How Religion Can Lead to Social Change in a Society

17.3 Sociological Perspectives on Faith

Learning Objectives

1. Summarize the major functions of religion.
2. Explicate the views of religion held by the conflict perspective.
3. Explain the views of religion held by the symbolic interactionist perspective.

Sociological perspectives on religion aim to understand the functions faith serves, the inequality and other problems information technology can reinforce and perpetuate, and the role it plays in our daily lives (Emerson, Monahan, & Mirola, 2011). Tabular array 17.1 "Theory Snapshot" summarizes what these perspectives say.

Table 17.i Theory Snapshot

Theoretical perspective	Major assumptions
Functionalism	Religion serves several functions for society. These include (a) giving meaning and purpose to life, (b) reinforcing social unity and stability, (c) serving as an amanuensis of social control of behavior, (d) promoting physical and psychological well-being, and (eastward) motivating people to work for positive social change.
Conflict theory	Religion reinforces and promotes social inequality and social conflict. It helps convince the poor to accept their lot in life, and information technology leads to hostility and violence motivated by religious differences.
Symbolic interactionism	This perspective focuses on the ways in which individuals interpret their religious experiences. It emphasizes that beliefs and practices are not sacred unless people regard them equally such. Once they are regarded as sacred, they accept on special significance and give pregnant to people's lives.

The Functions of Religion

Much of the work of Émile Durkheim stressed the functions that religion serves for social club regardless of how it is practiced or of what specific religious behavior a gild favors. Durkheim's insights continue to influence sociological thinking today on the functions of religion.

Kickoff, faith gives meaning and purpose to life. Many things in life are hard to understand. That was certainly true, every bit nosotros take seen, in prehistoric times, but even in today'southward highly scientific historic period, much of life and death remains a mystery, and religious faith and belief assistance many people make sense of the things scientific discipline cannot tell us.

2d, religion reinforces social unity and stability. This was 1 of Durkheim's most important insights. Religion strengthens social stability in at least two ways. First, it gives people a common ready of beliefs and thus is an important agent of socialization (meet Chapter 4 "Socialization"). Second, the communal exercise of faith, every bit in houses of worship, brings people together physically, facilitates their communication and other social interaction, and thus strengthens their social bonds.

The communal practice of religion in a business firm of worship brings people together and allows them to collaborate and communicate. In this way faith helps reinforce social unity and stability. This function of faith was ane of Émile Durkheim's most important insights.

Erin Rempel – Worship – CC Past-NC-ND two.0.

A 3rd part of religion is related to the one simply discussed. Religion is an agent of social control and thus strengthens social order. Organized religion teaches people moral beliefs and thus helps them learn how to be good members of guild. In the Judeo-Christian tradition, the Ten Commandments are perhaps the most famous set of rules for moral beliefs.

A fourth function of religion is greater psychological and concrete well-being. Religious religion and practise can enhance psychological well-being by being a source of condolement to people in times of distress and by enhancing their social interaction with others in places of worship. Many studies find that people of all ages, not only the elderly, are happier and more satisfied with their lives if they are religious. Religiosity likewise apparently promotes better physical health, and some studies even find that religious people tend to alive longer than those who are not religious (Moberg, 2008). We render to this role later.

A last function of religion is that information technology may motivate people to work for positive social alter. Religion played a central role in the evolution of the Southern civil rights motility a few decades ago. Religious beliefs motivated Martin Luther Male monarch Jr. and other civil rights activists to take chances their lives to desegregate the South. Black churches in the South also served as settings in which the civil rights movement held meetings, recruited new members, and raised coin (Morris, 1984).

Religion, Inequality, and Conflict

Faith has all of these benefits, but, according to conflict theory, it can also reinforce and promote social inequality and social conflict. This view is partly inspired by the work of Karl Marx, who said that religion was the "opiate of the masses" (Marx, 1964). By this he meant that organized religion, like a drug, makes people happy with their existing conditions. Marx repeatedly stressed that workers needed to rise upwards and overthrow the bourgeoisie. To exercise then, he said, they needed first to recognize that their poverty stemmed from their oppression by the bourgeoisie. Merely people who are religious, he said, tend to view their poverty in religious terms. They remember information technology is God'southward will that they are poor, either because he is testing their religion in him or because they take violated his rules. Many people believe that if they endure their suffering, they will be rewarded in the afterlife. Their religious views lead them non to blame the backer class for their poverty and thus non to revolt. For these reasons, said Marx, faith leads the poor to take their fate and helps maintain the existing system of social inequality.

As Affiliate 11 "Gender and Gender Inequality" discussed, religion besides promotes gender inequality by presenting negative stereotypes about women and by reinforcing traditional views about their subordination to men (Klassen, 2009). A proclamation a decade ago by the Southern Baptist Convention that a married woman should "submit herself graciously" to her husband'due south leadership reflected traditional religious belief (Gundy-Volf, 1998).

