Law and Minority Religions: ““Positive”” and ““Negative”” Uses of the Legal System

1998 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 93-107 ◽  
Author(s):  
James T. Richardson
Keyword(s):  
Social Control ◽  
Modern Society ◽  
Legal Action ◽  
Legal Environment ◽  
Religious Groups ◽  
Group Leaders ◽  
Minority Religions ◽  
The Public ◽  
Constitutional Protections ◽  
Regulatory Controls

ABSTRACT: This paper examines several instances in which the law has had a pronounced impact on minority religions, a term used herein to include both older and newer small religious faiths. It employs examples of practices and even beliefs that have been negatively impacted by legal action, as individuals or governments have attempted to exert social control on newer faithsa process referred to as ““affirmative discrimination”” by Thomas Robbins and James Beckford.1 In addition, the paper describes instances in which laws and legal protections have been used in ““positive”” manners by minority religious groups in attempts to accomplish the objectives of group leaders. The examples used demonstrate that minority faiths operate in a changeable legal environment, a fact that must be taken into account if we are to understand minority faiths in any modern society.2 Even in the U. S., with its constitutional protections for freedom of religion, governments are able to exert considerable managerial or regulatory controls over new faiths, especially if they become controversial in the eyes of societal power brokers and the public.3 In other societies without such enforced constitutional protections, minority faiths are even more vulnerable to management by governmental bureaucracies.

Freedom of Religion

2020 ◽  
pp. 229-264
Author(s):  
Adam S. Chilton ◽  
Mila Versteeg
Keyword(s):  
Statistical Analysis ◽  
Religious Freedom ◽  
Freedom Of Religion ◽  
Religious Groups ◽  
Minority Religions ◽  
Russian Constitution ◽  
The Face ◽  
Constitutional Protections ◽  
Organizational Character

This chapter analyzes the freedom of religion. It first describes the doctrinal aspects of religious freedom, and how it is organizational in nature. It also theorizes why religious groups are particularly well equipped to protect religious freedom, and how the constitution can help them to protect their rights. It then presents results from a global statistical analysis, which reveal that constitutional protections of religious freedom are systematically associated with higher levels of respect for religious freedom in practice. It attributes this finding to the organizational character of religious rights. Religious groups have tremendous capacity to protect their own rights in the face of transgressions of power, especially when they can rely on the constitution. This chapter further illustrates how this can play out with a case study on religious rights in Russia, which tells the story of how religious groups have used the Russian Constitution to mitigate the worst consequences of proposed constitutional violations. Finally, this chapter draws attention to the differences between majority and minority religions.

scholarly journals IDENTITAS AGAMA, RUANG PUBLIK DAN POST-SEKULARISME: PERSPEKTIF DISKURSUS JURGEN HABERMAS

2016 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 61
Author(s):  
Irfan Noor
Keyword(s):  
Public Sphere ◽  
Modern Society ◽  
Functional Differentiation ◽  
Religious Language ◽  
Epistemic Status ◽  
Religious Groups ◽  
The Public ◽  
Identity Based ◽  
The Public Sphere ◽  
The Right

The politic of identity based on religion is still a major issue of Indonesian nationality.One such issue is the validity of a religious groups involvement in the national publicpolicy in Indonesia.In this context, the theory of Jurgen Habermass discourse and itsrelation to his view of post-secularism was very relevant to discuss. For Habermas, theneutrality of the public sphere does not mean that a vacuum of religion. In the name ofdemocracy, religious positions should be placed in parallel with the formation of otherpolitical opinions and aspirations. Functional differentiation in modern society leadingto the individualization of religion does not necessarily imply loss of influence andrelevance of religion in the public sphere. Nevertheless, of course, the involvement ofreligion in the public sphere still has limits, that the religious language of particularreligion must be translated into the language first that being accepted by the public,which has epistemic status that can be accepted by the other residents. Such alignmentis called postsekular people, where every citizen has the right faith with the bond ofcommunication with each other.

