Chapter 10: Getting Religion: Faith in the Modern World 185
but in terms of Catholic parishes, which is how he grew up thinking about the city’s geography. “They live in St. Marks,” he’ll say, or “she bought a house down there in Nativity.” In communities where religious organizations and civic life are closely intertwined, religion can even function like race or ethnicity. (“People say we didn’t have any minorities in St. Paul when I was growing up,” jokes my dad. “Of course we did . . . we had Lutherans!”)
Although they’re like other social organizations in many ways, religious organizations have a unique relationship with their members because believers see them as representing a here-and-now connection to the spiritual world, the eternal realm that, for many believers, is much more important than anything in this world. This gives religious organizations a special power that can be tremendously constructive — as with organizations that help hold communities together in times of war or strife — or tremendously destructive — as in the case of corrupt cults that exploit their members financially and otherwise. For billions of people, religious organizations are among the most important social organizations in their lives.
Faith and Freedom in the World Today
In today’s world, where most societies maintain a separation between church and state and where immigration and other factors are leading to increasing religious diversity everywhere, religion is an especially complicated subject. Faith remains central to billions of people’s lives, but what implications does that have for their actions? In this section, I describe trends in religious participation and look at the circumstances under which faith translates into action.
Shopping for God
Sociologists distinguish between faith (or beliefs, or values) and action. A high proportion of people in the world today attend religious services, but an even greater proportion express a belief in a higher power. These are both important indexes of religiosity, but they measure different things.
The distinction is particularly important in today’s world, where people in many societies have considerable freedom to express whatever beliefs they like and whether or not to act on them. In the United States, for example,
a large majority of people say they believe in a higher power, and nearly half say they regularly attend religious services; this has declined in recent decades (especially if you look at whether people actually attend services
and not whether they say they do), but not as quickly as in Europe, where the rate of belief is falling and the rate of attendance is falling faster.
186 Part III: Equality and Inequality in Our Diverse World
Conservative Christian culture: A world apart
One of the most striking developments on the religious landscape over the past several decades has been the emergence of a coordinated, well-defined coalition of conservative Christians. Particularly in the United States, where it’s known as “the religious right,” this movement — under the leadership of massively influential leaders like James Dobson — has played an important role in defining and influencing the national debate over issues ranging from abortion to capital punishment to taxation and budgeting.
The movement is controversial not just because of its strong policy views, but because of its unapologetic insistence that religion belongs at the heart of any political or social debate. Members of the movement have argued that removing religious symbols from government buildings and forbidding judges and lawmakers to invoke religious beliefs in their deliberations has potentially disastrous consequences for American public life.
The movement is also distinctive for having given birth to a vast array of consumer products aimed at those who don’t feel mainstream products reflect their values. From music to literature to TV to movies, there’s an entire alternate universe of explicitly Christian products aimed at the faithful; some of these, like the Left Behind novels, sell as well as or better than their mainstream counterparts. Even on the Internet, there are Christian search engines, Christian social networking sites, and a Christian video site called “GodTube.”
In some ways, this movement is a textbook example of a subculture (see Chapter 5): a culture formed in conscious opposition to a mainstream culture. In other ways, though, the movement embraces the realities of mainstream politics and entertainment; its members are enthusiastically using the freedom contemporary society affords them to choose their own faith, their own entertainment, their own social world.
In many respects, religion in the contemporary world is becoming a consumer good: something you choose to “buy” because it satisfies a need you have. This may seem like a heretical, or even offensive, way to look at something so profoundly personal, but it does describe the behavior religious organizations have been demonstrating — and, in fact, the way many people think about religion.
People in free societies do have the ability to choose for themselves whether or not they’ll participate in a religious organization — and if so, which organization they’ll participate in. Most religious organizations welcome converts, and they realize that people may be swayed by many factors when choosing a religious orientation generally and a particular community specifically. People may consider:
Their personal sense of the supernatural world, preferring organizations that resonate with their most deeply-felt beliefs.
