Cults,Consumerism, and the Construction of Self: Exploring the Religious within Fight Club

This article explores the manner in which the creation of new religious movements is depicted in the Fight Club narrative, not only through sardonic, stereotypical ‘cult’ imagery, but also through an academic lens; the narrative fits perfectly with the psychopathology model of cult recruitment as recapitulated by Stark and Bainbridge. The nature and motivations of new religious groups, even to the most worldly student of religion, can seem alien and mysterious to the rational contemporary mind, making the possibility for an empathetic methodological approach remote indeed. However, the presentation of the new religious movement created within the Fight Club narrative is unique in its familiarity to the modern consumerist West. The article also highlights the fascinating insights of the Fight Club narrative into the power of consumerism in a post-modern world, bringing to light ideas of the ‘religion of the market’ and the resulting fundamentalisms created by unstable belief systems and transient notions of self. Focusing particularly on the prominent demographic of ‘Generation X’, this analysis of the Fight Club narrative offers a detailed portrayal of the potential religious crises facing the consumerist West in its entirety.     

Liminal Subjectivities and Religious Change: Circumscribing Giddens for the Study of Contemporary American Religion

Observers of American religion have noted significant changes in the last 50 years. Many of the current theories interpreting these changes cite the writings of the British social theorist Anthony Giddens. Such works suggest that we are living in a post-traditional, ‘late modern’ society in which self-identity, community, and the codes we live by are no longer ascribed, but reflexively made and re-made in continuous ‘projects of the self’. This article seeks to circumscribe late modernity theory for the study of contemporary religion, examining its usefulness and limitations. I argue that the disembedding structures of late modernity—while uneven in their effects on individuals from different social locations—create ‘liminal subjectivities’ among certain classes and groups. This state of being ‘betwixt and between’ social locations places individuals into new and sometimes ephemeral social networks, which in turn may result in them seeking out and experimenting with new religious groups, beliefs, and practices.     

Confronting Sexism: Promoting Confrontation Acceptance and Reducing Stereotyping through Stereotype Framing

Sex Roles - Relative to confrontations of other forms of prejudice and stereotyping, confronting gender stereotypes can be challenging, in part, because recipients may be unlikely to accept such...     

Merging the Religious Congregations and Membership Studies: A Data File for Documenting American Religious Change

The decennial religious congregations and membership studies are a popular data source for analyzing local religious composition and diversity, but several methodological challenges hinder merging the datasets for longitudinal analyses. In this paper, we introduce strategies for addressing four of the most serious challenges: religious mergers and schisms, changes in membership standards within certain groups, missing data and changes in county boundaries. In doing so we successfully merge the 1980, 1990, 2000 and 2010 collections and build new longitudinal datasets of congregational and membership counts at the state and county levels. These changes increase religious group representation from 48 to 76, reduce bias from missing data, allow for the more reliable inclusion of 20–23 million adherents in each year, and improve overall ease of use. We also document instances when corrections were not possible and alert readers to the limitations of the merged files when measuring change among certain groups. The new longitudinal files are accessible from theARDA.com.     

Drowning in the Bible and Contemporary Society: Responsibilities of Religious Caregivers

The aim of this study was to research drowning incidents and rescues that are included in the Bible and provide recommendations for how religious caregivers can support psychologically affected victims. Results confirm that the Bible contains six aquatic emergencies. Persons threatened with drowning were saved by an act of God, a human act and acts of human/divine interaction, when, for example, a person was ordered by God to perform an action which resulted in saving people on the threshold of drowning. The drowning casualties were largely individual males and some cases with multiple victims (male and female) as well. The outcomes of the drowning incidents were the survival of most of the casualties whose stories are told in the Bible. One person is reported to have drowned. Drowning incidents occurred at sea and on earth. The types of rescues used were reach-rescue and rescue and survival. The drowning casualties were rescued from land and from ships and boats by human rescuers. Some rescues were achieved by divine miracles.     

Preachers and Prophets: Using Film to Teach American Religious History

Abstract. Can students learn religious history from movies? While using film as text is likely to attract students’ interest, will such a course be able to negotiate the complex intertwining of film with religion and history to provide students with more than mere entertainment? Will students respond to a challenge to move beyond a movie's surface visual experience to address the core lessons history posits: it's not always been this way, we are the product of what has come before us, I/we are being called to change? This article discusses one attempt to answer these questions and examines both the opportunities and difficulties of using movies to teach religious history.     

Religious Mission and Business Reality: Trends in the Contemporary British Christian Book Industry

The publishing industry in the UK has undergone significant changes in recent years, with publishers being absorbed into conglomerates and the rise of book chains. These trends have affected the Christian book industry, with some Christian publishers coming under secular ownership and the growth of a Christian retail chain, publisher and distributor, Send the Light. Publishers that wish to sell Christian ideas through books have had to adapt to a culture where there is less explicit commitment to, or knowledge of, Christianity than in the past. Some publishers serve a Christian niche, while others, either through belonging to a powerful conglomerate or an ability to sign prominent authors, retain a presence in mainstream bookshops. Although the ownership of several Christian imprints by Rupert Murdoch and the prominence of Christian consumer products that mimic secular products are causes for concern to some, devotional works and Bible studies remain more significant sellers.     

