Soc 2014 3rd Edition Jon Witt Solutions Manual

SOC 2014 3rd Edition Jon Witt
Solutions Manual
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Chapter 8
CHAPTER
8 EDUCATION & RELIGION
CHAPTER OUTLINE
EDUCATION IN SOCIETY Function: What Religions Do

SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVES ON COMPONENTS OF RELIGION
EDUCATION Beliefs
Education and Social Order Rituals
Education and Inequality Experience
SCHOOLS AS FORMAL Community
ORGANIZATIONS WORLD RELIGIONS
The Bureaucratization of Schools SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVES ON
Teaching as a Profession RELIGION
Student Subcultures Integration
Community Colleges Social Change
Homeschooling Social Control
DEFINING RELIGION
Substance: What Religion Is
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Copyright © 2014 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill
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LEARNING OBJECTIVES
1. Describe the role of education from the various sociological perspectives.
2. Discuss the nature of schools as formal organizations.
3. Discuss the sociological definitions of religion.
4. Describe the components of religious behavior.
5. Discuss the basic forms of religious organization.
6. Identify the diverse nature of world religions and practices.
7. Discuss the role of religion from the various sociological perspectives.
CHAPTER SUMMARY
As societies became more diverse and the division of labor increased, we placed a greater
emphasis on more formal socialization. To do so, we turned to education, a social institution
dedicated to the formal process of transmitting culture from teachers to students. Early American
political leaders advocated public education as an essential component of democratic societies.
The history of education in the United States is one of expansion and institutionalization.
Initially public schools were open only to White males, but over time—in part through the efforts
of sociologists like W. E. B. Du Bois and Jane Addams—public education expanded to include
everyone, regardless of race, ethnicity, sex, or national origin.
Sociologists have closely examined the degree to which education actually succeeds in providing
social order and individual opportunity. They have found that while it does offer opportunity and
helps to establish social order, it also reinforces existing beliefs, values, and norms that justify
the status quo and its inequalities. As a social institution, education preserves and transmits the
dominant culture. It also aims to provide experiences that will unify a diverse population.
Through the exercise of social control, schools teach students various skills and values essential
to their future positions in society: manners, punctuality, creativity, discipline, responsibility.
Education can also stimulate social change. Colleges and universities are particularly committed
to cultural innovation. Also, the responsibility placed on schools and teachers for the care of
children while they are in school has increased as more parents participate in the paid labor
force.
However, there are significant inequalities in the educational opportunities available to different
groups. One of the ways schools reinforce the existing system of inequality is what sociologists
call the hidden curriculum—standards of behavior that society deems proper and that teachers
subtly communicate to students. Through the teacher-expectancy effect, a teacher’s expectations
about a student’s performance can affect the student’s actual achievements. Schools tend to
preserve social class inequalities in each new generation, often by tracking—the practice of
placing students in specific curriculum groups on the basis of their test scores and other criteria.
According to the correspondence principle, schools tend to promote the values expected of
individuals in each social class and perpetuate social class divisions from one generation to the
next. Students today also face elevated expectations due to credentialism, a term used to describe
an increase in the lowest level of education to enter a field. The educational system has long been
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characterized by discriminatory treatment of women. Title IX played a pivotal role in expanding

access.
Schools have become bureaucratized. Max Weber noted five basic principles of bureaucracy, all
of which are evident in the vast majority of schools: (1) division of labor—specialized experts
teach particular age levels of students and specific subjects; (2) hierarchy of authority—each
employee of a school system is responsible to a higher authority; (3) written rules and
regulations—teachers must submit lesson plans, and students, teachers, and administrators must
all adhere to established policies and procedures or face sanctions for not doing so; (4)
impersonality—teachers are expected to treat all students the same way, regardless of their
distinctive personalities and needs; and (5) employment based on technical qualifications—
hiring and promotion—and even grading—are based on technical qualifications alone.
The status of any job reflects several factors, including the level of education required, financial
compensation, and the respect given the occupation by society. Teachers are feeling pressure in
all three areas. School leaders often seek to develop a sense of school spirit and collective
identity, but student subcultures are actually complex and diverse. Among college students, four
distinctive subcultures have been noted: (1) collegiate, (2) academic, (3) vocational, and (4)
nonconformist.
Community colleges are a testament to the ideals of Jefferson, Franklin, and Mann. Their
relatively low cost and open enrollment lower the barriers to success. These students are more
likely to be older, female, Black, Hispanic, low-income, and part-time, compared to their peers at
four-year colleges.
Some opt out of formal schooling. More than 1.5 million students are now being educated at
home. Dissatisfaction with academic quality, negative peer pressure, and school violence
motivate many parents to teach their children at home, along with a desire to provide religious or
moral instruction. While the rise in homeschooling points toward pluralism and the desire to
retain unique subcultural values, it also undermines the historical commitment to public
education as a means of fostering unity within society.
Religion is a social institution dedicated to establishing a sense of shared identity, encouraging

integration, and offering believers meaning and purpose. Sociologists take two basic approaches
to defining religion: what religion is and what it does. According to a substantive definition of
religion, religion has a unique content or substance that separates it from other forms of
knowledge and belief. This unique focus commonly involves some concept of the sacred, which
encompasses elements beyond everyday life that inspire respect, awe, and even fear. The sacred
realm exists in contrast to the profane, which includes the ordinary and commonplace. Different
religious groups define their understanding of the sacred or profane in different ways.
According to a functionalist definition of religion, religion unifies believers into a community