The family and tradition in which they were raised, possibly preferring an organization with beliefs, rituals, and a structure that mirror the ones they grew up with.
Chapter 10: Getting Religion: Faith in the Modern World 187
The social values of a denomination or a congregation, preferring to worship among people who share their commitment to a set of social policies or public service interests.
The other members of a congregation, looking — for example — for a congregation with many young families, or many active seniors.
Geography, preferring to attend service in their own neighborhoods.
Other services offered by a congregation: schooling for children, classes or workshops for adults, outings, and other features of life in that community.
Religious organizations recognize that people have a choice in their religious affiliations, and the organizations often respond by advertising themselves in ways ranging from flyers at the back of the sanctuary to billboards or even radio and TV ads. Churches in neighborhoods with many gay or lesbian residents may display rainbow banners, and churches looking to attract families with young children may advertise their daycare centers or Sunday School offerings.
Do people actually think about religion this way? Do they actually think about faith as something to be shopped for, like cereal or a winter coat?
In some ways, of course not. Faith is a deeply personal, sometimes highly sensitive subject, and many of the faithful would rightly bristle at any suggestion that they would treat a church like a vacation destination.
That said, it is true that in societies where people do have the freedom to choose their faith and the ways in which they practice it, they tend to exercise that freedom. A 2009 Pew survey showed that 44 percent of American adults do not belong to the faith in which they were raised — some have switched affiliations, some have simply stopped practicing. Another 9 percent switched faiths at some point before returning to their childhood faith.
Of course, people convert for many reasons. As network sociologists (see Chapter 7) and those studying social movements (Chapter 13) have discovered, it’s rare that people change their behaviors out of thin air. In many cases, religious conversion is the result of an interfaith friendship or romance; a new work situation; or a move from one place to another. Often, action follows belief . . . but often, it’s the other way around.
Belief, action, and everything in between
So, again, why do sociologists care about religion? What business of theirs is it to whom people pray, or where people expect to go after they die? It’s because religion is not something that exists merely in your head or your soul; it’s also, typically, something you do.
188 Part III: Equality and Inequality in Our Diverse World
You might join a religious organization, which may be of pivotal importance in your community.
Your faith might affect the votes you cast in polling places (that is, influence your political views) and the votes you cast in shopping malls (that is, influence the things you buy).
Religion can affect your social networks, which in turn affects everything else you do.
These are all reasons that religion is important for sociologists, political scientists, and economists to consider when studying the social world. But does faith directly affect people’s actions? From a sociological standpoint, does it matter what you believe, beyond it simply mattering that you believe?
Of course it does. The question is when and how.
All the major sociological theories about religion emphasize that faith somehow influences people’s actions — not just by influencing them to build buildings and form organizations and buy books, but by influencing them to take specific actions in this world consistent with their beliefs about the next world.
Marx believed religion was relatively unimportant; however, he argued that in some circumstances religion could serve the interests of the powerful, by discouraging people from challenging the status quo. Marx was particularly wary of faiths that offered the promise of heavenly rewards because he believed that people who expected to be rewarded in heaven might be less likely to demand their just desserts on Earth.
Durkheim believed that religion was key to social solidarity. He believed that religious teachings and ceremonies teach people how to get along in society, and make it less likely that people will pursue personal goals that are at odds with larger social goals. In earlier societies, this meant that they were often encouraged to be intolerant of diversity (because diversity can be dangerous when there are a few very specific tasks that need to be accomplished); today, this means that they are often encouraged to welcome diversity (because intolerance can be dangerous when many different kinds of people need to get along despite having very different tasks to accomplish).
Weber believed that religious values could influence people’s actions in any number of ways. He believed that religious values consistent with capitalism helped that economic system get off the ground. Religious values, for Weber, don’t completely determine the direction a society will take; nor do they necessarily change to match a social structure. There’s always a back-and-forth interaction between religious values and other social forces.
