The Church Must Catch Up

The process of the secularization is epitomized on the cover of Steve Bruce’s book God is Dead. The cover depicts a British church converted to a discount warehouse store called Mike’s Carpets. It can similarly be seen at the converted church hostel that our History of Christianity class stayed. There is noticeable evidence all around us that religion has a declining influence. We know fewer people around us that get married in a church or regularly attend church. Christmas and Easter (Christian holidays) have lost much of their religious meaning. The holidays are now an excuse to have a break from work and indulge in food and drink. For many Christian holidays are a cultural rather than a religious affair. It may seem like common knowledge

Firstly, Steve Bruce (1995, 1996) attributes the development of a range of religious institutions, including sects and cults, to a general process of modernization and secularization. He believes the weakness of more conventional institutionalized religions has encouraged some people to consider less traditional alternatives. As modern societies

He further explained that “the faithful ought not to think that just because priests preside over Mass that they are more important than the people who make up the church itself” (USA Today). Pope Francis is pushing for these reforms in the church because he believes that some of the old traditions in the church are incorrect and immoral and that something needs to change for the better.

We all know that religion is an organized system regarding the spiritual or supernatural along with various practices that give numerous individuals a sense of purpose in the world and allows these individuals to understand things beyond their reach. However, while reading the articles from “Nones on the Rise,” it is evident that there is an increase in the number of individuals who claim unaffiliation to any religion in the United States. “Nones” gives the facts and figures of the Americans who do not place themselves in any religious category, with an approximate one in five of the public claiming no affiliation. But there are some individuals who denote themselves as spiritual or religious in some way. The entire article is an intriguing one because it breaks everything down, from what it means to be unaffiliated religiously to the composition of the unaffiliated, the demographics of the unaffiliated and theories as to why there is an increase in the numbers of the years. It is interesting to see how people view themselves when it comes to their beliefs.

The Interviewee John has had experiences with secularisation throughout his life from being in a cult religion in a very religious region of America to having no involvement in a formal religion and living in an Australian region with little to no religious influence. John has seen many changes in rationalisation from living in a traditional society based on the past and now in a society and time that promotes rationalisation and individual thoughts and ideas. We will further explore additional connections, of our interviewees experiences to these processes of modernity.

This is why in the past twenty five years, “nonreligious Americans has increased by well over 200 percent...making it the fastest growing “religious” orientation in [America]”(Zuckerman, 5). Throughout the years, the stigma of secularism, more commonly known as Atheism, has a negative feel towards

This change is revolutionary, as religion has been stagnant in its beliefs for hundreds of thousands of years, thus even this slight shift in inclusivity is monumental. Later in the “Religion” essay, Schwartz highlights that religion has been in charge of “silencing women, controlling their sexuality, removing them from the public sphere, denying them equal rights of participation, denying them leadership roles in the church, and at the most extreme, even denying them access to the blessings coffered by divinity”, and this control applies to all minorities and peoples who are not white heterosexual males (CTSG 428). Jae proves that religion can be both fluid and inclusive, as her congregation has developed such a large following. I think many nonreligious people as well as many millennials want to be more in touch with a higher power, but are turned off by the rigidity and heavily structured boundaries that a believer must abide

The Catholic church has been declining in active church membership in the recent times. Catholic leaders are concerned about this because, a low amount active practitioners will result in fewer active practitioners in the future. There are numerous reasons for this, but the main reason for this occurrence is that many people, especially younger people tend to disagree with the values of the church and their stance on social issues. For example, people tend to have unfavorable views on the church due to their stance on gay marriage, divorce/remarriage, and birth control. However, the solution to combat this problem is to encourage church leaders to be more liberal and less traditional with their teachings. Although the church leader, pope Francis

