The article that I read was published by Fox News and called “CNN religion quiz needs to take Christianity seriously.” I found this to be a very interesting read because you could sense the tension between the two networks just by reading it. CNN is coming out with a special series for Easter time pertaining to Jesus and Fox accused them of making yet another show where they are going to try and tell people who Jesus really is. As I read this I started to get uncomfortable by the passive aggressive attitude that the author seemed to have. It seems that these two major news networks have a lot of tension and think that the other network has bad intensions. It was also said, that CNN currently has a quiz about how well you know Christianity and the author accused them of having the wrong questions and not asking the necessary questions in order to get to a necessary conclusion. They accused CNN of seeing religion through a blind spot or cloudy view and then put them in the same category of understanding as a “secular” group. I found this very interesting that the article transitioned into a critique on the way that Secularists see the world. This article is proof that even in our media there is much religious diversity and judgement.

“CNN Religion Quiz Needs to Take Christianity Seriously.” Fox News. FOX News Network, n.d. Web. 21 Mar. 2017. http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2017/03/19/cnn-religion-quiz-needs-to-take-christianity-seriously.html.

The article Religion and Spirituality: Unfuzzing the Fuzzy attempted to understand individual definitions and feelings regarding the state of being religious, spiritual, or both. While the study was fair, thorough, and asked the right questions, for me it lacked significant findings; the way people felt about religious and spirituality was pretty much in accordance with their religion, and could be predicted given the religion’s worldviews and history. For example, the person who identifies with religion and not spirituality (RnS) is often associated with higher levels of authoritarianism, self-righteousness, and church attendance. This could have been predicted given the fact these qualities would likely be assumed to be associated with Christians, which is the religious affiliation that primarily makes up the group RnS. On the other hand, the spiritual but not religious (SnR) are unlikely to engage in organized religion, and value nontraditional New Age beliefs and mystic experiences. Once again, this is not surprising given the fact that a majority of the SnR group identified as New Age.

In this sort of case, it seems to me that it would have been more beneficial to understand the history, culture, principles, and worldviews of a religion if one wants to find out more about how to classify them as individuals in a religious or spiritual terrain. If one looked at the history, culture, and worldviews of Christianity verses the New Age religions, one could easily assume that Christianity would be more organization-oriented, therefore practice with more structure and identify as more “religious”. (Including the fact that Christianity has existed for hundreds of years and has had significant effect on society and politics.) In contrast, New Age movements are primarily new religions that do not have ties to history and/or powerful institutions. Thus, the feelings and opinions of a Christian and a New Age “mystic” concerning spirituality and religion is very likely to coincide with the way their religion or spiritual origin functions.

Source: https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/03/gorsuchs-selective-view-of-religious-freedom/520104/

In this article, Garrett Epps of “The Atlantic” discusses the views held by Neal Gorsuch, Trump’s nominee for the Supreme Court; particularly those beliefs appertaining to religious freedom. Epps discusses Gorsuch’s views on the recent Hobby Lobby case, wherein the crafts store fought against the ACA’s amendment requiring employers to provide insurance for medically approved forms of birth control. The owners of Hobby Lobby resisted, claiming that their religious beliefs were being violated. Gorsuch, as it is revealed, agreed with Hobby Lobby, writing: “All of us face the problem of complicity. All of us must answer for ourselves whether and to what degree we are willing to be involved in the wrongdoing of others. For some, religion provides an essential source of guidance both about what constitutes wrongful conduct and the degree to which those who assist others in committing wrongful conduct themselves bear moral culpability. The Greens [owners of Hobby Lobby Stores] are among those who seek guidance from their faith on these questions.” This, Epps argues, is a dangerous opinion to have, because it infringes on the same religious freedom rights of the employees being discriminated against. Epps also mentions the proposed First Amendment Defense Act, which would protect employers from any repercussion for discriminating against LGBT individuals, as their right to observe a religion which condemns such individuals is protected by the Act. Epps expresses concern that Gorsuch, if elected, will maintain such narrow and selective views of religious freedom during his time on the Supreme Court.

