In certain groups, there always seems to be a separatist mentality, one that distinguishes members from non-members, insiders from outsiders and the such. In chapter six of McGuire, she touches on conflicts with outsiders and boundaries between religious groups and the supposed outsiders. The dichotomy that McGuire presents in religious communities of an “in-group” and outsiders seems to be present in many of the more intense and sectarian religious communities which intimidate those on the outside. Although the exclusivity of certain religious communities and organizations function well for the power dynamic and hierarchy of the organization, how can they expect to gain more members? Or do they even wish to have new members if they are so closed off, anyhow? McGuire states, “‘Born-again’ Christians consider their religious experience an important distinction between themselves and others, and their ways of witnessing to their special experience of being ‘born again’ symbolize this difference.” (pg. 204). To some exclusive forms of religion, these distinctions are extremely important, and as we saw in class last week in watching “Born Again”, it is also very important for such individuals to impose their own beliefs on others. In the film, we saw the beliefs and the extremes that some born again individuals go to in trying to persuade others to convert to their own beliefs. Seeing the pressure that one of the born again members put on his brother who had not converted or found Jesus as his personal savior, seems to me to be intrinsically wrong. Although I believe that everyone should have their right to worship and believe whatever it is that works for them, being pushed in to converting to a religion like Ted was by his brother does not seem like and personal religious decision, and more that of appeasement.
Born Again
This was my second time watching the film Born Again. What I enjoyed about this viewing was being able to look at the film from a different perspective as we did in the Visual Ethnography class. With a greater understanding of what “sectarian” means, I was better able to understand the implications of this baptist community and their views on society. I found the congregation’s views on the “outside world” fascinating. The extent in which parents took to shelter their children from society stood out to me, like the use of private schooling. The pastor in the film also stood out to me more this time watching than before, in the sense he was very involved in his congregation’s lives. For myself, I would be very uncomfortable with a pastor that involved in my own life. This makes me wonder if this same phenomenon happens in other fundamentalist congregations around the country. I would also like to note how the ethnographer was able to film such personal and intimate moments of the congregation, like when the man’s brother broke down and eventually became a born again Christian. I would also be interested to see a fundamentalist group in todays time, and their views on the current political scene. While I can imagine that fundamentalist groups support a more conservative side of politics, it would be interesting to see if they agree with all policies platforms of conservative politics. Personally, I have not been exposed to the personal lives of a fundamentalist congregation, and this film was very eye-opening to a life much different than my own.
Born Again
This week’s viewing of the film Born Again was a very fascinating and intimate look into how religion affects people’s personal lives. It was interesting and rather off-putting to see how comfortable the parishioners were with their pastor inserting himself into their lives and affairs. These people surrendered basically every aspect of their lives to the church, and they did so with complete willingness. This was a very bizarre process to watch as someone who is almost entirely divorced from religion, but for the people being recorded, it was just the way of things.
Another fascinating process was the conversion of the man who did not accept his brother’s faith at the beginning of the film. The conversation he had with his brother, which culminated in him breaking down and crying, was very powerful. It was a huge reminder of how much of a person’s identity is based around their own sense of religion and spirituality. Watching this sad, broken man accept a higher power into his life and perceive a noticeable difference in his quality of living was an incredible transition to see.
On the opposite end of the spectrum, the man who turned to religion after his wife left him made for a fascinating story. The conversation between the pastor and the ex-wife was unnerving – it cannot be stressed enough that I’m not used to this level of contact between a religious leader and their parishioners, and to see that relationship unfold was an entirely new experience. All in all, it was a very fascinating look into a world I don’t know.
