Religion and Social Groups

• Gender and Religion:

  > socialisation

  > nurturing and motherhood

  > closer to ultimate questions

  > compensation for deprivation
• Gender - Socialisation:

  > Miller and Hoffman - gender socialisation means women are brought up to be more submissive, caring and obedient

  > girls are encouraged to adopt the bedroom culture

  > these are qualities that are valued by religion - followers are expected to obey church teaching
• Gender - Nurturing and Motherhood:

  > Bruce - women's socialisation into traditional femininity, combined with their childbearing and childrearing experiences, make them more cooperative and caring

  > these roles give women a greater focus on the family, so they are more likely to feel it necessary to take charge of their children's moral development, and use religion for this
• Gender - Closer to Ultimate Questions:

  > Davie - women are more exposed than men to 'ultimate questions' about life and death that religion answers

  > this is because of childbirth and greater participation in paid caring jobs, such as teachers, nurses and social workers

  > women also tend to be the main carers for children, the elderly, the disabled and the sick
• Gender - Compensation for Deprivation:

  > Glock and Stark - women may participate in religion because of the compensators it offers (religion makes up for what may be missing)

  > organismic deprivation - women are more likely to suffer ill health and thus seek healing through religion

  > ethical deprivation - women tend to be morally conservative, so are more likely to regard to world as being in moral decline and be attracted to sects (world-rejecting)

  > social deprivation - women are more likely to be in poverty, which may explain why there are more women in sects, who attract poorer groups
• Ethnicity and Religion:

  > solidarity

  > social deprivation and marginality

  > cultural transition

  > cultural defence
• Ethnicity - Solidarity:

  > Davie - higher levels of religiosity help to maintain tradition, group cohesion and community solidarity

  > Modood - religion is important in EM communities as a source of socialisation and as a means of maintaining traditional morality e.g. Mosques and Sikh temples are also community centres

  > also helps to cope with worries arising from discrimination
• Ethnicity - Social Deprivation and Marginality:

  > ethnic minorities are more likely to feel status frustration, which may account for higher religiosity, which provides a sense of identity and status which they find lacking in mainstream society

  > many older Asian women may feel marginalised as they have a poor grasp of English and African-Caribbeans face higher levels of unemployment

  > Weber - theodicy of disprivilege
• Ethnicity - Cultural Transition:

  > Bruce - religion can be a means of easing the transition to a new culture by providing support and a sense of community

  > he argues that Pentecostalism is the 'religion of the oppressed' - provides migrants with values that allow them to adapt to society, such as a 'Protestant ethic' that encouraged self-reliance and gave people hope of improving their situation
• Ethnicity - Cultural Defence:

  > Bruce - religion offers support and a sense of cultural identity in an uncertain and hostile environment

  > can be a means of preserving culture and language, and a way of coping with racism in society

  > many black African and Caribbean Christians found that white churches in the UK did not actively welcome them, so some turned to founding or joining black led churches, especially Pentecostal churches
• Age in Religion:

  > disengagement

  > generational effect (religious socialisation)

  > ageing effect
• Age - Disengagement:

  > as people get older, they become detached from the integrating mechanisms of society, such as participation in work

  > older people face a growing privatisation of their lives, with increasing social isolation

  > they may participate in religion as a form of social support
• Age - Generational Effect:

  > as society becomes more secular, each new generation is less religious than before - there are more old people in church congregations because they grew up at a time when religion was more popular and rediscover a religiosity they may have previously ignored

  > more likely to have had a greater emphasis placed on religion through education and socialisation in the family, such as Sunday school and baptism
• Age - Ageing Effect:

  > older people tend to be faced with declining health and death

  > the ageing process may generate an engagement with religion for comfort, coping and meaning

  > as we approach death, we become more concerned with spiritual matters and the afterlife
• Younger People are Less Religious:

  > religion is unattractive to the young

  > expanding spiritual marketplace

  > declining religious education
• Younger People are Less Religious - Unattractive:

  > most young people find services to be boring, repetitive and old-fashioned

  > controversies in religion over issues like abortion, contraception, gay rights and sex before marriage seem alien to the values that young people hold
• Young People are Less Religious - Expanding Spiritual Marketplace:

  > Lynch - young people may be turning away from conventional ideas of religion because there is now an expanding spiritual marketplace

  > this involves growing exposure and accessibility to a wide diversity of religious and spiritual ideas - they are finding expression outside of traditional religions
• Young People are Less Religious - Declining Religious Education:

  > Bruce - the Church of England is increasingly unable to recruit young people by socialising them into religious thinking, through Sunday schools or religious education

  > Sunday schools are in a state of terminal decline