Category: Religion

Using Sociology to Imagine Alternative Paths: Abbi and Nathan in Liberty Lost

On By Karen SternheimerIn Class and Stratification, Marci Cottingham, Popular Culture and Consumption, Relationships, Marriage and Family, ReligionLeave a comment

By Alana Hogan, Student, Kenyon College, and Marci Cottingham, Associate Professor of Sociology, Kenyon College

The podcast, Liberty Lost, centers on the story of Abbi and Nathan—two teenagers whose lives are deeply shaped by the religious conservatism of their community. Abbi is home-schooled and close to her sisters and parents in a home run by her father as the traditional patriarch. Nathan is a public-school athlete raised in the same tight-knit community, where faith, reputation, and obedience are treated as non-negotiable. When she discovers that she is pregnant at sixteen, this triggers a chain of decisions that will stay with them for the rest of their lives.

Abbi and Nathan, surrounded by well-meaning but fearful family members, and experiencing feelings of shame for violating their religious beliefs, do not know how to navigate their new circumstances. Abbi’s parents, motivated by a desire to fulfill their duties to God and community, decide to send her to the Godparent Home.

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The Role of Military Chaplains in the Ukraine War

On By econnellIn Behind the Headlines, Religion, Social Problems, Politics, and Social Change3 Comments

By Jan Grimell, Associate Professor and Senior Lecturer in Sociology at Umeå University and Research Fellow at Linnaeus University, Sweden

For decades, Europe has lived under the illusion of lasting peace, where full-scale war on the continent felt like a distant part of history. Since the end of World War II, armed conflicts—both in Europe and in more remote parts of the world—have required military interventions from European countries, NATO, and allied forces. But we have been spared the total war in which an entire nation’s existence is at stake. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has changed this.

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The Power of Religion: Christian Nationalism and Trump Support

On By econnellIn Behind the Headlines, Religion, Social Problems, Politics, and Social Change2 Comments

Jenny Enos author photoBy Jenny Enos, Sociology Doctoral Student, Rutgers University

Religion has always captivated sociologists. Émile Durkheim, who is often credited with being one of the “founders” of sociology, wrote extensively about religion in his 1912 book Elementary Forms of Religious Life in which he aimed to explain the role of religion in society. Writing from a functionalist perspective, Durkheim posited that religion served an important function.

Religion, he argued, serves the purpose of producing societal cohesion and expressing our “collective consciousness,” or our shared beliefs and ideas as a group. As such, societal participation in religion can have significant impacts on both social and individual life outcomes.

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Sociology and Religion

On By econnellIn Karen Sternheimer, Religion3 Comments

By Karen Sternheimer

I’m not an expert in the sociology of religion, but it is a fascinating area within the study of sociology. Religion is a topic that many other disciplines examine, including anthropology, history, and philosophy. So what is the focus of sociologists who study religion?

Rather than investigating religious doctrines, sociologists study the role that religion plays in social life. We don’t debate the virtues of any one religion, but instead look at how followers make meaning through the texts of their religious traditions. Émile Durkheim, one of the first sociologists, noted that religions distinguish between the sacred from the profane, or the holy from the everyday rituals and practices.

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Eating and Identity

On By econnellIn Karen Sternheimer, Popular Culture and Consumption, Religion7 Comments

Headshot 3.13 cropcompressBy Karen Sternheimer

An acquaintance recently told me a joke: “How can you tell if a person is vegan?” “I don’t know,” I responded, “how can you tell?” “Don’t worry, they’ll let you know.”

The food we eat is a core component of culture; our customs, celebrations, and restrictions shape and are shaped by our shared values, beliefs, and our resources. It also helps shape our sense of self and identity by the groups that we belong to and who we are as individuals.

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Sociology and Holiday Rituals

On By econnellIn Behind the Headlines, Karen Sternheimer, Popular Culture and Consumption, Religion, Theory1 Comment

Headshot 3.13 cropcompressBy Karen Sternheimer

Do you have certain holiday rituals that you look forward to each year, or at least feel compelled to participate in? Sociology provides us with tools for understanding these practices more deeply.

For Emile Durkheim, one of sociology's key nineteenth century thinkers, shared values and beliefs help to form society itself. Emphasizing particular values during end of year holidays like giving, connecting with family and friends through visits, cards, or well wishes serves a very important purpose. He contends that societies are more than just a collective of individuals, but rather people learn to be part of an already-existing society. Holidays aid in this process.

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Religion, Climate Change, and Poverty

On By econnellIn Behind the Headlines, Class and Stratification, Peter Kaufman, Popular Culture and Consumption, Religion, Social Problems, Politics, and Social Change, Theory5 Comments

Peter kaufman 2014By Peter Kaufman

There is a new sociologist on the block: he does not have a Ph.D., does not teach at a university, and as far as I know, may have never even taken a sociology course. In fact, he attended a technical secondary school where he graduated with a chemical technician’s diploma and worked for a time in a chemistry lab (as well as working temporarily as a bouncer). Who is this new sociologist?  He’s an Argentinian named Jorge Mario Bergogli or, as he is commonly referred to, Pope Francis.

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Seeing Others as Us

On By econnellIn Behind the Headlines, Peter Kaufman, Religion, Social Problems, Politics, and Social Change1 Comment

Peter kaufman 2014By Peter Kaufman

In 2012, there were over 1,000 documented hate groups in the United States. A hate group is pretty much what it sounds like: a collection of individuals who come together based on their shared animosity toward others. Whether they focus on race, religion, sexual orientation, or nationality, these organizations mobilize around a clearly defined difference that they perceive to have with other people. Groups such as the Ku Klux Klan, Aryan Brotherhood, Westboro Baptist Church, and the neo-Nazi National Socialist Movement, use these differences not only as a basis of their hatred, but also to justify acts of hostility, aggression, and violence against those they deem to be “outsiders.”

Although most of us would acknowledge that the attitudes and actions of these hate groups are extreme, few of us are immune to engaging in similar but less severe forms of selective separation.  An example that many young people can relate to is the scene in the movie Mean Girls when Cady (Lindsay Lohan) is introduced to the seating arrangement of the various “tribes” in the high school lunch room.  Cady quickly learns that everyone sits with people who are deemed to be just like them: preps, nerds, Asians, Blacks, wannabees, burnouts, band geeks, etc.

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Is Islamophobia a Form of Racism (And Does it Even Matter)?

On By econnellIn Behind the Headlines, Race and Ethnicity, Religion14 Comments

2014-10-16 08.40.10By Saadia Faruqi

Graduate student

Department of Sociology, Baker University

 A couple of weeks ago, Ben Affleck called out Bill Maher for being a racist because of his views of Muslims. In a world still healing from the racism of the pre-civil rights era, in a world of Ferguson and Michigan, being called a racist is no laughing matter. Sadly, we live in a society where more Americans sit up and take notice when a Hollywood actor makes a statement than when the president of the United States does. What is Islamophobia? Is it related to racism? How does Islamophobia relate to sociology?

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Good Crowds

On By econnellIn Behind the Headlines, Jonathan Wynn, Religion, Social Institutions: Work, Education, and Medicine, Social Problems, Politics, and Social ChangeLeave a comment

WynnBy Jonathan Wynn

College campuses can and should be places for open dialogue and communication. Those conversations can be powerful and affirming for some, and they have the potential for being hurtful or even dangerous for others. Rarely do you get the opportunity to have a campus-wide conversation about an important issue.

When UMass basketball player (and sociology major!) Derrick Gordon became the first Division I athlete to come out as gay on April 9th, he drew an outpouring of support from thousands of people on my campus and from around the world.

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