Blog 8

                The documentary, “Judgment Day,” is about one town’s school conflict over evolution and intelligent design.  Intelligent design is the product of religion dealing with the modern world.  Before Darwin’s theory of Evolution, Christians believed that god created all life on earth, known as creationism.  The teaching of creationism and evolution was a controversial topic and has been the subject of multiple trials.  In 1986, the United States Supreme Court ruled that creationism cannot be taught in public schools, because it violated student’s constitutional rights.  The Dover School Board required a statement to be made to biology students that stated that intelligent design was an alternate theory to Darwin’s theory of Evolution.  Intelligent Design combines creationist ideas with scientific rhetoric in an attempt to pass creationist ideas off as science.  Intelligent Design is the product of religion dealing with the modern world.  Religious bodies wish to teach their theories in schools, so they created Intelligent Design to try to meet the standards needed to teach something in public schools.  Many people are opposed to Evolution because it hypothesizes that humans evolved from apes, mammals, and even single celled organisms.  To those that oppose evolution, this relation means that humans are not better than other animals and are not created in god’s image.  Both intelligent design and creationism give humans higher standing than other living things.

                As time passes new ideas are formed.  Some of these permeate society and change it drastically. One idea that has a profound impact on modern society is science.  Science has led to the formation of new ideas based on observation and experimentation.  Within science is the process for science to correct itself.  Scientific theories have created new technologies which have an impact on society.  These changes are either accepted or rejected.  Religions have had to deal with the changes technology has caused.  Some religions accept the changes, while others have rejected them.  Fundamentalist religious movements have rejected these changes and try to return society to the state it was before the changes were made.  These movements usually separate from another religion that accepts the changes society has gone through.  They start as sects and then eventually grow in size and become denominations.  Religions that accept the changes are usually denominations wishing to maintain support, so they accept changes in society.

                America in the past century has gone through great change.  Liberals are those that accepted and pushed for change, and conservatives are those wishing to undo these changes and halt future changes.  This spectrum is no one dimensional, as people have their own views on each issue.  Organizations have been formed by both sides to advance their views on issues.  Many conservative groups are affiliated with religious groups.  They are either directly affiliated with religious groups, or are led by religious people.  Conservatives wish to keep society in a state before the change they oppose.  These changes include abortion, immigration, and equal rights. 

                Scientology is a religion that has been influenced by modernism.  Scientology rejects psychiatry and claims to have a different way to solve the problem which psychiatry claims to solve.  Scientology tries to repair the damage done to a person’s soul.  They claim this damage prevents someone from reaching their full potential.  Religions that emerged in Native American groups when Europeans arrived were impacted by modernism.  Some Religions emphasized changes to society that helped them deal with Europeans, while others reverted to old traditions.  Both were reactions to the changes to their society caused by the introduction of Europeans.  UFO movements vary in belief and organizational level.  These groups are believed to be modern day folklore and fairies.  UFO movements have been influenced by modernism, because science has led to the knowledge of the possibility of life from somewhere that is not on earth.  Satanic churches have been the center of controversies, because their symbols are opposed by the Christian religions.  Christian religions believe that Satan is evil and therefore anything associated with Satan is evil.  Symbols are not absolute and are defined by each group.  Symbols can be the widely used within a society, but the meaning is not absolute, so a group may attempt to change the meaning of a symbol.  Anti-Cult groups are a reaction to the large number of new religions.  People try to diminish these new religions and maintain the strength of the major religions.  They use examples of other new religions that have had adverse effects on its members to prove that all new religions are bad.

Blog 7

                “Contestant Number Two” is a documentary about a Druze woman’s, Duah, attempt to enter a beauty pageant.  The Druze religion requires woman to dress modestly.  The beauty pageant, which was televised, required the wearing of a bathing suit, something which outraged Druze society.  Over time, Duah and her family’s views on what she was allowed to wear changed.  At first, the family was cautious of what was okay to wear.  However, when the Druze society initially reacted to the news she was going to wear a bathing suit, the family wanted her to go through with the pageant.  When the head of the Druze religion got involved, Duah dropped out.  When there was too much tension between them and the Druze society they moved back to the society.  This is similar to how sects and cults move towards society when under too much pressure.  In the documentary, Duah claims that the people in her class see nothing wrong with her wearing a bathing suit.  This shows how globalization affects a society.  The younger generation has had more contact with other societies and is therefore more influenced by them as opposed to the older generation of Druze.  This documentary shows the struggles of a young woman against her society, and how a society exerts pressure on those wishing to go against it.

