Religious disaffiliation
Encyclopedia
Religious disaffiliation (see also apostasy
) means leaving a faith
, or a religious
group or community. It is in many respects the reverse of religious conversion
. Several other terms are used for this process, though each of these terms may have slightly different meanings and connotations.
Bromley (1998) describes a problem with the terminology used to describe the process of religious disaffiliation. He asserts that affiliation with a religious group is referred to as conversion, and describes the continuing debate over the referent for this term, as he sees no parallel term for dissafiliation. Researchers have employed a variety of terms to describe it, including:
This is in contrast to excommunication
, which is disaffiliation from a religious organization imposed punitively
on a member, rather than willfully undertaken by the member.
(1998) describes that there are conflicting views about secularism
. One, that secularism means disengagement from religion as such, and the other which regards secularism as the equal tolerance and/or encouragement of all religions.
) by the religious group. Deprogramming
may involve kidnapping, though deprogramming sometimes fails (i.e., the deprogrammed member may go back to the religious group).
In her article about ex-nun
s, Ebaugh (1988) describes four stages characteristic of role
exit:
In the two samples studied by Ebaugh the vast majority of the ex-nuns remained Catholics.
The Episcopal Church is forcing disaffiliation on some congregations in recient property settlements.
Marc Galanter, in a study of 237 members of the Unification Church
, found that they had had a significantly higher degree of neurotic distress before conversion when compared to a control group, disproving that symptoms of psychopathology
have been caused by cult involvement, 30% of these had sought professional help for emotional problems before conversion. Galanter further notes that the process of joining, being a member, and leaving a new religious group is best described not as a matter of personal pathology
but of social adaptation. For example, experiences that in a secular setting might be considered pathological may be considered normal within some religious settings. While psychological categories were created to discuss dysfunctional behavior by an individual, the behavior of group members must be seen in light of group norms, meaning that what may be considered disturbed behavior in a secular setting may be perfectly functional and normal within a group context. Galanter's analysis had the effect of reducing the significance of the abnormal behavior reported among ex-members. He also suggested an alternative means of understanding otherwise inexplicable behavior in members and ex-members without considering them as suffering from psychopathology.
The Handbook of Religion and Health
describes a survey by Feigelman (1992), who examined happiness in Americans who have given up religion, in which it was found that there was little relationship between religious disaffiliation and unhappiness. A survey by Kosmin & Lachman (1993), also cited in this handbook, indicates that people with no religious affiliation appear to be at greater risk for depressive symptoms than those affiliated with a religion.
Although some of the above studies indicate a positive correlation between religious belief and happiness, in any event it is a separate task to distinguish between alternative causal explanations including the following:
Apostasy
Apostasy , 'a defection or revolt', from ἀπό, apo, 'away, apart', στάσις, stasis, 'stand, 'standing') is the formal disaffiliation from or abandonment or renunciation of a religion by a person. One who commits apostasy is known as an apostate. These terms have a pejorative implication in everyday...
) means leaving a faith
Faith
Faith is confidence or trust in a person or thing, or a belief that is not based on proof. In religion, faith is a belief in a transcendent reality, a religious teacher, a set of teachings or a Supreme Being. Generally speaking, it is offered as a means by which the truth of the proposition,...
, or a religious
Religion
Religion is a collection of cultural systems, belief systems, and worldviews that establishes symbols that relate humanity to spirituality and, sometimes, to moral values. Many religions have narratives, symbols, traditions and sacred histories that are intended to give meaning to life or to...
group or community. It is in many respects the reverse of religious conversion
Religious conversion
Religious conversion is the adoption of a new religion that differs from the convert's previous religion. Changing from one denomination to another within the same religion is usually described as reaffiliation rather than conversion.People convert to a different religion for various reasons,...
. Several other terms are used for this process, though each of these terms may have slightly different meanings and connotations.
Bromley (1998) describes a problem with the terminology used to describe the process of religious disaffiliation. He asserts that affiliation with a religious group is referred to as conversion, and describes the continuing debate over the referent for this term, as he sees no parallel term for dissafiliation. Researchers have employed a variety of terms to describe it, including:
- dropping outDropping outDropping out means leaving a group for either practical reasons, necessities or disillusionment with the system from which the individual in question leaves....
- exiting
- disidentification
- leavetaking
- defectingDefectionIn politics, a defector is a person who gives up allegiance to one state or political entity in exchange for allegiance to another. More broadly, it involves abandoning a person, cause or doctrine to whom or to which one is bound by some tie, as of allegiance or duty.This term is also applied,...
- apostasyApostasyApostasy , 'a defection or revolt', from ἀπό, apo, 'away, apart', στάσις, stasis, 'stand, 'standing') is the formal disaffiliation from or abandonment or renunciation of a religion by a person. One who commits apostasy is known as an apostate. These terms have a pejorative implication in everyday...
