United States is one of the world’s most churchgoing societies. In this post we will be investigating why United States is seen as the most churchgoing societies in the world. Thomas Jefferson predicted that Bible would eventually be seen as only a book of myths and tales. Although anyone that generally understands American society would know that this prediction could be any more wrong. Religious belief and participation has declined in every other industrialized country.

            One main reason for the long lasting participation in religious practices is that America was founded on the principle of the freedom to practice religion. The original settlers sailed from England to be able to practice the religion of their choice. This image has stayed with America through out time, attracting immigrants from all over the world. As a result America’s religious community has constantly increase as religious immigrants continue to settle.

            Michael Kimmel and Amy Aronson’s book Sociology Now states that one of the main factor to Americans dominant religious participation is due to it religious institutions. They state “American religious institutions have grown as providers of social support and cultural interaction.” (500). In American society churches become the centerpiece of life. Towns generally place their churches in the center of the community. This is because of the frequent use of the building. Churches hold classes, meeting, events and of course religious services. An individual can go to school take a reading class and practice their belief in one place if they choose to.

            Another interesting argument of why religion is so popular in American is because of the division of church and state. That these regulations create a type of sub-culture that goes against the dominant culture. By making ones self a minority, who is a victim of the dominant culture, is a great way to recruit followers for a sub culture. Although this is true in sociological terms, I don’t believe this is true for American religious culture. Religion has grown in such a large scale; one could almost say it has become the dominant culture.

A Brief History

This blog was created so that my classmates and I could discuss the topic of religion and how it affects American society. I feel that it is important to have a general understanding of the major religions in American and how they came to be. This post will have a brief summary of the creation of the three most popular religions in America.

The largest religions in American are Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. These three religions all have a common factor in they all can be traced back to a spiritual ancestry event. Around 2000 BCE an ancient tribe located in Mesopotamia made a realization that their god, Yahweh, was not just a god that looked over their people but looked over all living things. This god, Yahweh, was the one and true god. Eventually Judaism was founded, and the book of the Torah was created. The Torah was a book of law’s, created by god, for the people of earth to follow. Today there are about 15 million Jews in the world, which is about 0.2% of the population. Judaism is divided into three branches. One begins Orthodox, which is seen as the branch that follows Jewish law very closely. The second is Reformed, who have tried to modernize Jewish law. This means adapting dietary laws and worship practices to modern society. The last branch is Conservative. This branch is the opposite of the Reformed branch in that they have rebelled to all modernization of Jewish law.

            About 2,000 years later Christianity was created. The creation of Christianity is interesting because it was created because of a protest against the corruption of Judaism.  Christianity has grown to the single largest religion in the world.  Although Christianity has been divided into multiple branches such as Roman Catholcism, Eastern Orthodoxy and Protestantism they all have very similar religious practices.

The funny thing is that Islam was created from a protest against both religions about 600 years later. Islam is interesting because of its incorporation of government only a Muslim government is seen as legitimate. There are two branches of Islam, which are Shi’ite and Sunni. These two braches differ in their religious beliefs and practices very much. Like Christianity, Islam has grown exponentially. Although in modern society these religions may seem very different they actually come from similar beliefs and practices.

American Religious Innovation and its Fluid Religious Landscape

Willow Creek Community Church

     When considering the religious landscape in the United States, two words that certainly describe it are "innovation" and "fluidity." I encountered these topics in my research on religion in the U.S., so I will present some of my findings here.

     "So common have been changes in the American religious landscape that the history of religion could be written as a history of religious innovations" say Robert Putnam and David Campbell in their book, American Grace: How Religion Divides and Unites Us (2010). They give an historical example--the chapel car of the 19th century--a train car (considered technological state-of-the-art back then!) outfitted to be a traveling chapel to outlying, unchurched areas by Protestant and Catholic clergies (p. 160). The chapel-car of the modern age is the online church--we now have interactive online church services with organizations/churches such as the Christian group Lifechurch.com at our fingertips (p. 160). Along these lines, my elderly mother can no longer attend church services due to being housebound, but can enjoy the latest one from her own church via DVD sent to her by mail. 

     An interesting American twist is the fact that, in this country, some of the biggest innovators are from the conservative side of the spectrum. As Putnam and Campbell point out, "Far from always being a bulwark against change, many religions have historically incorporated change--even faiths with conservative sensibilities (p. 161). 

