Last week in class we presented on our sectarian congregation visits, and attended a talk in Orton about mental health and religious activism. On Monday, everyone presented on their sectarian visits, and talked about their experience while attending the service. I expected my sectarian visit to be similar to my denominational visit, but they were very different. The sectarian church I went to was called Redlands Church of Christ, and they are an evangelical Protestant group. Their beliefs are very conservative and traditional, which was very interesting to me as I have never attended an evangelical service prior to this. This group takes the Bible literally and believes that it is inerrant. I could feel some tension within this group, as they believe that the rest of the world will be damned when Christ comes again. I got a sense of an “us vs. them” mindset, and I really felt like an outsider, although they did their best to welcome me. I think the other people who attended an evangelical service also felt the “us vs. them” mindset during the service.

On Wednesday, we attended a talk in Orton that subsituted for our class. We saw two speakers, one of which was our professor. The first speaker talked about mental health and how important it is to remove the stigma surrounding it. I really enjoyed her presentation because mental health does not get the attention it deserves, and when it does it is in a negative light. Many people suffer from mental health issues, and removing the stigma that surrounds mental health would be an important step for our society. Jim was the next person to talk, and he talked about religious activism, especially among Catholic groups. This was very interesting because I was raised Catholic myself, and a lot of time people have misconceptions that all Catholics are traditional in their beliefs and very conservative, which is not the case. It was nice to see someone highlight a group of devout Catholics who were fighting for human rights, even if it went against what the Catholic church believes in.

Last week in class we focused on secularization in religion. We broke up into groups and each read a different article focusing on this topic. The article I read was “Secularization and its Discontents” by Warner. This article was very informative, although a little long and hard to follow. The main points of this article were sectioned off into five parts: empirical data of church decline, the intellectual context of church decline, social forces of secularization: individualism and rationalization, further socio-cultural dynamics of secularization, and secularization theory and the marginality of religion. This article talked about many reasons for secularization in Europe, but the point that stood out to me the most was about the Age of Enlightenment and how that affected the legitimacy of some people’s religious beliefs in the nineteenth century. I found that point to be the easiest to understand and the one that made the most sense to me. Religion has always been a way to explain the unexplainable, and the rise of reason and science took the place of religion in some sense. All of the articles that we discussed in class touched on different points about secularizaiton, but they were all very informative and shed light on a multitude of different theories. This topic is something I would like to continue to discuss in class, as it seems to have many layers.

Last week in class we discussed religion and social change, while also preparing for our midterm. On Monday we watched a film documenting the role of religion in African Americans’ lives and its significant influence. I really enjoyed the film as I have never considered the role of religion in African Americans’ lives, and it was interesting to see how many funcitons religion really can serve. In the film, it was apparent that religion was more than just a way to become closer to God. Religion and the church provided a sense of community and a safe space for those involved in the church. The film portrayed the church to be a place of acceptance and a place everyone can come together as equal. Especially in a society in which African Americans have faced prejudice and unfair treatment, having a safe space like a church to turn to feel like you’re a part of a larger community really is essential. It was clear to see that religion to those documented in the film was so much more than just going to church every week.

Last week’s discussions were a little different as we started our presentations on our specific books. Having presented on Wednesday on my book Passionate Journeys, I thought it was really interesting to think about religion from the point of view of God Needs No Passport. Passionate Journeys focused on the Rajneesh cult and how thousands of men and woman found fullfillment within the teachings and values of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, while God Needs No Passport had a broader focus on religion. It was very interesting to think about the different types of religious acceptance, like religious tolerance, pluralism, and exclusivism, and especially how they relate to today’s current events. Especially in the US, it is very important to accept new religions regardless of whether or not you agree/ believe in them, as our country’s founders were also escaping religious persecution. The question of whether or not a pluralistic society can successfully exist was raised during the presentation, and while a pluralistic society may be unreasonable in today’s political climate, I believe it is possible to acheive a tolerant society.