Religion and Conflict Theory Cody Church (800766934) 11-25-12

Religion and Conflict Theory

A Brief Biography of Religion Religion has been traced back as far as many thousands of years ago with the help of cave paintings and anthropology (Kottak, 2012). Throughout history there have been many different religions that have come and gone. Todays religions are the ones that have stood the test of time and survived like Islam, Judaism, and Christianity (Kottak, 2012). There are even more that didnt make it like the Greek Gods or the religions of the ancient Indians such as the Mayans, or Aztecs. There are nineteen major world religions in the world today each saying that they are the right religion and the others are heathens for praying to a different God (Kottak, 2012). Over the centuries religion has influenced every aspect of our lives even if you are not religious yourself, for example the recently voted on Amendment One which put an official band on same-sex marriage in the state of North Carolina, was officially implemented and set into the constitution of North Carolina. Many other laws similar to Amendment One have also been passed in various other states across the nation. It is because of the religious beliefs of the people that homosexual marriage is frowned upon in todays society and why is that? Apparently God says it is wrong for a man to be with a man or a woman to be with a woman. Mankind is supposed to live in a free world where we can choose our own destiny like who we want to be with but the restraints of religion are keeping some people from doing just that. Even the very word religion comes from a Latin word Religare that means to bind or to tie (Kottak, 2012). So it that what religion has done to mankind over the years? Is it controlling us by telling us how to

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think and what is right or wrong? Are you really going to make a judgment like weather two people can be together because a man says God told me that this is how it should be done? About Conflict Theory Conflict theory first came about through the ideas of Karl Marx. The sum of conflict theory can be explained by saying that there is a battle over resources, and the winners of the resources exploit the losers. Marx first used this theory to criticize capitalism because of the enormous wealth controlled by just a small amount of the population. He thought it would be better to have an equal distribution of wealth which would lead to equality among everyone so there could be no oppression by the ruling classes. His theory is that until the aristocracy was overthrown there could be no progression among the lower class because the powerful needed slaves and that is where the poor would be kept until there was no more use for them. The conflict theory idea produced by Marx is probably the most influential theory of the twentieth century since his ideas were adopted by Joseph Stalin who would later use the Communist Manifesto to govern the USSR. After World War Two the USA and capitalism faced off against the new USSR and Communism, now based on Karl Marxs ideas of conflict theory. This almost led to the destruction of the planet during the Cold War, but thankfully it did not. Marxs ideas of religion according to conflict theory was that religion is a tool of oppression and that until people let go of it they will never be able to see it for themselves (Giddens, Dunier, Applebaum, & Carr, 2012). He said that the powerful needed a way to control the masses and reduce the competition, so they came up with the idea of religion. In this paper we will use

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conflict theory to show how religion has oppressed us all into being subservient to the powerful and has blinded us from the truth for so long. The Conflict with Religion Mankind has had Gods or in todays western society just one God they prayed to and this has gone on for hundreds of thousands of years (Kottak, 2012). People have devoted their lives to religion, and would even die for their religion. The only problem with this is that over all those years there has never been hard proof to verify the existence of God. There is not physical proof that a higher power is real. The only proof that can be mustered is the collection of books known as the bible and other books of different religions such as the Torah, and the Quran, but these are just stories and no real solid proof is in them. The so called profits that wrote these books said that God spoke to them and told them to write what they wrote but honestly anyone can say that because if you say that God was involved, will someone who really believes fight you on it? The answer is no. What is to stop someone from using this to gain power as so many have done before? The masses of society cling to religion like crack and they depend on it because they believe that they will be rewarded in the afterlife if they have been good and the wicked will be punished, even though there is no concrete proof that such things happen, for them that is how they justified the world. The hard fact is that the rich use religion to control the masses because they are outnumbered and they know it so they need a distraction, so they made religion to keep the masses occupied and in their places. It sounds good because a God like deity will grant you

