Conflicting Identities: An Ethnographic Account of Conflict and Schism in an Episcopal Parish

2016 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 210-230
Author(s):  
Joyce Ann Mercer
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
The United States ◽  
Ethnographic Research ◽  
Congregational Study ◽  
Practical Theological ◽  
Religious Landscape ◽  
Interacting Features

This paper draws upon a congregational study of an Episcopal parish in the United States in conflict over sexuality issues. Based on ethnographic research, the paper tells the story of a small Northern Virginia church’s internal struggles, schism, and continuing post-schism conflicts, in the context of its changing external social and religious landscape. A practical theological analysis of these conflicts explores the existence of different theological and political ecclesiologies shaping the conflict, as well as utilizing the work of peace scholars Marie Dugan 1 and John Paul Lederach 2 to consider conflict’s multidimensional, interacting features.

Millennial Missionaries

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katherine Dugan
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Religious Identity ◽  
The United States ◽  
College Campuses ◽  
Religious Institutions ◽  
Gender Essentialism ◽  
Craft Beer ◽  
Catholic University ◽  
Religious Piety ◽  
Religious Landscape

This book is an ethnography of millennial-generation Catholic missionaries. The Fellowship of Catholic University Students (FOCUS) began hiring young adults to evangelize students on college campuses in 1998. Since then, FOCUS missionaries have developed a style of Catholic evangelization that navigates between strict and savvy interpretations of Catholic teaching in contemporary US youth culture. The Catholicism that FOCUS missionaries embrace and promote grew up with them and amid their middle-class American norms—missionaries own iPhones, drink craft beer, and create March Madness brackets. Born in the 1990s, millennial missionaries in their skinny jeans and devotional tattoos, large-framed glasses and scapulars embody an attractive style of Catholicism. They love saints and have memorized the “Tantum Ergo,” are fluent in college-student slang, but reject hook-up culture in favor of gender essentialism dictated by papal teachings. Missionaries rely on their social capital to make Catholicism cool. Many of their peers have been characterized as defectors from religious institutions. Yet, underneath the rise of “nones” is a story of increased religious piety. This book studies religion in the United States from the perspective of proud Catholic millennials. As they navigate their Catholic and US identities, these missionaries propose Catholicism as uniquely able to overcome perceived threats of secularism, relativism, and modernity. How, why, and with what implications is this Catholicism enacted? These questions, which point to power struggles between US culture and religious identity, drive this book. Through their prayers and evangelization efforts, missionaries are reshaping Catholic identity and shifting the religious landscape of the United States.

Ethnohistory's Ethnohistory

2010 ◽  
Vol 34 (2) ◽  
pp. 113-128
Author(s):  
Michael E. Harkin
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Ethical Issues ◽  
Theoretical Orientation ◽  
Historical Analysis ◽  
The United States ◽  
Ethnographic Research ◽  
European Contact ◽  
Documentary Sources ◽  
Research Areas ◽  
Foundational Work

This article examines the first decades of the field of ethnohistory as it developed in the United States. It participated in the general rapprochement between history and anthropology of mid-twentieth-century social science. However, unlike parallel developments in Europe and in other research areas, ethnohistory specifically arose out of the study of American Indian communities in the era of the Indian Claims Commission. Thus ethnohistory developed from a pragmatic rather than a theoretical orientation, with practitioners testifying both in favor of and against claims. Methodology was flexible, with both documentary sources and ethnographic methods employed to the degree that each was feasible. One way that ethnohistory was innovative was the degree to which women played prominent roles in its development. By the end of the first decade, the field was becoming broader and more willing to engage both theoretical and ethical issues raised by the foundational work. In particular, the geographic scope began to reach well beyond North America, especially to Latin America, where archival resources and the opportunities for ethnographic research were plentiful, but also to areas such as Melanesia, where recent European contact allowed researchers to observe the early postcontact period directly and to address the associated theoretical questions with greater authority. Ethnohistory is thus an important example of a field of study that grew organically without an overarching figure or conscious plan but that nevertheless came to engage central issues in cultural and historical analysis.

scholarly journals Retirement Without God: Activism and Community Among Secular People Over 60

