Religion and Society ....

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Religions, whatever their form, can have major social impact in some societies - for good or for evil. Of course in some religions any social impact they have may be secondary or incidental to their main declared aim of relating people to God. This site is not here concerned with considering the religious aspect of religions, but only with considering their impact on society. And the social impact of religions is normally less to do with the religion itself than its institutional form or church.

The social impact of any one religion is any society is strongly affected by whether it is supported by the majority of the population or by a minority. A majority religion not only directly impacts more people, but is also likely to have substantial impact on government and society values. Generally it is the poorest societies that have the greatest proportion of the population supporting religion, though that may mean several religions rather than one religion. But for the social impact of religions the major difference will still remain the difference between poorer societies and less-poor societies.
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Poorer Societies.

Religions generally have greater social impact in poorer societies, where they tend to be supported more strongly by the majority. Often one religion will predominate and will have substantial effect on the government - either the religion controlling the government, or the government using the religion in a majority-poverty society.

It is this type of situation that Karl Marx referred to when he stated that "Religion is the opium of the masses". Any religion that has a 'better afterlife' will tend to help the poor to live with their poverty and perhaps with exploitation and government oppression. So the poor will tend to more strongly support religion, and governments in poor societies can tend to encourage or use religion to help maintain social control. Churches as institutions tend to support governments and the wealthy who can finance churches better than poor believers can. In these societies religions will help maintain a social order that can include exploitation and oppression.

While a religion can be an ally of government or a tool of government, there are of course cases of a religion gaining control over government and effectively being government, and this often means church policies dominating a society - especially 'spread our religion'. This can mean other religions being oppressed and wars being encouraged or started against other religions. Christian Europe saw anti-heritic and anti-witch oppression and crusade wars against 'Infidels', moving to missionary-led worldwide oppressive colonisations - and societies motivated by other religions have done similar. And where a poor society had substantial support for two or more religions then fierce civil wars have often resulted.

An additional issue when a religion controls government is that they are often lacking in the kinds of skills needed for efficient government, lacking skills in business, in dealings, in compromising and in handling opponents. So with the best intentions, religious government often achieves little actual good.

Less-poor Societies.

In less-poor societies, religions generally are not supported as widely or as strongly as in poor societies, and many people will generally have less social problems also. There is somewhat less of a social need for religion, and generally religion has a somewhat weaker social impact.

Where the poor have become a minority, support for a formerly majority religion tends to coming predominantly from the non-poor and shrinks among the poor who see the church as having deserted them. Many of the minority poor will tend to switch to other minority religions, while the mainstream religion continues to give weakened support for a social order that can include social exclusion of the poor and other minorities.

Minority Religion.

However, religions can often be socially at their best where they are a minority religion - especially if the minority concerned is oppressed or socially excluded. Then the church may have a useful role in socially supporting that minority. The church will be seen as independant of government and of the wealthy, and be seen as 'our church'. In this case the minority religion may also be able to somewhat press government to moderate the social exclusion of that minority. In modern affluent which have seen a general shrinkage in support for religion, there has also tended to be an increase in the diversity or religions with particular religions associated with particular social classes or with particular minorities.

Charities.

In many societies there are charities that have been set up often by churches or religious individuals, and by others. These charities generally aim to somehow help some people with some problems. Sometimes their good intentions does actually do a lot of real good, sometimes a little good and sometime more harm than good.

One main problem with charities is that they are often run by people who do not really understand the needs of those they are meant to help. Charities for the poor are generally run by the rich. Some do try to find out what help is really needed but many charities only do what they think is needed and get it very wrong. Instead of giving training a charity may give food, and instead of helping a family a charity may split-up the family. Of course government 'help' will often have similar problems and often do little real good.


Contact us by email :- click to contact Social Exclusion Housing - or write - Vincent Wilmot 166 Freeman Street Grimsby N.E.Lincs DN32 7AT.

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