William A. Mirola - Religion Matters: What Sociology Teaches Us About Religion In Our World

Gods a Big Three Fan! There they were on the front page of The New York Times in December 2008: three white as white can be gas-guzzling SUVs. But this wasnt another story about the need to switch to hybrid cars or about how the failing auto industry companies were going to go bankrupt unless Congress gave them aid. This was a story about Detroits churches, who were taking the desperation of the Big Three car corporations to a higher power. Detroit was praying for Gods Bailout. The SUVs in the Times photograph were on a stage that was the altar of Greater Grace Temple, a Pentecostal congregation in Detroit. Surrounding the cars were choir members, ministers, and the congregation, all singing, dancing, and praying for divine intervention. As the newspaper article noted, Bishop Charles H. Ellis III, the congregations pastor, finished his sermon by leading the congregation in singing Myra Summers gospel song, Were Gonna Make It, as hundreds of worshipers who work in the automotive industryunion assemblers, executives, car salesmengathered deep around the altar to have their foreheads anointed with consecrated oil. Their hope was to make it through the tough times and to combat the regions woes by mixing hope with faith in God (Bunkley 2008).

Who could guess that a cheeseburger could cause such a ruckus? In 2006, McDonalds agreed to alter its signature logothe golden archesat a dozen or so kosher Mickey Ds in Israel. According to The Guardian International, The restaurant chain agreed to the change under pressure from the chief rabbi of Tel Aviv, Yisrael Meir Lau, who refused to sign kosher certificates for McDonalds branches in the city and at its university. When I assumed my position 10 months ago and I had to sign kashrut certificates for two [McDonalds] restaurants in Tel Aviv, I refused because my conscience wouldnt let me, he told the Israeli newspaper, Yedioth Ahronoth. I was mainly concerned that tourists or adolescents who visit one kosher branch may jump to the conclusion that all McDonalds branches in Israel are kosher. At these sites, the McDonalds name will appear in blue and white, the colors of the Israeli flag, with kosher alongside (McGreal 2006).

Religion drives conflict in U.S. public schools. Heres a case in point: In 2005, Time magazine reported that a federal court judge had ruled that public schools in Dover, Pennsylvania, could not teach intelligent design in the science classroom because the secular purposes claimed by the [School] Board amount to a pretext for the Boards real purpose, which was to promote religion in the public school classroom. This dealt a serious legal blow to efforts by Christian conservatives to use intelligent design as a challenge to the conclusions drawn by evolutionary biology (Scully 2005).

Religion is central to social, economic, and political tensions in Europe. For instance, in 2005, Foreign Affairs examined the spread of radical Islam in Europe. The source of the threat was not newly arrived immigrants from the Mideast, however. Instead, Jihadist networks span Europe from Poland to Portugal, thanks to the spread of radical Islam among the descendants of guest workers once recruited to shore up Europes postwar economic miracle It was a Dutch Muslim of Moroccan descent, born and socialized in Europe, who murdered the filmmaker Theo van Gogh in Amsterdam last November. A Nixon Center study of 373 mujahideen [fighters in a jihad