Religion and sociology: connections and perspectives

Religion and Sociology

Challenges to the collective consciousness of the United States often revolve around concepts of conflicting religious belief. Within the past century a movement that many believe is fundamentalist has frequently challenged ebbs and flows in the religious ideals of the nation. The Christian Right gives millions of people a sense of peace, promising change in a socially challenged nation often more expressive of its violence and failing family structure than its value as a leader among men and nations, of while many others it gives pause to consider oppression and censorship of changes that they believe are foundational to progress, such as the appreciation of the changing acceptance of diversity, especially with regard to family structure, with the majority of Americans embracing the diversity of the new family including homosexuality and women's rights, not to mention a greater acceptance of abortion. (Wood & Wald 351) In a nation where religion and the state are assumed and expected by many to be separate entities many people are concerned with the political and sociological pull that is being developed by the Christina Right, while those within the movement embrace the ideals of family and conservatism that drive the movement, and that they wish to see as the guiding force to social change.

As Jeff Sharlet notes in his foundational work, Through a Glass, Darkly: How the Christian Right is Reimagining U.S. History, many individuals wish to discount the validity of the messages of the Christian right, claiming that they are, "A burp in American history. An unpleasant odor that will pass." (34) Despite the reality that such fundamentalist movements have been around since the foundation of the nation, and yet he also makes clear that the reinterpretation of the historical past of the United States as one that expressed fundamental principles, without regard to context, is troubling as it discounts the foundational truths that separate faith from politics. Sharlet points out that many Christian Right followers believe that the separation of church and state was meant by the framer of the constitution and the United States, was meant to protect the church from the state, rather than the more traditionally accepted view that the reverse is true, and that the framers wished to make sure that religious doctrine did not manipulate governmental and legal issues. (35) Wood, also reiterates that much current scholarship details the foundation of the separation to protect religion from government rather than visa versa. (339) point frequently made by the prominent social theorist Emile Durkheim, the foundations of religion are far less concrete than one would expect and that religion and religious beliefs are a fundamentally social phenomena, dictated by the power of coercion.

Blend et al. 20) It is almost as if the Christian Right, read the words of this master and detailed how their social goals would best be accomplished, as the foundation of the social movement that is beginning to influence the politics and opinions of the nation, is founded in the fellowship of the faith, recruiting and influencing these recruits to vote in a particular, ascribed manner. According to Wald the massive movement is gaining political strength and voice through getting out the vote, in their massive parishionership. (Wood & Wald 351) This is despite the multitude of studies that support the idea that the majority of people are not supportive of the Christina Right leadership opinions, such as the right to easy access to birth control and the Equal Rights Amendment, purporting that men and women are equal and should be legally accepted as such, two fundamental objections of the Christian Right leadership. (351-352) The pro-family movement has reiterated the need to vote, the way the church would have you vote, by lobbying extensively and even making huge campaign contributions to chosen candidates. (353) Evidence of Durkheim's sociological explanation of religion can be found in countless examples, in one example Sharlet, reiterates testimony by a professed "Jesus freak" as to how the fellowship of the church guided everything that later became a part of his life, after conversion at 16, including his marriage and his membership in a Christian rock group, that sadly failed, as he puts it through selling itself, embracing commercialism. (40) The foundation of the story demonstrates the social pull of religion as a way of life, that is inclusive, despite its obvious contradictions to the modern world, belief systems and economy. In a sense the social desire to fit in and be seen as different are met by the acceptance of the church as a lifestyle. According to Durkheim, "Deep down, no religion is false.... Each in its own way is true, for each answers given conditions of human life."

Blend et al. 30)

Max Weber also committed a great deal of his life and scholarship to the sociology of religion, affirming repeatedly that religion must exist to transform society into a moral society, rather than one that meets the conditions of the natural instincts of man, being amoral in the sense that they are often simply self serving, yet he also reiterated the importance of studying the ways in which religious groups obtain power, "...one aspect of the sociology of religion is the study of how certain groups or institutions (theologians, prophets, churches and sects) attempt to control spiritual power."

Turner 28) This would obviously be mirrored in the writings of Wood, Ward and Sharlet, as their collective thesis' create an acknowledgement of the gaining and maintenance of power by a fundamentalist subculture that does not reflect the majority in its core belief system.

The anthropological significance of religion is to provide powerful solutions at the level of symbol, ritual and doctrine to the senseless character of the mundane world. Here is the real location of charisma in Weber's sociology, namely as a spiritual force which, in going beyond our experiences of the mundane world, offers hope that there is a meaningful reality behind everyday reality. Religion is thus related to this universal anthropological quest for meaning. Organized religion -- and especially the institutions, practices and beliefs of what Weber called 'world religions' -- provides an articulate and systematic set of answers to theodicy, but its very institutionalization exposes these routinized forms of religion to the perennial threat of unrestrained charisma.