Category Archives: Evangelicals

Case Studies 1 & 2

Catholics, Evangelicals, Reflection

I sincerely enjoyed reading my Case Study: “Reinventing American Protestantism: Christianity in the New Millennium”.  Alyssa, Samantha and Noel were great partners and I felt we really got to the heart of what Mr. Miller was trying to convey.  The “new paradigm churches” shows how they are reinventing the way Christianity is experienced in the United States today.  Certainly, a trend is starting to form within Protestantism; and it will only get more diverse going forward.  Our author primarily focused on church attendance, not unlike the way Chaves conducted his surveys on if religiosity was declining in recent years—our presentation showed that to be the case.  People are leaving the traditional church structure in favor of the new paradigm churches.

Then, the class got to see the Catholicism side of transformation in “The Spirit’s Tether: Family, Work, and Religion among American Catholics”.  The author examined two very distinct parishes, one conservative, and one more progressive, to see the dynamics and attendance of each parish.  Everything from the way each parish viewed Mary, mother of Jesus to the length of masses was found in extensive research that the group presented.  Learning about what constitutes an official religion and what doesn’t is probably my favorite aspect of this class so far.  The difference between a “official religion” versus a non-official one comes down to where folks are, how they act and how they dress.  The religious elites dismiss such contemporary practices because they no longer have the power to enforce.  Is this a good thing?  Well, that’s up to the individual to decide.

Am I Really Not Religious? Or Do I Not Fit The Popular American Definition of “Religious”?

Evangelicals, Reflection, Religion and ..., Types of Religion

Throughout chapter 1, McGuire discusses how sociologists may define religion and explores the challenges in doing so. A part of the chapter that really stuck out to me was the “Official Religion” paragraph on page 14. This reminded me of what I stated in my religious autobiography and provided me with a potential reason for my thoughts. I had stated that I “now consider myself spiritual rather than religious for fear of judgment…”. I have throughout my life felt like “not a proper Christian” for various reasons and would rather not even claim to be one anymore.

I grew up in a very conservative state and it’s a bit of an unspoken rule that Christianity (especially Protestant) gives the basis for human experience and understanding in the small community. On page 14, McGuire describes the changes in definition which further separated acts which were considered “religious” versus “nonreligious” and created rigid boundaries between the two. She states that these definitions created by the Christian churches are culturally accepted in the United States. I suspect that this may be even more true in small, tight-knit communities which are conservative and view religion and belief as highly important aspects of life.

Although I have not changed too much from when I was a child going to the Methodist church every week, I have fallen victim to the “accepted definition” of what it means to be a religious person. I feel that because I no longer attend church services and because I am interested in religion as a topic and study multiple religious texts, I would no longer be considered “religious” in the cultural definition of the word. I feel that gaining a higher education may have added to this feeling of uncertainty regarding my own experience and rather it would be considered “religious” or not.  I have gained a wider understanding of the world and now recognize how much gray area there really is. Placing a definition on anything can be quite difficult, and once you understand that, the world becomes much more abstract.