     This leads to other, possibly unique, American phenomenon: religious switching (or, congregation shopping), megachurches, and religious "entrepreneurs." In line with their upbringing in this consumer-driven society, Americans are proving to be shopping for religion. This means that the religious landscape in America is very fluid, a term used by researchers. Some evidence appears in the large research study (drawn from over 35,000 adults across the U.S. ) by the Pew Research Center in 2007:

     "More than one-quarter of American adults (28%) have left the faith in which they were raised in favor of another religion - or no religion at all. If change in affiliation from one type of Protestantism to another is included, 44% of adults have either switched religious affiliation, moved from being unaffiliated with any religion to being affiliated with a particular faith, or dropped any connection to a specific religious tradition altogether . . .

     " . . . The survey finds that constant movement characterizes the American religious marketplace, as every major religious group is simultaneously gaining and losing adherents. Those that are growing as a result of religious change are simply gaining new members at a faster rate than they are losing members. Conversely, those that are declining in number because of religious change simply are not attracting enough new members to offset the number of adherents who are leaving those particular faiths."

     To quote Putnam and Campbell: "Americans have a wide array of religious choices, as religious entrepreneurs--a term we do not use pejoratively--constantly refine and reinvent both the substance and the presentation of religion in the United States. The result is a dynamic religious landscape, so much so that one of the most frequently used metaphors to describe it is a marketplace" (162). One example is the "emerging church" movement, in which one spokesman has said, they tried removing religious symbols such as crosses and stained glass, etc, in order to appear more modern and up to date. A few years later, they brought the symbols back, in order " 'to promote a sense of spiritual reverence' " (p. 162). And this is the tip of the iceberg, in terms of choices, if you consider that in this highly mobile society, one could explore a wide array of world religions without leaving the country.

     Then there is the megachurch. An article by Bob Burney in a conservative online publication, Townhall.com 2007), carries the story of the leading innovator in megachurches, whose leaders were considered by its admirers as the "church growth experts" in evangelical Christianity. Says Burney: "For most of a generation, evangelicals have been romanced by the 'seeker sensitive' movement spawned by Willow Creek Community Church in Chicago . . . [along with its approach there was] a de-emphasis on taking personal responsibility for Bible study combined with an emphasis on felt-needs based “programs” and slick marketing . . . The size of the crowd rather than the depth of the heart determined success. If the crowd was large then surely God was blessing the ministry. Churches were built by demographic studies, professional strategists, marketing research, meeting “felt needs” and sermons consistent with these techniques. We were told that preaching was out, relevance was in. Doctrine didn’t matter nearly as much as innovation. If it wasn’t “cutting edge” and consumer friendly it was doomed. The mention of sin, salvation and sanctification were taboo and replaced by Starbucks, strategy and sensitivity."

     As reported by this article, the leader, Bill Hybels, had recently switched gears, issuing public statements that they had not succeeded in establishing congregations with staying power (he called them "self-feeders"). They found they were attracting huge crowds that expected to be spoon-fed, and were not devoted enough to take responsibility to study the Bible or do spiritual practice on their own. They expected entertainment and services. Burney, a bit cynically, pointed out that he noticed that Hybels' "confession" contained innovative language that suggested he was not done experimenting, but moving on to a new phase. . .

     I can't help wondering if these large popular evangelical movements which involved mass marketing of religion to attract megacrowds might have had some impact on the famous Pew Research findings, which were conducted in 2007. (The study results showed 51% Protestant.)

     My research for this blog, has led me a little ways inside the fluid stream of the American religious landscape and American society. This country is so large and diverse--the shifting groups of immigrants (each bringing a unique flavor of religious view mixed with culture), the progression of science that influences how we see the world, the mobility of modern people, the innovation everywhere--it is an incredible array of plurality that is constantly changing. Like the title of Putnam and Campbell's book says, religion "divides and unites us." America's religious plurality reflects its diversity of peoples.


Cited:
     Putnam, Robert D. and David E. Campbell. American Grace: How Religion Divides and Unites Us. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2010.
     "U.S. Religious Landscape Survey." The Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life (2010). pewforum.org. Web. 18 May 2013.
     Burney, Bob. "A Shocking Confession From Willow Creek Community Church." Townhall.com. 30 0ct 2007. Web. 19 May 2013.
    

"Religion, Social Networks, and Life Satisfaction"

Worshipers at Bethel Methodist Episcopal Church in New Orleans

Heart of Zen group, Loyola University, Maryland

Muslims at prayer in Minneapolis-St.Paul airport

Roman Catholic ritual

Christians pray outside Democratic Convention in Washinton, DC

As social creatures, the longing to feel connection and belong to a group is very prevalent in our species. Whatever our spiritual beliefs are, even if we believe we don't have any, the experience feels private and personal. However at the same time, for large numbers of folks, the social aspects of religion and spirituality are very important. One reason why one might value belonging to a religious group is that having other people who think and believe in a similar way is very supportive and validating of our own identity and thoughts. If one has a network of friends and acquaintances that share views on caring and supporting, this can give one a deep faith in goodness and other moral virtues, as well as a practical security, knowing that one has friends for other kinds of support. I can speak from personal experience, because I belonged to a spiritual/religious group for many years.

