Religion
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The reading was very informative about the American-Born Christianities and gave an in depth description of some of the rituals and characteristics associated with the following religions, Mormons, Christian Scientists, Seventh Day Adventists and Jehovah Witnesses. I found it interesting and meaningful that a common religious activity is “family home evenings”. It shows that the family is primarily emphasized in this particular religion. More specifically, I was recently in Australia and I discovered that the majority of business closes at 5 p.m.; excluding restaurants and some convenient stores. Therefore, family dinners are much more common than that in America. Furthermore, I feel that in American society we have created a work ethic that is so intense that many American families do not have this time set aside for the family. It usually unnecessarily long hours of diligent work that minds that time that should be spent with a person’s family. In other words, I feel there should be more focus on family life and less on working overtime in general. In the readings Heymeyer makes the points that, “their emphaisis on the family and on traditional morality offer a clear-cut alternative to the problems many people see besetting modern society”.
Also, I found it interesting that the American-Born Christianities share the common practice of abstaining from alcohol, tobacco, and illicit drugs. They advocate a healthy lifestyle for their followers which would benefit all of society. Another thing that stood out to me was the fact that these religions separate themselves from society on the belief that the world is an evil place. I feel that this is considerably harsh and is an aspect of these religions which I cannot understand. It is an extreme point of view that really has very little justification, especially because it contrasts with their benevolent way of life which is supposedly what their beliefs revolve around.
In the Corrigan readings, there is a great deal of history concerning the immigrants coming to American and the religious tensions which followed. I found it interesting and arrogant of the Germans, specifically, to believe that in order to maintain there culture and traditions they felt there was no room for compromise. More specifically, they along with many Irish were not interested in adapting to American society. It was not until it was pointed out that the blessing they have been given by living in America were they beginning to change their frame of mind.
Also, I discovered through the immigration to America the immense growth of many religions such as Catholic and Lutheran. It seemed that is became common knowledge to accept the good with the bad. In other words, the immigrants may have brought their “foreignness”, such as language, culture, and tradition, and depressed wages through cheap labor; however, in time through organization