Paulo Freire coined a term that I cherish: critical consciousness. This concept encourages us to see keenly the patterns and structures that exist in our social realities that create and sustain oppression. I thoroughly appreciated Chapter 4 of Religion: The Social Context because it details the multitude of ways that religion and power intersect.

For one, the chapter discusses the tension between official and non-official religions. Official religions in both a historical and contemporary context marginalize other religious expressions in order to further legitimate the dominant religious institution. The construction of categories is a means to reinforce that sense of legitimacy. Historically, the concept of official religion was equated with the sacred and all that exists beyond that categorization was associated with profanity. Thus, socially constructed values have become embedded in how we conceptualize religions.

Secondly, gender roles are embedded in religious institutions and rituals. They have symbolic value that reaffirms the role of women as subordinate. Additionally, individuals within the religious community will sabotage the success of women members to conserve the present social structure. On page 137, McGuire asserts that male members of the clergy will inhibit female clergy members who demonstrate high performance. Despite these internal efforts to maintain the status quo, the women who acquire high vocational positions use the position to actively rework those roles for greater equality. McGuire affirms that women in high clergy positions model new ways of interaction that embody values of egalitarianism.

When illuminating these structures of inequality, formulating a solution is the next logical step to take. McGuire suggests that non-official religion, or popular religion, offers a nexus for oppressed individuals and groups to congregate in solidarity. In these collectives, self-sufficiency (and subsequently independence) and alternative production of knowledge serve as avenues for resistance. I look forward to continuously applying this concept and spirit of critical consciousness to illuminate the ways in which religion (and the process of sociological production of knowledge) maintain inequality and oppression.

Note: Absentmindedly, I mixed up the blog post assignments for this past week. I submitted today’s religion-in-the-news article on Sunday. So, this post is to fulfill the Sunday post assignment.

http://www.cnn.com/2016/11/01/us/standing-rock-sioux-sacred-land-dakota-pipeline/index.html

The recent presidential inauguration has left all news panels flooded with coverage on Trump and speculation on the future. That said, while treading through the mass of Trump-related articles, I came across a familiar topic: the Standing Rock resistance to the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL). In it I found interesting commentary on both the content of religious experience and the role of the sociologist in producing knowledge.

The activist context is not free of religious expression. In fact, it is central to the work being done at the Standing Rock Reservation. The reports in this article indicate that that spirituality is intimately intertwined with the land. It would seem that for the Standing Rock Lakota, the divine is manifest in the earth itself. Rituals, prayers, and ceremonies have been commonplace throughout the resistance to the Dakota Access Pipeline. Individuals like a main interviewee in the article, Spotted Eagle, are pivotal in transferring spiritual knowledge to preceding generations. Just as narratives and imagery are used to preserve communal memory, individuals like Spotted Eagle, as well as shelters that are intentionally designed with symbolic resonance preserve that memory for the Lakota people.

The reservation also harbors a plurality of religious identities as demonstrated by signs like, “Muslims Standing with Standing Rock Sioux”.

The article additionally addresses the role of the university taught researcher. Spotted Eagle states, “Archaeologists come in who are taught from a colonial structure, and they have the audacity to interpret how our people are buried. How would they even know?”. The centrality of spirituality at Standing Rock fortifies resilience in the face of adversity. Another means of resistance as activists is the critique of conventional western knowledge. Indeed, historically, academic researchers like anthropologists studied other cultures to advance imperial agendas.

This article reminds us that the church or temple is not the only space that nurtures community spirituality. Spirituality manifests in sub zero degree weather and across distinct cultures. The article also implores us to, as sociologists of religion for two hours and forty minutes a week, approach this work with thoughtfulness. It also cautions us to realize the limits of our aptitude to explain social reality and to establish social facts.