Transcript Slide 1

SOC 101
Chapter 12
Religion
Jonestown
• November 1978
– 918 members committed suicide in Guyana,
South America
Branch Davidians
• April 1993
– 79 members were killed in the siege
at the Mount Carmel compound
Aum Shinrikyo
• March 1995
– 12 people died and over 5,000 were
injured in the Tokyo subway attack
Solar Temple
• October 1994 & March 1997
– Over 50 members died in fires set by the
group
Heaven’s Gate
• March 1997
– 39 members committed suicide at a mansion
in Rancho Santa Fe, CA
Questions
• Why do Religions emerge &
develop?
• Why do people join Religions?
Introduction
• Rodney Stark defines religion as:
– “socially organized patterns of belief
and practices that concern ultimate
meaning and assume the existence of
the supernatural”
• Nobody knows when humans first
acquired religion
• All known societies have some type
of religion
• Religion has influenced societies in
enormous ways
Religion in the United States
Jewish 2%
Mormon 1%
None 5%
Other 6%
Protestant 59%
Catholic 27%
Source: Gallup Poll 1994.
Functionalist Perspective
•
Religion has 3
important
functions:
1. Providing meaning
and purpose to life
2. Promoting social
cohesion and a
sense of belonging
3. Providing social
control and support
for the government
• Religion can be dysfunctional
too….
The Crusades
Taliban(Muslims) vs. Buddhists
• A 175-foot
Buddhist
monument,
believed to be the
world's largest
standing Buddha
was destroyed by
Taliban Muslims
in Afganistan.
Conflict Perspective
• According to Karl
Marx, religion is the
"opiate of the people"
• Max Weber argued
that religion could be
a catalyst to produce
social change
Symbolic Interactionist
Perspective
• Religion serves as a reference
group to help people define
themselves
• Women’s versions of a certain
religion usually differ from men’s
versions
Secularization
• “The process by which particular
religious organizations become
more worldly and offer a less vivid
and less active conception of the
supernatural”
The Secularization Thesis (The
Old Paradigm)
• Suggests that as society becomes
more industrial and technological,
religion is replaced by science
Secularization: Two Views
• The Old Paradigm
– Peter Berger & Thomas Luckmann
– Assumptions
• Religion has become an individual choice
(privatization)
• We have been exposed to new cultures
and religions from which to choose
(pluralism)
– This leads to the relativism of all religions
• Secularization leads to the eventual
decline of religion
• The New Paradigm
– R. Stephen Warner
– Roger Finke, Rodney Stark &
William Bainbridge
– Assumptions
• Secularization leads to religious
revival or innovation
An Alternate View (The New
Paradigm)
• Others suggested that
secularization leads to religious
revival and/or innovation
– Religion will not be replaced by
science
Has Religion Been Displaced by
Science?
• Seems to be the case in Europe, but
not in the U.S.
– Churches receive more money than any
other charity
– Over 90% say they believe in God
– Around 57% say they pray on a regular
basis
– Around 70% report that religion is “very
important” in their lives
– Church membership has increased over
the years, not decreased
Percent of Church Membership
Rates of Church Affiliation, U.S., 1776-1995
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
1776 1850 1860 1870 1890 1906 1916 1926 1952 1980 1995
Year
Why Does Religion Remain
Relevant In The U.S. ?
1. Cultural Compatibility
– Early churches emphasized selfgovernment and voluntary affiliation
• Fits well with cultural values about freedom
of choice and individual initiative
2. Social Identity
– Churches help those who move around
find a sense of community
3. Disestablishment & Competition (Finke,
Stark & Bainbridge)
– Separation of church and state ensures that no
one religion or denomination is funded by the
government
• Thus, religious monopolies are prevented due to
competition
– This wasn’t the case in many European countries
• This creates an environment that encourages
competition between churches
– Churches have to adapt to meet the needs and
wants of “the marketplace”
» a.k.a. “a religious economy”
Church/Sect Theory
• Formulated by H. Richard Niebuhr
• Tried to explain why there were so
many denominations
• He distinguishes between two
types of religious organizations,
churches & sects
Church-Sect Theory
Churches
Sects
Churches intellectualize
religious teachings and
restrain emotionalism in
their services.
Sects stress emotionalism and
individual mystical
experiences and tend toward
fundamentalism. Sects are
based on intense local
networks.
