In his article Ritual, Symbol, and Experience: Understanding Catholic Worker House Masses, James Spickard breaks down the weekly house masses at the Los Angeles Catholic Worker commune. I found it compelling that in this article, Spickard took the time to point out the differences between how male priests and female celebrants led the mass. While priests followed the standard liturgy (with a slight Worker twist), female celebrants were more likely to cite readings outside of Scripture and incorporate the congregants in priestly duties, effectively eliminating the traditional Catholic hierarchy during the mass.

This concept of gender affecting religious leadership caught my attention because it was reminiscent of the religious leaders I have encountered during my two congregation visits. For the first assignment, I visited Redlands United Church of Christ (RUCC), at which Rev. Dr. Jill A. Kirchner-Rose served as senior minister. While she held perhaps the foremost title at the congregation, Rev. Jill only led two small parts of the service– she didn’t even lead the sermon, though this was due to a guest preacher (another female). It is also worth noting that neither of these women referred to biblical stories as the basis for their overarching message.

The second congregation I visited was The Door Fellowship Church, where the service was led by Pastor Rich Cox. Pastor Rich led the majority of the service, only stepping aside at the beginning when a young man sang the opening songs, and when a couple other young men recited short prayers throughout. In fact, it appeared as though all leadership positions were occupied by men. Pastor Rich directly referenced and even quoted the Bible in his sermon, constantly including Jesus and the Lord by name.

Because the two congregations appeared to have vastly different worldviews, I failed to consider the role of gender in religious leadership before reading Spickard’s article. I don’t think it is possible to easily extract the role of gender when posed across denominations, but I find it interesting that it could play such a large role in the structure of religious services.

Last week’s discussion on the different stories of religion and how religion is developing was really interesting to analyze. In particular, I was interested in the concept of the individual religious bricolage in the narrative, Is Religion Becoming More Individualized? I think this is a really interesting concept because of the different degrees to which people may adhere to this definition. For example, within my own family, my mother identifies as Catholic, however, she loves to study Buddhism and incorporate Buddhist values into her daily living (I even bought her Thich Nhat Hahn’s Teachings on Love for her birthday this year). However, when I ask my mother about her religious identity, she does not include Buddhism in her definition, instead she says she is Catholic in beliefs but not strongly connected to the institution of the Catholic church. This is an example of the individual religious bricolage because my mother has redefined what she considers to be Catholic in terms of her own experiences and preferences.

Furthermore, it is interesting to consider how different individuals have incorporated this concept of the religious bricolage within the diverse sections of Christianity. For example, during my two congregation visits, I have found different members who identify with different churches, despite identifying themselves singularly within a single church. This is also evident in my jigsaw reading by Ammerman, which highlighted the different levels of religiosity by two families. In this example, one family attended one church service, took part in community events of another, and took advantage of the childcare at another. In this sense, the family has created their own religious bricolage within the singular modem of Christianity. Ultimately, it has been really interesting to consider the degrees at which we can apply the concept of the individual religious bricolage, which, in some instances, is quite extreme, while in others is simply an expression of the complexity within a single religion.

This week I conducted my religious specialist interview. It was fascinating to talk to a religious leader who I had watched lead a service that previous Sunday. I had made some assumptions based on the service and it was interesting to see what I was right/ wrong about by asking questions that prompted explanations. Through the interview, it also became apparent that there are so many things about a congregation that cannot be uncovered only from observation. Even if I had attended service every Sunday for a long period of time, there are some things that you could only learn through conducting an interview/ asking questions. After completing and then reviewing the interview, I noticed that my more specific questions prompted longer and better responses. If I could change anything about the interview, I would come prepared with more specific questions and less broad questions. I also realized that after I asked a few of my questions, I followed with giving examples of how they could answer. Although my intention was helping them to understand what I meant by my question, this is probably not the best practice because I could be affecting how they answer the question. Overall, I think this was a really helpful glimpse into the research process and into some important things that need to be considered throughout.

