I found myself standing in a line outside a department store at 4:30 a.m. on Black Friday.

There’s been a lot of talk about millennials and their place in the ever-changing religious landscape in America. Millennials my age have been through a lot in since the turn of the century that has shaped our spiritual paths in ways rarely experienced by previous generations of Americans.

A recent Gallup poll showed that there seems to be movement in religious America, which has seen the sharp rise of the “spiritual but not religious.”  This group of people is categorized as believers without a formal religious affiliation. This statistic is one of many interconnected shifts in our time. 

In Herman Melville’s classic "Moby Dick," the character Queequeg explains that his extensive tattoos are a part of his Maori culture, saying, “We tattoo what is sacred in our culture on ourselves”. A third of the population has taken it upon themselves (no pun intended) to permanently display what is important to them and what they value in life on their bodies.

In the wake of such incredible heartache and tragedy, Sikhs have unquestionably handled the situation with dignity and resolve. In a time where anger and outrage spill across TV screens, editorial columns, airways and phone lines, it would have been no surprise to hear that the Sikh community was violently outraged about what happened.

Some weeks ago, I was asked to speak at the Eastern Washington University Baccalaureate ceremony. I said I would, on the condition that I would wear my robe. I figured I had to pay for it, and the honors cords as well, so I’m going to wear it as much as possible.