Reblog 1: "Was I Spiritually Abused?"

"Was I Spiritually Abused?", Heather, January 30, 2013
http://becomingworldly.wordpress.com/2013/01/30/was-i-spiritually-abused/

Heather's blog describes what she went through as a child in what appears to be a fundamentalism Christian family.  She describes her brother getting "cured" from the flu by the laying of hands, threats of getting away from her religion and it resulting in hell, specific clothing and makeup rules, being homeschooled and removed from the outside world, and her struggle and fear of the way she was to live.  It is incredibly interesting to see a personal account of someone who experienced fundamentalist thoughts and actions imposed on her in the name of religion, and where she is now.

In the subject of sociology, Heather describes how this fundamentalist Christianity shaped and formed her thoughts, and also how it affected how she viewed and interacted with those outside of her group.  She describes seeing certain people as wrong in their beliefs, and she was dismissive to those who did not agree with what she was taught to believe.

Image-heavy 1: Religious Fundamentalism in Pictures

Warren Jeffs was the leader of the polygamist FLDS church, an offshoot of the Mormon church.  After being arrested in the late 2000s for various offenses (which this comic points at, child sexual abuse and marrying young teens off against their will), Warren Jeffs is carrying out life imprisonment and continues to try to spread his word from his prison cell.

https://7e8c.https.cdn.softlayer.net/807E8C/origin.theweek.com/img/dir_0064/32237_cartoon_main/warren-jeffs-indecent-proposal.jpg?206

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Protesters are very clear about their Islamic fundamentalism ideals and what they believe is right.

http://jdlcanada.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/mic-dutch-lawmaker-geert-wilders-news-conference-london-friday-wilders-film-about-islam-arrived-london-ban-against-him-entering-britain-overturned11.jpg

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The Westboro Baptist Church has been known to protest at military members' funerals, talk very opening against gay marriage and homosexuality, and has created a great amount of negative attention.  Christian fundamentalism can be incredibly dangerous, as seen with Jonestown, and incredibly offensive and socially unacceptable as seen with the Westboro Baptists.  

http://www.uhsperspective.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/sheilas-oped.png

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The newly declared Islamic State has taken over various part of Syria and continue to rage across the middle east.  Islamic fundamentalism has been the source of violence in the middle east and an excuse for various groups to commit martyrdoms, bombings, and various other dangerous acts against those who disagree with their sect of Islam as well as their own people who disagree with the groups' ideas or goals.

http://www.haaretz.com/polopoly_fs/1.572131.1391423402!/image/4252725607.jpg_gen/derivatives/landscape_640/4252725607.jpg

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Jim Jones,  founder and leader of the People's Temple, was a Christian fundamentalist who created a community of  roughly 1000 followers in the 70s who eventually committed a mass suicide as instructed by Jim Jones himself.

http://www.sixteensmallstones.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/Jim-Jones.jpg

In the News 2: Warren Jeffs Continues to Delay the Child-Bride Lawsuit

It's no secret that Warren Jeffs, the leader of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, has faced a considerable amount of attention since his compound was raided by the FBI in 2008.  In this article, http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/news/58138338-78/jeffs-trial-wall-case.html.csp, The Salt Lake Tribune gives updates on Jeffs' trial, due to take place in January 2015, and how he somehow continues to delay the lawsuit placed upon him by a former member of the church.  This member was only 14 years old when Jeffs married her off against her will to her cousin, but the United States Supreme Court continues to hear the attorneys involved in the lawsuit and is in the process of deciding whether the polygamist trust can be held liable for this.  Additionally, Warren Jeffs is accused of rape, accomplice to rape, incest, and sexually assault, which all landed him a life prison sentence in 2011.  

To look more into Jeffs' mindset and what the people following him were subjected to, this second website talks about the leader's ramblings sent to Utah State Legislature members: http://fox13now.com/2014/07/20/warren-jeffs-to-utah-state-legislature-god-is-coming/.  As recently as June 30th, 2014, Warren Jeffs sent the members a "Revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ, given to President Warren S. Jeffs."  In these letters, Warren writes as if he is writing another biblical book, and believes that God is speaking to him.  