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eternal salvation into heaven no matter what you social status was a long as you had been a good citizen. The deity would even punish the wicked which the poor viewed as the elite of the world so the masses didnt even bother with them because they were content the God would deal with them as they saw fit. The rich got off free because they were going to be punished by a god that doesnt even exist, so they were fine with it. As you can see the masses were content with living how they were and never strived to do anything better because they felt that they would receive benefits in the afterlife and that the people that had wronged them would be sent to hell for their crimes. Throughout the ages the rich used religion to exploit the lower classes and keep them in place. To avoid a challenge of power they use religion to take advantage of the poor and keep them oppressed so they could continue to get richer while the poor stay poor. The ancient kings of old used to declare divine right and say that it was Gods will that they had become the rulers of their empires so they would not be challenged. More examples come from missionaries that traveled to different countries converting the so called heathens to Christianity which expanded white dominion on the world but at the destruction of other cultures (Giddens et al, 2012). Slavery was also considered divine right with disobedience being considered an offense to God himself (Giddens et al, 2012). After all the more following the religion has got the more influence you have over the general population and if you control a majority of something you can do just about whatever you want. One example of this is Hitlers extermination of the Jews during World War Two. Over six million Jews were killed because one man convinced an entire country that they were the cause of its problems and they needed to be destroyed (De Wijze,

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2006). You can almost compare the institution of a church to groupthink because they refuse to accept outside ideas like the theory of evolution and some scientific facts. At first they didnt want to even say the sun was at the center of the galaxy because they believed it was the earth that was the center. They killed anyone who spoke out against the church during the medieval times and the church is the reason science didnt progress for centuries. In todays churchs it is not uncommon for there to be corruption among the priests such as taking the collection plate money for their own monetary gain and unlawful infatuation with young boys. A priest in Germany stole almost a million dollars from the collection plate in just forty years because he was afraid he would not have enough money in his old age, but when he was caught he was not sentenced since he still had all the money in his house because he had plenty of money besides the stolen bills (Katja Auer, 2011). If that is not enough Reverend John Skehan who is a catholic priest in Florida has been charged with stealing from the collection plate. Since the statute of limitations only stays for a number of years he can only be charged with the theft of three hundred and seventy thousand dollars but it is estimated that he stole over eight million in twenty years to pay for affairs, gambling, and personal expenses. As for the child abuse a study was performed by the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in 2003 on data taken on priests from 1950-2002. In his time period a total of 10,667 individuals said they had been sexually abused with only 4,127 priests being accused (John Jay College of Criminal Justice, 2010). 149 of these priests had more than ten allegations of abuse and were responsible for a significant number of those abuses. (John Jay College of Criminal Justice, 2010). More than half of the accusers were between the ages of 11 and 14 while six percent of the victims were under the age of seven. In

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all only 384 priests were criminally charged and only 100 of those priests actually saw jail time (John Jay College of Criminal Justice, 2010). So you can say not only is religion oppressing the people but it has put the masses in prime position to be taken advantage of by a person they trust because he is supposedly a man of God. How can someone who tells you every Sunday that you will go to hell if you do certain things not only do those things himself and think its alright but still condemn you for doing them. One possible explanation is that there is no God and as said before the few are using it to meet their own ends at the expense of the many. The very rules of our society that are made to keep us in line where made by religion. If it was not for religion and the churchs saying we cannot do this and that then we would have a lot more freedom to do what we wanted. You have to respect your parents no matter what which oppresses children because even if the parent beats the child every day the child is commanded by God to be loyal and respect that parent which is bullshit. Religion provides what is considered the social norms and puts boundaries in place to say what you can and cannot do. As long as the people followed the rules they would be held in place. One period in time where this was not true was during the French revolution which during those bloody years they set out to destroy all religion around them because they saw it as signs of their oppressors and of the aristocracy (Smith 2010). They set out to destroy all religious symbols and get rid of all the priests in the country (Smith 2010). They sought freedom of religion so they killed anyone with any religious ties (Smith, 2010). This is an example of why the rich would want to keep the poor in place; for fear that they might rise up and destroy them. This type of behavior only