“Our Dead are the Ultimate Teachers of Life”. The Corpse as an Inter-mediator of Transcendence

2013 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 223-240
Author(s):  
Antje Kahl
Keyword(s):  
Death And Dying ◽  
Modern Society ◽  
Religious Institutions ◽  
Spiritual Experiences ◽  
Dead Body ◽  
Funeral Directors ◽  
The Public ◽  
Funeral Director ◽  
The Dead ◽  
The Relationship

Today in Germany, religion and the churches forfeit their sovereignty of interpretation and ritual concerning death and dying. The funeral director is the first point of contact when death occurs. Therefore he or she is able to influence the relationship between the living and the dead. In the course of this development, the dead body, often referred to as dirty and dangerous, is being sanitized by funeral directors. Funeral directors credit the dead body with a certain quality; they claim that facing the dead may lead to religious or spiritual experiences, and therefore they encourage the public viewing of the dead – a practice which was, and still is not very common in Germany. The new connotation of the dead body is an example for the dislimitation of religion in modern society. The religious framing of death-related practises no longer exclusively belongs to traditional religious institutions and actors, but can take place in commercial business companies as well.

Analisa Wacana Pemberitaan Kasus Korupsi E-KTP Pada Media Kompas.com Terhadap Pembentukan Opini Publik

2019 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-19
Author(s):  
Neri Widya Ramailis ◽  
Dede Nopendri
Keyword(s):  
Mass Media ◽  
Social Control ◽  
The Other ◽  
Main Function ◽  
General Knowledge ◽  
Visual Method ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Media ◽  
Private Entrepreneurs

Discourse is a series of sentences that relate and connect one proposition with the other propositions to from a unity. The main function of the news is not to warn, instruct, and make the public stunned, the main function of the news is to inform and then it is upto the public to utilize the news. There are two ways for the news to be useful to the public, the first to effort news as general knowledge and the second to effort the news a tool of social control. E-Ktp corruption cases are one of the biggest corruption cases that occurered in Indonesia. Therefore, many mass media reported heavilly on E-Ktp corruption cases, one of which was the kompas.com. furthermore, to find out how the writer gets the source the writer gets the source of data and information the writer uses the criminology visual method and then analyzes it using criminology newsmaking theory. However, the results of this study illustrate that the aspect highlighted are those of actors suspected of being involved in E-Ktp corruption cases. Where the media only emphasizes one institution, namely the people’s representative council, even though in this case the involved parties are not only the legislature but case the involved parties are not only the legislature but also from various institutions such as the interior ministry, state-owned enterprises, and private entrepreneurs. In the aspect of media projection Kompas.com make the bulk of the news about E- Ktp corruption cases as news headline and a tranding topic.

PERSOALAN KEHIDUPAN KONTEMPORER: MENGGAGAS KAJIAN SACHEDINA TENTANG THEOLOGI PLURALISME

EMPIRISMA ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Limas Dodi
Keyword(s):  
Religious Pluralism ◽  
Main Argument ◽  
Religious Groups ◽  
Common View ◽  
The Public ◽  
The People ◽  
Muslim Majority ◽  
The Common ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Religious Differences

According to Abdulaziz Sachedina, the main argument of religious pluralism in the Qur’an based on the relationship between private belief (personal) and public projection of Islam in society. By regarding to private faith, the Qur’an being noninterventionist (for example, all forms of human authority should not be disturb the inner beliefs of individuals). While the public projection of faith, the Qur’an attitude based on the principle of coexistence. There is the willingness of the dominant race provide the freedom for people of other faiths with their own rules. Rules could shape how to run their affairs and to live side by side with the Muslims. Thus, based on the principle that the people of Indonesia are Muslim majority, it should be a mirror of a societie’s recognizion, respects and execution of religious pluralism. Abdul Aziz Sachedina called for Muslims to rediscover the moral concerns of public Islam in peace. The call for peace seemed to indicate that the existence of increasingly weakened in the religious sense of the Muslims and hence need to be reaffi rmed. Sachedina also like to emphasize that the position of peace in Islam is parallel with a variety of other doctrines, such as: prayer, fasting, pilgrimage and so on. Sachedina also tried to show the argument that the common view among religious groups is only one religion and traditions of other false and worthless. “Antipluralist” argument comes amid the reality of human religious differences. Keywords: Theology, Pluralism, Abdulaziz Sachedina

On the Volatile Relationship of Secularization and New Religious Movements

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Holland
Keyword(s):  
Religious Movements ◽  
New Religious Movements ◽  
Illustrative Case ◽  
Religious Groups ◽  
Christian Science ◽  
The Public ◽  
Public Action ◽  
Public Square ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
The Relationship

This chapter considers the complex relationship between secularization and the emergence of new religious movements. Drawing from countervailing research, some of which insists that new religious movements abet secularizing processes and some of which sees these movements as disproving the secularization thesis, the chapter presents the relationship as inherently unstable. To the extent that new religious movements maintain a precarious balance of familiarity and foreignness—remaining familiar enough to stretch the definitional boundaries of religion—they contribute to secularization. However, new religious movements frequently lean to one side or other of that median, either promoting religious power in the public square by identifying with the interests of existing religious groups, or emphasizing their distinctiveness from these groups and thus provoking aggressive public action by the antagonized religious mainstream. This chapter centres on an illustrative case from Christian Science history.

