Social support withdrawn. Friendship cessation. A family disowns its own. A community turns its back. These are the hallmarks of religious shunning. Because many people have never dealt with a repressive religion, they may not understand the concept of ‘being cast out.’ A person who experiences religious shunning may suffer many turbulent emotions and phases. Many ex-followers may endure extreme disbelief and fear during their initial shunning. Similarly, shunned members may experience turmoil and extreme depression after being shunned. Without social and physical support, the transitional period after their disassociation is marked by extremely negative circumstances. If a member survives the initial shunning, they often feel anger and resentment, while others may eventually return to their faith. Apostolate members may become a ‘self-fulfilling prophecy’ inasmuch that many openly begin to denounce their previous religion. Although shunning is said to be an act of love, ultimately, the act is a painful means of control that causes the ‘beloved’ to suffer greatly.
According to Merriam-Webster’s Online Dictionary, to shun means, “to avoid deliberately and especially habitually” (2014). In the context of a religious community, shunning means to cut off all ties with people who do not fully agree with their religion’s philosophy, who not explicitly follow religious leaders’ demands, or who wish to break with their religion. This is particularly traumatic for ex-members because many religions who practice shunning are close-knit groups that keep outside influences at arm’s length. Another reason why it is hard for members to break with these repressive religions is because many encourage their parishioners to receive ...
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...use of this despair, people who are shunned often feel intense depression and sometimes commit suicide. New found isolation often exacerbates the loss that a person experiences. The crisis that ensues can cause destructive behavior. The anger and resentment that a person may feel can be focused in positive or negative ways. Help from a community of people who have been through similar experiences can help an ex-member navigate their shame, anger, and obtain resources for survival. Many people who get involved with repressive religions do not know the ramifications of their decisions, never-the-less, public education is a major way to help people navigate these situations and to make healthy choices.
Works Cited
Merriam-Webster. (2014, April 18). Shun. Retrieved from Merriam-Webster: http://www.
merriam-webster.com/dictionary/shun?show=0&t=1397949203.
In his “Versions of Deconversion” Barbour (1994), claims that deconversion is characterised by four factors which are intellectual doubt, moral criticism, emotional suffering and disaffiliation. Furthermore, Steib (2009) holds that every exit from a religion is a form of crisis for the individual and the end results in social and psychological change. Often, deconversion is an involuntary process. According to Hunsberger (2000), the process of becoming an apostate is “strongly intellectual and rational, and seems to result from a slow, careful search for meaning and purpose”, ending in “a dramatic transformation of self in becoming one’s own person’” (p.245.). They reported that they felt compelled to deconvert due to intellectual
In “The New York Conspiracy Trials of 1741”, Horsmanden presents the sacredness of oaths, and the profound religious influence on everyday life in colonial America, especially in New York. The circumstances regarding the case represented in the 1741 trials embody colonial anxiety over religion and its justification through law and imperial domination. These anxieties caused many of the accused of the trials to begin confessing, out of fear of harsh civil punishments, which allowed for a larger plot to unfold. A crime as petty as larceny spawned into a national panic, a fear of a larger Catholic backed conspiracy to overthrow Protestant Anglo-American civil order. The religious dogma of Christianity had a great impact on the civil and social order of the early colonies. It exemplified the importance of oaths, which were made in reverence to God and also helped to maintain the hierarchical and social boundaries which limited people to specific social duties and liberties. Most civil order was justified through the numerous fundamentals alluding to biblical text as well as British concepts of civility. The religiosity of the overall spectrum of Colonial life, also represented a collective social anxiety in regards to disputes among other powers, especially the conflicting Catholic regimes striving for imperial domination, which led to further accusations of the parties convicted in the trials of 1741. The social orders justified through religious texts, paved the way for the unfair treatment of social outcasts, especially the Negroes and others deemed lesser of the social strata of Anglo colonial society; all which were legitimized through the dogmatic principles of Christianity, which resulted in the final outcome of the and unfair...
Individuals with certain preexisting or underlying psychological issues can render them more likely to join a cult. It’s evident that there are severe psychological problems originating in childhood including physical, sexual and emotional abuse and neglect in the cult members. There seems to be a life-long pattern of self-destructive patterns of behavior that manifests in early childhood, which include self-mutilating behavior, chronic substance abuse, absent parents, and sexual perversion. Placing these individuals in emotionally and physically vulnerable situations such as in a cult seems to have adverse effects. The severity of the cult members’ psychological problems...
In this paper, I articulate and evaluate an important argument in support of the claim that citizens of a liberal democracy should not support coercive policies on the basis of a rationale they know other citizens reasonably reject. I conclude that that argument is unsuccessful. In particular, I argue that religious believers who support coercive public policies on the basis of religious convictions do not disrespect citizens who reasonably regard such religious convictions as false.