                Ethnocentrism is the belief that your society is better than others.  This belief is held by most societies, and many different explanations have been proposed as to why.  Some claim that imperialism is the cause, and others that it is a biologically linked.   However, I believe it is inherent to the formation of a group.  A society or group needs to keep its members by convincing them they are better off in their group than others.  This ethnocentrism can have varying degrees.  Ethnocentrism can result in a group trying to “convert” members to their group, but ethnocentrism can result in tension between groups.  Ethnocentrism was combined with Darwinism to create Social Darwinism in the late nineteenth century.  Social Darwinism was the belief that White Christian Europeans were superior to other races.  This lead to eugenics, which was the belief that inferior races should either be sterilized or killed, which would lead to the end of their race.  These views influenced Nazi Germany and lead to the Holocaust.  Europe was not the only place that events like the Holocaust occurred.  Genocides also occurred in Rwanda, Cambodia, and other areas.  Ethnocentrism is a force that can create violence and hate between groups, but it doesn’t always.  One form of ethnocentrism is a rivalry between schools, because each school believe themselves to be superior to the other.  Ethnocentrism is a necessary part of any society, but when present in extreme amounts in a society can be disastrous.

                Theosophy is a religion which has experienced many schisms after the death of their charismatic leader.  The schisms resulted from a difference in views between different groups within Theosophy.  The schisms can be viewed in terms of ethnocentrism.  The main schism occurred between the group located in India and the United States.  The US group wanted to stop the Indianization of the group.  This is a form of ethnocentrism, because the US group believed that their group was better and wished to improve their group by splitting from the Indian group.  The New thought and the Harmonial Family is a group that survived the death of its charismatic leader through institutionalization.  This process did not occur immediately after the death of the leader, but took some time in which other leaders arose.  Another group that institutionalized was Spiritualism.  A split occurred in Spiritualism when it institutionalized.  Spiritualism had a congregational church system and was heavily influenced by Christianity, which caused non-Christians to split.  Neo-Paganism and Wicca are examples of primitivism.  Both groups started for the nostalgia for the past.  These groups are in high tension with the society, because they are different from Christianity.  New age movements are a religious group that embraces modernization.  It shares it views through the internet, books and magazines.  The Association for Research and Enlightenment is a group that survived the death of its leader by moving towards mainstream society.  The group embraced Christianity and combined it with its teachings.  This decreased tensions with society and caused an increase in membership.  ECKANKAR is another religion that relieved tensions with society by moving towards it after the death of their charismatic leader.  Although the group did not incorporate Christian views, they did lessen their negative views of Christianity, which helped to decrease tensions.  Hippie Communal Spirituality is the revival of communal living.  At the communes, drugs were used as a way to expand conscious.

Blog 6

 

Society consists of interpersonal bonds between people in a group.  It is complex, and essential to the world that we are used to.  The main component of society is social groups.  Social groups are a group of people that share a common identity and a common set of values and beliefs.  Social groups also interact with each other regularly.  They are not a social aggregate, people in the same location at a given time, or social categories, people with a common characteristic.  Social groups are where people perform almost all important actions in their lives.  Some examples of social groups are religious organizations, schools, governments, cliques, and a group of friends.  People can belong to various social groups, and different types of social groups.  The two main types of social groups are primary and secondary.  Primary groups are usually small and have a lot of face to face time.  Secondary groups are larger and more impersonal.  People have a stronger tie to primary groups, because the direct interactions with others in the group allow ideas to be shared more frequently, thus making the social group have a stronger shared set of beliefs.  Also in a primary group the small size allows members to personally know all other members in the group, which contributes to a strong sense of unity.  Secondary groups are usually weaker in comparison to primary groups, because there is less interaction between members.  People in today’s society belong to more secondary groups than in the past.  This started with the development of an agrarian society which created organizations such as governments and religious hierarchies.  Many other types of secondary social groups have emerged.  This had led to people interacting in more secondary groups.  Some claim this has caused more impersonal.  However, I believe the increased number of secondary groups has made primary groups more important.  People appreciated the personal interaction more, and allow their values to be defined by their primary groups.  Social groups are important to the study of sociology, because every organization is a social group and probably have social groups with in them.