Something I found interesting last week was when we talked about the different stories people can tell and how the difference of religious and non religious acts pair up with cultural desires and consequences. Having different levels of faith through people in the church make it so different people need diefferent things to have a good relationship with God. Having different levels of trust in God in a church is actually good because some people can talk to people with less knowledge or more knowledge depending on what is needed for that person.

Something else interestint to me was the fact that having less religion in an area makes it less religious. You always here stories about a small town in Iowa or Nebraska where everyone knows each other and goes to the same school, church, and other events growing up . I feel like this would have more people at it then other places with multiple church locations. It is interesting to see how it is very true that the less choices you have make it so you go less. Seeinsg those same people all the time its like they are unavoidable anywhere you go weither thats at church or just the grocery store. Being blessed to be in an area where religion has many choices gives me that freedom to choose which congregation has the best interests for my personal self.

The street in  London was also something that was weird but cool at the same time. Who would place every differenet religious place right next to each other but essentially it makes sense because you can walk from the mormon side to the christian to the catholic side just like that. It seems like something that wouldnt happen in America but is very intruiging to me and I was wondering what others thought about that street?

On Monday State Rep. Stephanie Borowicz used Jesus in her prayer 13 times before the Pennsylvania House of Representatives swore in its first female Muslim member. Many saw  this as a political stunt, and some are quoted saying “we need to be promoting inclusion, not division.”  Johnson-Harrell is also quoted saying “But to use Jesus as a weapon is not OK.” I have never supported the integration of church and state, but I understand why some support it. However, I have to agree that using prayer as a way to make a point is going a bit too far. Now in terms of using it as a “weapon” is a bit dramatic and too pointed, creating the feeling of hypocrisy. Now my first reaction after listening to the pray was my eyes glazing over and my jaw hitting the table. After a minute or two I rewatched the prayer and the first thing that I noticed was the face of the speaker and some of the other members in the camera shot they looked shocked and as if they wanted it to just be over. When she implies that we need to start rethinking our laws and how we need to refocus them towards Christian standards because “we have forgotten about you God” it is laughable and completely out of line for the situation. She also implies that the U.S has become corrupted and needs the help of God to “heal our land” and to justify our wrongs. State Rep. Stephanie Borowicz was completely out of line in using prayer as a political too and her lack of respect towards the new member of the House of Representatives.

In addition to continuing our jigsaw readings, on Thursday we read half of a chapter that Professor Spickard wrote himself.  Although group pairing is fun; getting to discuss one reading as a class is enjoyable too.  Finding the six stories that support how religion is viewed and practiced in the 21^st century continues to be ever-changing.  It was helpful how the Professor individually took each story and applied separate stories and sources for them all.  First was the obvious tale of disappearing religion, which is the common discussion in today’s age due to pluralism, privatization, etc.  Next was the notion that religion is anti-modern, which sounds like another off-shoot of disappearing religion; but, has different cultural trends that set it apart.

Third, is the argument that religion is individualized.  The discussion of personal religious bricolage—meaning forming your own religious experience out of many different things.  Fourth, the idea that religious places are a place of community.  This highlights the cultural desires that we as people crave community and together-ness; and it’s the reason why an institutionalized church setting still exists.  Fifth, the notion that religion responds to its market.  This one stood out, to me, because of the differing markets around the world, not just America.  Every country has their “religious market” structured differently, so it can take a lifetime of studying to come up with a figure of how “consumers” would “buy” various beliefs.  Lastly is the idea that religion is going global, a worldwide movement of people stating their religion is not only a faith—but also their identity.

This past week in class we went over the 6 Stories of religion. Summarizing the main theme of these stories helped to get a bigger picture of what the theme across was and how it is interpreted now. The one that resonated me the most is Story #4. There are 3 underlying culture desires that is within the story. People seeking community in a mass of society. The relationships in a society are transactions. The belief of religion has become less important than the actual connection that is created within the community. Make these two statements true. The first one is that religion is one of the few remaining sources of the community. The second one is that religion is a solace in an atomized word.

