Religious organisations Flashcards
What religious organisations are there?
- church
- sects
-cults - NAMs
-denominations
What can religious organisations be?
World accomodating
World rejecting
World affirming
- churches, cults, denominations focus on being one of these
What is a world accommodating group?
- a group that offshoots an already existing religion e.g. a sect or denomination
- their aim is to restore spiritual purity as they believe it is has been lost
- provide members with solace and a way of coping e.g methodist and baptist churches are off-shooting from christianity
What are world rejecting groups?
-groups that are very critical of the outside world and demand commitment from their members e.g a sect
- have strong ethical codes
e.g peoples temple, branch davidians
What are world affirming groups?
- usually individualistic, life positive and aim to discover human potential
e.g meditation, yoga, scientology
Main features of a church - membership, organisation
a church is any place of worship for a mainstream religion e.g mosque or synagogue
Membership
- have a large membership and normally alot of members are born into the church e.g 8.5 million people identified with the CofE in 2014
Organisation
- very structured organisation and only certain people can become leaders
- need years of training which takes up time
- need to follow a path of education, training and service within the church
-need formal leadership
Main features of a church - relationship to society, sense of legitimacy
Relationship
- embedded in many institutions like education, healthcare and government e.g in schools there are religious affiliations or it is within the curriculum
- in healthcare religious beliefs can influence medical decisions and practices e.g jehovahs witness
-politics can be influenced by religion as some parties may align values with christian principles
- seen in welfare programs, human rights issues
However - some believe in schools it should not be a requirement
Sense of legitmacy
- claim to have monopoly of truth
- no one challenge showing a closed belief system
However - Bruce argues that the church has lost its status so not many people believe anymore, people choose more
Main features of a church - involvement and commitment, worship and rituals
Involvement
- encourage people to attend but do not force it upon anyone
- have your own choice and does not make you less of what you are
- no compulsion and will always be regarded as a member
Bruce argues - CofE was more controlled in pre-industrial times and controlled people - lost its touch so people feel less pressured
Worship and ritual
- worship is more structured
- required to do certain things e.g read from book of prayers, sing hymns and do not make their own personal prayers
- more restricted
- takes place within catholic churches however churches like pentecostal do not act the same way
However - bruce argues amount of people going has decreased and only 80,000 attend which could be due to the lack of freedom and do not feel comfortable
Main features of a denomination - membership, organisation
membership
- have relatively large followings but not as universal as the church
- have newer interpretations of the sacred text and only want those who believe in that
- more members from the w/c and lower m/c as they may feel more welcome as churches may judge them
However secularisation has led to its decline and the status they once has has been lost
Organisation
- less hierarchy compared to the church
- employ part time and full time clergy
- more of a national organisation and can be found in most towns and cities in the UK
- some denominations do not have priests but still leaders - referred to as pastors or preacher
Main features of a denomination - Relationship to wider society, sense of legitimacy
Relationship
- separate from the state so do not have much influence of education, politics
- can have an affect of healthcare depending on what denomination e.g jehovahs witness
- do not reject the state or the wider society
- clergy can sometimes appear at national occasions
However - some denominations can be world rejecting as they do not agree with some aspects of society - this could make them lose members if they become too hostile
Sense of legitimacy
- do not claim to have the monopoly of truth like the church do
- more tolerant of other beliefs and less demanding of their members
- will co operate with other religious organisations
Main features of a denomination - involvement, worship and ritual
Involvement
- little pressure onto members to commit to particular beliefs
- do not tend to be forceful as they reflect fundamental views of individualism
- still wish to increase members
Worship
- relatively formal with less ritual than a church
- sing and pray
- less structured and do not follow the same things churches do
Main features of a sect - membership, organisation
membership
- relatively small compared to churches and denominations
- ideologys come from church
- can be hundreds of individuals
- some have bigger followings like jehovahs witnesses and mormons
- target the w/c as they are usually going through some sort of deprivation and hamilton argues that people are attracted because they help to adapt to change and gives people a sense of identity, community and respect
e.g jim jones would celebrate and worship them, emphasised equality and made people feel seen
Organisation
- have one charismatic leader
- do not have any clergy or priest
- no hierarchy
e.g Jim jones
Main features of a sect - relationship to WS, sense of legitimacy
Relationship
- critical of wider society as they tend to be world rejecting
- expect members to stand apart from it
- very critical of mainstream religious bodies
- have broken away from society and since members tend to be deprived w/c members it strains relationship with those who are privileged leading it to become anti- society
- Hamilton argues : modern world is dominated by bureaucratic social structures that undermine and threaten a sense of community which is why they have broken away from society
Legitimacy
- claim they have monopoly of truth and are the true religion
- encouraged to see themselves as elite and look forward to an event of great significance e.g the second coming of jesus
Main features of a sect - involvement and commitment , worship and rituals
Involvement