through shared practices and a common set of beliefs relative to sacred things. For functionalists,
the supernatural or something like it is not an essential part of religion. This approach has its
roots in the work of Émile Durkheim. Durkheim defined religion as a “unified system of beliefs
and practices relative to sacred things.” The unification of believers into a community is the most
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important part; what they believe, what they practice, or what they view as sacred is less
important than that they have these beliefs, practices, and shared sacred things in common.
When investigating components of religion that are common to most groups, sociologists focus
on how religious groups organize beliefs, rituals, experience, and community. Religious beliefs
are statements to which members of a particular religion adhere. Fundamentalism refers to a
rigid adherence to core religious doctrines. Religious rituals are practices required or expected of
members of a faith. They remind adherents of their religious duties and responsibilities.
Religious experience refers to the feeling or perception of being in direct contact with the
ultimate reality, such as a divine being, or being overcome with religious emotion.
Sociologists find it useful to distinguish among four basic forms of religious organization. An
ecclesia is a religious organization that claims to include most or all members of a society and is
recognized as the national or official religion, such as Islam is in Saudi Arabia. A denomination
is a large, organized religion that is not officially linked to the state or government. A sect can be
defined as a relatively small religious group that has broken away from some other religious
organization to renew what it considers the original vision of the faith. An established sect is a
religious group that is the outgrowth of a sect, yet remains isolated from society. The Seventh-
Day Adventists and the Amish are contemporary examples. A new religious movement or cult is
generally a small, alternative religious group (e.g., Heaven’s Gate) that represents either a new
faith community or a major innovation in an existing faith.
Early sociologists predicted that modern societies would experience widespread secularization,
which involves religion’s diminishing influence in the public sphere. Though the percentage of
those who opt out of organized religion continues to rise, tremendous diversity exists worldwide
in religious beliefs and practices.
Early sociologists sought to provide a science of society. They recognized the significant role
that religion had played in maintaining social order in the past, and believed it essential to
understand how it had accomplished this. Émile Durkheim viewed religion as an integrative
force in human society. Religion provides a form of “societal glue,” which gives meaning and
purpose to people’s lives. The integrative power of religion can be found in celebrations of life
events, such as weddings or funerals, or in times of crisis or confusion, such as immediately after
the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. Max Weber sought to understand how religion might
also contribute to social change. He focused on the relationship between religious faith and the
rise of capitalism in his pioneering work, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism. He
suggested the overwhelming number of Protestant business leaders and skilled workers was due
to the Protestant ethic, a disciplined commitment to worldly labor driven by a desire to bring
glory to God. The Roman Catholic clergy in Latin America are at the forefront of liberation
theology, which advocates the use of a church in a political effort to eliminate poverty,
discrimination, and other forms of injustice. Advocates of this view sometimes sympathize with
Marxism. Karl Marx described religion as an “opiate” that drugged the masses into submission.
He argued that religion’s promotion of social stability only helps perpetuate patterns of social
inequality. Marxists suggest that by inducing a “false consciousness” among the disadvantaged,
religion lessens the possibility of collective political action. Women have played a fundamental
role in religious socialization. Yet because most faiths have a tradition of exclusively male
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leadership, and because most religions are patriarchal, they tend to reinforce men’s dominance in
secular as well as spiritual matters.
RESOURCE INTEGRATOR
Focus Questions Resources

1. What are the IN THE TEXT
sociological Key Terms: education, hidden curriculum, teacher-expectancy
perspectives on effect, tracking, correspondence principle, credentialism
education?
2. How do sociologists
analyze schools as
formal organizations?
3. How have sociologists IN THE TEXT

defined religion? Key Terms: religion, sacred, profane
4. What are the IN THE TEXT

components of Key Terms: religious belief, fundamentalism, religious ritual,
religion? religious experience, ecclesia, denomination, sect, established sect,
new religious movement (NRM) or cult
5. What are the major IN THE TEXT

world religions? Key Terms: secularization
6. What are the major IN THE TEXT

sociological Key Terms: Protestant ethic, liberation theology
perspectives on
religion?
LECTURE OUTLINE
I. Education in Society
• With the advent of the Industrial Revolution and the rise of globalization, schools
became essential agents of socialization.
• As a society we invest time and money in education, a social institution dedicated to the
formal process of transmitting culture from teachers to students.
• Early American political leaders such as Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson
advocated public education as an essential component of democratic societies.
• Horace Mann, often referred to as the “father of public education,” held that education
is the great equalizer.
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• The history of education in the United States is one of expansion and

institutionalization.
• Initially public schools were open only to White males, but over time—in part through
the efforts of sociologists like W. E. B. Du Bois and Jane Addams—public education
expanded to include everyone, regardless of race, ethnicity, sex, or national origin.
• From 1940 to 2012 the proportion of people with a high school diploma increased from
25 percent to 88 percent. The proportion with a college degree rose from 5 percent in
1940 to 31 percent in 2012.
• Institutionalization has occurred as education has become more formalized. Educational
institutions have become more professional and bureaucratic.
II. Sociological Perspectives on Education

• Sociologists have closely examined the degree to which education actually succeeds in
providing social order and individual opportunity. They have found that it does offer
opportunity and helps to establish social order, but it also reinforces existing beliefs,
values, and norms that justify the status quo and its inequalities.
A. Education and Social Order

• Society needs people with the knowledge and skills to perform the tasks
necessary for its continued existence, and individuals need this know-how to
survive and prosper. Sociologists have identified five positive functions that
education serves for both individuals and society.
1. Transmitting Culture
• As a social institution, education preserves and transmits the dominant
culture.
• Schooling exposes each generation people to the existing beliefs, norms,
and values of their culture.
• Students learn respect for existing values and norms and reverence for
established institutions.
2. Promoting Social Integration

• Provides experiences that will unify a population composed of diverse
racial, ethnic, and religious groups into a community whose members
share a common identity. Example: Immigrant children.
• Integrative function of education in the past was most obvious in its
emphasis on promoting a common language.
3. Training and Social Control

• Students learn manners, punctuality, creativity, discipline, and
responsibility, skills and abilities needed well beyond the classroom.
• Schools serve as a transitional agent of social control between childhood
and entry into the labor force and wider society.
• Schools select and train students to become effective workers in
specialized jobs.
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4. Cultural Innovation
• Sex education classes and affirmative action in admissions illustrate the
efforts of education to stimulate social change.
• Colleges and universities are particularly committed to cultural
innovation.
• Campuses provide an environment in which students with widely
divergent ideas and experiences can interact. Example: Foreign exchange
programs.
5. Child Care
• Historically, family members had the primary responsibility to teach and
care for their children until adulthood.
• Increasingly, schools and teachers are expected to do more of the job.
• Movement toward day care and preschool is driven in part by changes in
the economy.
B. Education and Inequality

• Significant inequalities exist in the educational opportunities available to
different groups. Example: Disparities in funding and facilities between urban
and suburban schools.
1. The Hidden Curriculum

• Refers to standards of behavior deemed proper by society and taught
subtly in schools.
• Prepares students to submit to authority.
• Value is placed on pleasing the teacher and remaining compliant rather
than on creative thought and academic learning, thus socializing students
to submit to authority figures.
2. Teacher Expectancy
• Student outcomes can become a self-fulfilling prophecy based on how
teachers perceive students.
• Teacher-expectancy effect refers to Psychologist Robert Rosenthal and
school principal Lenore Jacobson’s documentation of the impact that a
teacher’s expectations about a student’s performance may have on the
student’s actual achievements. Example: “Spurters” experiment.
3. Bestowal of Status
• Ideally, the institution of education selects those with ability and trains
them for positions requiring greater skill or knowledge.
• In practice, factors other than potential and ability shape outcomes, such
as social class, race, ethnicity, and gender.
• The educational system denies most disadvantaged children the same
educational opportunities afforded to children of the affluent, thus
preserving social class inequalities in each new generation.
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• Tracking refers to the practice of placing students in specific curriculum

groups on the basis of test scores and other criteria. This can reinforce the
disadvantages that children from less affluent families face.
• Recent research on tracking has shown that it does not necessarily
identify those students with the potential to succeed.
• The correspondence principle refers to the tendency of schools to
promote the values expected of individuals in each social class and
perpetuate social class divisions from one generation to the next.
Example: Working-class children placed on vocational tracks.
4. Credentialism
• An increase in the lowest level of education required to enter a field.
• Can reinforce social inequality since those with poor and minority
backgrounds are more likely to lack the financial resources needed to
obtain degree after degree.
• Educational institutions profit from upgrading of credentials.
• Can increase the status of an occupation and lead to demands for higher
pay.
5. Gender
• The educational system has long been characterized by discriminatory
treatment of women.
• Oberlin College was first institution of higher learning to admit women
in 1833, but Oberlin believed that women should aspire to become wives
and mothers. Female students were expected to wash men’s clothes, care
for their rooms, and serve them meals.
• In the 20th century, sexism in education was evident in many ways.
Examples: Textbooks with negative stereotypes of women, pressure on
female students to prepare for “women’s work,” unequal funding for
women’s and men’s athletic programs.
• Strides have been made, largely as a result of women’s movements that
worked for social change. Title IX played a pivotal role in expanding
women’s access. Example: Dramatic rise in percentage of women earning
college degrees.
6. Inequality and Opportunity