This could very well be looked at in a psychological way, but it also has everything to do with sociological ideas.  The scariest part that comes to mind is people actually followed this man.  They supported his ideas, went along with his thoughts and actions, and even after he was arrested and removed from the compound, the women and men seemed to be so brainwashed that they did not even realize what they had been participating in over the course of years.  Their dress, traditions, actions, and every day living was its' own culture and religion, in addition to being completely removed from outside society.  Instead, they were their own society with new ideals, values, morals, thoughts, and set of rules.  Some of the children who were inside the compound did not even know anything that was outside of the compound, which completely changed how they were raised and taught societal rules.  It just goes to show how dangerous one person could be and how easily they can change the way society is within a particular area.  This isn't new, this isn't something that will never happen again.  We had Jonestown years back, and it was very similar to Warren Jeffs power over people.  Just goes to show how fragile society is.  

In the News 1: Catholicism meets Islamic Fundamentalism

"Religious fundamentalism seeks to take power for political ends, at times using violence, over the individual conscience and over religion," [Pope Benedict XVI] said.  "All religious leaders in the Middle East [should] endeavour, by their example and their teaching, to do everything possible to uproot this threat, which indiscriminately and fatally affects believers."

A couple years ago, the Pope visited Lebanon to meet with various religious leaders to speak about the conflict in Syria.  The above quote as well as this visit is in the following article on the BBC: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-19594442.  During the Pope's 3-day visit, he called Christians, Jews, and Muslims all to stop fundamentalist ideals and to instead, live together in religious harmony.  More specifically, there is a large population, 40% to be exact, of Christians located in Lebanon, and there is a constant conflict in that region between the quarreling religions.  Additionally, right before the Pope's visit, a film mocking Islam was released, which caused many violent protests to erupt in Tripoli and across Syria.  This was only fuel to the Sunni-Shiite conflict that has been consistently burning across the middle each.  

In the field of sociology, studies and research have shown that religion gives communities stability, a set of values and morals, and social order, as well as answers to life's big questions.  Historically, religion has had a large impact on various cultures, regions, and has also led to great conflicts, divisions, and wars.  The pope's visit to Lebanon ties together many conflicts, new and old, and is a step in the right direction of bringing each of these groups together.  The problem lies in that each of these groups, fundamentalist or not, believe their religion is the correct choice of beliefs, values, morals, rules, and want that religion to govern that community, offer stability, and create social order within the confines of their own system.  

Ideally, religion would offer such stability and positivity, and it does in fact contribute great things to various communities, but it can also be incredibly dangerous and lead to great conflict within regions and across the world, as seen in Syria.  Pope Benedict XVI understands this and seeks to find harmony within the religions by "uprooting" religious fundamentalism across Christianity, Judaism, and Islam.  So two years later, after the Pope's visit and continuing conflict between the Shiites and Sunnis in Syria, what have we seen?  Togetherness?  Acceptance?  Harmony?  Well, no.  We've seen continued conflict, continued loss of life and freedom, and the dangerous, fundamentalist side of religion continuing to destroy a region.  Is there any hope in putting out the hundreds of years of fundamentalist religious conflict?  I would like to think so, but if the Pope has not made a difference in the continuing issue, I do not know who could.

First Post

Hi--My name is Jenna Jordan and I am taking Sociology 111 this summer to knock out some prerequisites for my master's degree.  In my undergrad studies, I took a religious fundamentalism class for my Religious Studies major and absolutely loved learning about the various fundamentalist sides to each religion.  Christianity, Judaism, Islam as the most well known, along with many others.

When we were assigned to create a blog project on a topic of choice that relates to sociology, I immediately remembered that fundamentalism class and how much sociology was incorporated within those topics without really noticing it at the time.  Therefore, this is the introductory post to my blog project on religious fundamentalism in today's world.  I will be posting recent news, pictures, personal reflections, and other ideas and writings about this topic.

I hope you enjoy this post and find the topic to be as interesting as I do.

Sociology111
Professor Erica Yeager
Summer 2014