Religion as (Dys)function Conflict Theory and Religion W.E.B. DuBois On Religion Meta-Institutions

The Role Of Institutions Conflict Theory The Role Of Institutions Legitimate & Perpetuate The Status Quo Generate & Teach Norms That Maintain The Status Quo Divert People’s Attention From Inequity The Laws The Family The Markets The Government The Schools The Church The Media Non Elites Elites Patricians Lords Bourgeoisie Slaves Serfs Proletariat

Conflict Theory’s Functions Of Religion Legitimate The Status Quo Religion doesn’t bring the society together. It legitimates the things that make us different. Religion portrays the authority/power of the upper classes as just. Judaism’s Torah: "Your slaves are to come from the nations around you; from them you may buy slaves. You may also buy some of the temporary residents living among you ; they will become your property. You can will them to your children as inherited property and can make them slaves for life. Islam’s Qu’ran: “Men are in charge of women. Hence good women are obedient. As for those whose rebelliousness you fear, admonish them, banish them from your bed, and scourge them." Christianity’s New Testament: “Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion.”

Conflict Theory’s Functions Of Religion Divert People’s Attention From Social Inequities Religion causes the oppressed to focus on a better world (heaven, nirvana) rather than fight oppression here on earth. Marx said, “Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people” Judaism’s Torah: “Whoever loves money never has enough; whoever loves wealth is never satisfied with their income. Better the little that the righteous have than the wealth of the wicked, for the power of the wicked will be broken, but the Lord upholds the righteous.” Islam’s Qu’ran: “The rich are, in fact, the poor on the Day of Resurrection. I stood at the gate of Paradise and saw that the majority of the people who had entered it were poor people, while the rich were forbidden to enter." Christianity’s New Testament: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are they who mourn, for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they are the children of God.”

Conflict Theory’s Functions Of Religion Divert People’s Attention From Social Inequities Religion enables the elites to believe that any benefits they have gained are gifts from god and not the result of social inequality. “The Lord will open the heavens, the storehouse of his bounty, to send rain on your land in season and to bless all the work of your hands. You will lend to many nations but will borrow from none. The Lord will make you the head, not the tail. If you pay attention to the commands of the Lord, you will always be at the top, never at the bottom” (Deut 28:12, 13) “THE LORD sends poverty and wealth; he humbles and he exalts.” (I Samuel 2:7)

William E. Burghardt (W.E.B.) DuBois The First American Sociologist Of Religion His Contemporaries Marx (1843) Weber (1905) Durkheim (1912) His Seminal (Religion) Writings The Philadelphia Negro (1899) The Souls of Black Folk (1903) The Negro Church (1912) William E. Burghardt (W.E.B.) DuBois

DuBois On White Churches Not A Big Fan Of Organized White Religion Religion in America is “Jim Crowed from top to bottom” and “no other institution in America is built so thoroughly or absolutely on the color line.” “When the [White] church meets the Negro problem, it writes itself down as a deliberate hypocrite and systematic liar. The church has opposed every great modern social reform; it opposed the spread of democracy, universal education, trade unionism, the abolition of poverty, the emancipation of women . . . and the emancipation of the Negro slave.” “The [White] church aided and abetted the Negro slave trade; the church was the bulwark of American slavery; and the church today is the strongest seat of racial and color prejudice. If one hundred of the best and purest colored folk of the United States should seek to apply for membership in any white church in this land tomorrow, 999 out of every 1000 ministers would lie to keep them out. They would not only do this, but would openly and brazenly defend their action as worthy of followers of Jesus Christ.” DuBois On White Churches

DuBois On Black Churches Not A Big Fan Of Organized Black Religion Either! “Behold ! The Black Churches of America. Their five millions of members in 40,000 groups, holding $200,000,000 in their hands, are the most strongly organized body among us . . . What is this church doing today toward its primary task of teaching men right and wrong, and the duty of doing right? The flat answer is nothing if not less than nothing. Like other churches and other religions of other people and ages, our church has veered off on every conceivable path, which interferes with and nullifies its chief duty of character building. It has built up a body of dogma and fairy tale, fantastic fables of sin and salvation, impossible creeds and impossible demands for unquestioning belief and obedience.” Commencement Speech at Fisk, 1938 DuBois On Black Churches

DuBois on Black “Priests” “The congregation does not follow the moral precepts of the preacher, but rather the preacher follows the standard of his flock, and only exceptional men dare seek to change this. He may be, and usually is, a striking elocutionist; he may also be a man of integrity, learning, and deep spiritual earnestness; but these last three are sometimes all lacking, and the last two in many cases. Most . . . pastors are decent, respectable men. On the whole then, the average Negro preacher in this city is a shrewd manager, a respectable man, a good talker, a pleasant companion, but neither learned nor spiritual, nor a reformer.” From The Philadelphia Negro, 1899 DuBois on Black “Priests”

The Church As Meta-Institution Creates and Reinforces Both Social Solidarity & Social Control Primarily Through Belief, Ritual, and Experience Economics “The first form of economic cooperation” Culture Poetry, speeches, literature, music Education Schools and colleges Politics The “priests” became politicians Media Locations of amusement and publishing The Black church provides “social intercourse, it provides amusements of various kinds, it serves as a newspaper and intelligence bureau, it supplants the theater, it directs the picnic and excursion, it furnishes the music, it introduces the stranger to the community, it serves as a lyceum, library, and lecture bureau—it is, in fine the central organ of the organized life of the American Negro.” (W.E.B. DuBois 1867)