For this week’s readings, I found the “Narrative vs. Theory” article very interesting. There are a lot of different stories portrayed throughout this article that illustrate the religious landscape in America and throughout our world, and I appreciated the new perspective it offered to how Americans experience religion. One narrative that really stood out to me was the one of religious extremists. I had never before considered that religious zealots were educated and proud of what they did, that suicide bombers could be put on the same level as Orthodox Jews, because they both followed their religion to the extreme that they found necessary. The narrative relating to religious secularization also caught my interest, specifically the story about a family so devoted and full of “True Believers,” that a logical explanation for an empty house would be that Judgement Day had finally come. In this case there is virtually no distinction between religious life and daily life, they are one in the same. While this story may seem ridiculous and out of place to us now, we must also understand that for many people secularization is not an option when it comes to their religion, it rules all part of their lives, and religion comes first.

Today we wrapped up our congregation presentations and were asked the follow up question of: what did you learn about congregational life in Redlands?

Many of us discussed how Redlands is primarily Christian based off of the congregations we visited that were listed. We found out that this is because Redlands used to be a “Southern” town that used to be very conservative. But as time passes and the demographics of the area change, we can also see just how much the churches within this new space are changing as well. The churches here have become less conservative but remain just as white unless you visit a church in the outskirts of Redlands or in a different town surrounding Redlands. Furthermore, we heard across the room that members of the churches here in Redlands are well of age or are in the ages where they’re settling and have families. From the church I visited as well as other churches in the area I have gone to before, it seems as though there is very little youth in many of the congregations which is quite interesting and I think speaks upon the kind of population that lives here. We also discussed how many of the churches are a congregational structure which generated a conversation about how America’s free market economy enables one to make and establish a church which provides people with different spaces for them to fall into. Having diversity of churches means there is something for everyone which fosters a community within that space, thus creating a congregation.

Today I came across an interesting article discussing recent developments taking place at the United Methodist Church’s General Committee. Apparently a bill had been proposed to the committee that would allow for each church to individually decide whether or not they would accept LGBT identifying individuals as ministers and whether LGBT individuals would be able to marry within the church. While this motion did not pass the initial perusal by the committee, the issue will still be discussed in one of the next meetings of the Committee. Interestingly, an opposing movement to strictly enforce the anti-homosexual language in the greater Churches rulebook did pass through the committee to be voted on again in coming weeks. I was interested in the idea of the inclusive plan and what it would mean for the organization as a whole if each individual group had the power to make a decision on such a divisive issue independent of one another. Would that sort of autonomy create greater conflict in the organization as a whole? Should individual congregations be allowed to have that power to decide what should and should not be strictly adhered to from the rulebook? In addition I thought this related to a previous post I made discussing the trauma experienced by people who are attacked/shunned from their religious organization due to some factor of their gender or identity that did not mesh with the religious organizations ideals. Based upon the results of this delegation it would appear that the United Methodist Church is not taking steps to become more inclusive of diverse individuals, what will the long term impact of this decision be on LGBT members of the church? Personally I felt that this article gave an interesting insight into the continued struggle for diversification and tolerance within many religious organizations, and raised several interesting questions about acceptance of individuality by religious organizations going forward.

The article I read: https://religionnews.com/2019/02/25/united-methodist-committee-rejects-one-church-plan-which-would-allow-lgbt-clergy/

The growing informality in worship, as Chaves points out, is a trend that is interesting to observe. In Chaves’ chapter, he points out that much of the change happens in white protestant churches (Chaves,64). And what is most interesting is that 80 percent of black churches already incorporate much of the terms used in the survey (Chaves, 65). Chaves states that this is a growing trend even outside of religion as he points out that informality occurs in ordinary conversation when we use first names and even nicknames to address people (Chaves, 65). This is an interesting trend and I wonder if much of this has to do with conforming to society. I draw on my observations from Pathway Church. What used to be a Southern Baptist church (by name) is now Pathway. When I asked why a representative informed me that this change was made to not deter people that are looking for a congregation to be a part of. The sermon itself was very informal as the majority of the congregation wore casual attire and this included the pastor. This was a surprise to me especially since Southern Baptists are known to be strict and formal. After reading Chaves’ analysis on the informal trend, I believe that (in this case) Pathway deviated from the formal customs to an informal one to draw in the “trendsetter” population. My question to this is if there is any evidence that indicates growth in attendance with growth in informality and if this is also based on location?