This week we discussed the theory of secularization and how it applies to the landscape of religion in Europe and Britain. There were many conflicting articles with many conflicting views on the topic, and overall it was very interesting to see so many different interpretations on the concept. The question of whether or not religion is disappearing proved to be a much more complicated question than I would have expected going into this class. Beforehand I never would have thought that there was a chance of religion dying out anywhere, but now I understand that there’s a very real possibility that it could vanish completely, at least from some areas of the world. And I must admit that while I was apprehensive of this “jigsaw” format of teaching at first, it has proven to be a much more interesting method of education than I would have thought. It’s proven engaging and meaningful, and an excellent way to introduce students to many different standpoints on an issue. I look forward to how this teaching method applies to the concept of individualized religion tomorrow, as it proves to be a very interesting topic to discuss. Already the article I’ve been assigned to, “Everyday Religion as Lived,” by McGuire, has raised interesting points about the nature of individualized religion, and I look forward to seeing what’s discussed by the other articles. This topic is especially interesting to me because it seems rather related to the case study I read, Sacred Stories, Spiritual Tribes, and I look forward to seeing how the rest of the articles connect.

This past week the concept of Secularization in Religion was stressed in both class periods. At first I found myself thinking that secularization seemed very apparent in the world and reading Christianity in Britain, R.I.P. by Bruce reassured those feelings I was having. The possibility that religion was slowly taking a new form started to frighten me because my religion is the biggest part of my life and I do not want the environment of religion to change too much. Then I came into class on Wednesday and the presentations on the rest of the articles, I had not read, started to give me a new perspective. There seemed to be more possibilities that secularization was not really taking complete control of the world. It seems to be possible that the United Stated wasn’t even being affected by secularization. I personally believe that a change in the structure, dynamic, belief, and society around religion is occurring among us. Although, now I have begun to be swayed by articles like Finke’s, which stress that America is unsecular. It could very well be true that just Europe has had a takeover of secularization. The arguments that Bruce made about Europe just seemed strikingly familiar to what is also happening here in America through my eyes. What has given me hope from all of the readings, is the idea that America is still so fresh and new in its religion. I am not ready to except that America is going to let go of its ideals quite that easy.

Zimbauer’s, “Religion and Spirituality”, shows and discusses the methods and results of a study to find correlations between religiousness and spirituality. Questioning primarily white respondents from a multitude of ages and beliefs, they asked how people identified, whether they felt if there was an overlap between the two, and looked to find whether there was a positive or negative connotation tied with either or both of the categories. The study found that spirituality was more closely linked to individual experience, while religiousness was tied to structured beliefs, groups, and organizations. The article showed a graph of each of the groups (religiously affiliated and not) questioned and showed their responses to whether they were religious, spiritual, or both. It was more common for New Age groups to identify with spirituality that religion and although spirituality had overall higher responses, Roman Catholics identified as both almost equally. Through the progression of this course there has been more and more evidence to show that identification with religion has been decreasing and spirituality has been increasing. After reading this article and Nancy Ammerman’s, “Sacred Stories, Sacred Tribes”, I have learned that it is possible to identify as both religious and spiritual, religious and not spiritual, and spiritual and not religious. I have begun to question which way our society will move with the shift from religiousness to spirituality. Will the ways our religious communities practice change to adapt to what people are believing? Will western religions grow more similar to eastern religions by focusing on one’s self and meditating? It will be interesting to see how these categories shift over time and if they stay separate categories all together.

This week we focused on secularization by examining different articles and discussing there bases. Many of these articles viewed European and American religions and the changes that are in relation to secularization. The article that I read was “Christianity in Britain, R.I.P.” The article discussed the declining trends in major British denominations. Bruce believes that unless trends are reversed, Major British denominations will cease to exist by 2030. Bruce explains the Stark theory on why there will always be a need for religion. It is believed that there is a link between rewards and compensators that humans will always need. Stark always denied secularization in Britain because he believed “it would run counter to the expectations of the supply-side model of religious economies”. Bruce gave multiple examples that showed exactly how drastic the trends are in Britain. There is a decline in the amount of church membership altogether. in 2000 only 10% of the population attended church. Sunday school scholars have decreased to 4%, full time professionals have decreased while the total population has increased, and religious offices has been steadily declining.