- disaffiliation
- disengagement
This is in contrast to excommunication
Excommunication
Excommunication is a religious censure used to deprive, suspend or limit membership in a religious community. The word means putting [someone] out of communion. In some religions, excommunication includes spiritual condemnation of the member or group...
, which is disaffiliation from a religious organization imposed punitively
Punishment
Punishment is the authoritative imposition of something negative or unpleasant on a person or animal in response to behavior deemed wrong by an individual or group....
on a member, rather than willfully undertaken by the member.
Secularism
Peter BergerPeter L. Berger
Peter Ludwig Berger is an Austrian-born American sociologist well known for his work, co-authored with Thomas Luckmann, The Social Construction of Reality: A Treatise in the Sociology of Knowledge .-Biography:...
(1998) describes that there are conflicting views about secularism
Secularism
Secularism is the principle of separation between government institutions and the persons mandated to represent the State from religious institutions and religious dignitaries...
. One, that secularism means disengagement from religion as such, and the other which regards secularism as the equal tolerance and/or encouragement of all religions.
Coerced and voluntary disaffiliation
In most cases, disaffilation is voluntary, but in some cases it is coerced. One form of coerced disaffiliation is expulsion (including excommunicationExcommunication
Excommunication is a religious censure used to deprive, suspend or limit membership in a religious community. The word means putting [someone] out of communion. In some religions, excommunication includes spiritual condemnation of the member or group...
) by the religious group. Deprogramming
Deprogramming
Deprogramming refers to actions that attempt to force a person to abandon allegiance to a religious, political, economic, or social group. Methods and practices may involve kidnapping and coercion...
may involve kidnapping, though deprogramming sometimes fails (i.e., the deprogrammed member may go back to the religious group).
Stages of religious disaffiliation
Brinkerhoff and Burke (1980) argue that "religious disaffiliation is a gradual, cumulative social process in which negative labeling may act as a 'catalyst' accelerating the journey of apostasy while giving it form and direction." They also argue that the process of religious disaffiliation includes the member stopping believing but continuing to participate in rituals, and that the element of doubt underlies many of the theoretical assumptions dealing with apostasy.In her article about ex-nun
Nun
A nun is a woman who has taken vows committing her to live a spiritual life. She may be an ascetic who voluntarily chooses to leave mainstream society and live her life in prayer and contemplation in a monastery or convent...
s, Ebaugh (1988) describes four stages characteristic of role
Role
A role or a social role is a set of connected behaviours, rights and obligations as conceptualised by actors in a social situation. It is an expected or free or continuously changing behaviour and may have a given individual social status or social position...
exit:
- first doubts
- seeking and weighing role alternatives
- a turning point
- establishing an ex-role identity.
In the two samples studied by Ebaugh the vast majority of the ex-nuns remained Catholics.
The Episcopal Church is forcing disaffiliation on some congregations in recient property settlements.
Factors affecting psychological and social aspects
According to Meredith McGuire (2002), in a book about the social context in religion, if the religious affiliation was a big part of a leaver's social life and identity, then leaving can be a wrenching experience, and the way in which one leaves a religious group is another factor that may aggravate problems. McGuire writes that if the response of the group is hostile, or follows an attempt by that person to change the group from "the inside" before leaving, then the process of leaving will be fraught with considerable emotional and social tensions.Marc Galanter, in a study of 237 members of the Unification Church
Unification Church
The Unification Church is a new religious movement founded by Korean religious leader Sun Myung Moon. In 1954, the Unification Church was formally and legally established in Seoul, South Korea, as The Holy Spirit Association for the Unification of World Christianity . In 1994, Moon gave the church...
, found that they had had a significantly higher degree of neurotic distress before conversion when compared to a control group, disproving that symptoms of psychopathology
Psychopathology
Psychopathology is the study of mental illness, mental distress, and abnormal/maladaptive behavior. The term is most commonly used within psychiatry where pathology refers to disease processes...
have been caused by cult involvement, 30% of these had sought professional help for emotional problems before conversion. Galanter further notes that the process of joining, being a member, and leaving a new religious group is best described not as a matter of personal pathology
Pathology
Pathology is the precise study and diagnosis of disease. The word pathology is from Ancient Greek , pathos, "feeling, suffering"; and , -logia, "the study of". Pathologization, to pathologize, refers to the process of defining a condition or behavior as pathological, e.g. pathological gambling....
but of social adaptation. For example, experiences that in a secular setting might be considered pathological may be considered normal within some religious settings. While psychological categories were created to discuss dysfunctional behavior by an individual, the behavior of group members must be seen in light of group norms, meaning that what may be considered disturbed behavior in a secular setting may be perfectly functional and normal within a group context. Galanter's analysis had the effect of reducing the significance of the abnormal behavior reported among ex-members. He also suggested an alternative means of understanding otherwise inexplicable behavior in members and ex-members without considering them as suffering from psychopathology.
