Let's turn here to religious diversity
in the United States. On a sunny day in
December, with six inches of snow on the
ground and the temperature near freezing,
Greek American anthropologist, Catherine
Kozaitis was driving through the
hinterlands of Ohio in a car with four
other women. All were dressed in solid
black, including thick head scarves
folded over and across the chin. The
group received long and suspicious
stares from curious onlookers when they
stopped to fill the tank with gas.
One young man asked, "What kind of
believers are you?" What could these
spectators have been thinking? Kozaitis
and her family were on their way to a
monastery to attend the memorial service
for her uncle, who had died 40 days
earlier. In Greece, black symbolizes
mourning the death of a loved one and
memorial services are required 40 days
after death. Depending on the age and
relationship of the deceased,
Greek women, especially those who
ascribed to rural customs, may wear black
for life. An intergenerational group of
women wrapped in black attire, without
any makeup to conceal their gloomy,
anxious, looking faces and speaking an
unfamiliar language may be out of
context in rural Ohio. North Americans
play many cultural markers including
accessories that symbolize religious
affiliation or identity. On Friday
evenings, Orthodox Jewish men and boys
wear yarmulka, or skull caps, but women
were snoods.
A crucifix may adorn the neck of a
Christian Arab student in Dearborn
Michigan.
In Muslim women studying in a university
library in New York City stand out from
their peers
due to the hijab that covers their head.
Nuns wearing layers of black clothing
and a wimple welcome a group of school
children and their teacher at a
monastery in North Carolina.
Amish men with beards dress in straight
black cut suits, coats and straw hats,
ride in a horse and buggy in
Pennsylvania. Islam, the religious system
of Muslims, remains unfamiliar, ambiguous
and threatening to many Americans.
Ignorance of the multiple meanings of the
hijab, combined with ethnocentrism,
results in prejudice interpretations of
the veil by the masses, as well as by
feminists who seek to "save" Muslim women
from what they see as oppression.
Anthropologist Laila Abbugud dispels
misconceptions of the veil as a mark of
sexism. She argues that women redefine
the veil as a symbol of agency and
empowerment to claim cultural and
political identity. Religious symbols
provide humans with emotional and
intellectual affirmation of their values
and beliefs. Such symbols reinforce a
collective identity and community among
individuals. Religion is a human
universal, however its functions, rituals,
and symbols, express and reflect varied
histories, social systems, political
interests, cultural practices, and
psychological needs. The hijab, a symbol
of Islam, can represent religiosity,
modesty, patriarchy or women's
independence among Muslims, while it can stir
fear and mistrust among Westerners.
What is the relationship in the United
States between the church and government?
As stated in the First Amendment of the
Bill of Rights, Congress shall make no
law respecting an establishment of
religion. This amendment sits up the
separation of church and state, by which
government is not to interfere in the
practice of religion. Nor is government
considered to be the sphere of religion.
Of course, the separation has been harder
to maintain in practice. Increasingly
religion and religious views have
entered the political realm where ads
have gone so far as declare that a vote
for a particular candidate
is a sin against God. On the political
left, leaders of targeted evangelicals and
warned against fundamentalist
involvement in politics. On the right
candidates campaigning as concerned
Christians, have accused those who oppose
their views of Christian bashing. The
government of the United States is
supposed to guarantee and protect
religious liberty without establishing a
state religion. Historically, religion has
been a potent force for social Union and
division. Religion is a formal, social
institution that, for individuals, can
provide coherence, meaning, and direction
in life. Religion, especially through its
rituals, such as Bar Mitzvah, also serves
to create temporary or permanent union
among those who carry out the same
rituals. Religion creates social
divisions within and between societies
and Nations.
Thus religion both unites and divides.
Rituals are formal. That is they're
stylized, repetitive, and stereotyped.
People perform them in special or sacred
places, and at set times. Rituals include
sequences of words and actions invented
prior to the current performance of the
ritual in which they occur. Rituals are
social acts. By taking part in a joint
public act, performers signal that they
accept a common social and moral order.
Participation in a ritual can thus be a
powerful force for mobilization. Rites of
passage are rituals., often religious, that
mark and facilitate a person's movement
from one social state of being to
another. Examples include the Plains
Indians Vision Quest, First Communion,
marriage, funerals,,fraternity hazing, etc.
