13.7.2: Dysfunctions of Religion

 13.7.2: Dysfunctions of Religion 

Functionalists also examine ways in which religion is dysfunctional, that is, how religion can bring harmful results. Two dysfunctions are persecution and war and terrorism. Religion as Justification for Persecution, War, and Terrorism Religion is sometimes a motivation for harming people. Beginning in the 1100s and continuing into the 1800s, in what is known as the Inquisition, special commissions of the Roman Catholic Church tortured accused heretics and burned them at the stake. In 1692, Protestant leaders in Salem, Massachusetts, executed twenty-one women and men who were accused of being witches. The Aztec religion also had its dysfunctions—at least for the young virgins who were offered to appease angry gods. History is filled with wars based on religion—commingled with politics. The Israelites wiped out many groups of people as they invaded and conquered their lands. The Muslims also conquered lands, killing those who would not swear allegiance to their God. The Christians conducted nine bloody Crusades between the eleventh and fourteenth centuries in an attempt to wrest control of the region they called the Holy Land from the Muslims. I would like to say that these dysfunctions of religion—persecution, killing, and war—are all in the past, but as you are likely well aware from the unrelenting headlines, they continue today. In India, Hindus beat and lynch Muslims who are caught with beef (Doshi 2016). In Papua New Guinea, accused witches are tortured, doused with gasoline, and set on fire (Chumley 2013). ISIS, an Islamic group in Afghanistan, beheads enemies in the name of their God, while Boko Haram, an Islamic group in Nigeria, straps bombs on unwilling girls and sends them into marketplaces to blow themselves up (Parkinson and Hinshaw 2019).