World religions. Рахимбергенова М.Х. - 73 стр.

ticular code of behavior. During the liberal social climate of the 1960s, many      stressed. The trend towards pluralism has not only meant that Catholics and
mainstream members abandoned churchgoing altogether.                                Jews are gaining acceptance in American society. In addition, tolerance is ex-
     16) Today, however, there seems to be a growing desire for spiritual direc-    tended to an even broader range of religious groups, including Eastern religions
tion. An important pattern has emerged. While liberal Protestant churches have      such as Buddhism and Hinduism.
lost members, conservative fundamentalist Protestant churches have been stead-            23) While open religious prejudice is not as pronounced as it used to be,
ily attracting members. In the late 1960s and 70s, strict, evangelical and funda-   Americans show little tolerance towards some cults. The Moonies, the Hare
mentalist bodies such as the Seventh-Day Adventists, the Church of the Naza-        Krishnas, and the followers of Bhagwan Rajneesh are commonly regarded as
rene, Assemblies of God, and Southern Baptists grew at phenomenal rates. By         bizarre and potentially dangerous. Their methods of attracting and holding
drawing rigid behavioral boundaries, returning to traditional values, and offer-    members are controversial. Critics accuse the cults of manipulating and brain-
ing absolutist moral teachings, these churches seemed to fill the needs of many     washing their members.
Americans who were frustrated by the lack of direction in modern life.                    24) One event which intensified the controversy over cults was the 1978
     17) To attract members, mainline Protestant churches have been shifting        mass suicide that occurred-at a commune in Jonestown, Guyana. By persuasion
away from their relaxed, liberal stance towards a more conservative theology.       and at gunpoint American cult leader Jim Jones led more than 900 members of
Membership has begun to stabilize.                                                  his Peoples’ Temple commune to commit suicide by drinking a mixture of fruit
     18) The Catholic community has experienced conflicts and developments          juice and cyanide.
of its own, as well as a similar shift to conservatism. American Catholics,               25) Religious fanaticism exists, but events such as these are not character-
though increasing in population, do not participate as actively in church activi-   istic of all cults. Many observers argue that not all sects should be condemned
ties as they once did. Between 1958 and 1982, the percentage of Catholics at-       for the abuses of some.
tending weekly mass declined sharply from 74 percent to 51 percent.                       26) Besides the increasing visibility of cults and sects, there has been an-
     19) The American Catholic Church has also had to cope with widening dif-       other recent development in American religious life: the rise of the evangelical,
ferences with Pope John Paul II, whose conservative stance on issues such as        or fundamentalist, movement, and its offspring, the electronic church. This
birth control, celibacy for priests, and women in the priesthood provoke dissi-     movement has arisen so quickly and has acquired so much influence that it has
dence and disobedience. American bishops have been outspoken on political is-       drawn much national attention.
sues, challenging nuclear strategy and criticizing the presuppositions and poli-          27) The term evangelical is applied across all Christian denominations to
cies of economic and political leaders.                                             religious alliances that share the belief that a true Christian must have a born-
     20) In the past decades, America’s Protestants, Catholics, and Jews have       again experience, that the Bible is the authoritative word of God, and that a per-
become less divided. The decline of mainstream Protestant influence has been        sonal relationship with Jesus is at the center of every Christian’s life. Evangeli-
accompanied by the rise in status of Catholics and Jews. Anti-Catholicism and       cals also share a desire to convert others to their way of believing.
anti-Semitism are now mainly confined to radical right-wing groups such as the            28) The evangelical movement, which has quietly existed for a long time,
Ku Klux Klan and the John Birch Society.                                            derived new momentum from the anti-modem, conservative countercurrents
     21) In the years after the Second World War, Catholics made spectacular        that were flowing in the 1960s. In the 1960s, while most churches were experi-
gains in education and income, such that their overall status levels now equal      encing declining memberships, evangelical churches were gaining members
those of Protestants. American Jews, once treated like outsiders, are now more      and influence. Representing the right-wing of the political spectrum, evangeli-
readily accepted. Their acceptance has been facilitated by many immigrant Jews’     cals attacked “secular humanism” and crusaded for moral issues, focusing at-
willingness to discard those practices that made Judaism seem exotic. Intermar-     tention on the family and schools.
riage between Jews and Christians has also helped to create an atmosphere of tol-         29) These conservative Christian leaders did not limit their crusades to the
erance towards Jews. Between 40 and 50 percent of all Jews marry non-Jews.          pulpit; they gained immediate attention by their involvement in politics and
     22) A significant trend in American religious life is one towards increasing   their media skills. Despite the constitutional separation of religious and secular
pluralism. Coexistence among America’s diverse religious groups and sects is

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