武汉武昌区 抗击疫情 民宗部门在行动

武汉市武昌区五大宗教齐全,信教群众30000余人。新冠肺炎疫情发生以来,武昌区民宗局高度重视,按照中央和省市区委决策部署,坚持生命重于泰山,疫情就是命令,防控就是责任的要求,一手抓全区疫情防控,一手抓全区宗教活动场所管理,迅速行动、全面防控,扎实做好各项工作。     

What Would Jesus Buy: American Consumption of Religious and Spiritual Material Goods

This article examines an important and understudied part of the sociological study of religion: consumption of religious materials. We use data from the Baylor Religion Survey and present an initial look at which Americans read the Left Behind series, viewed The Passion of the Christ , or purchased religious paraphernalia such as "What Would Jesus Do" bracelets. Drawing on cultural consumption and religious capital research we explore class, demographic, and religious influences on consumption patterns. We find some support for each of these perspectives, which suggests that religious consumption is not a subset of cultural consumption nor of religious practice but is some combination of both.     

The Relationship Between Religion and Religious Coping: Religious Coping as a Moderator Between Religion and Adjustment

This study examined the relationship between and among religion, religious coping, and positive/negative psychological adjustment and investigated whether the four religious coping styles of Self-Directing, Deferring, Collaborative, and Turning to Religion would significantly moderate the relationship between religion and psychological adjustment. Each of the four religious coping measures were significant moderators between religion and positive and negative adjustment. However, the high self-directing and high religion group showed opposite results from the other three coping styles, in that they were the most maladjusted and least satisfied with life compared to the other three integration and religious coping groups. The participants high on religion and high deferring, high collaborative, and high turning to religion groups were less maladjusted and more satisfied than the other three groups in each of these religious coping styles.     

Religious Organizations and Homosexuality: The Acceptance of Gays and Lesbians in American Congregations

The participation of gays and lesbians in all aspects of society is continually disputed in the United States. Religion is one of the key battlegrounds. The extent to which religious congregations include lesbians and gays in congregational life is vital to the wider debate over homosexuality because congregations consistently influence more Americans than any other voluntary social institution reported by Putnam (Bowling alone: the collapse and revival of American community, Simon and Schuster, New York, 2000). Using nationally representative data from the 2006–2007 National Congregations Study this analysis investigates the level of acceptance of gays and lesbians within congregations as well as which congregations are most likely to allow lesbians and gays to become involved. I find that religious tradition, theological and political ideology, location, and demographic composition of congregations all influence the degree to which gays and lesbians are included into congregational life.     

Unraveling Religious Disaffiliation: The Meaning and Significance of Falling From the Faith in Contemporary Society

This article calls for placing what are termed affiliation and disaffiliation on equal footing in the study of religious expression. Recent developments suggest the importance of understanding disaffiliation as well as affiliation. Among the most important issues that must be addressed are adequately conceptualizing disaffiliation and developing a useful way of modeling the disaffiliation process. This article reviews and synthesizes existing research as a means of formulating an agenda for further work in this area.     

Affinity, Identity, and Transcendence: The Experience of Religious Racial Integration in Diverse Congregations

How do members of disparate ethnic and racial heritages come to identify and achieve stable affiliation with multiracial congregations? This article specifies an approach to understanding member experiences of corporate belonging in diverse congregations using ethnic identity theory. Synthesizing ethnographic data drawn from two extensive case studies, the article provides a heuristic model for understanding the process by which members of disparate ethnic and racial heritages come to identify and achieve stable affiliation with multiethnic/multiracial congregations. Three “moments” (affinity with the congregation, identity reorientation, and ethnic transcendence) represent key phases in the lived religious experience of members as they co‐construct common bonds of spiritual kinship. Cautions and suggestions are provided for future research.     

Physical,Psychological and Social Adaptation of African American Nuns to Their Religious Communities as They Age: Implications for Aging in Place

ABSTRACT

This study examined the association between health status, stress, depression, satisfaction with the relationship with the religious community, alienation from significant persons, racial/cultural identity and “aging in place,” as measured by length of time in the same religious community, for a purposive sample of 72 African American nuns. Aging in place was significantly associated with perceptions of better health status, less stress and depression and greater satisfaction with relationships with the religious community. However, the study also found that the longer the nuns lived in their respective communities, the less racially/culturally identified they became. These findings underscore the need for finding ways to keep nuns in their religious communities as they age and to provide avenues of racial/cultural expression for African American nuns.