and priests, deacons and then the nuns.  The Pope is the "leader" of the Catholic church as he is the successor of Saint Peter.  He is voted on by senior cardinals in Rome., by which this power is achieved by leading a life that is most considerable to that of Saint Peter or Jesus.  People achieve power in this group by way of any other group, influence and money.  Catholics have been accused of abusing their power and authority with the scandal of priests abusing young children, but that is another blog in itself.  In establishing the rules, they adhere to the Holy Bible, and the scripture.  We are to lead by the example that Jesus left for us.  Nobody really "enforces" the rules because Catholics also surround themselves with forgiveness.  The true enforcement is at your death when the choice of your eternity is made; heaven or hell.  It is not possible to have your membership revoked, because we are all not perfect and able to repent for the sins we have made; again I remind you here with forgiveness. To gain more authority in this group can be simply said of your love for God, and how much of your life you are willing to dedicate to that.

Part Three:
Of course we as a people acclimate ourselves to the groups we are in differently.  WE say and act differently because the groups and rules that apply are not universal across the board.  Being a catholic, I would not curse in church like I would say hanging out with my girlfriends or working at the bar.  I don't think any group I belong to would hate some aspect of another group that I belong to.  Being a Catholic, I have learned to accept all things no matter how different or that I wouldn't agree with.  I never feel like I disappoint one group to please another, after all, I am just being me.   Success is not universal so in defining it, no group shares the same definition.  Like I stated before, Catholics define success and their love for God or living a good life to reach Heaven.  My friends define success as having a good job, a marriage, and being "popular" among their friends.  In the bar business, they define success as making the most money and being popular among Facebook.  However, in discussing me as a Catholic, I do not agree with everything that they stand behind.  They are 100% against abortion and I am pro-choice and they do not believe in birth control, but as a woman of this generation, I believe in prepared.  Does this make me unsuccessful then as a Catholic?  Does my discourse community shift to a spiritual one then?
A community I do not belong to is one of the KKK.  They believe that their definition of success would be an all white non jewish nation.  A sort of cult that believes and speaks in only one way.  They believe that everyone but white people are evil and deserve to be dead.  They follow that of the Nazi regime years ago; believers of Adolf Hitler and his way of rule.  If I could change their way of thinking, it would be that diversity is good for this world and without it, we wouldn't be open to understanding and difference. The world and our society would be very boring and mundane if everyone looked the same and thought the same.  Where would brilliance come from? the great and different thinkers?   If members of this group were to tell me about their group would be that it is a good thing to be a part of a group and believe whole-heartedly in something; to be committed.  Maybe to remind me that I needed to respect their organization, even if they were different.