As we mold culture, culture molds us. Additionally, culture is consistently in a cycle of decline, fall and rebuilding, as humans are fallen and corrupted beings. From ancient Rome to modern American; people, and thus culture has been in a state of corruption since the original fall. According to Craig M. Gay, within ‘The Way of the (Modern) World: Or, Why It's Tempting to Live As If God Doesn't Exist’ he wisely states that modern culture located within America has rendered God extraneous and has hurled civilians into a state of practical atheism. This practical atheism is so profoundly ingrained within one’s culture that it is reflected everywhere from media to politics and technology. Craig Gay summaries practical atheism and lack of a religious foundation currently located within one’s society exceptionally; “Perhaps at no other time in history has the structural coherence of a

If I had the chance to meet with Pope Francis I would discuss with him the three things that I would change to make the church a better place. My first topic of change would be to allow women to be priests. I believe that if a woman is just as dedicated to God as a man is then she should be able to be a priest. I’ve never understood why only men can be priests. Yes, we call God ‘the father’ but we are unsure of his gender and yes, Jesus was a man but what does that have to do with anything. Just because Jesus was a man that doesn't mean that women should be excluded from priesthood. The church seems to be very focused on gender and what men and women can and cannot do, which raises another thing that could change in the church. Gay Marriage.

As the religious life of African Americans begin to change as a result of demographics and society, churches have realized that they need more than just a black religious leader if they wanted to keep this population and the church thriving. One way the church reinvents itself is by developing outreach programs that help and support the urban communities. Another method they used was placing the religious institutions in or near black inner-city communities. Not only did this make it easy to get access to a church, but the churches knew the problems going on in the local communities so they could be more quicker and efficient at helping. One reverend, Rev. Eugene Rivers, even went as far as to change a crack house into a Christian settlement

Priestly celibacy is rooted in tradition, not catholic dogma, so the pope could change it overnight. Those who are happy with the current rules say priestly celibacy allows priests time and energy to focus completely on their flock and to emulate Jesus, who was unmarried, more faithfully. But those who would like to see married priesthood argue celibacy is so difficult for many men that it dissuades people from the priesthood and can lead to sexually immature people pastoring their flocks (Live).

The Catholic Church, being nearly 2,000 years old, still follows many of the same rules and guidelines established in the early church. One item that many Catholics are surprised to learn is that the tradition of priests and other clergy members remaining celibate has not always been present in the church. There are many Catholics, in and out of the clergy, who believe that priests should have the ability to get married and raise a family. In fact, priestly celibacy is not a church law, but, as Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone says it is a "positive tradition," and not "untouchable" (France-Pressez). However, some critics of the practice would argue that celibacy is not a positive tradition, and that in fact it is

Berger defines secularization as the process by which sectors of society and culture are removed from the domination of religious institutions and symbols. Removal of religion from social structures refers to the separation of the church from the state, and the emancipation of education from religious authority. Removal from the cultural sector refers to the separation of religion from art, philosophy and literature, and the rise of science. (107)He states that the process has a subjective manifestation as well, the secularization of individuals consciousness.(108) This construction of the secularization process presents a linear, reductive process where the world departs from “nomos” into “anomy”. Nomos is defined as the laws and customs which enable a sense of connection and meaning, a world where religion and everyday life exists together as part of the cosmos. Anomy is described as a sense of separation from the world, the absence of nomos characterized by chaos. (slides). Secularization is bought about by the shrinkage in the

Chimuka T, A (2013:23) is of the view that religious or FBOs are part of the civil society. Civil society is further argued to be an area for voluntary formal and informal collective citizens engagement distinct from families, State and profit seeking organisations. Gordon White, a British Scholar defines civil society as ‘an intermediate associational realm between state and family, populated by organizations which are separate from the state, enjoy autonomy in relation to and are formed voluntarily by members of the society to protect or extend their interests and values’. This therefore means when talking about the civil society one will also be including FBOs as something not distinct outside Civil Society but distinct within Civil Society. FBOs become distinct in the sense that they have a religious orientation which impacts its mission and programming. From whites’ definition, the interests he mentions that the people might want to protect and values they would want to extend may be political, economic, social or religious.