Religion and Social Change

Religion can both cause and prevent social change

                                 Religion can be seen as Conservative...

1) Religion is often seen as traditional - it encourages traditional values in things like morals, roles, family life etc. It also has various ceremonies and customs that follow established patterns

2) Religious attitudes to matters such as abortion and homosexuality can also be quite old fashioned

3) Religion also tends to keep things as they are. For example, the caste system in India (which divides people based on inherited status) prevails because of the Hindu belief in reincarnation

4) Marxixts, feminists and functionalists all agree that religion is conservative. Marxists and feminists view this as a bad thing, as they believe that it allows repression of the working class and women to continue unchallenged. Functionalists however, see it as a good thing as it provides stability.

... but it can also Encourage Social Change

1) Marx's good pal Engels reckoned that in some cirumstances religion could actually be a revolutionary force. Sometimes religion is the only means of change because all other routes have been blocked.

2) Early Christian sects opposed Roman rule and brought about change. Jesus himself encouraged social change

3) In the 1960s and 1970s, Catholic priests in Latin America criticised the bourgeoisie and preached liberation theology - using religion to free people from oppression. This led to resistance and social change - in 1979, revolutionaries threw out the oppressive government in Nicaragua

4) Reverend Martin Luther King and the Southern Baptist Church resisted oppression and segregation, bringing about political and social rights for black people in 1960s America

5) In Iran, Islamic fundamentalism encouraged social change. In 1979, there was a revolution against the Shah, led by followers of the Shia Ayatollah Khomeini. Khomeini set up a religious government that followed Shariah law

6) Fundamentalism tries to provoke social change, often through a regession to more traditional values. It tries to change people's religious parctises, but is often met with…