Boston Bombing Media Slant: Religion as Pathology
There is a third option: Pay attention to the last thirty years of sociological social movement theory that explains that joining a social or religious movement is a normal part of democratic civil society While there are psychological and political and religious aspects; most young people who join a social movement are not dysfunctional, or stupid, or crazy--but looking for an answer to a grievance that they see as vital to resolve. The sociological social movement theory option sees that a particular version of Islamic theology is clearly involved, but unlike the right-wing Islamophobes, recognizes that 99% of Muslims around the world reject it. The social movement theory option looks at the process by which people with a grievance are mobilized, recruited, find an identity firmed up by collective action, learn the ideology through training by skillful leaders who employ persuasive frames and narratives, and then decide what methodology is needed to create change. In this model, religious belief matters, as does the relative percentage of people in a religious tradition who embrace a particular religious tradition or theology--or methodology. Liberals want to sweep religious identity under the rug. Right-wing Islamophobes want to set the rug on fire. Ponder these contentions: The young Catholics who in the 1930s joined the White Rose Society in Nazi Germany and gave their lives to protest antisemitism, where just a bunch of juvenile delinquents who wanted to thumb their nose at the establishment. The college students who joined the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee in the 1960s and powered the Civil Rights Movement where just rebelling against society because they were maladjusted. People who shoot abortion providers just couldn't find a postal carrier. Spiritual belief is not a dysfunction. It can be focused on good or evil.
Consider the prose from the second pamphlet issued by the White Rose Society:
When glib media pundits indict or deny a religion in and of itself they crush the petals of the white rose and spit in the face of all of us who take our religion or spiritual or ethical beliefs seriously. May there be an end to Islamophobia and antisemitism. May there be an end to religious strife. May justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.
May there be peace on earth.
Boston Bombing Media Slant: Religion as Pathology | 8 comments (8 topical, 0 hidden)
Boston Bombing Media Slant: Religion as Pathology | 8 comments (8 topical, 0 hidden)
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