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I have just read this article about how 72% of the American public believe/feel that religion is losing its influence in the world. You may find the article at http://www.mormonnewsroom.org/ . When I read stuff like this I always think why is it so? I once had a discussion with a former colleague who happened to be divorced, while I was going through my divorce. I said in derision that I don’t feel like society or the Church really do enough to support/influence families. I know some of this was said in anger and I was really biased in my approach. But, I can honestly say that the marriage and family relations class is seldom taught in wards. Only 1 out of 5 wards I have been in have taught this class. I’m sorry I think there is this perception that if you pay your tithing, go to the temple and do everything right that your marriage will stay together. Then I started asking myself. If this naivete is really thought in the Church why does the Church’s flagship school (BYU) have Ph.D. and Sociology departments. Yet, how much of their “worldy” wisdom is filtered into, or forms a synthesis with what the Church teaches about strong families. I’m sorry the Family Proclamation to the world is more about defining marriage between a man and a woman, yet I think that the whole political stance on moral grounds has done some bad in that people are seeing beyond the mark of how liberal that document really is: It suggests that women work outside the home to adapt to the worldly climate to help support a family and this contradicts what the church has taught about women staying in the home.What do you think? Is religions influence losing power since people realize that it is up to them to survive in such a tough economy. Sure the church can help them, but it is the individual survival of the fittest philosophy that wins out in the end. How many people are marginalized by religion. For example in Chocolat the movie, it is the Atheist Chocolatier that saves the day and reunites the community, not the Church. Perhaps religion’s perception as “holier-than-thou” is what keeps people away from being influenced by it. Don’t get me wrong, I believe the Church has a lot of great programs that when properly administered can influence a lot of people for good inside and outside of the Church. Yet, I believe there are other organizations that can do the same and help alleviate suffering in the world and help influence the world for good.
Going back to the beginning of my fit of rage from seven years ago. Now, I know that society does a lot to help families. I had government healthcare for three years because I was out of a job. One of my children got really ill and had to be hospitalized. That would have cost our poverty stricken family at least $20,000 if we did not have healthcare. I also know the Church’s welfare program helped me get my current job. Yet, I still had to exert all my will power and strength to attain these.
Do we blame it on the media? I do believe that the media has a lot of influence on people’s minds and hearts. For this reason I have stopped listening to political pundits who just make me angry. I stopped listening to most news. Yet, it is a lot like Satan, the media only has as much influence as we give them.
Do we blame it on Satan? Well yes if everything evil comes from him and people are influenced to do evil. But then again you cannot say “The Devil made me do it.”
I just think that the mistake many in the TBM mindset make (and I have been guilty of this at times) is that we blame it on the government. Well why is the government doing what they are doing? Is the government trying to fill the “gap” that religion doesn’t fill. If the whole premise of government supposed to help people in the pursuit of life liberty and the pursuit of happiness, then is the government trying to serve people who are not happy?
I don’t like articles like this that stimulate fear. I like articles that get at the crux of the matter. I remember listening to NPR earlier this week and the government wants to up the amount of money that it gives to Wall Street whistle blowers to avoid the economic downturns like the one of 2008 that were intentionally caused by selfish and greedy capitalists. So if such people are influenced by evil itself to do what they did, then, yes we can all blame it on Satan. and then what I have written is just as much influencing fear as the Pew research article referred to above.
I think many people are looking for community, spirituality, & relationship without the boxed in hierarchy of religion. I believe many people have been disillusioned by religious authority figures as scandals have come out. They see “doing the church thing” as an excersize in hypocracy. In those church movies about the days of JS – people were always getting worked up over these divergent points of doctrine. I think today many are tired of the posturing, the fighting, and the dogma.
Yes, I think it is to a degree – but it still has far more influence in America than in many other modernized countries. That’s both a good and a bad thing. I imagine there are lots of reasons. The world gets smaller with each passing year. When I was a kid every single one of my friendships ended the day that my family moved two towns over. Now social media has erased some of those limitations.
A world culture is developing, Americans (and many, many others) have their finger on the pulse of world culture. We see news from all over the world. We have the ability to see the fruits of fanaticism taken to extremes that may be occurring on the opposite side of the globe and we worry about how elements of what we see are reflected in our own society. We see Europe well ahead of the USA in terms of waning interest in religion and see that their society didn’t devolve into Lord of the Flies. There are positive and negative examples all around us and they contribute each in their own way.
I haven’t studied mythology much but I’d guess that ancient mythologies evolved as those ancient cultures became less isolated and started to communicate with outside cultures. The Romans arrived on the scene and would forever change the landscape of the regions they conquered. Technologies that reduce our isolation from each other may be producing similar results (but by fascination, not force).
Religion is expensive — at least ours is. It’s time consuming. There are times when you feel like a paid staffer, and when the relationships are not good, or the local leadership is not competent, it can seem like an unwise use of time. That’s my perception. Don’t know about the rest of society — but I do know that scandals regarding religion haven’t helpe Jimmy Baker et. al really hurt its reputation a long time ago. Also, remember the plague decades ago? When there are long, protracted problems, and being faithful doesn’t seem to fix them, people stop believing. Not sure if the extended recession had anything to do with that perception, but it wouldn’t surprise me.
SilentDawning wrote:Also, remember the plague decades ago? When there are long, protracted problems, and being faithful doesn’t seem to fix them, people stop believing.
I’m sure temporal comfort plays a large role but it’s hard to know how much of a role it plays. I’ve heard people make opposite claims, that people turn to religion when there’s little hope for them in this life. Religious commitment may even increase because hopes shift from this life to the afterlife, religion becomes the escape. I’m sure there’s a breaking point though, a point where people give up.
On the flip side of that coin, some people that have all the luxuries of life may decide that they don’t need god or they may decide that they have reached their status in life through the blessings of god. It’s hard to tell how problems or lack of problems factor into belief.
I know the prosperity cycle says that when people get comfortable, they stop turning to God. It also says that when people get hit with trials and poverty, they turn to God. However, the evidence of the Black Plague was that people expect results over a reasonable horizon when, in their suffering, they turn to God. During the period of the Black Plague, apparently people lost faith in the Catholic Church when it could not eradicate the effects of the plague, which killed one in three people.
They turned their back on the Catholic church — some to non-religious pursuits, and others to splinter religious groups who claimed to have the answers and to address the suffering of the people.
It’s like of like what we see in education. when the economy is rough, people return to school to wait it out. But if the economy is bad for a long time, they stop even trying to go to school because they don’t believe there’s a job at the end of it. Protracted hard times can be like the protracted recession we’ve faced. The recession is the hardship, and returning to school is like pursuing religion.
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