- demand high standards of behaviour from their members and high levels of commitment
- spare time is spent within sect
- expected to show unwavering loyalty and make significant sacrifices
-e.g bible study, gain converts or socialise with other members
Worship and rituals
- little use of ritual and worship
- more emotional and expressive
- use phrases of hallelujah and praise the lord
Growth and development of sects (social change) - Wallis
Social change
- things that happen within society can lead to them turning to sects - racism, segregation, inequality
- for example, groups that feel as if they are not valued or disadvantaged may turn to sects to feel some form of power and value
- e.g jim jones targeted people who were apart of the civil rights movement and would go to anti-racial protests to recruit people
- said he did not discriminate and would say his beliefs supported different things
- wallis claims that sects have come within 3 times of social change :
1) industrialisation - people were anxious about change and leaders offered hope
2) Alienation In the USA to foreign policy -
3) The millenium - many people saw it as the year the world would end and sects promised salvation - showcases that this growth has come about because they offered meaning during times of uncertainty and significant changes - relate to calvinists
However : people may disagree with wallis as they believe he places too much emphasis on the idea that NRMs are the product of a counterculture rebellion
Growth and development of sects - relative deprivation
- sects have come about as they offer people what they lack within society
- individuals can feel deprived in many ways - economically, status, social etc
- status deprivation was experience by many during the civil rights movement as they were not valued in many aspects of society and were seen as inferior to others
- would essentially feel as if they were marginalised from society because deprivation and in cases like jim jones racism so would join a group to feel included
e.g the nation of islam came about here- main goal was to offer black people who experienced status and social deprivation a place where they were valued
- was done by emphasing how AA should seperate themselves from society
- shows that sects have essentially grown because those who were below others in society felt as if they belonged to a place that would treat them as superior and equals - society could not offer them ths
Life span of sects - wallis
Sects have two categories to go into and they either:
- die out
- turn into a denomination
dying out - can happen especially if they are world rejecting
- can start to isolate themselves due to intensity of the rejecting the world
- can potentially lead to self destruction methods as they believe in what they are preaching to the point of death e.g heavens gate or the movement may just go underground
However - the sect may relax their strict demands and not have such a critical view which can lead to denomination or turn it to a more world accommodating sect
denomination
- can gain more members who believe in them so the numbers can simply make them turn into a denomination
- more members can require the need for full time officials to mange the organisation e.g quakers, methodists moderated their beliefs
Main features of a cult - membership, organisation
membership
- more fluid and open and welcome to those who show interest
- fairly small number of clients compared with other organisations
Organisation
- charasmatic leader
- do not really have a sacred place in which followers congregate as a community
- involvement in loose and formal
Main features of a cult - Relationship to WS, sense of legitimacy
Relationship
- followers expected to live in the world
- more accommodating
- cult activity tends to be part time
Sense of legitimacy
- do not claim to have monopoly of truth
- tolerant of followers having involvement with other groups
- are not restricting
Main features of a cult - involvement and commitment, worship and ritual
Involvement
- do not demand much from members
- more lenient and tend to rarely demand commitment
- do not seek to restrict or control peoples behaviour
Worship and ritual - stark and bainbridge
- ordinary engage in cult activity for a number of reasons and it can be done in the comfort of home
- can participate in cultish behaviour behaviour for fun or because they are uncertain about their futures e.g palm reading, horoscopes
- do not have any belief in God
example of cult - scientology
- focuses on self improvement and spiritual development
New age Movements (NAMs)
Bruce
- suggests that NAMs differentiate from mainstream religion and there are some common themes such as:
- aiming to strip themselves away from the negative residue cause my everything around us
- self improvement
- being the final authority to yourself
- in general they tend to be holistic and focus on finding greater meanings and yourself
Why would people turn to NAMs?
- inequality
- not everything in these mainstream religions are agreed with
- can be too traditional and rigid
- mainstream religion has not worked out for them and had a change in attitude towards religion
NAMs allow for people to look for new means that can guide them and to also move away from traditional restricting views
How did the growth of NAMs come about?
Post modernity
- rejected the idea of one single truth
- people turned to NAMs to find meaning in alternative ways and form their own identities
- individualism is a big thing
- done through individual spiritual and lifestyle practices
Decreasing popularity of traditional religion
-people become detached from the churches as they failed to meet spiritual needs and secularisation has occured
- this has led people to turning to NAMs as they meet whatever needs you need them to as it focuses of improving yourself in whatever form you feel fit
- appeal to anyone who feels lost and can offer what churches do not - churches talk about believing in an other being whereas NAMs talk about believing in yourself which can appeal to many people who want to be better
e.g connection with inner self, spiritual awakening
However : postmodernists have been criticised by overstating the extent of individual choice as bruce talks about how group membership and influence many people
-shown in class, ethnicity, age, gender
- many british go to pentecostal churches and look down on NAMs so do not attend