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strengthens Marxs belief that people must put aside religion in order to see the oppression that is befalling them. Along with the poor being oppressed by religion other minority groups are also targeted. Religion has been used in history as a means to say something, such as slavery, is right. When it obviously it is not okay. Through religion women especially in history have been targeted by religions strict teachings. Womens first roles in religion were basically that of a housewife. By religions strict gender roles, women did not hold any positions of power. Men did not want women to gain power. Men wanted women to be submissive, and to do that they could not gain any status. Women were usually teachers and nurses, because the places of worship were able to have a strict, and strong oversights in those fields of work , and able to control a womans position (Giddens et al, 2012). Many religious jobs held by women were for the most instance not held in the secular level as most men, being priest, rabbis, shamans, etc.. Women in most westernized religious societies had to be under the strict eye of a male religious hierarchy. With rituals that enforced the strict gender binaries, women were wholeheartedly treated as secondclass citizens. It wasnt until 1976 that Episcopalian church allowed women to join the priesthood (Giddens et al, 2012). Marking the end of a womans oppressive and strict role in the church. Not just in the Christian faith have women finally gained some equal status as men. In Judaism women have also gained the equal status as a man, in being able to be a rabbi as well (Giddens et al, 2012). Religions strict regulation on women throughout history has been a constant force, as women were expected to be seen and not heard. Thankfully that is changing,

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women are now gaining access into the once male dominated religious sects, and are being heard as well as seen. Conclusion To put it all together there may or may not be a God out there. Whether there is something out there is not certain, but what is certain is for the thousands of years the minorities like the rich have been using such institutions as religion to oppress the mass public. They fill your head with fantasies of an afterlife where you are being rewarded and the wicked are damned for all eternity but in reality while your praying to God before you go to bed your priest is out having sex with an escort using the church funds or he or she is molesting another child that is not even in middle school yet; or women being treated as second-class citizens within the church, having to endure such strict gender exclusive roles. Here we have addressed just a handful of information on a much bigger argument so now its up to you to make a decision. Will you just sit back and allow these atrocities to happen in the name of religion or will you stop it and take matters into your own hands instead of waiting for God to do the work. Will you let oppression on minority groups still be a part of such a holy and spiritual thing? The powerful are exploiting the weak using religion to keep the masses satisfied by saying if they are good they will go to heaven and if they are bad or break the law they will go to hell. So while you follow a certain religion you may as well be doing what the powerful want you to do. As long as religion is followed the masses it will continue to be like puppets on a string. The strong exploit the weak, which is the center point of conflict theory.

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Works Cited

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Applebaum, R. P., Carr, D., Duneier, M., Giddens, A. (2012). Introduction to Sociology. New York, NY: W.W. Norton &Norton. Auer, K. (2011, October 24). When Priests Steal: German Skims From Plate For 40 Years, Doesnt Spend A Dime. SUDDEUTSCHE ZEITUNG. Retrieved from http://www.worldcrunch.com/when-priests-steal-german-pastor-skims-plate-40years-doesn-t-spend-dime/culture-society/when-priests-steal-german-skims-fromplate-for-40-years-doesn-t-spend-a-dime/c3s3973/#.ULHSQe9hV-Z De Wijze, L. (2006). Only my life. Charlotte NC: Catawba Publishing Company. John Jay College of Criminal Justice (2010, April). The Nature and Scope of the Problem of Sexual Abuse of Minors by Catholic Priests and Deacons in the United States. [Monograph]. John Jay College. Retrieved form http://www.philvaz.com/apologetics/PriestAbuseScandal.htm Kottak, C. P. (2012). Window on humanity. (5th ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill. No Author (2009, January 21). Florida Catholic priests 'stole millions from collection plate'. The Telegraph. Retrieved from http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/4308456/FloridaCatholic-priests-stole-millions-from-collection-plate.html Smith, (2010, August 23). Religion in France during the French Revolution. Humanities. Retrieved from http://humanities-notes.blogspot.com/2010/08/religion-in-franceduring-french.html

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