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. 441-441
Author(s):  
Joseph Blankholm
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Older Adults ◽  
Social Movement ◽  
Generational Differences ◽  
Crucial Role ◽  
National Level ◽  
The United States ◽  
Ethnographic Research ◽  
Vast Literature

Abstract There are more than 1,400 nonbeliever communities in the United States and well over a dozen organizations that advocate for secular people on the national level. Together, these local and national groups comprise a social movement that includes atheists, agnostics, humanists, freethinkers, and other kinds of nonbelievers. Despite the fact that retired people over 60 dedicate most of the money and energy needed to run these groups, the increasingly vast literature on secular people and secularism has paid them almost no attention. Relying on more than one hundred interviews (including dozens with people over 60), several years of ethnographic research, and a survey of organized nonbelievers, this paper demonstrates the crucial role that people over 60 play in the American secular movement today. It also considers the reasons older adults are so important to these groups, the challenges they face in trying to recruit younger members and combat stereotypes about aging leadership, and generational differences that structure how various types of nonbeliever groups look and feel. This paper reframes scholarly understandings of very secular Americans by focusing on people over 60 and charts a new path in secular studies.

John Courtney Murray

2021 ◽  
pp. 180-198
Author(s):  
Francesca Cadeddu
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Social Relations ◽  
American History ◽  
Religious Pluralism ◽  
The United States ◽  
Catholic Theology ◽  
Reinhold Niebuhr ◽  
Archival Documents ◽  
Religious Landscape ◽  
John Courtney Murray

This chapter offers an insight on the intellectual relationship between Reinhold Niebuhr and John Courtney Murray, SJ. Newly discovered archival documents highlight their roles as consultants to the Basic Issues Program of the Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions (CSDI), established in 1957. The activities of the programme were based on debates pertaining to topics including religious pluralism, civic unity, and natural law. Niebuhr and Murray had the opportunity to present their perspectives on the United States religious landscape and the issues raised by ecumenical and social relations between the Protestant majority and the Catholic minority. What emerges from their confrontation is not a search for conciliation, but rather a representation of Reinhold Niebuhr’s understanding of pre-conciliar Catholic theology and John Courtney Murray’s effort to contribute to the acknowledgement of Catholics within American history and society.

Dreaming across Borders

2019 ◽  
pp. 159-170
Author(s):  
Deborah A. Boehm
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Young People ◽  
The United States ◽  
Ethnographic Research ◽  
Border Crossings ◽  
Undocumented Migrant ◽  
Migrant Youth ◽  
Mexican Government ◽  
National Membership

This chapter chronicles the in-between position of Dreamers, or undocumented migrant youth who were born outside of the United States, but have lived in the United States for many years and consider it home. Although these youth are undeniably transnational, they may find themselves trapped in the United States, unable to leave or safely return to the United States. This landscape changed to some extent with DACA, which created the possibility for young people to travel outside of the United States and return through a process called Advance Parole. However, even if approved, leaving the United States through Advance Parole could result in young people being denied reentry by U.S. officials and thus permanently excluded from the country. Based on ethnographic research with a group of DACAmented migrants who were invited by the Mexican government to visit “their homeland,” this chapter considers border crossings in a time of increasingly blocked movement for the majority of migrant youth. Although all youth were granted permission to travel to Mexico through Advance Parole, their returns—first to Mexico and then to the United States—demonstrate how DACA created a curious status of being both in certain legal categories, but persistently without access to formal national membership. Their liminal position underscores the insecurities of migrant youth more generally.

Youth Negotiate Deportation

2019 ◽  
pp. 135-146
Author(s):  
Lauren Heidbrink
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Young People ◽  
The United States ◽  
Children And Youth ◽  
Ethnographic Research ◽  
Institutional Practices ◽  
Unaccompanied Children ◽  
Forced Return ◽  
The U.S

This chapter chronicles how young people experience deportation from the United States to Guatemala. It examines the policies and institutional practices that govern the removal of unaccompanied children and trace the ways in which young people and their families understand and navigate these policies and practices. Through multi-sited ethnographic research in the United States and Guatemala, the chapter reveals the various impacts of the forced “repatriation” of children, exacerbating the very conditions that spurred their migration and causing new interrelated uncertainties and related risks as “deportees.” As they are physically expelled from the United States, deported young people move out of U.S. legal systems. The effects of a forced “return” to their nations of origin produce new challenges such as feelings of isolation and vulnerability as well as danger, such that, in many ways, they continue to be in and moving through regimes of illegality. Demonstrating the long-term and geographically distant effects of the U.S. government’s deportation of children and youth, the chapter outlines the confining character of being out of a system, especially if once in it.

