11AR16-32

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Apologia Report 16:32 (1,082)

September 8, 2011

Subject: Getting a grip on "paranormal America"

In this issue:

AMERICAN RELIGION - "how beliefs about God map onto other beliefs and attitudes"

MORMONISM - why isn't LDS growth much stronger in Africa?

OCCULTISM - study confirms that lukewarm churchgoers are more interested in the occult than those who never attend

SCIENTOLOGY - a Washington Post opportunity for Janet Reitman to ask "Is Scientology a religion?"

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AMERICAN RELIGION

America's Four Gods: What We Say about God and What That Says about Us, by Paul Froese and Christopher Bader (both are sociology faculty members at Baylor University) [1] -- Michele Dillon begins her highly critical review by explaining: "This book focuses on how beliefs about God map onto other beliefs and attitudes. It is anchored by an assessment of answers to two questions that 'pinpoint the most crucial theological disagreements in America,' namely the extent to which God interacts with, and judges, the world. ...

"In the authors' schema, the largest proportion of [Baylor University Survey of American Religion (SOAR)] respondents (31 percent) describes God as wrathful, judgmental, and engaged in the world, and thus as 'authoritative.' Others have images that are 'benevolent' (24 percent, engaged but less willing to condemn); 'critical' (16 percent, highly judgmental but disengaged); and 'distant' (24 percent, God as a cosmic force but disengaged). ... Froese and Bader state that those in their study who had 'more authoritative parents' tended to believe in an 'authoritative' (i.e., wrathful and punishing) God and 'remember being spanked regularly as a child.'" Dillon adds that the authors' "interest lies in showing that 'images of God influence our beliefs and behaviors [though the data addresses beliefs and attitudes, not behavior] regardless of our upbringing, our religion, our political identity, and an array of other factors." Journal of Church and State, 53:2 - 2011, pp327-329.

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MORMONISM

In "Taking Utah to Africa," Philip Jenkins (Humanities, Pennsylvania State University) reflects: "when we look at Mormon expansion in Africa itself, one pressing question demands attention: Why is the whole continent not already Mormon?" Jenkins discusses numerous reasons why the LDS might be expected to do well south of the Mediterranean, concluding: "In an African context, then, Mormonism looks surprisingly mainstream."

Jenkins' explanation of what lies behind the slow pace of LDS growth in Africa begins with something many might expect. "Partly, the LDS church was hampered by its late start and its long-standing restriction of the priesthood" to non-African males.

However, "One reason above all explains the relative lack of Mormon growth - the church's quite rigid views about enculturation, its refusal to accommodate the gospel [sic] to local circumstances - to 'go native.'" In this, Jenkins makes reference to the "strict" LDS control over everything from building design and construction to worship music. "For church leaders, the goal is to offer a worship experience indistinguishable from that found in Utah." Again, this is intentional. The thinking is that it's a big plus to give members a seamless transition for their worship experience when going from one location to another. Christian Century, Jul 12 '11, p45.

Taking this a bit further, consider the question: Do the same restrictive dynamics ring true for other authoritarian groups (e.g., Jehovah's Witnesses) where they seem to flounder? (The New Apostolic Church, an 11 million-member cultic movement based in Switzerland, has roughly 80% of its worldwide membership in sub-Saharan Africa despite its heavy use of European classical music and other Western cultural practices.)

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OCCULTISM

Paranormal America: Ghost Encounters, UFO Sightings, Bigfoot Hunts, and Other Curiosities in Religion and Culture, by Christopher D. Bader, F. Carson Mencken, and Joseph O. Baker [2] -- reviewer Andrew McKinnon (Social Science, University of Aberdeen) begins: "As the authors of this volume note, the quality of much survey-based research in the field of paranormal belief is generally a bit poor. ... The research reported in Paranormal America has benefited substantially from the capacity to field a survey of [the authors'] own design, with numerous questions about paranormal belief and practice, and to ask these questions of a representative population. ...

