International Migration and Its Impact on the Mar Thoma Denomination

Author(s):  
Prema A. Kurien

There is currently little literature on how religious institutions are influenced by the international migration of its members, in other words, how the transnationalization of a religious organization is felt and practiced on the ground. Chapter 6 examines how and why the international migration of Mar Thomites, particularly to the United States, has brought about multifaceted changes in the home church and the home communities in Kerala. Some of these impacts were due to the leadership having to accommodate the needs of its international membership, whereas others were the unintended consequence of the church developing the infrastructure to manage and use the inflow of remittances. Yet other consequences were due to larger transformations in Kerala society caused by migration and rapid social change. The chapter also examines the theoretical and practical implications of these changes.

1997 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 213-228
Author(s):  
Jeremy Hein

Political violence and international migration have the potential to disrupt leadership continuity in Hmong refugee communities in the United States. At the same time, clan and village authority structures from Laos favor leadership continuity despite dramatic social change. Data on 40 Hmong leaders in ten communities are used to determine if the indigenous sources of leadership continue to determine who becomes a leader after resettlement. The majority of leaders were leaders in Southeast Asia and have close kin who were leaders, indicating leadership continuity. Whether these leaders have held few or many leadership positions in the United States, however, is not determined by prior leadership or kinship, but by factors associated with acculturation. Initial leadership status in a host society is linked to authority structures from the homeland, but social change influences subsequent leadership careers.


1985 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
pp. 1-9
Author(s):  
Joshua A. Fishman

The term “multilingualism,” or any of its partial synonyms and correlates (such as “bilingualism” or “bilingual education”), refers to so complex a field of phenomena that it should really be no surprise that it is defined or clarified in much the same way as are the constituent items of a projective test: more in accord with the latent internal dynamics of whatever “moves” the definer than in accord with the manifest external characteristics of the defined. Not only is this true if we move from culture to culture and seek to discover the dominant views about “multilingualism” in a variety of ethnocultural traditions, but it is also true if we focus on any one context, particularly one that is highly exposed to the assets and debits of rapid social change, such as the one we are in presently in the United States, and we seek to discover the dominant view about “multilingualism” from one period of time to another. Under both types of contrastive circumstances we quickly discover that “multilingualism is a sometime thing”; i.e., it is a variable rather than a constant. It is interpreted and reinterpreted, by all segments of society, in accord with larger issues, more pressing priorities that shape these segments, that move them, worry them, force them to alter their priorities. Yes, “multilingualism is a Zeitgeist thing” and “the times, they are a-changing,” particularly in the U.S.A. and the rest of the Western Democratic world.


Author(s):  
Yannick Fer

This chapter shows how the histories of Polynesian island nations are very much bound up with Christianity. The growth of charismatic movements in Polynesia, against a backdrop of rapid social change and transnational circulations between the island states and strong diasporic communities in New Zealand, Australia, and the United States, has resulted in a type of “nonconformist liberation.” Polynesian youth are drawn to the more individuated understanding of moral consciousness, as well as the new possibilities for bodily movements and cultural expression such as dance. Thus, local culture, the chapter suggests, might in fact have a positive moral valency for contemporary Christians.


2018 ◽  
pp. 57-65
Author(s):  
Viktoria Zaporozhets

In the article of Viktoria Zaporozhets «Main aspects of external church relations of UAOC in the 90’s. XX century» from the religious-scientific point of view is carried out a comprehensive analysis of the institutionalization of the UAOC in the 90's of the twentieth century in the context of her external-church relation. It is noted that inter-church relations of the UAOC during the specified period of her existence can be characterized as two-vector (internal Orthodox and intra-Orthodox). It is emphasized that the first vector is due to the processes of interaction between the UAOC and the UOC-KP and the UOC that took place at the canonical councils / sessions of commissions, and the second vector is related to the fact that the UAOC tried to gain the canonical status of the Ecumenical Patriarch through the diocese of Canada and the United States. At the same time it is noted that although there were diplomatic inter-Orthodox relations of the UAOC, nevertheless there were temple seizures from each other. It is proved that the church-state relations of the UAOC in this period can be characterized as stable, since it was granted the right to perform services and own property, to open Sunday schools, to freely serve services in the Ukrainian language, although sometimes it was possible to find a negative attitude to this religious organization from the side of power.


