This is where churches are run like a business and they compete against each other, which creates lots of improvements to get new people in. In England, however, there is very little choice, its more like if you are religious and a Christian, you have very little choice but to go to The Church Of England. Another reason why membership and support in religious organisations has declined in the last 30 years is because it is very rare for a child to be brought up religious. Parents and Grandparents have their faith, but opt not to force religion onto their child, instead they would prefer to let the child choose their beliefs themselves. In todays modern day, it is very unlikely for a child to choose to be religious.
McMinn (2011) suggests that Christian counselors should challenge the majority worldview and reinforce the Christian doctrine. However, the Christian counselor should not be quick to dismiss the secular worldview that stands on the basis of scientific evidence, but find a way to successfully integrate the two. McMinn (2011) indicates that there are also new challenges in defining Christian counseling. Many clients are confused as what Christian counseling really entails (McMinn, 2011). This confusion only further magnified because a majority of religious interventions are not widely accepted by the American Psychological Association due to their lack of scientific foundation (McMinn, 2011).
Over the last 50 years or so, the patterns of marriage and divorce have changed significantly, and are still changing in today’s society. Due to many factors including: less stigma, changes in women’s positions, secularization and cohabitation. Nowadays, there is less pressure to marry and a lot more freedom for individuals to choose the type of relationship they want. It’s considered more important about the quality of a couples relationship, rather than the legal status. Secularisation is also involved in why there are changing patterns of marriage due to churches being in favour of marriage, but as their influence declines, people feel freer to choose not to marry – according to the 2001 Cenus, 3% of young people with no religion were married, compared to up to 17% of those with a religion.
Secularisation (decreased value of religion in society) has had a large impact on marriage and cohabitation. Marriage is now viewed as solely being based love, and is often seen to result in divorce if this fails to continue throughout the marriage. This is a large comparison to the religious view of marriage in the past, where it was seen as a life-lasting event. Cohabitation has also become less frowned upon. These changes have resulted in a decrease of marriage; this is as a result of the declining value marriage holds, and the increased ability to get a divorce.
In bruce's words “when we have tried every cure for cancer, some of us pray”. With religious beliefs now sitting on the edge in society. Issues such as divorce,sex outside marriage and gay marriage are no longer considered so heavily taboo.This shows that traditional religious teachings and morals are no longer swaying people in society. Not all evidence points to the fact that secularization is the main feature of UK society.
Martyrs: St. Cecelia and Thomas Cranmer People say that dedication to something is an important attribute to have in life. Now this could be referring to an activity, such as a sport, or goal that one is striving to achieve. Then there is a dedication to one’s beliefs or in other words one’s religion. Many say that they are a follower of their religion but they are not truly dedicated because most people do what they want instead of following the guidelines of their religion. Then there is the people who don’t put in the time and effort to grow as a believer in their religion, like not wanting to pray, go to church or study up and learn more about what they believe in.
Church membership was required in most colonies in order to vote. Politics affected the colony economically. There were arguments that the government and church should have nothing to do with each other in fear of a civil war. Also stated in John Cotton’s “Limitation of Government” he makes the point that there is no need for there to be a complete separation of government and state but only a slight one (Doc H). With his ideas brought to the Puritans, they agreed that government should have a small influence on the church otherwise social accord will be corrupted.
Davie takes on a more privatised form and argues against the secularisation theory. She believes that we now have a ‘believing without belonging’ attitude, where people hold religious beliefs but don’t go to church. Therefore, religion has not declined but personal choice has changed and it is no longer obligated to attend anymore. Davie’s believing without belonging theory can display the growth of a new form of religion which matches the decline of traditional religion. Thus, supporting Davie’s argument that religion is not declining, however, just changing to reflect a new era and modern society by creating new religion which will continue to grow.
However others may disagree with the view of Secularisation such as Martin who denies the view that there was ever a ‘golden age’ of religion and he argues that the reason for higher attendance of church in the past is due to the view that it was seen as respectable to attend church. As well Davie argues that religion has become privatised and came up with the phrase ‘believing without belonging’. Gill et al renewed almost 100 national surveys on religious beliefs from 1939 to 1996. They showed a significant decline in a person’s belief in a personal god, as well as Jesus as the son of god but also the
Secularisation means the decline of the importance/influence of religion in a society. Due to science becoming more influential in a modern society, religion is no longer seen as an important consideration that certain norms and values should alter for. As marriage is a religious concept, it might also be seen as insignificant in society and many might not perceive it as valuable or important as much as they used to. Divorce could be the result of this as the decline of the worth