This week the article “At ease with our own kind” written by Nelson held the argument that social status and religion are both subconsciously and unconsciously intertwined. Nelsons’ use of the word Habitus is the basis for this argument and he defines it as “is a mechanism, internalized within the individual and usually preconscious, which generates both patterns of action and patterns of likes and dislikes” (Nelson, 51). Within the Habitus are his three sub-arguments in which economic status and upbringing influence a religious person’s preference for aesthetic, linguistic and physical expression. In the creation and maintenance of a congregational visit decisions involving these aspects are all done. I find the subconscious preferences the most fascinating as they are the one’s people on the inside cannot realize they have but as outsiders analyzing certain types of religion can.  In the sectarian congregation visit I heavily noticed the warmth that the church had for newcomer’s which was drastically different from the cold handshakes I received at the denominational visit. These are unconscious difference that the member’s have done most likely influenced by their notion of what it is to be a part of that church.

This week visiting the Redlands Christian Center I was really able to see the differences between a church with a lot of wealth and one with not as much. The sectarian congregation heavily brought to attention that the members should feel as though they need to donate at least ten percent of their income. The Redlands Adventist Church didn’t emphasize donations as much. Before this article I never realized how segregated some congregations are within race and socioeconomic background and how it can make going to a worship service so different.

The last few classes consisted of us reading articles and giving a crash course on what the main points of each article was, as well as highlighting the main point the author was making throughout. While I read several articles over the last week and a half, the one that struck out to me the most was Meredith McGuire’s Everyday Religion as Lived. The article focused on religious authority and how it had grown less significant to many people in the United States, yet religion in itself had not faltered over that period of time. She went as far back as the 1960’s, and as recent as the 90’s, to investigate what individuals felt was the most important about what they practice religiously, spiritually, or any affiliation, or lack thereof, of any congregation. Four individuals were the focus of the particular article, each four having different circumstances and believing in their actions defining their religious/spiritual association, not the church or other institution they may have attended.

This had me think the most, mainly because I was allowed the opportunity to think of religion differently: an individual may find their religious position to be very important to them, yet the authority of religion in itself may not be as significant. For example, someone who strongly identifies as a Roman Catholic may not necessarily practice their religion in the way that it’s fundamentally taught. They may practice their religion by other means that fits their lifestyle, like gardening in their backyard or collecting items to store in their homes. I never quite thought of religion authority and how it differs from actual religion until the article brought the concept up, helping me understand the behaviors and attitudes of people and how religion plays a role in it. The other articles I read were interesting too, but in a religious standpoint, Everyday Religion as Lived has the lasting impact.

Throughout the past few classes we have read articles that have made us question whether religion is becoming more of a community or more of an individual aspect of life. I have found a few different articles very interesting and it makes me believe that the answer is very personal and changes depending on who you ask. For some people, it strengthens their faith when they are around others that are pushing them to grow and encouraging them. For other people, it helps if they have their own chance to be spiritual. I read “Redefining the Boundaries of Belonging” which talked about the popularity of people being able to watch sermons from America all around the world. The example connected a church in Boston to a group of people in Brazil. The group of viewers in Brazil has formed a community around this. I believe that this concept is something that is very modernized and I do not feel that this would be my ideal situation for community but if it helps them, then that is great. The Individualized aspects of religion were stressed in the ideas of spirituality. Being able to have a sacred connection on your own could be hard for someone else to understand but for you it is very special. This can be seen in different ways, for some they find a connection like those that are from the article “Gospel Hour.” The thing about Gospel Hour is that it is a community but they have very impactful moments alone. Each of these very different perspectives on religion support the fact that religion has the chance to be either official or non-official.

One of the articles I read this week was  Redefining the Boundaries of Belonging by Peggy Levitt. She explores transnational economic and political practices and gives her audience a model examining three broad goals of transnational religiosity. These three goals look at extended, negotiated, and recreated transnational religious organizations. I was mostly interested in the recreated transnational religious organizations and how they are formed. It was interesting to learn how these religious organizations start their own groups when they come to America and thrive in this new country. These congregations can be created with guidance from the religion’s home country’s leaders or they have religious leaders come to these areas with large transnational people. It also interesting to relate this to other readings because it all shows how these organizations create a safe place and a sense of community to people who have just moved.  This also ties into what we have been learning about this entire semester in terms of religion being a main source of finding a sense of community and identity. Whether someone just moved here from India or just ended their long term relationship, people turn to religion for a sense of community and a way to find themselves.

This week went to a church called Brookside and they were a sectarian Methodist congregation. There were very few people in such a large church and it was definitely different from the denominational methodist church I went to a few weeks ago. The sermon wasn’t specifically about being “born-again” and didn’t mention the two words in particular at any point of the sermon. However, over the past few weeks they have been talking about this “armor-plate” that one needs to wear with them at all times to deviate from the temptations of satan.

The article I read for last class was Reproducing Ethnicity by Ebaugh. How it explains religion’s role for immigrants was interesting, because it was something that I can relate to. It explains people reproduce their ethnicity using religion, as way to create safe place for ethnicity and continuing culture. The idea of how immigrants use their religion in foreign place is something that Levitt was explaining in her book. However, Reproducing ethnicity focused on immigrants that create safe space for themselves to stay in community that they belong and to conserve their identity, while Levitt focused on how bringing those values has effect on US.

I think I understand those who reproduce ethnicity by religion because I use to need my safe place, which means staying with people who talks my language, and my parent still tend to avoid English-speaker sometimes (for example, she always tries to find barber who speak Japanese…). Whether it’s good or bad for them, people who came to new place need their own safe place. Those people in this article choose church as their safe place, but it can be just small group of people around you or home. Also having cultural food is important than people think. I might be more americanized if I wasn’t eating Japanese food that my mother made.