2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 77-92
Author(s):  
Rotimi Williams Omotoye

Pentecostalism as a new wave of Christianity became more pronounced in 1970's and beyond in Nigeria. Since then scholars of Religion, History, Sociology and Political Science have shown keen interest in the study of the Churches known as Pentecostals because of the impact they have made on the society. The Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG) was established by Pastor Josiah Akindayomi in Lagos,Nigeria in 1952. After his demise, he was succeeded by Pastor Adeboye Adejare Enock. The problem of study of this research was an examination of the expansion of the Redeemed Christian Church of God to North America, Caribbean and Canada. The missionary activities of the church could be regarded as a reversed mission in the propagation of Christianity by Africans in the Diaspora. The methodology adopted was historical. The primary and secondary sources of information were also germane in the research. The findings of the research indicated that the Redeemed Christian Church of God was founded in North America by Immigrants from Nigeria. Pastor Adeboye Enock Adejare had much influence on the Church within and outside the country because of his charisma. The Church has become a place of refuge for many immigrants. They are also contributing to the economy of the United States of America. However, the members of the Church were faced with some challenges, such as security scrutiny by the security agencies. In conclusion, the RCCGNA was a denomination that had been accepted and embraced by Nigerians and African immigrants in the United States of America.


1986 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 55-63 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. A. Swanson ◽  
John C. Gardner

This research documents the emergence of accounting procedures and concepts in a centrally controlled not-for-profit organization during a period of change and consolidation. The evolution of accounting as prescribed by the General Canons is identified and its implementation throughout the church conferences is examined.


Author(s):  
Katherine Dugan

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.


Author(s):  
Michael C. Dorf ◽  
Michael S. Chu

Lawyers played a key role in challenging the Trump administration’s Travel Ban on entry into the United States of nationals from various majority-Muslim nations. Responding to calls from nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), which were amplified by social media, lawyers responded to the Travel Ban’s chaotic rollout by providing assistance to foreign travelers at airports. Their efforts led to initial court victories, which in turn led the government to soften the Ban somewhat in two superseding executive actions. The lawyers’ work also contributed to the broader resistance to the Trump administration by dramatizing its bigotry, callousness, cruelty, and lawlessness. The efficacy of the lawyers’ resistance to the Travel Ban shows that, contrary to strong claims about the limits of court action, litigation can promote social change. General lessons about lawyer activism in ordinary times are difficult to draw, however, because of the extraordinary threat Trump poses to civil rights and the rule of law.


2021 ◽  
pp. 019791832199478
Author(s):  
Wanli Nie ◽  
Pau Baizan

This article investigates the impact of international migration to the United States on the level and timing of Chinese migrants’ fertility. We compare Chinese women who did not leave the country (non-migrants) and were subject to restrictive family policies from 1974 to 2015 to those who moved to the United States (migrants) and were, thus, “emancipated” from these policies. We theoretically develop and empirically test the emancipation hypothesis that migrants should have a higher fertility than non-migrants, as well as an earlier timing of childbearing. This emancipation effect is hypothesized to decline across birth cohorts. We use data from the 2000 US census, the 2005 American Community Survey, the 2000 Chinese census, and the 2005 Chinese 1 percent Population Survey and discrete-time event history models to analyze first, second, and third births, and migration as joint processes, to account for selection effects. The results show that Chinese migrants to the United States had substantially higher childbearing probabilities after migration, compared with non-migrants in China, especially for second and third births. Moreover, our analyses indicate that the migration process is selective of migrants with lower fertility. Overall, the results show how international migration from China to the United States can lead to an increase in migrant women’s fertility, accounting for disruption, adaptation, and selection effects. The rapidly increased fertility after migration from China to the United States might have implications on other migration contexts where fertility in the origin country is dropping rapidly while that in the destination country is relatively stable.


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