13.8.1: Religious Symbols

 13.8.1: Religious Symbols

Other Source for learning https://courses.lumenlearning.com/wm-introductiontosociology/chapter/reading-symbolic-interactionist-theory/

 Suppose that it is about two thousand years ago, and you have just joined a new religion. You have come to believe that a recently crucified Jew named Jesus is the Messiah, the Lamb of God offered for your sins. The Roman leaders are persecuting the followers of Jesus. They hate your religion because you and your fellow believers will not acknowledge Caesar as God. Christians are few in number, and you are eager to have fellowship with other believers. But how can you tell who is a believer? Spies are everywhere. The government has sworn to destroy this new religion, and you do not relish the thought of being fed to lions in the Colosseum. You use a simple technique. While talking with a stranger, as though doodling absentmindedly in the sand or dust, you casually trace the outline of a fish. Only fellow believers know the meaning—that, taken together, the first letter of each word in the Greek sentence “Jesus (is) Christ the Son of God” spell the Greek word for fish. If the other person gives no response, you rub out the outline and continue the interaction as usual. If there is a response, you eagerly talk about your new faith. 437 All religions use symbols to provide identity and create social solidarity for their members. For Muslims, the primary symbol is the crescent moon and star; for Jews, the Star of David; for Christians, the cross. For members, these are not ordinary symbols, but sacred emblems that evoke feelings of awe and reverence. In Durkheim’s terms, religions use symbols to represent what the group considers sacred and to separate the sacred from the profane. A symbol is a condensed way of communicating something. Worn by a fundamentalist Christian, for example, the cross says, “I am a follower of Jesus Christ. I believe that he is the Messiah, the promised Son of God, that he loves me, that he died to take away my sins, that he rose from the dead and is going to return to Earth, and that through him I will receive eternal life.” This is a lot to pack into one symbol—and it is only part of what this symbol means to a fundamentalist believer. To people in other traditions of Christianity, the cross conveys somewhat different meanings—but to all Christians, the cross is a shorthand way of expressing many meanings. So it is with the Star of David, the crescent moon and star, the cow (expressing to Hindus the unity of all living things), and the various symbols of the world’s many other religions. Symbolic interactionists stress that a basic characteristic of humans is that they attach meaning to objects and events and then use representations of those objects or events to communicate with one another. Michelangelo’s Pietà, depicting Mary tenderly holding her son, Jesus, after his crucifixion, is one of the most acclaimed symbols in the Western world. It is admired for its beauty by believers and nonbelievers alike. Credit: Leemage/Corbis Historical/Getty Images

13.8 Apply the symbolic interactionist perspective to religion: symbols, rituals, beliefs, and religious experience.

 The Symbolic Interactionist Perspective 

13.8 Apply the symbolic interactionist perspective to religion: symbols, rituals, beliefs, and religious experience. Symbolic interactionists focus on the meanings that people give their experiences, especially how they use symbols. Let’s apply this perspective to religious symbols, rituals, and beliefs to see how they help to forge a community of like-minded people.

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).

13.7.1: Functions of Religion

13.7.1: Functions of Religion 

One way to see what the universal human needs are that religion meets is to ask, What are religion’s functions? Here are six functions of religion that sociologists have identified. 435 Meaning and Purpose Around the world, religions provide answers to perplexing questions about ultimate meaning. What is the purpose of life? Why do people suffer? Is there an afterlife? The answers to questions like these give followers a sense of purpose, a framework for living. Instead of seeing themselves buffeted by random events in an aimless existence, believers see their lives as fitting into a divine plan. Emotional Comfort The answers that religion provides about ultimate meaning bring comfort by assuring people that there is a purpose to life, even to suffering. The religious rituals that enshroud crucial events, such as illness and death, assure the individual that others care.