In all these theories, specific religious beliefs and values directly influence people’s actions beyond the walls of the church or the synagogue. Most sociologists of religion today lean more toward the perspective of Weber than towards
Chapter 10: Getting Religion: Faith in the Modern World 189
the perspectives of Marx or Durkheim because Weber has more appreciation for the complex interactions among religious institutions and other social institutions. Religion matters, but the specific way it matters will depend on the structure of any given society as well as the nature of religious beliefs.
Religion can be profoundly important in people’s lives, influencing all the actions they take. It can also, at least in today’s world, be completely absent from a person’s life. A person can claim no religious affiliation, and have personal beliefs about the hereafter (or lack thereof) that have no bearing on their actions in the here and now. What’s more, the place of religion in the structure of a society can vary: In some societies, even today, religious institutions are synonymous with the state, and religious practices are closely monitored and enforced. In other societies, religious institutions are completely separate from the state, and have little political clout.
Compared to most places and times in the past, religious beliefs and practices in the world today are incredibly diverse — and people with diverse religious beliefs and practices are increasingly rubbing elbows in societies around the world. That makes it harder to generalize about the role of religion in social life, but it doesn’t make religion any less important.
Today, religion brings people together as it always has. Every week, billions of people around the world gather in living rooms, public squares, and private houses of worship to share their faith and share their community. Whether their faith is the only one they’ve ever known or whether they’ve converted from another creed, whether they live in places where everyone has the same religious affiliation or whether their neighbors all subscribe to different religious views, religion offers them solace and support. It links them to a larger social world and, according to their beliefs, to a spiritual world as well.
Religion also, however, sometimes inspires, fuels, and justifies terrible conflict and violence. In some cases, this violence is a direct extension of faith — some people genuinely believe that they have a divine imperative to act in a hostile manner towards those who do not share their beliefs — but in most cases, religious distinctions merely serve to highlight and exacerbate other divisions. When religious differences happen to coincide with differences of ethnicity or class, conflicts along those lines can take on an especially bitter character. Social activists interested in working towards a just world have always seen it as downright tragic that distinctions of religion and race can divide people who might otherwise find common cause in a shared economic or political situation.
A popular graphic seen on t-shirts and bumper stickers is the word coexist, with Christian, Jewish, and Islamic symbols standing in for certain letters. The suggestion is one that it’s hard to argue with: that people of different faiths should learn to get along and tolerate the differences among themselves. It’s a noble goal, and one that many people are successfully working towards every day — but sociologists of religion understand that it’s not always that easy.
190 Part III: Equality and Inequality in Our Diverse World
Religion: The remix
Over time, religious life changes in many ways. There’s change in the extent of people’s religiosity, in the distribution of religious beliefs, and in the beliefs and practices of particular faiths. Another way that religious life changes — and, like almost all forms of social change, it’s happening more quickly now than ever before — is in the way that religious traditions interact with and influence one another.
Anthropologists and historians have traced the tremendous spread, change, fragmenting, and consolidation of religious traditions. Christianity, Judaism, and Islam are today regarded as three different faiths, but they share common roots — and within each of those faiths, there are any number of different divisions. Among Christians alone, there are the Catholics, the Eastern Orthodox Catholics, the Lutherans, the Methodists, the Baptists, the Mennonites . . .
the list goes on.
Besides the fragmentation of religious traditions into new and separate faiths, there are
new faiths that are created by the intermixing of different traditions. Haitian voudou incorporates elements of European Christianity with elements of the beliefs and practices immigrants brought to Haiti by African immigrants. The Liberal Catholic Church blends Catholic theology with the insights of mystics and seers. One branch of Judaism unites the traditions and practices of that faith with the secular philosophy of Humanism; another, “Jews for Jesus,” blends Jewish cultural and religious traditions with Christian beliefs.
This intermixing happens as people seek to find or create religious practices that both soothe their souls and speak to the circumstances of their lives. When couples from different traditions marry, they may blend their beliefs in their family lives — perhaps lighting the Menorah and plugging in the Christmas tree. Religious change is not just something decided by groups of spiritual leaders meeting in solemn congress; it’s something that happens in every city, in every country, every day.