Equally the Puritans' persecution of not-Puritans illustrates, religion can also promote social conflict, and the history of the world shows that individual people and whole communities and nations are quite ready to persecute, kill, and get to state of war over religious differences. We meet this today and in the contempo past in central Europe, the Center East, and Northern Ireland. Jews and other religious groups have been persecuted and killed since ancient times. Religion tin can be the source of social unity and cohesion, but over the centuries it also has led to persecution, torture, and wanton bloodshed.

News reports going back since the 1990s indicate a last problem that religion tin can cause, and that is sexual abuse, at least in the Cosmic Church building. As y'all undoubtedly have heard, an unknown number of children were sexually abused by Catholic priests and deacons in the United States, Canada, and many other nations going back at least to the 1960s. There is much evidence that the Church bureaucracy did footling or nil to cease the abuse or to sanction the offenders who were committing information technology, and that they did non written report it to law enforcement agencies. Various divisions of the Church take paid tens of millions of dollars to settle lawsuits. The numbers of priests, deacons, and children involved will almost certainly never exist known, but it is estimated that at least 4,400 priests and deacons in the United states, or almost 4% of all such officials, have been defendant of sexual corruption, although fewer than 2,000 had the allegations confronting them proven (Terry & Smith, 2006). Given these estimates, the number of children who were abused probably runs into the thousands.

Symbolic Interactionism and Religion

While functional and conflict theories look at the macro aspects of religion and society, symbolic interactionism looks at the micro aspects. Information technology examines the role that religion plays in our daily lives and the ways in which we interpret religious experiences. For example, information technology emphasizes that beliefs and practices are non sacred unless people regard them as such. Once nosotros regard them as sacred, they take on special significance and give meaning to our lives. Symbolic interactionists report the ways in which people practice their faith and interact in houses of worship and other religious settings, and they study how and why religious religion and practice have positive consequences for individual psychological and physical well-existence.

The cross, Star of David, and the crescent and star are symbols of Islam, Christianity, and Judaism, respectively. The symbolic interactionist perspective emphasizes the ways in which individuals interpret their religious experiences and religious symbols.

Religious symbols indicate the value of the symbolic interactionist arroyo. A crescent moon and a star are just two shapes in the sky, but together they establish the international symbol of Islam. A cross is merely two lines or bars in the shape of a "t," but to tens of millions of Christians information technology is a symbol with deeply religious significance. A Star of David consists of two superimposed triangles in the shape of a six-pointed star, merely to Jews effectually the earth information technology is a sign of their religious faith and a reminder of their history of persecution.

Religious rituals and ceremonies likewise illustrate the symbolic interactionist approach. They can be deeply intense and can involve crying, laughing, screaming, trancelike conditions, a feeling of oneness with those effectually you lot, and other emotional and psychological states. For many people they can be transformative experiences, while for others they are non transformative but are deeply moving nonetheless.

Cardinal Takeaways

• Faith ideally serves several functions. It gives meaning and purpose to life, reinforces social unity and stability, serves as an agent of social control, promotes psychological and physical well-beingness, and may motivate people to work for positive social change.
• On the other paw, religion may help keep poor people happy with their lot in life, promote traditional views about gender roles, and engender intolerance toward people whose religious religion differs from one'southward own.
• The symbolic interactionist perspective emphasizes how faith affects the daily lives of individuals and how they interpret their religious experiences.

For Your Review

1. Of the several functions of religion that were discussed, which function practise you call back is the most important? Why?
2. Which of the 3 theoretical perspectives on organized religion makes the most sense to you? Explain your pick.

References

Emerson, Chiliad. O., Monahan, S. C., & Mirola, Due west. A. (2011). Organized religion matters: What sociology teaches usa most religion in our world. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.

Gundy-Volf, J. (1998, September–October). Neither biblical nor merely: Southern Baptists and the subordination of women. Sojourners, 12–13.

Klassen, P. (Ed.). (2009). Women and religion. New York, NY: Routledge.

Marx, M. (1964). Karl Marx: Selected writings in sociology and social philosophy (T. B. Bottomore, Trans.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.

Moberg, D. O. (2008). Spirituality and aging: Research and implications. Journal of Faith, Spirituality & Aging, 20, 95–134.

Morris, A. (1984). The origins of the ceremonious rights movement: Black communities organizing for alter. New York, NY: Complimentary Press.

Terry, Yard., & Smith, Chiliad. L. (2006). The nature and telescopic of sexual abuse of minors past Catholic priests and deacons in the The states: Supplementary data assay. Washington, DC: The states Conference of Catholic Bishops.

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Source: https://open.lib.umn.edu/sociology/chapter/17-3-sociological-perspectives-on-religion/

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