One of the functions of religion is providing emotional support. Shown here is a girl in Mongolia being visited by a sister of the Missionaries of Charity. Credit: Sean Sprague/The Image Works Social Solidarity Religious teachings and practices unite believers into a community that shares values and perspectives (“we Jews,” “we Christians,” “we Muslims”). The religious rituals that surround marriage, for example, link the bride and groom with a broader community that wishes them well. So do other religious rituals, such as those that celebrate birth and mourn death. Social Control Although a religion’s guidelines for everyday life usually apply only to its members, nonmembers feel a spillover. Religious teachings, for example, are incorporated into criminal law. In the American colonial period, people could be arrested for blasphemy and adultery. Today, some states have laws that prohibit the sale of alcohol before noon on Sunday. The original purpose of these laws was to get people out of the saloons and into the churches. 436 Social Change Although religion is often so bound up with the prevailing social order that it resists social change, religious activists sometimes spearhead change. In the 1960s, for example, the civil rights movement, whose goals were to desegregate public facilities and abolish racial discrimination in voting, was led by religious leaders. African American churches served as centers where demonstrators were trained and rallies were organized. Other churches were centers for resisting this change. Religion can promote social change, as was evident in the U.S. civil rights movement. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., a Baptist minister, shown here in his famous “I have a dream” speech, was the foremost leader of this movement. Credit: Bob Henriques/Magnum Photos Guidelines for Everyday Life We’ll end this section by focusing on one of religion’s most important functions, providing guidelines for everyday life. The teachings of religion are not all abstractions. For example, four of the ten commandments delivered by Moses to the Israelites concern God, but the other six contain instructions for getting along with others, from how to avoid problems with parents and neighbors to warnings about lying, stealing, and having affairs. Many consequences for people who follow these guidelines can be measured. For example, people who are religious are happier than people who are not religious, and those who attend church are less likely to abuse alcohol, nicotine, and illegal drugs than are people who don’t go to church. They are also more likely to exercise (PEW 2019). In general, churchgoers follow a healthier lifestyle than people who don’t go to church—and they live longer (VanderWeele et al. 2017).

13.7 Apply the functionalist perspective to religion: functions and dysfunctions.

 13.7 Apply the functionalist perspective to religion:

 functions and dysfunctions. Functionalists stress that religion is universal because it meets universal human needs. Let’s explore this idea. Hearing from the Author: The Functionalist Perspective

13.6 Explain what Durkheim meant by sacred and profane and discuss the three elements of religion.

 Religion: Establishing Meaning Let’s look at the main characteristics of a second significant social institution. What Is Religion? 

13.6 Explain what Durkheim meant by sacred and profane and discuss the three elements of religion. Religion was one of Emile Durkheim’s major interests. For whatever reason—likely because he was reared in a mixed-religion family, by a Protestant mother and a Jewish father—Durkheim decided to find out what all religions have in common. After surveying religions around the world, Durkheim published his findings in his 1912 book, The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life. This book is complicated, but here are three of Durkheim’s main conclusions. The first is that there is no particular belief or practice common to all religions. The second is that despite their diversity, all religions develop a community that centers on their beliefs and practices. And third, all religions separate the sacred from the profane. By sacred, Durkheim meant things that have to do with the supernatural, things that inspire awe, reverence, deep respect, or even fear. By profane, he meant things that are not concerned with religion but, instead, are part of ordinary, everyday life. After he did his research, here is how Durkheim (1912/1965) defined religion: A religion is a unified system of beliefs and practices relative to sacred things, that is to say, things set apart and forbidden—beliefs and practices which unite into one single moral community called a Church, all those who adhere to them. Religion, then, has three elements: Beliefs that some things are sacred (forbidden, set apart from the profane) Practices (rituals) centering on the things considered sacred A moral community (a church), which results from a group’s beliefs and practices Durkheim used the word church in an unusual sense, to refer to any “moral community” centered on a group’s beliefs and practices regarding the sacred. In Durkheim’s sense, church refers to Buddhists bowing before a shrine, Hindus dipping in the Ganges River, and Confucians offering food to their ancestors. Similarly, the term moral community does not mean morality in the sense familiar to most of us—of ethical conduct. Rather, a moral community is simply a group of people who are united by their religious practices—and that would include sixteenth-century Aztec priests who each day gathered around an altar to pluck out the beating heart of a virgin. To better understand the sociological approach to religion, let’s see what pictures emerge when we apply the three theoretical perspectives. Hearing from the Author: What Is Religion?

13.5.5: The Need for Educational Reform

 13.5.5: The Need for Educational Reform 

Most of the changes in education are merely minor adjustments to a flawed system: giving this test instead of that test, requiring more memorizing or less memorizing, measuring progress this way instead of that way, tinkering with the curriculum or motivating teachers and students by this carrot or that carrot. Each might be important in its own way, but each is but a minute adjustment to the details of a system that needs to be overhauled from top to bottom. We are unlikely to do this.