• Some educators have wondered if disadvantaged students should avoid
college rather than risk the long-term emotional toll of failure there, which
seems high given all the barriers they face.
• Sociologists John R. Reynolds and Chardie L. Baird (2010) sought to
answer the question “Do students who try but fail to achieve their
educational dreams experience long-term frustration and anxiety?” and
concluded that the answer is no.
• Those who fail to fulfill their aspirations develop “adaptive resilience,”
allowing them to cope with their lack of college success.
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III. Schools as Formal Organizations

• Today’s schools, when viewed as examples of formal organizations, are similar to
factories, hospitals, and business firms.
A. The Bureaucratization of Schools

• Schools have become bureaucratized.
• Weber noted five basic principles of bureaucracy, all of which are evident in the
vast majority of schools. (1) division of labor—specialized experts teach
particular age levels of students and specific subjects; (2) hierarchy of authority—
each employee of a school system is responsible to a higher authority; (3) written
rules and regulations—teachers must submit lesson plans, and students, teachers,
and administrators must all adhere to established policies and procedures or face
sanctions for not doing so; (4) impersonality—teachers are expected to treat all
students the same way, regardless of their distinctive personalities and needs; and
(5) employment based on technical qualifications—hiring and promotion, and
even grading, are based on technical qualifications alone.
• The trend toward more centralized education particularly affects disadvantaged
persons.
• The standardization of educational curricula generally reflects the values,
interests, and lifestyles of the most powerful groups in our society, and may
ignore those of racial and ethnic minorities.
• The disadvantaged often lack the time, financial resources, and knowledge
necessary to sort through complex educational bureaucracies and to organize
effective lobbying groups.
B. Teaching as a Profession
• Teachers must work within the system, submitting to its hierarchical structure
and abiding by its established rules. But they also want to practice their craft as
professionals with some degree of autonomy and respect for their judgment.
• Conflicts arise from simultaneously serving as an instructor, disciplinarian,
administrator, and employee.
• Level of formal schooling remains high, salaries are significantly lower than for
comparably educated professionals, overall prestige of profession has declined.
• Many teachers have become disappointed and frustrated and have left the
educational world.
C. Student Subcultures
• Schools provide arena for students’ social and recreational needs.
• Development of interpersonal relationships. Example: High school and college
students may meet future spouses and establish lifelong friendships.
• High school cliques may develop based on race, social class, physical
attractiveness, academic placement, athletic ability, and leadership roles.
• Some students are creating gay–straight alliances (GSAs), school-sponsored
support groups bringing gay teens together with sympathetic straight peers.
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• Four ideal types of subcultures among college students: (1) collegiate—focuses

on having fun and socializing; (2) academic—identifies with the intellectual
concerns of the faculty and values knowledge for its own sake; (3) vocational—
views college as a means of obtaining degrees essential for advancement; and (4)
nonconformist—hostile to the college environment, and seeks out ideas that may
or may not relate to studies.
D. Community Colleges
• Exist as a testament to ideals put forth by Jefferson, Franklin, and Mann.
• Relatively low cost and open enrollment lower barriers to success.
• Students are more likely to be older, female, Black, Hispanic, low-income, and
part-time, compared to their peers at four-year colleges.
• Appear to provide opportunities for everyone, and some do use them as stepping
stone to success.
• But also help justify the existing system of inequality because failure to succeed
is perceived as the individual’s responsibility alone so students are more likely to
blame themselves than criticize the social structure.
E. Homeschooling
• More than 1.5 million American children are now educated at home.
• Homeschooled families are more likely to be White, have two parents in the
household but only one in the labor force, have college-educated parents, and
have three or more children.
• Religious or moral instruction continues to be important reason in the decision
to homeschool, but parents also may choose to homeschool their children because
of academic concerns or concerns about school environments.
• Other parents see it as a good alternative for children with ADHD and LDs.
• Rise in homeschooling points to growing dissatisfaction with the
institutionalized practice of education. Although such new forms of schooling
may better meet the individual needs of diverse groups, they also undermine the
historical commitment to public education as a means of fostering unity within
society.
IV. Defining Religion

• Religion is a social institution dedicated to establishing a shared sense of identity,
encouraging social integration, and offering believers a sense of meaning and purpose.
• Sociologists take two different approaches to defining religion: the first focuses on what
religion is, and the second focuses on what it does.
A. Substance: What Religion Is

• According to the substantive definition of religion, religion has a unique content
or substance that separates it from other forms of knowledge and belief.
• This unique focus commonly involves some concept of the sacred, referring to
that extraordinary realm that becomes the focus of religious faith and practice. It
provides believers with meaning, order, and coherence.
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• The sacred encompasses elements beyond everyday life that inspire respect,
awe, and even fear. People interact with the sacred through ritual practices, such
as prayer or sacrifice.
• The sacred realm exists in contrast to the profane, which includes the ordinary
and commonplace.
• Different religious groups define their understanding of the sacred or profane in
different ways. Examples: A piece of bread for Christian communion, a
candelabrum for Jews, incense sticks for Taoists and Confucians.
B. Function: What Religions Do

