Eric Forste wrote:
Old-fashioned "big religion" used to be, among other things, for the
function of bringing together people of dissimilar economic and cultural
interests, and it's hard to see how small sectarian religions can do this
very well.
(end)
In my sociology of religion class the professor taught that a primary
positive social benefit of religion (judeo-christianity in the U.S.) was to
integrate people into the middle-class by instilling in them certain values
about work and education along with a social group to reinforce these
things. It was a great class taught by a former Roman Catholic priest who
left the cloth to raise a family but is still a devout Catholic. He still
could be very objective in his teaching. This prof was the only one in his
department without a doctorate but could teach better then most I have seen.
sincerely,
John Grigg
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