I really enjoyed listening to everyone’s congregation visits this week. It was striking to me how different everyone’s experiences were. While I found some similarities in my visit with others, I felt like there were definitely more differences. I visited the Center for Spiritual Living and so I felt their beliefs were very different from most being presented in class. It made me wonder what brought the attendees at the Center for Spiritual Living to that space, since I assume most were not born into that belief system. It also made me wonder about the congregations other class members visited, and which ones had more people who were born into their religion. Did members at the CSL once attend different services in Redlands? I think each presentation group succeeded in giving a “feel” for the congregation they visited that made it easy for me to differentiate between them. For a long time I thought of churches as all being basically the same, and the different groups helped me to further understand many of the ways they are all different. Since we were all outsiders visiting the congregations, I was really interested to see how our class members were treated during their visits. Some were immediately welcomed and engaged in conversations, while others were not paid much attention to.

It was very interesting hearing about the experiences people had at their congregation visits.  It seems like we all had similarities in our visits, however, each congregation had something unique to offer. What really stood out to me was the effect music could have on worship. It seems like almost every church had some sort of musical aspect incorporated into the service. This showed me that music can be for more than just entertainment value: it can help people connect to their faiths.

Music can be the deciding factor for people to choose what congregation they attend. For example, in the Marti case study, people decided to stay in the congregation because the music was so unique and interactive. In addition, people also left the church because it “was not traditional enough”.  It is interesting to see the way worship music has evolved. Churches are now incorporating music genres like rock and pop into their services. Some people find the “concert atmosphere” to be too intense and they say that it can take away from the worship aspect of church. However, others really enjoy finding new ways to worship. They really enjoy breaking tradition and listening to music that is fun to sing along to. Many churches still use traditional hymns in their services. Even though hymns are traditional and relatively unchanging, they can still have tremendous meaning to people. The LDS church that I attended still uses traditional hymns. I could tell that the choir singers, violinist, and pianist put a lot of effort into their performance of the hymns. I really admired their dedication to using performance as a means of worship. In conclusion, whether it is hymns or rock music, I am glad to see that despite all of our differences, music can still unite us.

It was really interesting this week to listen to the different congregation visit presentations, specifically how different people observe congregations different from their own. As a person who grew up in a Catholic congregation, it was interesting to see how those in the class who observed Catholic congregations pointed out things that I never considered unique. For example, I observed that a lot of students who visited Catholic congregations were surprised by the custom to genuflect before entering the pew, as well as the sign of peace. As a person who grew up Catholic, these practices were the norm for me. In fact, I was surprised in my own congregation visit that the Baptist church did not even have pews for me to genuflect before entering, and the informality of the congregation that I visited was quite surprising. It was also really interesting to see how different Catholic congregations practice these customs differently between the differing groups. In particular, it was surprising to learn how different congregations approached the sign of peace. In my own experiences, the sign of peace constituted shaking hands and hugging family members and friends. However, it became clear that this was not the norm for every Catholic church, despite the meaning being the same.

In this sense, the importance of anthropological strangeness became really clear to me, as it is really easy to ignore aspects of communities that you are a part of. I realize that if I had chosen a Catholic congregation to visit, I would have likely ignored the importance of such practices because I would generally regard them as “normal.”  In fact, it was the lack of these things that were really evident to me in my own congregation visit.