Social groups can help us understand how religion influences a person.  In large religions, a person may be a part of a primary and secondary social group related to the religion.  The secondary group would be the official religion and others in the religion which they do not directly interact with.  The primary group would be those nearby which the person takes part in rituals with.  These two types of social group membership can contribute to the development of a popular and official religion, because each primary group will be influenced by the specific people in the group.

In the Functionalist model of society, all parts of society over time for the purpose of keeping society together.  A problem many sociologists have about this model is dissidents.  In the functionalist model, society has evolved.  Social pressure forced institutions to adapt.  This process does not produce the ideal society, but one that has emerged from past problems.  These new social pressures can cause dissidence.  Society is not a perfect structure which has the capacity to deal with new problems.  It is from past problems which needed to be dealt with.  This is why there are dissidents form a society that has evolved over time.  Society has devised a way to deal with dissidents, which is punishment.  Those who disobey the rules of society face both informal and formal punishments.  These punishments deter people from going against society.  IN modern society these punishments include jail, shunning, and other things which attempt to restore the state of society before the illicit action.  Many new religions use shunning to keep members from leaving.  Members fear losing their status, so they stay in the society.  This was a tactic used by the Branch Davidians.  This was a harsh penalty, because of the communal structure of the religion.  Someone that left would lose all current social relationships, and would need to create all new ones.  This is an informal form of punishment as opposed to jail, which is formal.  Punishment deters dissidents, but does not stop dissidents from emerging in a society.

The documentary, “For God, Tsar, and Fatherland,” followed Mikhail Fedorovich and his group in Russia.  He accepts any Russians into Durakovo.  The group is hierarchal, and is based on Russian Orthodoxy.  Mikhail is the leader in Durakovo, but there are other members throughout Russia.  One of these is the Vice-Speaker of the Russian Duma.  The group despises the Europe and America and wishes to return Russia to a superpower.  They try to accomplish by crafting young men into the ideal citizen.  The people that join Durakovo appear to be unsure about themselves and seek guidance.  Once in Durakovo, the men must strictly obey the orders of Mikhail.  There are group meetings which are similar to mass.  They include prayers, and an opportunity for the members to ask questions about Mikhail’s views.  The society borrows its structure from religion.  In Durakovo, the only time people get to interact with Mikhail is during these group meetings.  The rest of the time, the members obey the orders of Mikhail.  After the introduction of capitalism and democracy, many Russians were confused by the lack of order.  Before this, Russia was ruled by a dictator, and this change caused an economic downturn and the loss of superpower status.  The group in Durakovo is trying to reestablish a dictator and hierarchal structure of society in Russia.

