The four stories about what is happening to religion today wraps up our semesters worth of discussion so far. Here we can discuss, support, or critique these theories and try to figure out where American religion is heading.

I like how some of these stories were straight to the point and gave good examples. For example, societalization. Bryan Wilson described it, almost everywhere in the modern world, small-scale communities have lost power to large-scale organizations: huge corporations, mass media and marketing, political bureaucracies, and the like. This explains one story on how religion is being affected in todays modern society. Local churches not only have to compete with other religious organizations, but with television, sports, national politics, and other forms of entertainment. I haven’t thought about this perspective although it is quite prevalent and makes sense. Although people are still connected to religion it doesn’t seem to be the center for communities. This is quite interesting because it ties into the next story explaining the change of religion in modern society. The idea of pluralism in the modern time may undermine ones personal belief when that individual is presented with multiple other perspectives and beliefs. These multiple narratives may seem plausible and the credibility of all may be undermined.

These two stories explained were very realistic and was applicable to todays era of religion. I believe in these stories being true although I never thought about them before. It opens my eyes to the macro lens sociologist put on in order to view religion and society as a whole.