Religious Field Research and Misconceptions

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Table of Contents

Introduction
My Misconceptions about Catholics
How my Prior Understanding has been Altered
Why I believe Misconceptions are Prevalent
Conclusion
Reference List

Introduction

Religion can be described as a belief in a certain superhuman that a group of people uphold and worship for various reasons. The world has so many different religious practices and religions that people belong to, which are acceptable to all since they bring differences to people in society.

The world today is a melting pot of culture because people from different places now find themselves living together in a mixture of coexistent cultures. Upon getting a chance to interview a catholic faithful, I realized many misconceptions I had about the Catholic religion.

My Misconceptions about Catholics

Personally, I have also had several misconceptions about other religions around me. One of those religions is the Catholic Church. Based on its practice of Catholicism, the greatest misconception I had about the Catholic religion is that its members believed that their priests and other clergy members could forgive their sins.

Catholics have a confession box within the church where members go to confess their sins before the clergy as a way of seeking forgiveness. My view of this was that only God can forgive men of their sins and that no man has the ability of forgiving the other.

All human beings are sinful in one way or the other l. There is no perfect man. Therefore, it beats sense to claim that one man can forgive the other of his sin. This misconception has also been informed by my observations on the Catholic clergy people in their daily lives.

They are not a perfect lot. They have been accused of so many despicable sins in religion and in general the society in that they cannot offer forgiveness if they are sinners. My misconception of this has been taken away through an explanation by a Catholic believer who informed me that a priest only guides a person through the confession with the belief that God will forgive his or her sins after confessing them.

Another misconception I have had about the Catholic Church and Catholicism in general is the need for the clergy to practice celibacy. My view of this was that it was a forced practice imposed by the church on anybody who wanted to serve the church as a clergy thus making me view it as a form of neo-slavery in a way that ones notions have to be suppressed for him or her to work for the church.

This misconception was explained to me by a Catholic faithful whose view was that working for the Lord required one to be devoid of many forms of worldly distractions, which can take his or her attention from the work (Harvey, 2012, p. 3). It is also explained that it is a practice adopted from the apostles. The clergy people are viewed as successors to the apostles who therefore have to follow their footsteps.

How my Prior Understanding has been Altered

My prior understanding of the catholic religion was altered to some extent after this encounter though there remained so many unanswered questions. Just like many other religions, which have inherited their traditions and practices from the past, the Catholic Church and Catholicism are guided by traditional practices inherited from so many generations thus making up a substantial part of what defines them.

My view of this was also informed by my own beliefs in my own religion, which I cannot explain why I have followed it so much. An interaction with a Catholic faithful opened my eyes when the person I was interviewing asked me the same questions I was asking the servant of God.

I could not answer some of them thus bringing out the reality that criticism without trying to find the foundations of something can be misleading. My prior understanding of this religion was informed from a point of misinformation and lack of information.

My realization was brought by the new information I was able to get from a Catholic person. Catholics believe that the Catholic Church is the original church that was left behind by Jesus Christ when he died. They believe that their priests are the day-to-day saints who took over from Jesus’ Disciples. This argument is true in a way because the Catholic Church lineage traces it to the original church.

Catholics always try to uphold their practices as they were done before by keeping their priest and nuns celibate to work for the church. Williams (2012) reveals, “The truth is that the clergy members of the church are not denied a right to marry, but they are married to the church and service of the church” (p.370).

From this point of view, I was able to understand why it makes so much sense for them based on how it is easily acceptable to them. A previous understanding of something is dependent on the information one has about the thing. If one is misinformed form the start, he or she will not know that it is misinformation until he or she finds the right information.

Thus, I attribute this to the misconceptions I had about the church previously. Though information about other people’s religions can make one understand their practices, it is not one hundred percent convincing. One comes into this conclusion with deep-rooted convictions that can never go away. Thus, it only serves to allow one to coexist with others. It does not to make one give it the same credence the way he or she gave to other religions.

Why I believe Misconceptions are Prevalent

Misconceptions concerning other individual’s religious beliefs are prevalent in the society that people live in due to the aggressive way they tend to identify with their own religions and or the way people hold on to their religions. This claim is simply due to the view that their faiths are higher-ranking relative to the others. People tend to view other religions as foreign to them.

When children grow up, they are usually indoctrinated into certain religious beliefs at a remarkably young age, and the values of that religion imparted into them. This form of brainwashing tends to stick into a person’s mind in a way that changing it is difficult. Therefore, when people are introduced to or exposed to other religions, they tend to notice the difference in beliefs and practices as the first things.

Therefore, forming the first line of resistance eventually leads to misconceptions. Misconceptions about religions that are different from ours are common everywhere on this earth. In some places, they take an ultra form of misconception and resistance. The biggest reason for this can be attributed to the fact that most people in society do not have information about other religions.

Thus, they tend to form their reasoning based on what other people say about the other religions. Therefore, just the way people have been made to believe in their religion, in the same way, they have been misinformed about other religions thus making others either dislike them or hate them unconditionally (Gleason, 2011, p. 440).

Misconceptions about other faiths are prevalent due to the need for self-preservation by most religions. Most religions in society have an expansionist approach. Thus, they employ predatory skills in their quest to get more members to join them. This therefore creates a sense of danger to which other religions will always try to resist. Thus, in their resistance, they paint the other religions with colors that are not so attractive.

This picture is then transferred to their members and children thus creating a misconception that will keep their religion away from any form of poaching or tapping. Therefore, misconceptions about other people’s faiths are prevalent in society. They seem like a thing that will never end in the near future. However, they will escalate due to the ability of society to pass information.

Conclusion

Misconceptions of other people’s religion are a thing in the society they live in that may not go away soon. As much as the society is informed on different religions, the new challenge that has come up is the radicalization of religion, which further sets up the bar for accommodation of other people’s religions (Pink, 2012, p. 48).

An example to this claim is the American society’s approach to Islam by associating it with terrorism and loathing of the American presidency ever being taken by a Muslim. This remains a tremendous challenge towards the taking away of misconceptions because every day comes with new challenges that need to be solved thus making it a cycle that runs repeatedly.

Reference List

Gleason, P. (2011). Working in a Tradition. Historical Review, 97(3), 435-460.

Harvey, C. (2012). Bishops, Kings & Queens: Church History. History Today, 62(10), 3-4.

Pink, T. (2012). Conscience and Coercion. First Things: A monthly Journal of Religion and Public Life, 225(1), 45-51.

Williams, D. (2012). Unity and Exclusion in the Roman Catholic Priesthood. Journal of Religious History, 36(3), 368-385.

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