This story resonated the most with me because the statement of belief as a religion decreasing in importance but yet the reason individuals go to church is for that sense of community. I find this to be come more and more evident as our community becomes more advanced.

Last week in class we began to discuss six basic stories of religion that are used to try and interpret what is going on currently. One of the stories that I found explained what was going on in today’s religious culture was the story about religion acting as a source of community. This describes religion as a transaction of social relationships. Whenever people are asked what they find comforting about their religion, many say they find a sense of community there. This is very important, because of how large and impersonal our society is becoming. This gives people a place to come and feel a part of something, so it is understandable why people would turn to religion to find this. Another story I found interesting was that religion is becoming Anti-Modern. This explains religion moving back to old strict religion which helps people seek security and form, in such a complex society. There always seems to be this cycle of official religion and nonofficial religion going back and forth in popularity. I don’t think we will ever be able to say that religion will always stay either official or nonofficial because as soon as one has been in popularity for a certain amount of time, people will begin to crave the other. Recently we have seen a surge of millennials and younger generations preferring nonofficial religion, however this story states that because of the large society we are currently apart of, people will begin to move back towards official religion in search of its security. Instead of leaning to only one becoming popular over the other, I foresee a split with the public, and the preference of religion relating closely to political preference.

This week for our final Jigsaw, I read an article detailing the experiences of North African Muslim women who emigrated to live in France, and their opinions on the banning of headscarfs in schools. This article fascinated me because it explained such a different cultural narrative than the one we perceive to be “right” and “good” in the United States, which is focused on freedom and not being excessively constrained. Upon reading this article, I found myself frustrated and shaking my head, that these poor girls in school were being restricted from practicing their religion; I understood and respected the opinions of the Muslim women but struggled with still having my own opinion on the matter. Coincidentally, my other class’s readings for that week were also centralized on Muslim women and the veil, and as I progressed through this reading, and the next two that were assigned to me, and the classes that followed those readings, my opinion drastically changed. I realized that I had been guilty of ethnocentrism in a way, in thinking that the French culture was oppressive and that these women were bring stripped of their religious freedom and identity. Before I started studying religion I even thought that the veil itself was oppressive to women.
But I learned that the French culture has a very France-first focused identity for all of the citizens, and that it is no one else’s job, outside of the Muslim women living in France, to have an opinion on headscarves being banned from their schools. In my other class’s discussion on the articles we read I was shocked that so many people did not know the term “cultural relativism” and was frustrated that so many had an opinion on the headscarf without even understanding the concepts of cultural relativism and ethnocentrism, but having realized that I had been guilty of this when reading my assigned article, I realized that it comes from a place of having more to learn, and of not yet understanding.

This week I completed my interview with a religious specialist. I chose to interview an individual from the Center for Spiritual Living because with another class with professor Spickard we are required to intern with an organization that helps with homelessness. For my internship, I am interning with an organization based out of the Center. I also chose to do my last congregation visit with the Center for Spiritual Living because of the interest that I have generated while working with the organization.

My interview was done over the phone and it resulted in some informative information. I learned so much about the Center as a whole and its inner workings. Through this, I learned so much about how the religious specialist feels about doing what they do. I also discovered why and how they proceeded into this field. It is interesting interacting and conversing with someone so involved in a church. As I have previously stated, I do not know much about religion and I have never conversed with someone so involved in the church besides speaking to individuals about Freemasonry. I have spoken to individuals in length about being a Freemason and have read through some old documents. My recent phone interview sparked an interest and better understanding just as speaking about Freemasonry had previously.

All in all, speaking more in-depth with individuals so involved with organized religion allows me insight into a world that I am not familiar with. This is why the study of sociology and anthropology is so beneficial, it allows you understanding into a world and culture that you had never known before.