Religious traditions do include distinctive symbols and styles of dress, but a religion isn’t just a hijab or a turban or a skullcap, it’s an entire philosophy about the fundamental nature of reality. Your religious affiliation is a social status like your race or your sex or your class, but it’s different than any of those because it corresponds to a whole set of values and beliefs that you may believe are dictated or influenced by a force higher, more powerful, and more important than any human being or social institution. The fact that religious beliefs and practices are almost always intertwined with ethnic traditions and family ties makes them even more profoundly important.
From this perspective, it may be disappointing that religious differences are behind some of today’s most bitter, brutal conflicts — but it shouldn’t be a surprise. Religion is, as it has always been, a deeply important part of people’s social lives. Managing the transition to a society of increasingly diverse religious beliefs, for all its obvious benefits, is not an easy thing to do.
Chapter 11
Crime and Deviance: I Fought
the Law . . . and I Won!
In This Chapter
Understanding the difference between deviance and crime
Figuring out why criminals commit crimes
Constructing crime on the streets and in the courts
Becoming deviant
Fighting crime
Crime has always been a subject of intense interest for sociologists. On the one hand, it’s obviously a very practical thing to understand. There
aren’t many higher priorities for society than fighting crime, and any insights sociologists are able to contribute might help. For this reason, sociolo-
gists often receive funding to collaborate with other scholars and with law enforcement authorities to investigate why crime occurs and how it might be minimized or prevented.
On the other hand, though, crime is an interesting phenomenon for sociologists to study because it represents the absolute edge of what is socially acceptable. Societies may be incredibly diverse and tolerant of a wide range of behavior, but those behaviors defined as crimes are where societies draw a line in the sand and say you may not. Different societies draw that line in different places, and they have different strategies for keeping people from crossing it — as well as punishing them when they do. Understanding how and why those lines are drawn can tell you a lot about how a society works in general.
In this chapter, I look at how crime is defined and fought in society. First, I explain the difference between “deviance” and “crime”; then, I go through different explanations of why criminals commit crimes. I then explain how crime is defined — both in the courts and on the streets — and how societies today are fighting crime. Finally, I look at teenage drinking as a case study in crime.
192 Part III: Equality and Inequality in Our Diverse World
All Crime is Deviance, but Not
All Deviance is a Crime
Every social group has its norms. Some of those norms are informal, meaning rules that are not written down and not officially defined as rules. There’s no official agreement about what’s supposed to happen to you if you stray from these norms, but if you do, people will probably notice and might well punish you in one way or another for failing to heed them. Some examples of informal norms include:
Having good manners, such as saying please and thank you, holding the door for others, not eating with your mouth open.
Keeping secrets among friends.
Dressing according to generally accepted standards when you’re interacting with other people.
Getting married in your twenties and having kids in your thirties.
Walking on the right (or, in some places, left) side of the hallway.
When you violate any social norm, sociologists call it deviance. If you don’t behave in the way you’re expected to behave, you are acting in a deviant manner. That sounds harsh, but it’s okay — you’re a deviant, and so am I. No one person behaves in a manner exactly like they’re supposed to. Sometimes you feel bad about this (for example, if you’re rude to a friend), sometimes you feel proud of this (for example, if you violate a social norm against having friends who are gay), but deviance is just part of social life.
Deviance may have benefits. You may impress a fellow “deviant” (for example, someone who agrees with you that a particular unusual style of dress is attractive), you may save time or money (for example, by waiting until the last second to merge on the freeway, saving you time but slowing everyone else down), and you may inspire social change (for example, a girl who tries out for a football team may make it easier for other girls who are interested in playing football).
It’s also apt to have costs, though. You will draw attention to yourself, and people may avoid you, make fun of you, or even attack you for being different. Whether or not it’s worth it for you to deal with that depends on the benefits you expect to earn, and what you think of the norm itself. Everyone makes these calculations every day when they consider the social consequences of their actions.
Some norms are stronger: these are called formal norms. These are norms that are publicly stated (usually put in writing), and that may have an officially determined consequence. Some examples of formal norms include: