It was a requirement. Why, White Mike wondered. White Mike was always bored in his ethics class, but he faked it and was sailing through with an A until the day’s topic was organized religion: discrimination, belief, freedom, all that. White Mike slumped back in his chair and listened as his peers tried to articulate their thoughts about how they liked the moral values of Christianity but still thought religion was the opium of the masses. The black girl in the class, on scholarship, started talking about how she went to church every Sunday and sang, and how there was a sense of community. White Mike was in a bad mood. He raised his hand, and everyone looked at him, because whenever he talked, it was something different. “The problem is that religion is just a cop-out. So is community. It’s just out of loneliness, you know, something to hold on to when you can’t do it yourself. It’s for weak people. Strength in adhering to values? No, it’s not.” The black girl looked close to tears.