• A functionalist approach focuses on what religions do, with a particular
emphasis on how religions contribute to social order.
• According to the functionalist definition of religion, religion unifies believers
into a community through shared practices and a common set of beliefs relative to
sacred things.
• The emphasis is on the unifying dimension of religion rather than on the
substance of that which unifies. Thus, the supernatural or something like it is not
an essential part of religion.
• This approach has its roots in the work of Émile Durkheim. He defined religion
as a “unified system of beliefs and practices relative to sacred things . . . which
unite into a single moral community . . . all those who adhere to them.”
• This definition points to three aspects sociologists focus on when studying
religion: a unified system of beliefs and practices, involving sacred things, in the
context of community.
• What the beliefs (doctrine, dogma, creed) and practices (shared rituals) are
matters less than the fact that they are shared.
• Durkheim’s emphasis on sacred things focuses less on the objects themselves
than on the believers’ attitude toward these objects.
• The unification of a body of believers into a shared community is the most
important part of Durkheim’s definition.
• Anything that does what Durkheim’s three elements do can function as a
religion. Example: Sports fans.
V. Components of Religion
• When investigating components of religion that are common to most groups,
sociologists focus on how religious groups organize beliefs, rituals, experience, and
community.
A. Beliefs
• Religious beliefs are statements to which members of a particular religion
adhere.
• Fundamentalism refers to a rigid adherence to core religious doctrines, often
accompanied by a literal application of scripture or historical beliefs to today’s
world. Example: Growth of Christian fundamentalism in the U.S.
• Fundamentalism is found worldwide among most major religious groups.
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• U.S. Christian fundamentalists have fought against the teaching of evolution in

public schools.
B. Rituals
• Religious rituals are practices required or expected of members of a faith.
Example: Muslims’ hajj, or pilgrimage, to Mecca.
• Rituals affirm beliefs and remind adherents of their religious duties and
responsibilities.
• Religion develops distinctive norms to structure behavior, and uses sanctions to
reward or penalize behavior. Examples: Bar mitzvah gifts, expulsion for violating
religious norms.
C. Experience
• Religious experience refers to the feeling or perception of being in direct
contact with the ultimate reality, such as the divine being, or of being overcome
with religious emotion. Example: Being “born again.”
D. Community
Sociologists find it useful to distinguish among four basic forms of religious
organization.
1. Ecclesiae
• An ecclesia is a religious organization that claims to include most or all
members of a society and is recognized as the national or official religion.
Example: Islam in Saudi Arabia.
• Generally, ecclesiae are conservative in that they do not challenge the
leaders of secular government.
• The political and religious institutions often act in harmony and reinforce
each other’s power in their relative spheres of influence.
• Ecclesiae are declining in power in the modern world.
2. Denominations
• A large, organized religion that is not officially linked to the state or
government.
• Like an ecclesia, it tends to have an explicit set of beliefs, a defined
system of authority, and a generally respected position in society. But a
denomination lacks the official recognition and power held by an ecclesia.
• Roman Catholicism is the largest single denomination in the U.S.
• Collectively, Protestants account for about 51 percent of the U.S. adult
population.
3. Sects
• A relatively small religious group that has broken away from some other
religious organization to renew what it considers the original vision of the
faith.
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• Sects are at odds with the dominant society and do not seek to become
established national religions.
• They require intensive commitments and demonstrations of belief by
members.
• Sects are often short-lived.
• An established sect is a religious group that is an outgrowth of a sect, yet
remains isolated from society. Examples: Hutterites, Jehovah’s Witnesses,
Seventh-Day Adventists, Amish.
4. Cults or New Religious Movements

• Historically, cult has been used by sociologists to describe alternative
religious groups with unconventional religious beliefs.
• Partly due to extremism of some cults (e.g., Heaven’s Gate), many
sociologists now use the expression new religious movement (NRM) to
mean a small, alternative religious group that represents either a new faith
community or a major innovation in an existing faith.
• NRMs are similar to sects in that they tend to be small and are often
viewed as less respectable than more established faiths.
• Unlike sects, NRMs normally do not result from schisms or breaks with
established ecclesiae or denominations. Some cults may be totally
unrelated to existing faiths.
• Like sects, NRMs may be transformed over time into other types of
religious organizations. Example: Christian Science Church began as a
NRM, but today exhibits the characteristics of a denomination.
VI. World Religions

• Early sociologists predicted that modern societies would experience widespread
secularization, which involves religion’s diminishing influence in the public sphere,
especially politics and the economy.
• As of 2012, approximately 20 percent of the U.S. population identified as “nones”
(either agnostic or atheist).
• Approximately 11 percent of the world’s population identifies as agnostic or atheist.
• About 85 percent of the world’s population adheres to some religion.
• Worldwide, tremendous diversity exists in religious beliefs and practices.
• Christianity is the largest single faith; Islam is the second largest.
• Christianity, Islam, and Judaism are monotheistic.
• Hinduism is polytheistic and distinguished by a belief in rebirth through reincarnation.
• Buddhism is based on teaching of Siddhartha, or Buddha. Goal is to reach
enlightenment through meditation.
VII. Sociological Perspectives on Religion

• Early sociologists sought to provide a science of society that would tap the ways of
knowing built into the scientific method and apply them to society.
• They recognized the significant role that religion had played in maintaining social order
in the past, and believed it essential to understand how it had accomplished this.
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A. Integration
• Émile Durkheim viewed religion as an integrative force in human society.
Religion provides a form of “social glue,” which gives meaning and purpose to
people’s lives.
• The integrative power of religion can be found in celebrations of life events
(weddings or funerals) or in times of crisis and confusion (after the 9/11 terrorist
attacks).
• Integrative impact is evident for immigrant groups and within specific faiths and
denominations.
• Such integration can come at the expense of outsiders, and can contribute to
tension and even conflict between groups or nations. Example: Nazi Germany
and the Holocaust.
B. Social Change
• Max Weber sought to understand how religion might contribute to social
change.
• He focused on the relationship between religious faith and the rise of capitalism,
and presented his findings in The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism.
1. The Weberian Thesis

• He found that in European nations with both Protestant and Catholic
citizens, an overwhelming number of business leaders, owners of capital,
and skilled workers were Protestant. He saw this as a consequence of the
Protestant ethic, a disciplined commitment to worldly labor driven by a
desire to bring glory to God that was shared by followers of Martin Luther
and John Calvin. He argued that this emphasis on hard work and self-
denial was essential to the development of capitalism.
• His argument has been hailed as one of the most important theoretical
works in the field, and as an excellent example of macrolevel analysis.
• Weber stressed that the collective nature of religion has social
consequences for society as a whole.
2. Liberation Theology
• Use of a church in a political effort to eliminate poverty, discrimination,
and other forms of injustice from a secular society. Example: Roman
Catholic activists in Latin America.
• A more contemporary example of religion as a force for social change
with clergy in the forefront.
• Advocates of this view sometimes sympathize with Marxism.
• Activists believe that organized religion has a moral responsibility to
take a strong public stand against the oppression of the poor, racial and
ethnic minorities, and women.
• Term dates to 1973 publication of A Theology of Liberation by Gustavo
Gutiérrez, a Peruvian priest.
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• One result was a new approach to theology that built on the cultural and
religious traditions of Latin America rather than on models developed in
Europe and the United States.
C. Social Control
• Karl Marx also opposed the traditional role of religion. In his view, religions
inhibited social change by encouraging oppressed people to focus on otherworldly
concerns rather than on their immediate poverty or exploitation.
1. Marx on Religion
• He described religion an “opiate” that drugged the masses into
submission by offering a consolation for their harsh lives on earth—the
hope of salvation. Example: Slaves in the U.S. adopting Christianity,
which taught that obedience would lead to salvation and eternal happiness
in the hereafter.
• Marx believed that religion’s promotion of social stability perpetuates
social inequality, and the dominant religion reinforces the interests of
those in power.
• Marxists suggest that by inducing a “false consciousness” among
disadvantaged people, religion lessens collective political action.
2. Gender and Religion