Many Black Jewish and Muslim movements share a similar story.  They mix the teachings of Judaism, Christianity, Islam, and Black Nationalism.  Many share an origin story that blacks are the true humans, and whites are a human creation that should not be in power.  These religions also arose between the 1890s and 1940s in response to slavery.  Blacks wished to separate themselves and take power as reparations for slavery.  One of these religions was taught by Father Divine.  He believed he was the second coming of Jesus Christ.  He created the International Peace Mission Movement, which his flowers belong to.  A large part of this religion is a strict moral code, which is similar to other Black Jewish and Muslim movements.  These strict moral codes are a way for African Americans to feel superior to other Americans.   Two other religions, Santeria and Vodou, incorporate African traditions, but blend the religious traditions where they arose.  Vodou , which was formed in Hati, incorporates aspects of French Christianity.  Santeria was formed in Cuba, but a large group of Yoruba were sent to Cuba as slaves.  They formed a group and were able to create Santeria in the image of the religion of the Yoruba region.  These two religions are a way for slaves and their ancestors to keep their traditional religion alive.  This separates them from the rest of Western society, whose religious traditions are rooted in Christianity.  The followers of these religions do not wisht to be incorporated in western society, because of the abuses it brought to its ancestor through slivery.  The Rastafari movement views Haile Selassie as the Second Advent.  The movement mixes components Christianity and Black Nationalism.  They reject western society and use cannabis in its rituals.  The Peoples Temple was a religious organization founded by Jim Jones.  On November 18^th, 1978 the followers of Jones committed mass suicide, and 5 others were shot.  This incident, known as “Jonestown”, lead many people to be suspicious of cults.  Many accused the religion of using “brain washing.”  These claims were meant to incite fear and hatred towards the religion and came from ex-members and “cult experts.”  Other than the Peoples Temple, these groups insulated themselves from the rest of society by drawing form Black Nationalism.  This insulation was due to slavery, as the members of these groups blamed society for slavery.

Blog 5

                John Sweeny’s documentary showed how Scientology deals with critics.  Sweeny showed no interviews with current Scientology members.  The only current Scientology member he talked was Tommy Davies, a spokesperson for Scientology, and all of his encounters with him were confrontations.  Sweeny interviewed many critics of Scientology which exposed ways that Scientology dealt with these dissenters, such as spreading knowledge of the dissenters past crimes.  The documentary shows the perspective of a critic of Scientology, and the critic is dealt with by Scientology.  Scientology’s inner workings are rarely discussed.  This does not mean this documentary was a failure, and should be ignored.  The documentary shows that Scientology works to fight critics and tries to discredit them.  Scientology’s response to this documentary was also interesting.  In their response, Scientology misquoted Sweeny while claiming that Sweeny did not report Scientology ethically. The narrator poses the question, “Why he kept making the accusation?”  The accusation in question was that Scientologists were brainwashed.  The Scientology film then showed a clip of Sweeny yelling at Tommy Davies.  However, Sweeny was yelling about a previous encounter with Tommy Davies.  Scientology’s actions show that it has considerable economic and political power that it wishes to protect.  It reacts quickly to critics and usually with a considerable amount of force.  However, neither documentary shows what it is like to be a member of Scientology, the structure of Scientology, or the ideology of Scientology.

Typologizing Religion is a hard task, because of the numerous attempts already made.  There are many types of religions, but categorizing them is a challenge.  Any typology will have some bias in it.  What a person sees as normal will be influenced by their values.  Also the use of the same terms in the typology influences how others see the typology.  For example, under Stark and Bainbridge’s typology, Scientology is a sect, because it is in tension with the outside and was just created and not the result of a schism.  However, Scientologists would not appreciated being labeled a cult, even if in the specific typology, a cult was not defined to be corrupt or bad.  Even though a typology is very hard to make, it would be very useful.  It would allow religions to be analyzed and compared with more ease.  The “best” typology in my opinion is Stark and Bainbridge’s.  Their typology has clear differences between church, denomination, sect and cult.  This typology avoids using abnormal psychology in the definition of a cult.  Other typologies that use abnormal psychology in the definition of cult show the authors fear of new religions.  The author forgets at one point every religion was a cult.  Cults are not necessarily bad or founded around a mental defect.  I think the typology of world affirming, accommodating, criticizing, and rejecting religions is useful when used in conjunction with the Stark and Bainbridge typology.  The four categories in this typology are related to a category in the Stark and Bainbridge typology.  Most Churches would be world affirming, because they control society and therefore co-exist with it.  Most denominations are world accommodating, because they accept society, but stress a religious life.  Most sects are world criticizing, because they are in tension with the religion they came from and society.  Most cults are world rejecting, because they are exclusive, total institutions and in tension with society.  However, these correspondences are not absolute.  For example, Buddhism in America would be a cult, because it is new in the area, and is in ideological tension with the major denominations that were present in America.  However, Buddhism is world accommodating in my opinion, because it accepts society, but stresses a life coherent with Buddhist principles. Typologies are not absolute and will have their problems; however, they help in comparing religions across time and space.  A single unifying typology is impossible to create for a variety of reasons, but a couple general typologies allow for the best analysis.