According to anthropologist Arnold Van Gennep, and Victor Turner, rites of passage
were often divided into three phases:
separation, liminality, and incorporation.
In the separation phase the candidate is
separated from a previous social status
and begins to move toward a new status.
Let's take the secular example of
military basic training, or boot camp, in
which the recruit leaves home as a buzz
cut symbolizing separation or shedding a
former skin, and is given new clothes. The
movement here is from civilian toward
military status. Liminality is the middle
phase. It's a learning phase in which the
candidate is between two statuses. In
basic training this is the long period
in which recruits are cut off from
society and subjected to harsh living and
training conditions.
Incorporation is a ceremony that marks
the reincorporation of the person back
into society with a new status. In the
case of basic training, the recruit now
becomes a member of a service corps.
The liminal or marginal phase is the most
interesting. It's the period between
states. The limbo during which people
have left one place or state, but have not
yet entered the next. This is called
the liminal phase of the right. The
mentality has certain characteristics.
Liminal people occupy ambiguous
social positions. They exist apart from
ordinary distinctions and expectations.
they are in a time, out of time, cut off
from ordinary society, betwixt and
between. Often rites of passage are
collective with a group of people
enduring them together.
The most notable social aspect of
collective liminality is communitas;
an intense community spirit, a feeling of
great solidarity, equality, and
togetherness. Let's turn to religious
diversity in the United States. The
nation has a long, relatively peaceful,
history of incredible religious
diversity. Today, the main religious
minorities include Jews, Mormons, Muslims,
Buddhists, and Hindus.
This table from the Pew Research Center looks
at religious affiliation in the United
States. While well over 70% of the population
is Christian, there is great religious
diversity within Christianity. Especially
with an evangelical and mainline
Protestant traditions. This table also
lists 5.9% of non-christian
faiths including including Judaism, Islam,
Buddhism, Hinduism, and others. Almost 23%
of the people polled indicate
that they have no religious affiliation.
The dominant form of Christianity in the
United States has been Protestantism.
Protestantism arose in Europe in
the 15th century as a reaction against
perceived corruption in the Roman
Catholic Church. It represented an effort
to produce a pure form of faith, free of
that perceived corruption.
It placed an emphasis on a direct
personal relationship with God and a
commitment to independence, and
individuality. Puritans fled religious
persecution in Europe and came to the
new world where they wanted to build a
Christian society. Mainline Protestant
branches have include Lutheran's,
Methodists, Presbyterians, Baptists, and
Anglicans or Episcopalians. For four
centuries mainline Protestant churches
were the most popular religions in the
country. Max Weber's famous 1904 book,
"The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of
Capitalism" sought to explore the
relation between religion and economics.
Weber saw European Protestants, and later
their American descendants, as more
successful financially than Catholics. He
attributed this difference to the value
stressed by their religions. Weber saw
Catholics as more concerned with
immediate happiness and security.
Protestants were more ascetic, which
means that they practiced self-denial.
They were also more entrepreneurial in
future-oriented, he thought. Early
protestants saw success on earth as a
sign of divine favor and probable
salvation. According to some products and
credits, individuals could gain favor
with God through good works. Material
success achieved through hard work could
be a strong clue that someone was
predestined to be saved. The English
Puritan variety of Protestantism
eventually transferred to North America;
suppress work and discourage leisure,
early pleasures, and the enjoyment of
life, profits the fruits of successful
labor could be given to the church or
reinvested, but they could not be hoarded
because excess wealth might lead to
temptation. Karl Marx argued that
capitalism was based on the exploitation
of the workers or proletariat by the
owners bourgeoisie as we discussed in
the module on class. Weber on the other
hand argued that capitalism was a
byproduct of the protestant reformation.
Again, early protestants argued that
people had a calling, a heaven chosen
line of work. This made people work
harder. Predestination was the idea that
god had already determined who would go
to heaven or hell after death.
But the idea of predestination did not
lead people to fatalism, but to work even
harder, but all while consuming
less. By their behavior people sought to
convince themselves that God had chosen
them. Worldly success was seen as a sign
of spiritual fitness and this work ethic
led to high productivity, but again
because people could not enjoy their
prosperity, which would have been sinful,
they invested their earnings creating
capital and it's fueling the capitalist
revolution. Protestant religious awakenings,
or revivals, date back to the 1730's in
the United States. In lieu religious
revivals took place in the 19th and 20th
century. The latest awakening, or revival,
period began in the 1960s. This was a
period of change. The civil rights era,
the sexual revolution, and many people
turned to God who provided clear rules.