I think its interesting to compare the trends that are changing religious life in America and European countries. Now that we have explored the six sociological narratives as to why American religion is changing, it would be interesting to see if/how these same narratives could be implemented in other countries. New religious movements and the change of beliefs are what make me question these new trends the most. Will there be a new religious movement soon? Will less attractive religions cease to exist?

The article I read for class this week was “Secularization and its Discontents” by Warner. Although this article was dense, it provided perspective into the changing theories of secularization in Europe. For this class session, I enjoyed how each group’s article gave a different perspective on secularization, some more in agreement than others. Even though none of the articles blatantly said that religion will completely disappear from society, I feel that many of the articles (including the one I read) over emphasized the role of secularization today. Many European countries are still rooted in Christian values and beliefs that drive the society. However, I think that Christianity is so normative that many aspects of society that are seen as “secular” may actually be Christian based. It is not until a different religion (such as Islam) is introduced that “religion” appears more visible, and is viewed in a negative light. While I agree that there is less of a need for religious institutions to provide health care, education, etc. Christianity may have just become so normalized that it is not seen as “religious” anymore. Secularization may just be the evolution of Christianity, and not necessarily the disappearance of religion in society.

From Warner’s article, there were specific ideas that I agreed with, and other ideas that I did not. For instance, while you cannot argue the empirical data of declining church attendance, as we have discussed in class and find in McGuire’s book that this may be due to the shift of institutionalized religion to a more spiritual case. One of Durkheim and Weber’s main points is that western modernity is inhospitable to religion. However, as I mentioned above, perhaps it is not “religion” but any religion other than Christianity. As we can see today, many countries in Europe and even America are not hospitable to Islam, while Christianity is welcomed. I think it is important to remember that Christianity it deeply rooted in many western cultures, and that the concept of “secularization” may just be the process of normalizing Christian values and beliefs in a society.

The article I read, Secularization and Its Discontents by Rob Warner, there were several sociologists claiming about secularization. However, few of them said secularization doesn’t mean extinction of religion. I was wondering what it means by that. According to dictionary, “secular” means “denoting attitudes, activities, or other things that have no religious or spiritual basis”. If secularization is not disappearance of religious/spiritual things, then what is it?

I think it depends on how you define “religious” and “spiritual”, but anyway, in the article one of sociologist Wilson said, “religious must now compete in the private with other providers of meaning, mystery and consolation, from psychotherapists to the movies”(37). One of thing that religion does is provide meaning in one’s life. However, today, there are more stuff that can do that other than religion. Religion will eventually become privatized, according to Wilson, and that leads to secularization. So, if people start to talk about religion like movie or tv show, like “what’s your favorite movie?” or “do you watch that tv show?”, that’s secularization? In the future, if secularization continues, do people eventually talk about religion like privatized hobby, accessory, pet, or even friends?

This week, we learned about the six different narratives about religion in America. The first narrative, secularization, insists that religion is losing its influence on American society. The privatization of individuals’ religious experience, the fragmentation of social life into a variety of institutions, the socialization of American government programs, and increasing pluralism and rationalism all contribute to this narrative. The next argument claims that religions are not losing influence but reorganizing around local, not denominational, levels. This argument relies upon the evidence of local vitality, even as denominations decline, showing the importance of local connections and communities in the religious sphere. The third argument points to a conservative resurgence across all religions, especially in an increase among militant conservatives. From megachurches to jihadis, this theory notes conservatives’ reaction to modernity and their desire to seek security by “recapturing” the government from secularists and liberals. The fourth narrative, Religious Individualization, paints a picture of a world where individuals do not look to any single tradition for their belief. Instead, they follow the societal trend of serial connections by drawing on multiple religions and often changing their affiliation. The fifth narrative views American religion through the lens of capitalism, believing that religions compete for “customers” in religious markets. In this theory, religions that promote conservatism and otherworldliness succeed the most, measured by their soaring numbers. Finally, the sixth narrative addresses the globalization of religion. It follows global migration patterns as immigrants transplant their religions to their new homes but also bring their new religious influences back to their homeland. In this way, pluralism increases. These six narratives capture the main trends in American religion as theorized by religious sociologists today.