Secularisation in USA

Question 1

What evidence from the USA challenges the secularisation thesis shown through opinion polls?

Answer 1

• 40% of adults regularly attend church

- 90% of Americans claim to believe in God

Question 2

What is a disadvantage of these statistics?

Answer 2

Wilson argues that USA is secular and claim that religion in the USA has become superficial.

Question 3

What are the 3 sources of evidence that America is becoming more secular identified by Bruce?

Answer 3

• Church attendance
• ‘Secularisation from within’
• Diversity and relativism - ‘Disneyfication’

Question 4

How does Church attendance reflect that the USA is becoming secular?

Answer 4

• Sociological research challenges opinion poll statistics on church attendance
• Hadaway et al studied church attendance in Ohio
• They counted attendees in churches and held interviews to ask if people attended church
• The level of attendance claimed in interviews was 83% higher than the researchers counted in the churches.

Question 5

Why might people lie about attending church in interviews?

Answer 5

-social desirability effect , people give the answer they assume is more socially desirable.

Question 6

What is ‘secularisation from within’?

Answer 6

-Religion in the USA has changed to fit with modern, secular society , this is secularisation from within

Question 7

How does Steven Bruce argue that religion is becoming more secular due to ‘secularisation from with’?

Answer 7

• Christianity has dropped traditional doctrines and literal interpretations of the bible .
• it focuses less on the idea of salvation in heaven and more on personal improvement in this world.

Question 8

How is ‘secularisation from within’ represented in marriage/relationships and gender/sexuality?

Answer 8

• gay rights/ marriages are accepted in religion
• less of a stigma around divorce
• less stigma around cohabitation

Question 9

Why has religious attitudes changed?

Answer 9

• in order for religion to become more popular, it had to become less religious
• this means becoming more accepting and ridding strict traditional beliefs e.g. no sex before marriage.
• This (secularisation from within) is happening bc society’s values have shifted and religious organisations want to remain relevant and not lose members

Question 10

How has religion become more secular according to Postmodernists-David Lyon?

Answer 10

• Religion in the USA has undergone ‘disneyfication’, religion has become more diluted from it’s original form.
• 10,000 evangelical christians attended a harvest day crusade in disneyland, california
• it was marketed as ‘bringing God’s kingdom to the Magic kingdom’

Question 11

How are religious messages becoming more secular as shown in ‘disneyfication’?

Answer 11

Religious messages are becoming less serious and more secular as religion associates itself with popular culture to appeal to more appeal.

Question 12

What are the evaluations of the secularisation thesis?

Answer 12

• Using falling church attendance statistics to support the secularisation thesis neglects ‘believing without belonging
• ‘Secularisation from within’ neglects the rise of evangelical christianity , which adopts the literal interpretation of the Bible e.g. homosexuality, cohabitation and divorce is a sin.
• Different forms of religion allow people to become religious consumers by giving them more choice over how/where they take part in religion.