Church and State
Across the United States religious groups have been changing in beliefs and practices in order to adapt to modern times. Different changes among different groups tend to be classified as either liberal or conservative based on attitudes towards adapting tradition to cultural changes, interpretations of the bible, and the organizations views of working with other religious groups. The evolving environment of traditional church life has led to a decrease in literalist, but also an increase in people who consider themselves spiritual but not religious, a considerable change to traditional church life in the United States. As had been present in the past the correlation between church goers and those who hold politically conservative or republican values has persisted, and in more recent times strengthened. Since 1992 the correlation between religiously active people and those who hold conservative political values or identify as republican has strengthened. Specifically, the correlation between weekly church attendees and political outlook on abortion, premarital sex, and homosexuality has strengthened at differing rates. In regards to legal abortion in any case regular church attendees have become significantly more conservative, though in regards to premarital sex and homosexuality, regular attendees have either remand the same of have even become more liberalized about the subject since the 1970s. The overall regular church going population though is still considered to be more conservative than not. In a greater sense, these trends continue to enforce that the shifting religious trends across the United States has a far reaching influence in all aspects of a person’s life.
Born Again Critique
This past week, our viewing of Born Again in class had me asking myself a lot of questions about just how much power a pastor truly has. As I watched the film I was uncomfortable by the presence of the pastor involving himself in personal life situations of everyday people. He was immersed in the relationship between Bob and Emma and was controlling whether or not Emma could see her children. Considering he is not a lawyer and he is not the father of her children, why did she listen to him? If all he is, is a pastor, then why couldn’t Emma just disobey his “order” and see her children? I did not understand why she was so threatened by that order, if it were me I would find a way to see my children. I go to church so I know that you are supposed to respect your pastor, just like any other person, but you do not have to treat him like a God who guides our paths. What I have noticed is that many pastors develop a mindset that they are above everyone else, this may be only pastors from certain denominations but I have picked up on this attribute. If you understand your religion, whatever it may be, then you should understand that as men and women we are imperfect. Only God can be our judge, so I believe Emma should have prayed about her situation, instead of completely leaving her life choices up to her pastor to decide. This documentary is the kind of thing I want to discuss because it left me with a multitude of questions.
Reflection-Feb 5th
This weeks readings and class discussions really focused on the typology of religious organizations. We were able to unfold many attributes related to certain religions and compare them to others. We also studied the trends and changes Chaves reported on, for example, the increase in 18-39 year olds who are spiritual but not religious. It was interesting to see how religion as a whole has changed over time. I thought McGuire’s typology table of the thirteen religions was very useful. The table was able to pin-point where each religion generally stood in terms of each religion’s churchly, sectarian, denominational, or cultic orientation by their “Tension with society”,”Responsibility for society”,”one way”, and “many ways”. McGuire also explained how religion can be responsible for social cohesion as well as conflict. It was interesting to think of Durkeim’s concept that “wherever there is social cohesion, it is expressed religiously”. Meaning that “religion is the very essence of social”. Before reading this I never thought of this perspective and I wonder if it’d be true for the average American today. I thought about the social encounters I face daily and tried counting how many of them are religious–not very many. McGuire makes it clear that in the past immigrants looked to religion because it gave them a mutual aid, friendships, or a sense of belonging; yet in the U.S. it helps people differentiate themselves and locate themselves in a larger society. Then the next area of topic explains the conflicts and social cleavages of religion. There are many areas that religion may overlap that could create conflict; like social class, race or ethnicity, and political or national allegiance. Understanding this area gets tricky for me and raises many questions and uncertainties.
Why These People of Faith are Marching This Weekend
This article interviews many individuals who marched this weekend, and each person elaborated on why their faith has made them feel inclined to march. For example, one woman who is Muslim said her religious beliefs prompted her to march because Islam calls her to speak out against oppression. Another woman who is Sikh says that her religion states that the Divine is within everyone, thus she is marching for a just, fair and compassionate society for all people. A Roman Catholic lay woman says she was influenced to march by Pope Francis who said that the “life of Christ ought to be courageous”, and she wants to be a courageous Catholic. These many women and men’s religious views prompted them to fight for equality and freedom because each religion promotes these rights. These people of different faiths merging together to prompt social change could be viewed as a progression from a churchly stance to a denominational stance. Typically, those with a churchly stance believe their ideas are legitimate and that those of other faiths are not. However, as these people come together to march for rights there is a shift toward a denominational stance because they believe in their ideas but are coexisting with others enough that no one is dismissing other religion’s beliefs. In fact, it seems the people have found common ground by realizing that they are fighting for the same cause because their religious beliefs have prompted them to.