The Impact of Ngos in Saint-Louis De Gonzague Camp, Haiti

2013 ◽  
Vol 35 (3) ◽  
pp. 20-22
Author(s):  
Sandy Nelzy
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
The United States ◽  
Western Hemisphere ◽  
Ethnographic Research ◽  
Great Opportunity ◽  
Saint Louis ◽  
Long Time ◽  
The Impact ◽  
First Time ◽  
Great Step

A long time ago, Haiti was known as beautiful, rich in minerals, and a beacon of freedom, where slaves gained their independence. But now, Haiti is known as "the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere." Born and raised in Haiti, I came to the United States for the first time in 1998, and for five years I kept traveling back and forth until my father decided I would be a United States resident in 2003. I have always wanted to help my country, and I knew that living in the United States would be a great step forward. So when I found out about the ethnographic research organized by Dr. Schuller after the earthquake in Haiti, I knew instantly that I was interested in going. I knew that it would be a great opportunity for me to develop skills that would help resolve Haiti's problems in one way or another. I tried preparing myself emotionally to face the difficulties and the heartaches with which I would deal.

Home on Sunday, Home on Tuesday? Secular Political Participation in the United States

2017 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 334-363
Author(s):  
Mark Brockway
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Political Participation ◽  
Democratic Party ◽  
The United States ◽  
Party Politics ◽  
The Political ◽  
Sharp Rise ◽  
Political Impact ◽  
Religious Landscape

AbstractThe American religious landscape is transforming due to a sharp rise in the percentage of the population that is nonreligious. Political and demographic causes have been proffered but little attention has been paid to the current and potential political impact of these “nones,” especially given the established link between religion, participation, and party politics. I argue that the political impact of nonreligious Americans lies in an unexplored subset of the nonreligious population called committed seculars. Committed seculars de-identify with religion, they adopt secular beliefs, and join organizations structured on secular beliefs. Using a unique survey of a secular organization, the American Humanist Association, I demonstrate that committed seculars are extremely partisan and participatory, and are driven to participate by their ideological extremity in relation to the Democratic Party. These results point to a long-term mobilizing dimension for Democrats and indicate the potential polarizing influence of seculars in party politics.

Religion and American Public Life

2012 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 107-110
Author(s):  
Jean Bethke Elshtain
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Social Capital ◽  
Civic Engagement ◽  
Political Science ◽  
Social Science Research ◽  
Religion And Politics ◽  
The United States ◽  
Voluntary Association ◽  
Religious Landscape ◽  
Religious Polarization

In his 2000 best seller Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Civic Community, Robert Putnam analyzed the links between social capital and civic engagement. Lamenting the decline of “civic America,” he called for a Tocquevillean renewal of voluntary association in the United States. In American Grace, Putnam and coauthor David Campbell—who also helped with the preparation of Bowling Alone—return to the analysis of American civil society, focusing their attention on America's changing religious landscape and its implications for democracy. Their basic argument is that while the United States is religiously diverse and pluralistic to a profound degree, and while in recent years it has witnessed growing religious polarization, it has also succeeded in muting religious tensions and hostilities. As they conclude: “How has America solved the puzzle of religious pluralism—the coexistence of religious diversity and devotion? And how has it done so in the wake of growing religious polarization? By creating a web of interlocking personal relationships among people of many different faiths. This is America's grace” (p. 550).Given the importance of religion in American life and the influence of Putnam's broad agenda on much current social science research on social capital and civic engagement, we have decided to organize a symposium around the book, centered on three questions: 1) How is American Grace related to Putnam's earlier work, particularly Bowling Alone, and what are the implications of the continuities and/or discontinuities between these works? 2) What kind of a work of political science is American Grace, and how does it compare to other important recent work dealing with religion and politics in the United States? 3) What are the strengths and weaknesses of Putnam and Campbell's account of “how religion divides and unites us,” and what is the best way of thinking about the contemporary significance of religion and politics in the United States and about the ways that the religious landscape challenges U.S. politics and U.S. political science?

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