Sociology 255

I’ve been thinking over our discussion in class on Wednesday about the issue with racially segregated congregations. Dr. Pitt said that, though pastors would love to have diverse churches, they simply stay segregated. One thing we did not touch on was the fact that Christian congregations have the option of integration.

I then started thinking about my own experiences, as a Jew and as a member of two separate synagogues. Because Jewish immigration to the United States historically was and has been comprised mostly of European Jews, there are very very few black Jews in this country (despite what many people think, there are “black” Jews. There are two main subgroups of Jews: Ashkenazi and Sephardi. Sephardim originate from the Iberian peninsula and Northern Africa. Ashkenazim originate from Europe). Sephardim have not immigrated nearly as much as Ashkenazim, so naturally Jewish synagogues will be almost or entirely white.

My question is, is there a solution to this problem? We were talking about solution to segregated churches, but for synagogues it would be very difficult to create diversity. Do we just have to accept the implicit segregation and hope that it will not lead to racist values? Is there a way to combat racism without diversity?

I don’t think it’s a coincidence that the secularism in America has grown alongside increasingly liberal sensibilities. I think that this is because many of the arguments against racial integration and gay rights have come from religious points of view. I think that as prejudiced attitudes become less and less acceptable to Americans, religious folks have increasingly been faced with the choice between secularism and fundamentalist religion. The schism between secular and religious is greatly exacerbated by social events which call into question accepted views of society which are generally supported by the church. Has anybody ever seen Jesus Camp? Check this out.

An article was just published about how 15% of Americans now say that they have no religious affiliation, which is up from 8% in 1990.

Could race be following this trend in the near future, or is it already?

http://www.usatoday.com/news/religion/2009-03-09-aris-survey-nones_N.htm?csp=34

Today we briefly discussed in class the role religion can play in prejudice and how it has been used for the purpose of self-justification. For example, Dr. Pitt mentioned, the Crusades were a result of religious difference being used to  justify a war.

I had a discussion over religion with a Christian friend of mine two days ago, in which he mentioned to me that he doesn’t like atheists. Now, I consider myself to be Secular Humanist, so naturally, I asked my friend “why don’t you like atheists?”

My friends answer, perhaps because he was trying not to offend me, didn’t really explain much. Ultimately, what he ended up telling me was that pure atheists have no true morals that aren’t derived from religion. Furthermore, he told me that I was just confused, and that someday, I’d find God, and then I’d understand.

Now, I can’t speak for all non-believers, but I do have my own beliefs (which raises the question why people who don’t believe in God are called non-believers simply for that alone), and while some of them may be shared with the morals of other religions, they are my own beliefs. However, the fact that someone could dislike me simply because I don’t share their beliefs kind of irked me.

The question that this raises for me, that I’d like to propose to you all, is if people can self-justify on the basis of something as widely disputed as religion, how can we possibly hope to see the end of negative prejudices?

That’s a pretty deep question, so if that seems like too much to tackle, perhaps you could share your N=1 experiences about how you’ve seen religion used as a basis for prejudice.

—

Let me just finish off with a disclaimer, though. I deeply admire those of strong convictions. To truly believe in something that has the power to bring so many together, such as religion, is really awe-inspiring. Really, it is the ability of the human race to come together and unite that informs my beliefs, even if I don’t particularly agree with their message. Please try not to take what I’ve said as a slight at your beliefs, because, really, I’m just trying to find out more about them.

Today in class, Dr. Pitt was talking about the commitment stage of Cross’ theory of minority identity development. He said that, according to the theory, those California blacks who voted for Proposition 8 are not in the commitment stage of identity development because they have not moved beyond their own minority group to embrace the issues of other oppressed peoples. However, given that blacks voted disproportionately for the legislation (meaning against gay marriage), blacks are the most consistantly religious (i.e. Christian) ethnic group in the U.S., and traditional Christianity condems homosexuality as sinful, are these blacks being “blocked” from the commitment stage of identity development by a feature of their minority identity? If Christianity is a central feature of black culture, is supporting  gay marriage counter to a developed black identity?