How Deeply Does One Internalize Their Religion’s Beliefs
As I read McGuire’s chapter 4, I am struck by the fact that she blatantly says that sociological studies of religion are often inaccurate because people’s personal beliefs are not typically synonymous to the religious organization that they identify with. Attempting to understanding an individual’s meaning system through their religious affiliation seems slightly counter-productive because most people do not strictly conform to a particular religion’s ethics. This is can be case for a number of scenarios, and the author highlights a couple of them. One being that of which a person affiliates with a religious organization but does not accept the organization’s stance on social issues. An example of this would be a Catholic who differs with the Catholic Church concerning particular social issues such as abortion, homosexuality, women’s rights etc. Another scenario could be when people who identify with an official religion adopt practices or beliefs from nonofficial religions or draw on bits and pieces of other official religions. An example of this might be someone who considers themselves Christian but engages with Zen Buddhism, modern psychology and meditates. Religious beliefs and following on an individual scale are clearly very complex and difficult to pinpoint, thus, I wonder: “Why try to understand humanity on a large scale through surveying them on their religious beliefs or affiliations if there are so many possibilities and inaccuracies?” It seems that the purpose of understanding religion and the people’s following through a sociological view is to better explain people’s opinions, beliefs, and behaviors. I suppose I am left confused with how productive this can be when research is relatively incapable of drawing accurate representations of people’s true inner beliefs.
“Religious Leaders Bless Planned Parenthood Health Center And Its Mission Because this is sacred space, too.” From The Huffington Post
Christian, Muslim, Jewish and Hindu leaders gathered inside a Planned Parenthood Center to bless the space. This gathering is important because it began to change the dialogue about women’s rights to their anatomy from one of dehumanizing and stigmatizing to one that is supportive and invites spirituality. The leaders from each of the religions came together to reconfirm women’s reproductive freedoms and overall health. This brought me back to McGuire’s reading that explained how many people decide their moral values and ideas of right and wrong through their religion. It seems that in this Planned Parenthood event, people were given the thumbs up to support a controversial issue in which something that was viewed as wrong (abortions) are now on the path to being viewed as something that is to be accepted. I see this as a huge leap in different religious systems of meaning coexisting with one another and with a society that values freedom of the individual. The fact is that religious beliefs deeply sway people’s ideas about what is right and what is wrong, and for some of the major and conflicting religions of the world to come together to support a cause like this could greatly affect how society accepts the idea of abortion.
The Quest for Meaning: Blog Response #1 (Chapters 1-3)
Chapter two of McGuire’s text has made me curious as to how much individuals actually internalize the meaning system of the religion they belong to, and with how much conviction they believe in the meanings provided for them. I draw back to our second class session in which I learned that almost a majority of the students have strayed away from the religion they grew up believing, and wonder “how would this shift in religious beliefs result in a panic or crisis of meaning?” The person who is struggling with what religion they identify with (and to what extent) would likely experience anomie— a term defined as “a crisis of moral order” (McGuire 35). Although not explicitly said, the text suggests that practically all aspects of a religious person’s life are given meaning through their religion. I then wonder if young people who experience a shift in religious beliefs are then more prone to having some sort of existential crisis in which the meaning of their life is being severely tested. There are far more suicides among young people than there are of people in mid to late life— could religious inner turmoil be a factor in this? Are systems of meaning implemented in society to sustain people’s wellbeing so that they don’t break down from the lack of meaning? I wonder, what becomes of people who do not adopt meaning from a religious system? Do these people suffer from this or have stronger sense of value if they single handedly choose their meaning system rather than adopting it from a religious institution?