• Women have played a fundamental role in religious socialization.
• When it comes to religious leadership, however, women generally take a
subordinate role.
• Most faiths have a long tradition of exclusively male spiritual leadership,
and most religions are patriarchal.
• Thus they reinforce men’s dominance in secular as well as spiritual
matters.
• Nationally women compose approximately 20 percent of U.S. clergy,
even though they account for 34 percent of students enrolled in theological
institutions.
KEY TERMS
Correspondence principle The tendency of schools to promote the values expected of

individuals in each social class and to prepare students for the types of jobs typically held by
members of their class.
Credentialism An increase in the lowest level of education required to enter a field.
Denomination A large, organized religion that is not officially linked to the state or
government.
Ecclesia A religious organization that claims to include most or all members of a society and is
recognized as the national or official religion.
Education A social institution dedicated to the formal process of transmitting culture from
teachers to students.
Established sect A religious group that is the outgrowth of a sect, yet remains isolated from
society.
Witt, SOC, 2014e IM-8 | 15
Education.
Chapter 8
Fundamentalism Rigid adherence to core religious doctrines, often accompanied by a literal

application of scripture or historical beliefs to today’s world.
Hidden curriculum Standards of behavior that are deemed proper by society and are taught
subtly in schools.
Liberation theology Use of a church, primarily Roman Catholicism, in a political effort to
eliminate poverty, discrimination, and other forms of injustice from a secular society.
New religious movement (NRM) or cult A small, alternative faith community that represents
either a new religion or a major innovation in an existing faith.
Profane The ordinary and commonplace elements of life, as distinguished from the sacred.
Protestant ethic Max Weber’s term for the disciplined commitment to worldly labor driven by
a desire to bring glory to God, shared by followers of Martin Luther and John Calvin.
Religion A social institution dedicated to establishing a shared sense of identity, encouraging
social integration, and offering believers a sense of meaning and purpose.
Religious belief A statement to which members of a particular religion adhere.
Religious experience The feeling or perception of being in direct contact with the ultimate
reality, such as a divine being, or of being overcome with religious emotion.
Religious ritual A practice required or expected of members of a faith.
Sacred Elements beyond everyday life that inspire respect, awe, and even fear.
Sect A relatively small religious group that has broken away from some other religious
organization to renew what it considers the original vision of the faith.
Secularization Religion’s diminishing influence in the public sphere, especially in politics and
the economy.
Teacher-expectancy effect The impact that a teacher’s expectations about a student’s
performance may have on the student’s actual achievements.
Tracking The practice of placing students in specific curriculum groups on the basis of their test
scores and other criteria.
ADDITIONAL LECTURE IDEAS
8-1: Both Boys and Girls Have Reason to Feel Disadvantaged in School
Recent studies have focused on how schools work against young women, documenting
such sexist practices as failing to involve women as much as men in classroom discussion,
differential treatment in career guidance, and even episodes of sexual harassment. However,
University of Chicago educators Larry Hedges and Amy Nowell (1994) point to systematic
differences in reading and writing, with girls outperforming boys. The same analysis of six
national data sets from 1960 through 1992 also showed that boys outperform girls in science,
mathematics, and auto mechanics.
Why these differences exist and persist is not clear. For example, closer analysis shows
that larger differences in the performances of the sexes occur even in areas not generally taught
in schools, such as mechanical comprehension and other vocational aptitudes.
On writing tests, young men score significantly lower than women do. Hedges and
Nowell observe that “[t]he data imply that males are, on average, at a rather profound
disadvantage in the performance of this basic skill” (7). Some of this difference may come from
differences in reading between boys and girls: because reading may be linked to writing, girls
write more fluently since they may also read books more frequently than boys. These results
suggest that both men and women are harmed by these differences.
Witt, SOC, 2014e IM-8 | 16
Education.
Chapter 8
See Larry V. Hedges and Amy Nowell, “Sex Differences in Mental Test Scores,
Variability, and Numbness of High-Scoring Individuals,” Science (July 7, 1995): 41–45; and The
Division of the Social Sciences, University of Chicago, “Both Boys and Girls Have Reasons to
Feel Disadvantaged in School,” Reports 15 (Autumn 1995): 7–8.
8-2: Inequality in Education

Educational achievements play a critical role in social mobility. Consequently, concern
has been expressed that subordinate minorities in the United States, such as Blacks, Hispanics,
and Native Americans, do not have positive experiences in schools that will assist them in later
competition in the job market. This country’s minorities, however, are not alone in this
experience.
The anthropologist John Ogbu looked at educational opportunities and achievements in
six societies and found group inequality in all of them. In Great Britain, for example, Black West
Indian immigrants and their descendants (many of whom are born in Britain) perform poorly in
school. By contrast, in New Zealand it is the native Maori people (the original islanders now
outnumbered and dominated by White Europeans) who have the greatest difficulty in the
educational system. Whites are 350 times more likely than Maori to attend college.
In these societies, race was the critical factor differentiating successful and unsuccessful
educational performance. However, in studying other societies, Ogbu found that inequality was
evident even when racial distinctions were absent. In India, people from lower-caste
backgrounds are physically indistinguishable from other residents. Yet children from the lower
castes are much less likely to attend the private schools that launch Indians toward better careers.
While lower-caste children account for more than 15 percent of India’s population, they
constitute only about 5 percent of those attending college.
Ogbu found certain common themes in all the societies he studied (one of which was the
United States). The dominant groups in each society agree on the importance of education and
the key role of educational attainment in shaping one’s position in adult life. At the same time,
however, folk explanations in many societies contribute to prejudice and discrimination by
ascribing failure in school to the alleged inferiority of subordinate minorities.
More recent studies have demonstrated that educational inequalities persist around the
world:
• A study of educational attainment in Taiwan found a substantial difference between
the “mainlanders” (those who immigrated to Taiwan from mainland China in the
1940s) and the native Taiwanese. The latter are much less likely to continue
schooling than are the mainlanders.
• Researchers have found a significant gap in educational attainment between Jews and
Arabs living in Israel. In part, this has resulted from the government’s failure to apply
compulsory school attendance laws to Arabs as forcefully as it has to Jews.
• According to a 1992 report by the World Bank, children from poor and rural families
around the world are less likely to attend primary schools than children from affluent
and urban families are. Moreover, girls from all types of families are less likely to
attend primary schools than boys are. The report urges governments to ensure greater
access to education for these underrepresented groups.
Witt, SOC, 2014e IM-8 | 17
Education.
Chapter 8
Sources: See Marlaine F. Lockheed, Adriaan M. Verspoor, and associates. Improving

