Religion In America

Religion in America

 

To put it simply, religion in America is ever-changing.  Most developed countries within the world have established and practice all religions.  While there are roughly 4,300 religions today, I have recently learned that America has contributed to that statistic by creating new religions that are based on pre-existing ones.  A significant example includes Pentecostalism.  It was created at the start of the Twentieth century by poor and disadvantaged people within the United States, and it is not a church in itself, but a movement that includes many different churches. It is also a movement of renewal or revival within other denominations, and it began in Topeka, Kansas.

America has also been deemed as one of the wealthiest religious countries in the world.  After reviewing a research study conducted by Pew in 2018, I found that Americans pray more often and are more likely to attend weekly religious services than adults in other wealthy, Western democracies, such as Canada, Australia and most European states, according to a recent Pew Research Center study in 2018.  In our book, Anderson states than only one in every nine Americans do not actively pray for religious purposes.

There are two countries that are ranked relatively close to America’s religiousness and are similar in wealth, and they include Israel and South Korea.  Interestingly, Americans have contributed to one of these countries’ religious growth.  American missionaries traveled to Seoul in the 1960s to establish Pentecostal churches specifically, and eventually began to expand South Korea’s beliefs.  Today, approximately one tenth of South Koreans are proclaimed Pentecostal or charismatics, and many other countries around the world have also accepted Pentecostalism over the years.  In fact, precisely one century after establishing the religion, ten percent of all people on the planet have been classified as Pentecostals- which is over one hundred times the amounts of followers it had in the early 1900s.  While we are very adamant about our religions, America is surprisingly one of the lesser ranked countries when it comes to other ideology and theories.  Anderson goes into detail in chapter thirty-two of our book, explaining that when ranked out of thirty-four other developed countries, the United States ranked second to last when prompted with the theory of evolution.  Thirty-two other countries were placed before us in a ranking of which countries are the most accepting of evolution, and the only country that ranked below us was Turkey.

 

The United States is known for curating new religions that are deemed as irrelevant minorities in most other countries; likewise, there is the posed question of, Why?  Why is it that we feel the need to constantly shift and change our beliefs and opinions of what higher power we believe in?  The most common answer is to construct explanations that fulfill our cravings for existential explanations, and to also establish market systems.  Americans need to know why we are here- we demand answers.  

 

It seems as though religion in America has become more of a marketplace.  It all comes down to who can sell the optimal religion and keep the most members within the community.  It almost seems as though the main goal for religious groups is to acquire and keep the most members.  Americans have begun curating new ideas and theories in hopes of selling their views to other people and countries to gain profit from it. A basic ingredient in the economics of religion is that people systematically and purposefully strive to achieve their objectives.  That is, rational choice applies to religion as much as to other individual and social decisions. Religious beliefs are powerful incentives to behave according to the moral techniques of one’s religion.  If people believe that through their own efforts they can improve their chances of attaining salvation, then it makes sense that they will instill the moral values taught by their religion and act accordingly.  The anticipated afterlife benefits motivate believers to behave in prescribed moral ways and to invest their time in religious activities.  

 

We “purchase” religious goods in the sense of expending time and resources on religion.  If a religion demands that you go to formal services every week or pray five times a day, donate 20 percent of your income, wear distinctive clothing, or follow a specific diet, you may decide it’s too costly and opt to reduce your participation or choose a cheaper religion.  As a believer, you are a consumer of religious goods and services; that is, you have the demand for religion, and there is supply that is constantly on the rise to meet those needs.  Understandably, the point is not to bash all religion in America because there are many given benefits that come alongside partaking in religious-based activities and beliefs.  Religion often times gives hope and a sense of purpose to those who seek out explanations for their mere existence. 

 

 Our religious base is deemed as more charismatic than those in other well-developed countries, perhaps because of our free religious marketplace.  Our government holds very little power for controlling our views and beliefs; therefore, what is stopping us from continuing to write out new ideas and theories?  Circling back to the beginning, there are roughly 4,300 religions that have been established as of 2006 and 3,000 of these religions are currently present in America.  I’d like to wrap up my presentation with touching on how Anderson describes America as an apple in a world of oranges when it comes to religion and explains that although the United States is by far the largest importer of goods, we have become the world’s greatest exporter of fantasy. 

 

 

 

Questions:

 

Do you think America is vastly different from other countries when it comes to religion?

 

Do you believe religion often makes people feel as though they have a purpose?

 

Why do you think the establishing of Pentecostalism was so successful in South Korea?

 

Is money a key factor of the majority of religions in America?

 

 

 

Sources:

-, Mark Trainer, et al. “Why Religious Freedom Matters to Americans.” ShareAmerica, 4 

    Feb. 2019, share.america.gov/why-religious-freedom-matters-to-americans/. 

About the Author Jill Suttie Jill Suttie, and Jill Suttie Jill Suttie. “How Does Religion Affect 

    Happiness Around the World?” Greater Good,     

 greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/how_does_religion_affect_happiness_around_the_world. 

Anderson, Allan. “The Origins of Pentecostalism and Its Global Spread in the Early

Twentieth Century.” Transformation, vol. 22, no. 3, 2005, pp. 175–185. JSTOR, 

www.jstor.org/stable/43052918. Accessed 1 Apr. 2021.

Fahmy, Dalia. Americans Are Far More Religious than Adults in Other Wealthy Nations. 30 May 2020, www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2018/07/31/americans-are-far-more-religious-than-adults-in-other-wealthy-nations/. 

Fantasyland, by Kurt Andersen, Random House UK, 2018, pp. 286–292. 

“Religion: IT’S A MARKET.” The Wealth of Religions: The Political Economy of Believing 

and Belonging, by Rachel M. McCleary and Robert J. Barro, Princeton University 

Press, PRINCETON; OXFORD, 2019, pp. 1–14. JSTOR, 

www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctvc775c4.4. Accessed 1 Apr. 2021.

 

 

 

Morgan Kesler, Section 4