The SORS Decision-Making Support System: A statistical tool for better policy making in the Republic of Serbia

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-11
Author(s):  
Miladin Kovačević ◽  
Katarina Stančić
Keyword(s):  
Policy Making ◽  
Modern Society ◽  
Monitoring And Evaluation ◽  
Public Debate ◽  
Statistical Tool ◽  
The Public ◽  
System A ◽  
The Republic ◽  
Trusted Data

Modern society is witnessing a data revolution which necessarily entails changes to the overall behavior of citizens, governments and companies. This is a big challenge and an opportunity for National Statistics Offices (NSOs). Especially after the outbreak of COVID-19, when the public debate about the number of mortalities and tested and infected persons escalated, trusted data is required more than ever. Which data can modern society trust? Are modern societies being subjected to opinion rather than fact? This paper introduces a new statistical tool to facilitate policy-making based on trusted statistics. Using economic indicators to illustrate implementation, the new statistical tool is shown to be a flexible instrument for analysis, monitoring and evaluation of the economic situation in the Republic of Serbia. By taking a role in public policy management, the tool can be used to transform the NSO’s role in the statistical system into an active participant in public debate in contrast to the previous traditional, usually passive role of collecting, processing and publishing data. The tool supports the integration of statistics into public policies and connects the knowledge and expertise of official statisticians on one side with political decision makers on the other.

Multi-occupation segregation through London's tube network

2021 ◽  
pp. 0308518X2110271
Author(s):  
Yao Shen ◽  
Yiyi Xu ◽  
Zhuoya Huang
Keyword(s):  
Public Space ◽  
Transport System ◽  
Public Transport ◽  
Social Performance ◽  
Modern Society ◽  
City Centre ◽  
Segregation Index ◽  
The Public ◽  
Public Transport System ◽  
Transfer Stations

As an extension of public space, the public transport system in modern society is an arena for cross-group interactions. Uncovering social segregation in public transport space is an essential step in shaping a socially sustainable transport system. Based on 2011 origin–destination flow data for London, we simulate the working flows between each pair of connected tube stations for every occupation with minimised transfer times and travelling hours and calculate the multi-occupation segregation index for all tube stations and segments. This segregation index captures the density and diversity aspects of the working population. The results demonstrate that segregation levels vary significantly across stations, lines, and segments. Transfer stations and tube segments in the city centre do not necessarily have lower levels of segregation. Those stations or segments close to a terminus can also be socially inclusive, e.g., Heathrow. Victoria is the line with the lowest levels of segregation, and Green Park is the most socially inclusive station during commuting peaks. The proposed mapping approach demonstrates the spatial complexity in the social performance of the public transport system and provides a tool for implementing relevant policy with improved precision.

Social Control of Intellect: Four Features of the Academic–Media Nexus

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael McDevitt
Keyword(s):  
Social Control ◽  
Strategic Management ◽  
Social Theory ◽  
Academic Discourse ◽  
Ideal Type ◽  
Public Intellectual ◽  
The Public ◽  
Field Dynamic ◽  
The Mind

Abstract Intellect in social theory is often presented as an ideal type—the critical, iconoclastic side of the mind—but it must anticipate an audience in mediated contexts, unlike in the Kantian realm of transcendent reason. The terrain in which academia and media meet, consequently, is ripe for exploration into the fate of intellect when transgressive. This article explicates four features of the academic–media nexus that contribute to social control of intellect: instrumental rationalism of faculty, strategic management of university communication, journalistic appropriation of the “public intellectual” role, and surveillance of academic discourse. The article situates the features in a framework to recognize whether they originate primarily in academia or media, and whether the controlling process occurs through internalized norms or calculated practice. While social control is understood as recursive and reinforcing, reflexivity induced in an inter-field dynamic implies the possibility of reconciling intellect with news work.

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