Religion and Popular Culture

Popular culture, or what is usually referred to as ‘pop culture’ was caused by the emergence of new technology especially starting from early 20 th century. It was also the time when terms such as democracy and fascism were emerging. The Nazis were also trying to demonstrate the effectiveness of propaganda. As it is popularly known, religion tries to define boundaries within which individuals ought to live and behave. That means that religion comes up with standards, which it defines as either right or wrong. Specifically, members who subscribe to certain religious beliefs are supposed to act within the stipulated rules of their religion. Nevertheless, it is not possible for people to isolate themselves without interacting with other people in the world. People who subscribe to certain religious doctrines cannot evade the changes that take place in the world. For instance, in Europe, the Catholic Church used to come up with standards, which people were supposed to adhere to. Although England once followed the stipulations strictly, adjustments had to be made for the country to achieve its colonialism agenda. 

The emergence of popular culture has changed people’s perceptions in regard to religion in various ways. Before pop culture, people had the perception that religion was for the select few. The teachers of religion, who were often men, were held in high regard and their views on certain subjects were seen as being close to the scriptural writings. That to a large extent meant that people often consumed information without questioning. Perhaps what makes the interaction of pop culture and religion to seem to be in conflict is the grapple for the same audience. Religion tries to create a sacred space, which guides the public from the consumption of every information while pop culture disseminates content which does not restrict the public from what they choose to consume. One of the prominent impacts about pop culture is that it has made a significant number of people in the US to realize that there are differences in various religious practices. Therefore, a practice in a certain religion can be deemed sacred but condemned in another. Secondly, religion also follows the law. Law, in the perspective of religion means adhering to the practices that a certain religion justifies as the correct way of doing things. For instance, the scapegoat practice of the Hebrews where a ribbon containing people’s sins are tied round the neck of a goat and its head chopped off to signify purification of the sinners. Some religions also use violence such as offering of human sacrifice, acts that have changed people’s perceptions about religion. 

Religion and Commodity 

Before delving into the subject of criticism against selling religion as a commodity, it is important to understand how commercialization began. Hollywood, which is a dominant movie industry in the world was the first place where the whole commercialization began. Initially, movies such as “The Ten Commandments” with the purpose of educating the mass about the power of God. This shift in the preaching about the significance of God demonstrates that it was inevitable for religion to embrace the new media to propagate information about God. Since religion is meant to instill positive values in people, some individuals were of the idea that if they were to achieve the objective, they had to use the new media. If religious leaders adamantly refused to adapt to the new changes, they risked losing out the agenda. Most members of the public were engaged with the new media and were also beginning to subscribe less to religious doctrines. The only option religious leaders were left with was to use the new media to reach out to the public. 

However, perhaps the start of Hollywood is what contributed greatly to the commercialization of religion. The dominant narrative that was propagated by individuals who commercialized religion was that people were supposed to have personal relationships with God and not subscribe to opinions or views of religious leaders. People began to organize for religious concerts with the objective of attracting people who subscribed to pop culture. Nevertheless, critics point out that selling religion as a commodity has brought more harm than good. For instance, people are misled to believe to categorize people into categories of righteous and evil basing on the narratives that are propagated in the various media. A prominent example that is provided is the creation of the movie “Exorcist” where the idea of Satan was emphasized in the US. The movie seemingly suggests that God does not help people rather; it is the individual who has the power to overcome all tribulations. Still on the idea of evil, some countries such as those that practiced communism would be portrayed as evil while the US would be presented as the savior, who had the authority to use any type of intervention whenever such countries did something that offended the US. That means that the commercialization led to bias opinions, which were harmful especially among young people. 

Culture and Religion 

From the onset, the cultural differences around the world have created different religions. For instance, people from Italy and significant portions of Europe are Catholics, Muslims are found mainly in the Arab world, Indians believe in Hinduism while a majority of people in China are Buddhists. Even within the major religions in the world, there are significant variations. For example, the Muslims are usually divided into two prominent groups; the Shia and the Sunni. The differences in the two groups of Muslims stemmed from different political ideologies. Religious practices often incorporate rituals, which may not be the same across different cultures. When religious crusaders were spreading their respective religions across different parts of the world, different people had different ways of doing things. If the crusaders were to be successful in their mission, it was necessary not to disregard all the practices of the various cultures. That means that certain positive cultural values had to be incorporated with the respective religions for easy reception. One of the first things that the different religions did was to translate their religious writings into the languages of the respective cultures hence; there was a high likelihood for religion to contain some cultural elements. 

The vehement resistance to pop culture particularly in the US tempts individuals to ask, provided that there were variations in religions in the world as a result of cultural differences, why were people too slow to embrace pop culture? The fact that people had adapted to various cultural practices in the world with the objective of making them popular ought not to have made it difficult for people to adapt to pop culture. Just to speculate, perhaps the mainstream media was displaying information and images which various religions did not want to be associated with. Secondly, the media was owned by private individuals whom religious leaders had little influence. However, presently religion has accepted pop culture as a new way of life and the only option is for religious leaders to use to media to instill positive values among the public. The current technological advances can make individuals project what the future might look like. Unlike in the past where people relied on mainstream media, people currently spend a considerable amount of time on social media platforms. Already, religious institutions are condemning how social media is regulated. It is difficult to speculate how religion will demand its rightful position amid in a space where virtual spaces are being created that tend to push the public away from religious places of worship. 