Today I would like to look at the article, "Religion, Social Networks, and Life Satisfaction," published by American Sociological Review (C. Lim and R. Putnam, 2010) that presents and interprets the Faith Matters study (2006-2007) in a new way. They claim that their new approach to the research study does contribute to revealing "the mechanisms of religion's influence on quality of life and contributes to the development of theoretical frameworks that enable us to understand how religion affects people's lives." Lim is a professor in the Dept. of Sociology at University of Wisconsin and Putnam is a political scientist, professor of public policy at Harvard, and an author of several books (including one on religion entitled American Grace: How Religion Divides and Unites Us, 2012).

The authors discuss the view of classical sociologists, Durkheim and Simmel, who brought forth the logical-sounding argument that "religious involvement enhances subjective well-being because religious organizations offer opportunities for social interactions between like-minded people, nurturing friendships and social ties." Lim and Putnam say that their research methods provide some empirical evidence for this view, where previous research could not. They include several tables illustrating the study's results in a range of variable areas, and use discussion, explanations, and comparisons.

One question that arose for them was the idea that there is something about religious social ties that makes them stronger than non-religious social ties. They mentioned some research done with political activist groups in this regard. However, they concluded more comprehensive research is needed in order to really answer this question. Here are their remarks:

"Even if social networks in non-religious contexts could have a similar effect on life satisfaction as that of congregational friendships, it is difficult to think of any non-religious organizations in the United States that are comparable to congregations in scale and scope of membership base, intensity of member participation in collective rituals, and strength of identity that members share. Even if social networks and identities forged in non-religious organizations could have benefits comparable to those we found here, congregations are nevertheless unique among American voluntary organizations as a source of life satisfaction."

This article gives more food for thought on the topic of the role religion plays in American society.


Cited: Lim, Chaeyoon and Robert D. Putnam. "Religion, Social Networks, and Life Satisfaction." American Sociological Review. 75:6 (Dec. 2010): 914-933. Web. 18 May 2013 <asr.sagepub.com>

Seventh Day Adventist

        

   Seventh Day Adventist Church is a part of Christianity.  They believe “There is a Trinity of the Father, the Son (Christ), and the Holy Spirit that comprises one God Almighty.” They believe that god created the world in seven days, thousands of years ago. Homosexuality is not accepted in this religion.  They strongly believe if you have done horrible things in your life god will still forgive you if you give your life to him.

            Unlike other religions who baptize people into their religion when they are infants, Seventh Day Adventists decide when they want too. It can be at any age and the only thing that matters is you and your relationship with god. The procedure for being baptized is getting your body dipped into water by the pastor. It washes away all the sins by being dipped in the water. Then, the newly baptized member receives a certificate. You don’t need to attend any extra classes. All you have to do Is just show up to church every Saturday morning.

            Seventh Day Adventist meet on Saturday mornings.  Saturday is the seventh day like it says in the bible. That’s the day it says to worship god.  Sabbath is on the seventh day, that’s when god finished creating the world.  Seventh Day Adventists do not cook or go out and purchase anything that day. That’s his day and they worship him that day, all day long.  Sabbath is “A safeguard of our relationship with god” .

“Guidelines for Sabbath Observance”.  Seventh-Day Adventist Church. 2013. Web. 16.May.2013

Abortion in America

 

 

Religion and Abortion

           “Judeo-Christian tradition going back thousands of years has always valued human life, including unborn human life”.  The Catholic Church believes “life is sacred and inviolable.”  This can affect how a woman feels about continuing her relationship or not.  In the bible, it says “thou shall not kill”. Abortion is like killing a human. Although some people disagree and say it’s only a fetus and not a human yet. Is that true? When is a fetus is considered a “human”? Some women argue that it’s their body and they can do whatever they want. That is true, but what about the child? The child is already a human. According to other the baby is a human at the beginning of conception.

Religions that are profile are Islam, Judaism, Buddhism, and Hinduism. The Church of England is a little on both sides. They think it’s a crime to kill an innocent unborn child like the rest of the religions, but when the abortion is being done for disability reasons it’s more acceptable.  

I found a really interesting website where they have many facts and women can get help.  It showed so many different views on abortion and some on religion. This was one of the most interesting websites I found. This is an every day problem for women across America. Many women feel the need to have an abortion for multiple reasons. Some may not be financially stable, others might be too young. When your own religion is saying something is wrong but you cant afford to please your religion, what do you do?

"Religious Views on Abortion." Religious Views on Abortion. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 May 2013. <http://www.spuc.org.uk/youth/student_info_on_abortion/religion>.