Chapters sixteen to twenty five discuss religions that have come from Asia and the Middle East to America.  Since these religions have been transplanted into a new environment, they can all be considered cults.  They all face tensions with their environments, especially those from the Middle East because of the events of nine eleven.  Still these religions are in ideological conflict with the dominant Christian religions.  One Asian religion to come over is Buddhism.  Buddhism is present in several strands, but there are 3 major types.  They all exist in a similar type of organization, with local temples that hold rituals for members of the religion and also teach nonmembers about Buddhism.  The temples are not well organized between each other and rivalries do exist between competing types of Buddhism; however, they do come together on occasion for important events.  This puts Buddhism in both the audience cult and cult movement category of Stark and Bainbridge's typology, because Buddhism offers classes which have little structure to nonmembers, but they offer a structured religion to its members.  Hinduism is similar to Buddhism in its current structure.  There are many that follow American gurus, while there are others that are heavily influenced by Hindu ideology.  Hare Krishna is a cult movement founded in 1966 by Srila Prabhupada.  It was in high tensions with its environment, and moved to San Francisco, where the presence of the counter culture made for a less tense environment.  In the 1970s the religion faced controversy and decreased in size.  To accommodate society, it abandoned its communal living, and changed its main concerns.  This illustrates one way how a cult deals with tension in its environment.  The Unification Church is a cult in America, because it did not form from a schism with a specific denomination.  Its ideology is based on the bible, but also by Sun Myung Moon’s early life in Korea.  Islam has been present in the United States since the late 1800s.  Although Islam shares a common background with Christianity, in America Islam is a cult movement, especially in today’s post-nine eleven environment.  Many people are skeptic of Muslims, and a very tense environment has been created.  Islam is quite large and has been in America for a while, but the extremely tense environment is why Islam is still a cult in Stark and Bainbridge’s typology.  Baha’i is another cult movement in the United States.  It blends many religions, such as Islam and Christianity, but it is not the result of any schism.  Sufism is another cult, because of its small size, its relative youth in America, and its tension with its environment.  Gurdjieff in America is both a client cult and a cult movement.  His movements were a way for people to balance their three intelligences, and therefore the movements were a therapeutic.  However, the methods to achieve this are not offered for compensation.  Subud is another cult movement from the Middle East.  It is relatively small in the US and has no relation to Christianity.  These religions are all cults, because they are new to the United States.  They are all in ideological tension with their environment.  They have had to deal with this tension, and have done so in different ways.  Most accommodate to society, but this is not the only option.

Society consists of interpersonal bonds between people in a group.  It is complex, and essential to the world that we are used to.  The main component of society is social groups.  Social groups are a group of people that share a common identity and a common set of values and beliefs.  Social groups also interact with each other regularly.  They are not a social aggregate, people in the same location at a given time, or social categories, people with a common characteristic.  Social groups are where people perform almost all important actions in their lives.  Some examples of social groups are religious organizations, schools, governments, cliques, and a group of friends.  People can belong to various social groups, and different types of social groups.  The two main types of social groups are primary and secondary.  Primary groups are usually small and have a lot of face to face time.  Secondary groups are larger and more impersonal.  People have a stronger tie to primary groups, because the direct interactions with others in the group allow ideas to be shared more frequently, thus making the social group have a stronger shared set of beliefs.  Also in a primary group the small size allows members to personally know all other members in the group, which contributes to a strong sense of unity.  Secondary groups are usually weaker in comparison to primary groups, because there is less interaction between members.  People in today’s society belong to more secondary groups than in the past.  This started with the development of an agrarian society which created organizations such as governments and religious hierarchies.  Many other types of secondary social groups have emerged.  This had led to people interacting in more secondary groups.  Some claim this has caused more impersonal.  However, I believe the increased number of secondary groups has made primary groups more important.  People appreciated the personal interaction more, and allow their values to be defined by their primary groups.  Social groups are important to the study of sociology, because every organization is a social group and probably have social groups with in them.