Characterized by low degree
of tension with society
Characterized by high degree
of tension with society
Churches and Sects
Churches
Sects
Low
High
Tolerant
Intolerant,
Rejecting
Traditional
Charismatic
Organization
Bureaucratic
Informal
Membership
Establishment
Alienated
Degree of Tension With
Society
Attitude Towards Other
Institutions and Religions
Type of Authority
Rankings on the Church-Sect Continuum
Disciples
Episcopal
of Christ
United Church
American
of Christ
Baptist
Evangelical
Unitarian
Lutheran
Presbyterian
Reform
Methodist
Catholic
Missouri
Synod
Lutheran
Southern
Baptist
Quaker
Nazarene
Assemblies
of God
Mormon
Seventh-Day
Adventist
Jehovah’s
Witness
Sect
Church
Expert Rankings of Selected Denominations on the
Church-Sect Continuum
The Process of Church/Sect
Formation
• Sects
– Dense social networks
– Members who are predominately
lower in social status
• Churches
– Cosmopolitan social networks that
are not as dense
– Members who are higher in social
status
• The most important variable is
social class
– As the sect grows it attracts
members from higher social classes
• These members are more likely to want
trained leadership, intellectual teaching,
etc.
• Eventually, class schism results between
the upper and the lower social classes
Church-Sect Formation
Church
Church
Sect
Sect
Sect
Expanding The Theory
• Niebuhr limited his theory to
religious organizations
• Stark and Bainbridge have
expanded it
– They link church-sect theory with
their concept of religious economies
– They argue that secularization
creates either revivals or innovations
(nrms)
The Evidence?
• In the 1960s & 70s many social
scientists predicted that religion
would be replaced by science
– They noticed that the largest
established denominations were
losing members
Market Shares of Mainline per 1,000 Church Members,
1940-1985
Denomination
1940
1960
1985
Percentage loss
or gain
United
Methodists
124.7
93.0
64.3
-48%
Presbyterian,
U.S.A.
41.7
36.4
21.3
-49%
Episcopal
30.9
28.6
19.2
-38%
Christian
(Disciples)
25.7
15.7
7.8
-70%
United Church
of Christ
26.5
19.6
11.8
-56%
• Yet, these scientists neglected to
look at other non-mainline
denominations
Market Shares of Evangelicals per 1,000 Church Members,
1940-1985
Denomination
1940
1960
1985
Southern
Baptists
Assemblies of
God
Church of the
Nazarene
Church of God
(Cleveland, TN)
76.7
85.0
101.3
Percentage loss
or gain
+32%
3.1
4.4
14.6
+371%
2.6
2.7
3.7
+42%
1.0
1.5
3.6
+260%
The Geography of NRMs
• NRM’S typically arise in those
areas where sects and churches
have failed to satisfy the religious
market
• What are NRMs?
– “The beginning phase of an entirely
new religion”
• Differs from a sect in that sects attempt to
purify or return to elements of an
established religion
• Research has shown that NRMs
are more successful in areas
where “secularization” has
occurred
– The unchurched belt in the Western
U.S.
Church Membership Rates Per 1,000
Values:
588.37
To
747.3
547.63
To
587.84
460.98
To
546.46
405.98
To
453.63
313.11
To
399.18
2006 Church Attendance Rates
Studying Group Solidarity: Solomon
Asch
Group 1
X
Group 2
A
B
C
Group 1
X
Group 2
A
B
C
Group 1
X
Group 2
A
B
C
Response Rates
Why Do People Join NRMS?:
Studying Religious Conversion
• The brainwashing thesis
– Based on psychology
– Members are thought to be:
•
•
•
•
•
Young
Lacking strong social attachments
From lower socioeconomic classes
Uneducated
Weak minded and thus highly suggestible
• The social network thesis
– Based on sociology
– John Lofland & Rodney Stark studied
religious conversion to the Unification
Church
Research Findings
•
Empirical research suggests the following
generalizations
– Those who are deeply committed to a faith do not go out
and join another faith
• Seekership precedes many conversions but….
– Converts don’t have to have a favorable opinion of the NRM
before they join, and they don’t initially agree with the
NRM’s ideology
• Conversion is an act of conformity
– Recruitment and conversion to NRMs happens primarily
through pre-existing social networks with family and
friends
– Strong ties to others in the NRM are important for
recruitment
– Sustained intensive interaction is also important for
retention
• Members who are heavily involved have fewer and weaker ties
to non-members
Conclusions
– Conversion Is A Matter Of
Conformity
– Secularization contributes to
the emergence of religious
revivals and NRMs