This week we learned about religion becoming more individualized, as well as it being a source of community. The former was an interesting, if rushed, look at how people are taking preconceived notions of religion and changing them to better suit their own needs and desires. Fascinating stories like those of the Gospel Hour and the Dragon Festival were incredibly unique real-world perspectives on how radically personalized religion can be, and the essays by McGuire, Woodhead, and Zimbauer were really interesting discussions of how and why these trends are being introduced. The discussion of religion being used as a source of community also raised some interesting new viewpoints. It was a valuable experience for me because I have recently been having doubts regarding religion’s place in this world, but the idea of religion fostering a sense of community growth and acceptance illuminates quite a bit for me. The article I was assigned, regarding the reproduction of an ethnically faithful space for immigrants to America, was particularly helpful in this regard, showing me just how valuable religion can be as a way of bringing people together when everything else in their environment is strange and foreign to them.

Going forward into this next week we will be discussing our second congregation visits. I am very excited to see how other people experienced this vastly different religious world. I know that when it comes to me personally, this was the first time I’d ever visited a sectarian congregation, and the contrast between it and the congregations I’m used to was very startling. I look forward to comparing notes with the rest of the class.

Last Wednesday night, I attended my second congregation visit at the Redlands Christian Center. Because I am not a Christian and have never attended a secular church service before, I  was a little anxious and curious to see what it would be like. I had certain expectations set because of the movie we watched in class, “Born Again”, but I wanted to walk in with an open and to fully embrace the people and the atmosphere of the church. When we walked in we were immediately greeted and hugged by two women at the front of the small church. Everyone in the church introduced themselves and immediately told us that we were welcomed anytime. The service started with three songs performed by the pastor, his son, and the two women that greeted us in the beginning. The rest of the service was a sermon given by the pastor that followed teachings directly from the bible. He compared the Bible to an instruction manual for a machine and that we were to follow it as literally and as directly as possible. He compared their congregation and other followers of God, to the rest of the people of the world and described them as sinners who had been led astray by Satan. These two aspects of the teachings were very different from the other more progressive congregation we went to, The United Church of Christ and actually resembled some of the ideas shown in the, “Born Again” movie. Ideas from McGuire’s book, such as a woman’s more subservient role in a church were also apparent in this congregation as we saw the differences between the jobs of the women and the men in the church. Overall, it was a good learning opportunity, but it was definitely different from other services and congregations I have been to.

This week in class we presented different articles that we were assigned to read. On Monday, many of the articles that were assigned focused on the effects of gender and sexuality in religion, and how they can affect personal religious beliefs. The article that my group read was called “Queering the Dragonfest” and it focused on the relationship between sexuality and religious beliefs. The author of this article noticed that throughout her study, her viewpoint changed, and she started looking at the way sexuality and gender are connected with religion, rather than focusing on feminism in religion. The second article I read on Wednesday was “At East With Our Own Kind” and it was about the relationship between social class and religion. This article really intrigued me because I previously assumed that religion was very separate from social class, but I realized how influential it actually is when deciding upon a religious organization to join. While both of these articles seem to be very different in topic, they both focus on the many outside factors that affect religion and religious beliefs, such as gender and social class. I found these articles to be very interesting because they both shed light on the outside factors that influence religion that I never gave much thought to previously.

For this week’s blog reflection post I wanted to write about my friend Sarah’s experience in her Sociology course this past week. Last Wednesday, we were getting lunch and she was telling me about a conversation she had just had in class. Her professor had asked the class something along the lines of ‘do you think people/society could function without religion’. Having essentially the same viewpoints as one another, Sarah took the affirmative saying that yes, people and society could function without religion, that aspect wasn’t a surprise to me. Why she had brought up the class discussion to me in the first place was to share other people’s opposing beliefs in the class and how they were the clear majority. Sarah spoke to me of one girl in particular who voiced her opinion, saying that being brought up in a devoutly religious family made her who she is, saying religion gives her purpose in life and provides a ‘reason for the bad things’ that happen in the world. Many others followed in her footsteps in terms of having religion in their lives as a purpose or a reason as to why life/things are the way that they are. People would also express how they “don’t understand” atheists or how people can live with this mentality. Growing up, both Sarah and I did not live with any religious presence in our lives, and it’s quite frustrating at times when people who equate their belief in God as the reason they exist then undermine people (like Sarah and I) who feel differently than they. Though the correlation is a fuzzy one, I am somewhat reminded of the religious presence in America and American families versus that in Europe and European families. Being raised by immigrants and spending a large majority of my childhood growing up in France makes me question if there’s a link between these two separate realities and their devoutness towards religion.

In class this past week we focused on the different topics brought up by the articles our groups read. What I found most interesting is how the French government handled religious affairs within their society: the French government decided it would be best to confine religious activity to the home. “From a Community of Believers to an Islam of the Heart: “Conspicuous” Symbols, Muslim Practices, and the Privatization of Religion in France” is an article by Caitlin Killian that explains how Islamic women who have immigrated from Maghreb countries to France feel about practicing Islam in France. According to the article, “the French are less encouraging of religious difference and expect religious expression to be confined to the home and places of worship” (Killian, 307). The women interviewed for the article explained that it was difficult to fast during Ramadan because they had to work the same amount of hours at their day jobs. The women also explained how it was difficult to keep up with praying five times per day. Additionally, the younger generation is looking for ways to practice their religion to connect to their roots but their outside environment is forbidding it.

Reading this article reminded me of what I wrote my religion-in-the-news report on a few weeks ago: the EU religious symbol ban. It also brings up ideas of secularization and privatization of religion, which are both things that have been reoccurring ideas in our classroom. How can limiting religious activity to the home be good for a society?