Cultural Markers of Gender and Religion 

Even in religious doctrines, men are held in high regard while women are given low profiles. The men are supposed to preach while the women are supposed to take the partial roles of cleaning the religious places of worship and listening to the men. People could not imagine the thought of women standing at the altar and delivering sermons to the congregation. The men also dictated how women were supposed to dress in the places of worship. Perhaps the religious practices were a reflection of the typical societies which placed men at the helm and the women at the periphery. Men were supposed to give orders and the women were expected to follow without much resistance. Even in the various religious teachings, a lot of significance was attached to men given that most of the religious teachings had many examples of religious men and few of religious women. The roles in the church were popularly given to men who were perceived to have a close relationship with God. That means that religion also propagated the narrative of women being helpers of men. 

The emergence of popular culture changed the gender stereotypes that existed previously. Although the stereotypes were not eliminated completely, pop culture transformed how employment opportunities would be awarded. The mainstream media began to forge ways through which it could appeal to the public more; it would be unsuccessful if it continued to propagate negative stereotypes against women. Even if some of the owners of the media did not readily accept equal opportunities for everyone, they did not show it deliberately. Critics have always argued that pop culture led to the negative stereotyping of women as sexual objects but at least the emergence of pop culture created the debate of positive representation of women. One of the groups that criticized the presentation of women in the mainstream media was the religious group. If the mainstream media was to change the way it portrayed women, it was inevitable for religious groups to also drop some of the stereotypes they held against women. The discussion about women equality also influenced religious leaders to give women more active roles in places of worship. Currently, Christianity does not offer much objection against women preaching to men. 

Religion, Popular Culture, and Race 

As mentioned earlier, the various religions have different places of origin. This article has also discussed that different places have different cultural practices which are usually included in the various religious narratives. Most prominently, different cultures have different perceptions about other cultures. The perceptions can either be negative or positive. However, every religion would want to portray itself as superior compared to other religions. In fact, a religious book such as the bible prominently describes the Jews as being the chosen race and that has an identity, unlike other cultures and religions. The narratives used in different religious books portrays certain cultures as being superior where examples are given of how they conquered their neighbors or enemies. The supposed inferior cultures are portrayed as not having a known origin hence do not have equal rights as people from the supposed superior cultures. Religion was used by the British to install themselves as people of a superior race to propagate their colonial agenda. For instance, before the British colonized various parts of Africa, missionaries were sent to try and propagate their superiority. The practices of the black people were deemed inferior and were convinced to embrace the British religious doctrines. A significant number of people even changed their traditional names and adopted English names after they were baptized. 

Pop culture has contributed greatly to the propagation of racial stereotypes through both mainstream media and social media. Critics mostly blame the film industry such as Hollywood in developing movies with content that profiles different races in the world. As mentioned earlier, through the movies, the US is always portrayed as a savior, and any action the country takes towards its enemies is justified. Overly, the western world is usually presented as rational while countries in the Middle East and the east are usually projected as evil. Through such presentations, viewers develop the perception that countries in the western part of the world are orderly and have good intentions for the world while those in the Middle East are chaotic and do not have good intentions for the world. Prominent examples of movies that have racial stereotypes in them are “Arabland” and “Kumare”. “Arabland” tries to project the religion of the Americans as superior while “Kumare” attempts to advocate for Indian religious doctrines. 

Potential of Popular Culture to Create New Religions 

A majority of the different religions and religious practices that exist today did not exist several years ago. As the world changes, religion also experiences significant changes. A prominent example of religious shifts was when the Protestants split from the Catholics. Before the split, the Catholic Church believed that it was only the priests who had the power of interceding on behalf of the congregation. On the contrary, the Protestants believed that worshipping God was supposed to be a personal experience. It was necessary to split because of the different ideologies. If various institutions refuse to adapt to various changes, people usually have divided opinions about certain subjects, which causes the creation of other institutions to accommodate people with divergent opinions. In religion, the scriptural writings may not change but people may want to be given the freedom to worship their creator in more personalized ways. For instance, the emergence of pop culture made people to appreciate music hence; certain instruments such as the guitar were used in church concerts. The Catholics did not embrace the use of such instruments so readily because the religious leaders felt that they were secular instruments. That means that song and dance was not appreciated in mainstream religions. 

The considerable amount of freedom that is being provided by various religions signifies that religious practices may change greatly in the future. Additionally, the interaction of various religions with different cultures often led to the creation of new religions. People combined the religious practices of the dominant religion with their own indigenous practices. Pop culture is not an exception in regard to the change in religious practices. Advances in technology have made people to be so dependent on various devices. People also take a lot of time interacting on social media platforms. To add to the busy lifestyle of people, many people may not worship so readily. One of the things that has happened currently and which might influence how people practice their various religions is that people can stream religious sermons or sessions through the internet. People do not have to go to their places of worship to get the message. Just to speculate, perhaps people may also record the sermons and listen to them at their convenient time. Religious leaders may actually record their teachings and send them on the internet for people to watch and listen to them at their free time. 

Reference

Lecture 1-7 class materials