Primary Education in Developing Countries. Washington, DC: World Bank, 1991; John H.
Ogbu. Minority Education and Caste: The American System in Cross-Cultural Perspective. New
York: Academic, 1978; Shu-Ling Tsai and Hei-Yuan Chiu, “Changes in Educational
Stratification in Taiwan,” in Yossi Shavit and Hans-Peter Blossfield (eds.). Persistent Inequality:
Changing Educational Attainment in Thirteen Countries. Boulder, CO: Westview, 1993, pp.
193–227.
8-3: The Halévy Thesis: Religion as a Stabilizer

Max Weber is not the only scholar to contend that religion can exert an important
influence on the process of social change. Elie Halévy (1870–1937), a Frenchman and noted
historian who wrote at about the same time as Weber, was primarily interested in the stability of
English society during the 18th and 19th centuries.
The Halévy thesis suggests that Methodism, under the influence of John Wesley (1703–
1791) and his followers, provided a kind of “escape valve” for the discontented English working
class. This religious faith became a mechanism for dissent, an outlet for opposition to everything
from labor practices to the monarchy itself. Yet this opposition was basically peaceful and was
oriented to social reform rather than revolutionary change. From a Marxist point of view,
Methodists were not part of the ruling bourgeoisie, yet they served the interests of the wealthy
and powerful. For Halévy, the rise of Methodism explains why England, of all the nations of
Europe, was most free from political disorders and revolutions during the 18th and 19th
centuries.
Halévy’s thesis has been criticized; in fact, many of the objections are similar to those
raised in response to Weber’s monumental work. Some critics have argued that Halévy
exaggerates the influence of Methodism and fails to explain the lack of revolt in England before
this religion arose. Nonetheless, Halévy’s work, like Weber’s, contains important insights
regarding the relationship between religious beliefs and the process of social change. See Elie
Halévy. A History of the English People in the Nineteenth Century. Translated by E. I. Watkins
and D. A. Barker. London: Ernest Benn; Halévy, 1924, rev. 1960; The Birth of Methodism in
England. Translated by B. Senimel. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1971; Michael Hill. A
Sociology of Religion. New York: Basic Books, 1973, pp. 183–203.
8-4: Unitarian-Universalism
Ordinarily, we assume that people who practice the same religious faith hold to a
common set of beliefs about the spiritual world, and that it is these beliefs which unite them as a
community. But in at least one contemporary religious group in the United States, the Unitarian-
Universalists (UUs), a central tenet is that the church should not impose any specific set of
religious beliefs on its members. Today’s Unitarian-Universalist church includes members who
consider themselves to be Christians, Buddhists, Jews, theists, Pagans, agnostics, and even
atheists. Moreover, UUs come from a variety of religious backgrounds. Only 10 percent were
raised in the Unitarian-Universalist faith (Dart 2001). Under such conditions, how is it that the
Unitarian-Universalist church is able to survive? Why would anyone want to join such a church,
and, when they do, how are Unitarian-Universalists able to create a sense of community?
Today’s Unitarian-Universalist church came into being through the joining of two
distinct religions, Unitarianism and Universalism. Unitarianism formed out of a rejection of the
Witt, SOC, 2014e IM-8 | 18
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Chapter 8
Trinity, or, in other words, out of a belief that Jesus was human and not supernatural. The
original Universalists joined in a rejection of the concept of hell. Instead, they believed that God
offers heavenly salvation to all. Both eventually became largely non-creedal religions whose
members professed a wide variety of religious beliefs, and in 1961, the two organizations
formally merged (Marshall 1988). There are currently about 225,000 Americans who are formal
members of the Unitarian-Universalist Association, although as many as 629,000 Americans
self-describe as Unitarian-Universalist (Dart 2001; Higgins 2003).
What, if anything, allows UUs to feel a sense of togetherness with one another? One
answer is in the socioeconomic characteristics of Unitarian-Universalists. Although diverse in
their religious beliefs, UUs are remarkably homogenous in income, occupational prestige,
education, and ethnicity. They have the highest average income and occupational prestige among
mainline American religions, have a very high percentage of members who are college
graduates, and are a largely White denomination (Roof and McKinney 1987).
Likewise, Unitarian-Universalists are united by a common set of religious values—if not
beliefs—including freedom of religion, religious thought based on reason, and social justice
(Scholefield 1963). It is also important to understand that, from a sociological perspective, what
holds religious organizations together may be something other than a coherent set of religious
beliefs. A religious community can also congeal through shared assumptions about the broader
reasons for assembling. While some congregations may see themselves primarily as a vehicle for
religious worship, others may have more of a social activist or family orientation, for example
(Becker 1999).
Indeed, though, their lack of a unified religious creed has not been without its problems
for the Unitarian-Universalists. In 2001, a breakaway group proposed to form the American
Unitarian Association, an organization that would use 19th-century New England Unitarianism
as the basis for its theological creed. Group organizers were dissatisfied with the diversity of
religious beliefs within the Unitarian-Universalist Association, and wanted to form an
organization with a clear religious creed (Christian Century 2001).
Sources used for this essay and additional reading ideas include: Penny Egdell Becker.
Congregations in Conflict: Cultural Models of Local Religious Life. New York: Cambridge
University Press, 1999; Christian Century, “Theological Stirrings in Unitarian Circles,” 118 (5)
(2001): 8–9; John Dart, “Churchgoers from Elsewhere,” Christian Century 118 (33) (2001): 2;
George N. Marshall. Challenge of a Liberal Faith. (3rd ed.) Boston: Unitarian-Universalist
Association, 1988; Wade Clark Roof and William McKinney. American Mainline Religion. New
Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1987; Harry Barron Scholefield (ed.). The Unitarian
Universalist Pocket Guide. Boston: Beacon Press, 1963; Robert Tapp. Religion among the
Unitarian Universalists. New York: Seminar Press, 1973.
8-5: Courts and Holiday Displays

Confusion continues regarding holiday displays that involve the government, however
indirectly. In December 1995, a federal judge in Newark, New Jersey, ruled that adding Frosty
the Snowman and Santa with a sleigh to a nativity scene, a Christmas tree, and a menorah makes
a city’s holiday display legal. Judge Dickerson Debevoise said that “installing these symbols
sufficiently demystified the holy” (Leavitt 1995: A3).
Sociologists would regard these as efforts to make a legal distinction between what
Durkheim called the sacred and the secular. At the heart of the conflict are the constitutional
Witt, SOC, 2014e IM-8 | 19
Education.
Chapter 8
provisions of the First Amendment: “Congress shall make no law respecting the establishment of
religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.”
The ruling followed a lawsuit brought by civil liberties activists that had led to the judge
barring solely religious items on the City Hall lawn in Jersey City. “We shouldn’t have to censor
those holidays that have a religious aspect,” said Mayor Bret Schundler (Leavitt 1995: A3).
The Supreme Court ruled in June 1995 that if government allows public displays, it
cannot choose to bar religious displays per se. Religious expression must be treated like other
forms of expression, such as United Way donation thermometers, which are often displayed on
the sides of public buildings or in parks.
Not everyone agrees with the ruling. Barry Lynn of Americans United for Separation of
Church and State argues that “the Supreme Court is turning a lot of town squares into
churchyards. And that has made a lot of people from minority religions feel like second-class
citizens in their own towns” (Mauro 1995: A2).
In Chicago, a government office building stopped playing Christmas music when there
were protests, but a court saw no problems with a mixture of Christmas music along with winter
seasonal songs.
Sources: Jan Crawford Greenburg, “In Season to be Tolerant, It’s Still Easier Said than
Done,” Chicago Tribune (December 21, 1995), sec. 3:1, 3; Paul Leavitt, “Christmas Displays
OK,” USA Today (December 19, 1995): 3A; Tony Mauro, “Ruling Helps Communities Set
Guidelines,” USA Today (December 21, 1995): A1, A2.
8-6: Goal Multiplication and Religious Organizations

