7.5 Case Studies

Question 1

A 2015 Survey of 9000 adults

Answer 1

Conducted in the UK for people born in 1970 found that:

• Men were twice as likely to believe that God did not exist compared to women.
• 54% of men reported that they were either atheist of agnostics compared to only 34% of women.
• Women were also twice as likely to believe in an afterlife compared to men.

Question 2

A 2013 report by the charity TearFund

Answer 2

Found that UK churches are attended by 65% women and 35% men.

Question 3

Lizardo and Collett

Answer 3

Demonstrated the following:

• Women raised by highly educated mothers show lower religiosity than those raised by less educated mothers.
• A mother’s education has little effect on men’s chances of being irreligious.
• A father’s education has little effect on gender differences in religiosity.

Question 4

Janja Lalich

Answer 4

Describes the prevalence of the sexual exploitation of women in cults. This may take the form of daily controls of sexuality and sex lives or more overt abuses such as arranged marriages, forced sexual activity with the leader, and rape. Sexual control is seen as the final step in objectification of the cult member by the authoritarian leader who is able to satisfy his needs through psychological manipulation leading to sexual exploitation.

Sexual exploitation may be masqueraded as a marriage to the
leader or as some form of a spiritual practice, or it may come about as the overt seduction of vulnerable females (or males) by those in power. In many groups, if not the leader, then the husbands are given absolute control over their wives (and children), including a license for sexual activities without mutual consent. Marital rape is an accepted standard in certain cults.

Although no research has been done on the incidence of sexual abuse in cults, at one postcult recovery workshop, 40% of the women present said they had been sexually abused in their cult. Other female members she met with from various cults provided qualitative data of their sexual exploitation often by the leader or by the cult husband even at the orders of the cult leader.

Question 5

Mission India 2014

Answer 5

The devadasi system has been described as “religious prostitution” and “an ancient religious practice that still ensnares young girls in India today into a life of sexual exploitation”