This also led to conservative behavior
and politics and the movement toward
anti abortion in anti gay marriage, which
has been so influential in political
debates over the past few decades. The
black church emerged from the
enslavement of African Americans and has
become an important and stable
institution in African American
communities. African American churches
grew from African heritage, Europe and
U.S. Christianity, as well as the
oppression and suffering of enslavement,
Jim Crow, and ongoing discrimination. The
black church played a crucial role on
in the civil rights
movement and continues to provide spaces
of healing, redemption, and resistance for
African-American communities today.
Conservative Protestant denominations
included the Southern Baptists, the
Assembly of God churches, the Church of
God in Christ, and Pentecostal churches,
and they make up about 25 or 25.4% of the population, right? In these
denominations God is viewed as deeply
human, and even vulnerable. And He loves
us unconditionally. God is our best
friend. Thus there's a warmer but also
more severe God willing to punish us for
our sins. These conservative
denominations emphasize the
infallibility of the Bible which must be
interpreted literally. In over the past
few decades it tend to decide with the
Republican party. Jews represent the
largest non-christian religious group in
the United States. They are predominantly
an urban population. The Jewish group is
further distinguished by sectarian
differences, including Reform Judaism, or
43% of American Jews, Conservative
Judaism, or 31%, in Orthodox Judaism, or
10%. Anti-semitism, prejudice against and
discrimination specifically toward Jews,
has been a perennial problem in the
country. Many Muslims were brought to
America as African slaves, and further,
Muslims came and continued to come from
Arab countries as well as South Asia,
especially India, Pakistan, and Afghanistan.
Southeast Asia, including Malaysia and
Indonesia, Iran, where the majority is
Persian, not Arab, Turkey, with a majority
is Turkish, again not Arab, Europe
particularly Albania and Bosnia,
in Africa. Under Elijah Muhammad, and later
Malcolm X and now Louis Farrakhan, the
Nation of Islam evolved into a black,
nationalist movement rejecting
Eurocentric Christian centric culture
and identity in tying the African
American community to its home continent
of Africa, and what black Muslims see as
its true religion, Islam. Hinduism, a
religion associated with India, first
came to American attention during the
world Parliament of Religions in 1893.
While Hinduism is largely an immigrant
religion, Buddhism has won many American
converts due to its perceived spiritual
and ethical qualities. In an attempt to
make some sense of America's great
religious diversity in the association
between religion and politics, John Green
and Stephen Waldman have classified
Americans into twelve religious tribes
based on their religious styles and
their social and cultural attitudes.
These include the religious right, who
are mostly evangelical Protestants.
Heartland cultural warriors, not as
conservative as the evangelicals but
usually in consonance with the religious
right. Moderate evangelicals, who are
culturally conservative but economically
moderate.The religious left,
progressive, liberal, religious, and
political views. Those who are spiritual
but not religious, black Protestants who
are traditional in their religion but
liberal in their politics.
Jews and other religions who tend to be
liberal politically, whatever their
religious orientation. Seculars who are
mostly socially and politically liberal.
White bread Protestants members of the
often declining mainland-- mainline
denominations convertible Catholics, the
moderate wing of the Catholic
constituency, and Latino Christians
usually Catholic, and typically
religiously conservative, but not
politically liberal. And as the table
shows, right, the first three are
reliably Republican, four through eight
are often reliably Democrat, and 10
through 12 are swing voters depending on
issues and candidates. A brief conclusion.
Religion has continued to be and will
continue to be a divisive political
issue as the U.S. becomes increasingly
more religiously diverse. It can no
longer be assumed that everyone shares
the same sentiments and it can be fairly
assumed that they do not. Religion is an
important factor in almost all societies
providing explanations, control
mechanisms, and social legitimation.
American religion like every other
aspect of American society, is diverse,
composite, and constantly evolving.
Christianity contains many distinct and
often fractious churches, denominations,
and sects.
Christianity shares the field with many,
in fact virtually all imaginable,
religions. Western, Eastern, traditional,
and new. Therefore religion
ideally functioning to unify a society
and belief in practice and value,
inevitably raises social and political
conflicts. American religion is bound to
become yet more diverse in coming years,
making religious pluralism a perennial
fact and challenge.