Religious groups fulfill many of what Durkheim would term secular (rather than sacred)
functions. In recent years (with the emphasis on government downsizing), churches and other
religious organizations have started providing services previously assumed by government
agencies. Republicans want to roll back government-funded welfare programs and shift the
social safety net to private organizations in general and to churches and religious charities in
particular.
There appears to be public support for this role. Yet, the public rejects the notion that the
nation’s religious organizations should be the main source of funds for the needy. In a 1995
national Gallup survey, respondents were asked: “Who do you think should be more responsible
for providing assistance to the poor—government or religious organizations?” The results
showed 55 percent selecting the government, 28 percent religious organizations, 10 percent both,
4 percent neither, and 3 percent with no opinion. Among Republicans and Protestants, the
government was still favored as a source for such funds, but by smaller margins. Only self-
identified conservatives favored religious organizations over the government as the main source
of support for assisting the poor.
Some clergy and other observers are concerned about religious groups playing more of a
role. They feel it is unconstitutional and spiritually wrong to force the poor through a religious
doorway to meet their basic needs.
Federal legislation has been proposed that would create a charity tax credit of $500 per
taxpayer. It would allow taxpayers to designate money to a religious or charitable organization
that devotes 70 percent of its efforts to poverty relief.
Witt, SOC, 2014e IM-8 | 20
Education.
Chapter 8
Source: “Should Religious Organizations Provide All Welfare?” Emerging Trends 17

(November 1995): 5.
8-7: Women in the Clergy

Throughout history and in many diverse cultures, the highest positions of spiritual
leadership within organized religion have been reserved for men. Even today, the largest
denomination in the United States, Roman Catholicism, does not permit women to be priests. A
1993 Gallup survey found that 63 percent of Roman Catholics in this country favor the
ordination of women, compared with only 29 percent in 1974, but the church has continued to
maintain its long-standing teaching that priests should be male.
The largest Protestant denomination, the Southern Baptist Convention, has voted against
ordaining women (even though some of its autonomous churches have women ministers). Other
religious faiths that do not allow women clergy include the Lutheran church–Missouri Synod, the
Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of North and South America, the Orthodox Church in America, the
Church of God in Christ, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, and Orthodox Judaism.
Despite these restrictions, there has been a notable rise in female clergy in the last 20
years. Female enrollment in seminaries in the United States has steadily increased since the early
1970s. For example, in 1973, women accounted for 10 percent of Protestant theological students;
by 1992, the proportion of women had risen to almost 33 percent. Of 190 students in Reform
Judaism’s rabbinical school in the 1992–1993 school year, 43 percent were female. Of 32
students who entered Conservative Judaism’s rabbinical school in late 1991, 15 were women.
Nevertheless, as of 1992, 92 percent of all clergy in the United States were male.
Clearly, many branches of Protestantism and Judaism have been convinced that women
have the right to be ordained as spiritual leaders. Yet a lingering question remains: Once
ordained, will these female ministers and rabbis be accepted by congregations? Will they
advance in their calling as easily as male counterparts, or will they face blatant or subtle
discrimination in their efforts to secure desirable posts within their faiths?
It is too early to offer any definitive answers to these questions, but thus far, women
clergy continue to face lingering sexism after ordination. According to a 1986 random sampling
of 800 lay and ordained leaders of the United Church of Christ, women find it difficult to secure
jobs in larger, more prestigious congregations. Women ministers in other Protestant faiths have
encountered similar problems. Although they may be accepted as junior clergy or as co-pastors,
women may fail to receive senior clergy appointments. In both Reform and Conservative
Judaism, women rabbis are rarely hired by the largest and best-known congregations.
Consequently, women clergy in many denominations appear to be restricted to the low end of
clerical pay scales and hierarchies.
Sources for this lecture include the following: Andrée Brooks, “Women in the Clergy:
Struggle to Succeed,” New York Times (February 16, 1987): 15; Bureau of the Census. Statistical
Abstract of the United States 1996. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1996, p.
405; Debra Nussbaum Cohen, “The Right to Be Rabbis Won, Women Face Role’s Challenges,”
Long Island Jewish World 29 (August 23–29, 1991): 3, 22–23; Richard N. Ostling, “The Second
Reformation,” Time 140 (November 23, 1992): 52–58; Princeton Religion Research Center,
“Attitudes toward Priests Changing Rapidly,” Emerging Trends 15 (October 1993): 5.
Witt, SOC, 2014e IM-8 | 21
Education.
Chapter 8
8-8: Doing Religion