The presentation that stood out to me the most was the “Religion has no Passport” because it is a recent issue that is happening at this moment with the immigrations policies changing. Not only are immigration policies a major factor in today’s society but also the values, customs and traditions that these immigrants cherish when they migrate into the United States. It was interesting to see the perspectives from other immigrants from different countries like Muslims from Pakistan, Protestants from Brazil, or as far as Hindus from India rather than from the only perspective that I am more used to seeing with are Catholics from Mexico. 

 The act of immigrants that bring along their culture and religion from their home countries has developed the idea or syncretism of religious rituals and beliefs. That means that there are carious ways of practicing religion or adapting a certain idea from different religions and connecting them morally depending on the person. When these immigrants are aware of the American law from the constitution that allows for the freedom of religion they see this opportunity to create a good society by accepting different religions. 

What I found most interesting and stood out to me the most were the Muslims from Karachi, Pakistan because they migrate into the United States already fluent in English, come with money, already educated with college degrees and have businesses, but choose to come to another country to offer their family better opportunities for their future. Although they still chose to stay close to practice their religion as Muslims as self faith to be able to achieve personal happiness and peace. Even though the Muslim community from Islamic countries are not respected in the United States they form a brotherhood and acceptance amongst themselves and delay the ignorance from the rest of the world. 

Watching all the congressional visit reports last week had me thinking about the diversity of each church and how they all have different takes on religion and the way they do rituals could be the same or they could be completely different. Seeing my Hope Protestant Reformed Church and how they mixed Christian and Catholic rituals and traditions in their service was cool to me. There isn’t an outline telling you how you must teach Gods word or how you must perform a certain ritual. Every church thinks that what they do is unique and its awesome to see that everyone is accepting of their own rituals.

Chapter 5 of American Religion was talking about different congregations and how there are over 300,000 different congregations in the world. Each having a different take on the religion and the rituals that they perform. Most of these churches are very accepting of others and it talks about that in the chapter highlighting how they have more acceptance for gay and lesbian members along with the use of technology in the church and how they are changing based on the surroundings and how technology has taken over our day and age. Also, the chapter includes how informal worship is becoming a trend. It doesn’t specifically say this, but I believe that if a church doesn’t really have a dress code or standards for the way someone dresses that it’s a lot more welcoming to others whop just want to check it out. Overall the chapter does a good overview on the different congregations and how they are changing as time goes on.

In my Jane Austen centric English class, we discussed the large LDS following Jane Austen’s British Regency novels have and the various adaptations, such as Scents and Sensibility, that reimagine her novels with a Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saints framing narrative. While this was surprising initially, it turns out that biographies of Jane Austen sold significantly more in Salt Lake City than other major U.S. cities with a ratio of 8:1, which is famous for its significant population of members of the church.

As it turns out, the large following Austen’s novels have in connection to the church is due to the morals and values presented in the 1800s. For example, abstinence before marriage, and a strong emphasis on getting married as quickly as possible, are values in the church and the novels. The chaste society seems to appeal to Mormon women as it is comparable to their own. What I find more interesting, however, is not the reimagining of Austen characters within Mormon settings, and incorporation of their faith into religious based adaptations, but how they seem to be misinterpreting the values Austen describes. While the societal values of this time period do seem to agree with current LDS values, Austen is not necessarily advocating for them. She portrays her female characters as being harmed by the patriarchal society they live in, and her novels feature characters attempting to have suitors and be married, not for starting a family to fulfill God’s destiny, but to survive in a society where men only receive inheritance of property. Her writings have been declared feminist by today’s standards and had she been a contemporary writer, many scholars declare she would not write about the institute of marriage as frequently. The chastity was a product of its time, and it does not attempt to glorify it.

While the adoption of Jane Austen into the LDS Church is debatable, it is worthwhile to see that such an enduring writer can be beloved and relatable with women today. More often we see reimaginations of works as being MORE “progressive” than the original, so it is interesting to see a reversal focused not on societal issues but one that is faith based and seemingly more conservative than most of society’s morals and values today. Religion can train its practicers to identify aspects of their faith in other media, which will most likely lead to an increased tolerance of religion.