"Of the nine beliefs that the authors included in their survey (Atlantis, ghosts, psychic powers, fortune telling, astrology, communication with the dead, haunted houses, UFOs, and monsters like Big Foot [a collection that McKinnon finds peculiar]) only 32 percent of the population believe in none of them. Although only 2 percent report believing in all of them, 35 percent report believing at least three items from the list. [T]he authors make a good case that those with greater stakes in conformity (as indicated by education and income) will believe in fewer items on the list. [W]hile paranormal beliefs are relatively prevalent, the true believers are much less so, and they can be very different than the casual believers who may respond affirmatively on surveys, but these beliefs may make little difference to their lives. ...

"[M]arginalized people do tend to gravitate towards *some* paranormal beliefs and practices, particularly those that may give them a greater sense of control over their lives (like astrology and psychic powers) as well as ghosts; other paranormal beliefs and experiences (like UFO sightings) are more the province of the better educated and more affluent.... [T]he relationship between church attendance and paranormal belief is curvilinear, with infrequent attendees being more prone to such beliefs than either frequent or nonattendees." Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 50:2 - 2011, pp431–433.

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SCIENTOLOGY

Making the most of a very influential media opportunity with the Washington Post, journalist Janet Reitman (author of the recent book-length expose, Inside Scientology [3]) asks: "Is Scientology a religion?" She begins: "Since 1993, Scientology, which many people have long considered to be a 'cult,' has been a religion in the eyes of the United States government, with the tax exemption that goes along with that. But whether it is actually a 'religion' in the way that most of us think about religion is a wholly different matter.

"To address the basics: there is no God in Scientology. There is also no prayer, no concept of Heaven or Hell, no turn-the-other-cheek forgiveness or love, nor any of the other things we typically associate with religion, at least in the Judeo-Christian context. There is also no 'faith' - no concept of belief. Instead, there is knowledge, a certainty beyond a shadow of a doubt that Scientology's doctrine, all of which was authored by the church's founder, L. Ron Hubbard, is the absolute truth. ...

"No Scientologist - be they celebrities or ordinary members - is supposed to read general media reports about the church. These pieces - anything critical - is considered off-limits or 'entheta' in thelexicon of the Church of Scientology, and thus harmful to a member's spiritual progress. The truth is what they know via L. Ron Hubbard; media criticisms of Scientology, on the other hand, are to Scientologists, lies or 'religious bigotry.' Thus they remain very much in the dark...."

The more deeply the average middle-class person is drawn into Scientology, "the more indebted to it they become. In some cases, members have been driven into bankruptcy, forcing them to work for the church to continue to afford Scientology counseling. Once they sign up to work for Scientology, their experience turns more punitive: they work extremely long hours, at very low pay, and are expected to adhere to a paramilitary-style discipline that is absent in any workplace I've ever heard of outside of the United States military. At the innermost level of this management, within the Sea Organization, which is the senior management body of the church, there is far more, if not total, ideological control over members, strict adherence to the demands of a leader who has cast himself as a sort of pope, and many other things that would define Scientology, in that context as a more traditional 'cult.' ...

"I think the future of Scientology, if it has one, lies in its ability to retain its identity as religion and community, and even self-help, while losing the ideological totalism that makes it cultic for many." Washington Post, Jul 17 '11, <www.tinyurl.com/3spmpzz>

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SOURCES: Monographs

1 - America's Four Gods: What We Say about God and What That Says about Us, by Paul Froese and Christopher Bader (Oxford Univ Prs, 2010, hardcover, 280 pages) <www.tinyurl.com/4ycmdym>

2 - Paranormal America: Ghost Encounters, UFO Sightings, Bigfoot Hunts, and Other Curiosities in Religion and Culture, by Christopher D. Bader, F. Carson Mencken, and Joseph O. Baker (NYU Prs, 2011, paperback, 272 pages) <www.tinyurl.com/3l3h6hg>

3 - Inside Scientology: The Story of America's Most Secretive Religion, by Janet Reitman (Houghton Mifflin, 2011, hardcover, 464 pages) <www.j.mp/fC3s9Q>

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