More than 100 people in a Black congregation are packed into the living room of an old
house. Led by the pastor’s wife and four dancing women, the worshippers are singing, dancing,
waving their arms. The church is rocking, and the pace doesn’t stop for three hours. Across town
a White congregation is singing the same hymns, but no one is dancing. The mood is mellow and
the drummer looks almost embarrassed to be there. Sharon Bjorkman uncovered these
contrasting styles in the course of fieldwork researching forms of worship in churches in the
Chicago area. This observation research was part of a nationwide study conducted by the
Hartford Institute for Religion Research.
Bjorkman was interested in going beyond the doctrinal background of a particular church
and observing the physical actions of the people attending services and those conducting them.
As Durkheim noted, defining what is sacred in a religion is a collective act. Using the
interactionist perspective, Bjorkman took notes on what happened at services, who participated,
and what or who motivated them to do so.
The first thing that she discovered was the disadvantage of being an outsider. For
example, not “knowing the ropes,” she was unprepared for the strenuous physical activity in the
Black church. In the churches she visited, she didn’t know whether to carry a Bible or what
version to use. As Bjorkman notes, you need to be socialized to know what is expected of you in
a church service. Depending on the socialization church members receive, usually through
example and reprimand, they will be active or passive, loud or quiet, meditative or
demonstrative.
The church leader plays a key role in shaping the congregation’s actions. Leaders decide
the format of services, including what songs are sung, what instruments are used, and how much
to involve the worshippers. In services that call for testimonies from the congregation, the leader
would actively solicit certain members and badger them if need be. The same tactic applied to
“altar calls” where congregants would come forward to confess sins or seek blessings.
As important as church leaders are, they would have little influence if the individual
members chose not to cooperate. Worship styles, then, are jointly developed by leaders and
members. Generally, Bjorkman found, leaders would take small incremental steps to “train” their
members to accept a particular style of service.
This study illustrates the crucial part that human relations play within formal
organizations. Religious rituals are not just dry formal procedures dictated by a rote program of
service. They evolve out of the active participation of leaders and members “doing religion”
together.
TOPICS FOR STUDENT RESEARCH AND CLASSROOM DISCUSSION
1. Ask students to identify (anonymously) their true motivation for initially attending college,
and discuss the issues of credentialism and the bestowal of status as institutionalized factors
associated with education.
2. Ask students to collect evidence supporting the integrative power of education, and discuss
the perspective that education reinforces social order.
Witt, SOC, 2014e IM-8 | 22
Education.
Chapter 8
3. Ask students to identify rules or regulations that some educational institutions may use to
encourage students to maintain the status quo and discourage individual creativity.
4. Ask students to identify events or objects that some religions may perceive as profane but
that other religions would consider sacred. Discuss the transition of the ordinary into the
realm of faith.
5. Ask students to search for evidence of various religious rituals that may seem bizarre to
some, and discuss the significance of certain religious behaviors in encouraging adherence to
religious norms.
6. Ask students to identify the various religious forces and elements that may have impacted the
most recent war with Iraq.
7. Ask students to research Scientology and identify its origins as a spiritual philosophy or as a
religion.
REEL TALK
The Apostle (October Films, 1997, 134m). Texan preacher Eulis “Sonny” Dewey lives a happy
life with his wife Jessie until his world starts to crumble when he discovers that Jessie is having
an affair with a young minister. Sonny seriously injures Jessie’s lover (who later dies) and leaves
town for Louisiana, changing his name to “Apostle E.F.” There, he works as a mechanic for local
radio station owner, who lets him preach on the radio. E.F.’s preaching gains traction and,
alongside retired Brother Blackwell, he renovates and old church and gains a new following.
Eventually, however, his past misdeeds catch up to him, and he is arrested and made to work in a
chain gang, but not before delivering a last impassioned sermon. Director: Robert Duvall. Sonny:
Robert Duvall.
Topic: Religion
Discussion Questions
1. Discuss the movie through the lens of Durkheim’s view of religion as a sort of “societal
glue.”
2. Discuss the nature of religious ritual and faith as portrayed in the movie.
Multiple-Choice Questions
1. When Sonny asks God what to do when he discovers that his wife has been having an
affair and no longer wishes to be with him, this is an example of:
a. egalitarian experience
b. ecclesiastic nature
c. religious bias
*d. religious experience
Witt, SOC, 2014e IM-8 | 23
Education.
Chapter 8
2. E.F. and Blackwell's decision to renovate the old church could be viewed as an example
of:
a. the alienating nature of religion.
*b. the integrative function of religion.
c. a nondenominational activity.
d. a profane act.
ESSAY QUESTIONS
1. In what ways do schools serve to transmit culture?

2. How do schools promote social and political integration?
3. How do schools maintain social control and facilitate social change?
4. Describe the “hidden curriculum” and how it adversely affects students.
5. Describe “credentialism.” How does it apply to your life?
6. Describe the research findings on the teacher-expectancy effect.
7. Using Max Weber’s five basic principles of bureaucracy, explain how schools are
bureaucratic.
8. What are some of the reasons for an increase in homeschooling in the U.S.?
9. Clarify the distinction that between the sacred and the profane.
10. What are some of the different forms that religious rituals can take?
11. Explain the different types of religious organizations.
12. How do denominations, ecclesia, and sects differ?
13. Distinguish between cults, or new religious movements, and sects.
14. What is meant by the “integrative” function of religion?
15. How does religion support the status quo?
16. How did Karl Marx and Max Weber view the relationship between religion and the
economic side of life?
17. Describe the Protestant ethic and how it applies to the rise of capitalism.
18. What is liberation theology and how does it relate to Marxism?
19. How does religion function as a form of social control?
20. Contrast the views of religion taken by Émile Durkheim and Karl Marx.
21. In what ways do both Émile Durkheim and Karl Marx emphasize the importance of
secular outcomes of religion?
CRITICAL THINKING QUESTIONS
1. Describe how using the Internet could strengthen or weaken the integrative function of
education within a society. What elements of socialization may be missing?
Witt, SOC, 2014e IM-8 | 24
Education.
Chapter 8
2. Compare and contrast the views on education from the integration and social change
perspectives.
3. Describe the various extremes students may take in trying to please a college professor in
terms of experiencing the teacher-expectancy effect, and explore the possible effects of
such extremes on a student’s education.
4. Discuss the role that religion plays in the “war on terror.” Using the war in Iraq as an
example, how does religion influence, if at all, military and political decisions?
5. Describe the impact of liberation theory as enacted by various religious leaders across the
globe, and discuss whether or not the practice and results of liberation theory contrast
with Marx’s view of religion as an inhibitor of social change.
Witt, SOC, 2014e IM-8 | 25
Education.

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8 EDUCATION & RELIGION

EDUCATION IN SOCIETY Function: What Religions Do

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characterized by discriminatory treatment of women. Title IX played a pivotal role in expanding

Religion is a social institution dedicated to establishing a sense of shared identity, encouraging

According to a functionalist definition of religion, religion unifies believers into a community

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Focus Questions Resources

3. How have sociologists IN THE TEXT

4. What are the IN THE TEXT

5. What are the major IN THE TEXT

6. What are the major IN THE TEXT

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• The history of education in the United States is one of expansion and

II. Sociological Perspectives on Education

A. Education and Social Order

2. Promoting Social Integration

3. Training and Social Control

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B. Education and Inequality

1. The Hidden Curriculum

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• Tracking refers to the practice of placing students in specific curriculum

6. Inequality and Opportunity

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III. Schools as Formal Organizations

A. The Bureaucratization of Schools

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• Four ideal types of subcultures among college students: (1) collegiate—focuses

IV. Defining Religion

A. Substance: What Religion Is

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B. Function: What Religions Do

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• U.S. Christian fundamentalists have fought against the teaching of evolution in

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4. Cults or New Religious Movements

VI. World Religions

VII. Sociological Perspectives on Religion

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1. The Weberian Thesis

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2. Gender and Religion

Correspondence principle The tendency of schools to promote the values expected of

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Fundamentalism Rigid adherence to core religious doctrines, often accompanied by a literal

ADDITIONAL LECTURE IDEAS

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8-2: Inequality in Education

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Sources: See Marlaine F. Lockheed, Adriaan M. Verspoor, and associates. Improving

8-3: The Halévy Thesis: Religion as a Stabilizer

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8-5: Courts and Holiday Displays

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8-6: Goal Multiplication and Religious Organizations

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Source: “Should Religious Organizations Provide All Welfare?” Emerging Trends 17

8-7: Women in the Clergy

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8-8: Doing Religion