People join cults as a way of feeling a sense of belonging within a community (Winner 2011:417). This need for belonging is eventually why members find themselves so involved that they cannot get out. This is especially true in the case of the cult created by Jim Jones. He established a cultic Church called the People’s Temple, most famously known for being the largest group suicide consisting of 909 people, including 276 children (Nelson 2006). Between five to seven million young adults between the ages of 18 and 25 are involved in cult groups (“Cult statistics” 2010). Nearly 180 000 people are recruited into cults each year (“Cult Statistics” 2010). The sense of identity, purpose, and belonging are appealing aspects to why people join cults as the use of power and manipulation coerces them to stay.
The sociological studies on cults and those who join them have found “that many of the converts are young people, often without strong family ties, who are unsuccessful in dealing with life’s problems and are seeking instant solutions supplied by others” (U.S. News and World Report 23).
I come from a small family whose members include my immediate family. Like most Haitian-American living in my region, religion is a fundamental part of my upbringing. I was practically raised in a church and attended church three times a week as a child. Members of my church acted as parents to me and my sister and disciplined me with my mother consent. They played an active role in my upbringing and shaped my norms and taught me was considered appropriate and inappropriate. For example, I was taught to kiss adults and elders on the cheek when saying hello. I was told that I couldn’t address adults by their first name, and most importantly I was taught to always bite my tongue and always respect my
Picture this, in the late sixteenth century a small group of individuals led by Jakob Ammann broke away from the Swiss Mennonites (as stated in Amish 101 - Amish Beliefs, Culture & Lifestyle, By Albrecht Powell) and traveled thousands of miles from Europe to America to start their own communities and practice their own religion. Sounds kind of scary moving that far away from home, but that small group of Anabaptist's was more than ready for the long journey that awaited them. The reason they broke away was mainly because of the lack of punishment also known as shunning, this is when a member is disowned by the family and the members in the community because of extreme disobedience. This small group is now known worldwide by 'The Amish'.
“None of us could associate with the outside world “ (Jill pg 1) If you are born in a home, where your parents have strong morals and views on certain things because of how they were raised, and naturally those morals and views will be passed on to you or forced on to you. “I GREW UP isolated from non-believers” (Rebecca Kimbel, pg. 1) When they decide to pull themselves out of their parent’s isolation they realize that people view them differently because of their dad’s having multiple wives and being a member of a very large family. “I thought that people saw and treated us differently because we were Americans but, little by little, I found out that it wasn't just that. I saw that the other children had only one mother and one father.” (Jill pg 1.) This type of isolation obviously causes a clutter of confusion in their mind and it completely changes their perception on non believers and outcasts of their
Religion is one of the most scared aspects a person has in his or her life; for many practitioners
...be taken to the extent of life or death due to the importance religion has in one’s life. The use of secrets to protect harmful truths or opposing powers that create harm the prestige of a religion is also a common action that is believed to be necessary to keep balance within a community. The constant influential attributes that religion possess can dictate the actions that somebody with perform. It is viewed solely as a positive system that creates peace between beings, however religion obtains negative factors that also negatively influence believers. People tend to turn to religion as the answer for the unknown as well as allowing it to dictate the majority of aspects in a human’s life. This prevents people from deciding their own unique path in life and disabling them from further educating themselves about available answers to questions they are unaware of.
I believe Christianity is a religion of resistance because the early Christians refused to comply to the Roman authority that wished for them to disband their religion and practice commonplace pagan worship of the age. However, I think that Christianity is best described as a religion of passive resistance, rather than active resistance. Active resistance implies that the early Christians outright defied the ancient laws through physical confrontation. However, the texts that we have read express that the violence that occurred is one-sided, implying that the Christians themselves did not initiate or participating in the violence. Thus, I believe that Christianity is a religion of passive resistance, meaning that the early Christians exhibited a nonviolent refusal to cooperate with the religious standards to the Roman authority and quietly accepted the consequences of their choice.
I love that you mention the taboo perception surrounding religion especially back in history when the beliefs were just being developed. I think it can easily be forgotten that Christians and other religious believers were persecuted and damned for their beliefs because of the acceptance most have towards these religions in today’s culture. You forced your readers to reevaluate the development of ethics which is something that might push their boundaries or make them think out of the box.
That there is a difference between religion and morality is uncontroversial. How can atheism be interpreted as a moral alternative? Although religion and morality reflect different values, they are deeply tangled for most individuals. In many cases, a person’s moral principles are grounded in religious commitments. In other cases, people find the source of morality outside of religion, such as the inherent value of all human beings. My central claim is that atheism rather than a theologically based value system offers the moral high ground.
It is not uncommon for a convert to a new religious movement to follow a conversion career, joining and leaving a variety of religious groups over time.