The Handbook of Religion and Health
Handbook of Religion and Health
Handbook of Religion and Health is a scholarly book about the relation of spirituality and religion with physical and mental health. Written by Harold G. Koenig, Michael E. McCullough, and David B. Larson, the book was published in the US in 2001...
describes a survey by Feigelman (1992), who examined happiness in Americans who have given up religion, in which it was found that there was little relationship between religious disaffiliation and unhappiness. A survey by Kosmin & Lachman (1993), also cited in this handbook, indicates that people with no religious affiliation appear to be at greater risk for depressive symptoms than those affiliated with a religion.
Although some of the above studies indicate a positive correlation between religious belief and happiness, in any event it is a separate task to distinguish between alternative causal explanations including the following:
- that religious belief itself in fact promotes satisfaction and that non-belief does not promote satisfaction and/or promotes dissatisfaction;
- that satisfaction and dissatisfaction contribute to religious belief and disbelief, respectively, i.e., that satisfied persons are more inclined to endorse the existence of a traditionally defined deity (whose attributes include omnibenevolenceOmnibenevolenceOmnibenevolence is defined by the Oxford English Dictionary as "unlimited or infinite benevolence". It is often held to be impossible, or at least improbable, for a deity to exhibit such property along side omniscience and omnipotence as a result of the problem of evil...
) than are dissatisfied persons, who may perceive their unhappiness as evidence that no deity exists (as in atheismAtheismAtheism is, in a broad sense, the rejection of belief in the existence of deities. In a narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there are no deities...
) or that whatever deity exists is less than omnibenevolent (as in deismDeismDeism in religious philosophy is the belief that reason and observation of the natural world, without the need for organized religion, can determine that the universe is the product of an all-powerful creator. According to deists, the creator does not intervene in human affairs or suspend the...
or maltheismMaltheismMaltheism is the belief that God exists as a cruel, arrogant, abusive, and untruthful being who is either not worthy of worship or worthy of worshipping only from mere fear and intimidation...
); - that although religious belief does not itself promote satisfaction, satisfaction is influenced by a third factor that correlates significantly with religious belief, e.g., a) divine providence as bestowed by a deity who shows favor to believers and/or disfavor to nonbelievers or b) sociopolitical ostracism of self-declared nonbelievers and/or fear of such ostracism by "closeted" nonbelievers; and
- that the process of religious disaffiliation involves traumatic stress whose effects limit, to either a subclinicalTraumatic stressTraumatic Stress is a commonly used term describing reactive anxiety . It is not a medical term and is not included in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders . What is popularly referred to as Traumatic Stress is covered in DSM-IV by Adjustment Disorders...
or a clinical extent, a person's later ability to be happy even in the absence of actual or feared ostracism.
See also
- Actus formalis defectionis ab Ecclesia catholicaActus formalis defectionis ab Ecclesia catholicaActus formalis defectionis ab Ecclesia catholica was the action alluded to in canons 1086, 1117 and 1124 of the Code of Canon Law from 1983 to 2009, by which someone formally, and not just de facto, left the Catholic Church. These canons indicated some juridical effects of such an act...
- Crisis of faithCrisis of faithCrisis of faith is a term commonly applied to periods of intense doubt and internal conflict about one's preconceived beliefs or life decisions...
- Exit counselingExit counselingExit counseling, also termed strategic intervention therapy, cult intervention or thought reform consultation, is an intervention designed to persuade an individual to leave a group perceived to be a cult...
- Ex-Mormons
- Modern reasons for rejection of religion
- Religious intoleranceReligious intoleranceReligious intolerance is intolerance against another's religious beliefs or practices.-Definition:The mere statement on the part of a religion that its own beliefs and practices are correct and any contrary beliefs incorrect does not in itself constitute intolerance...
- SecularizationSecularizationSecularization is the transformation of a society from close identification with religious values and institutions toward non-religious values and secular institutions...
- ShunningShunningShunning can be the act of social rejection, or mental rejection. Social rejection is when a person or group deliberately avoids association with, and habitually keeps away from an individual or group. This can be a formal decision by a group, or a less formal group action which will spread to all...
- Spiritual abuseSpiritual abuseSpiritual abuse is a serious form of abuse which occurs when a person in a cult-religious authority or a person with a unique spiritual practice misleads and maltreats another person in the name of a deityor church or in the mystery of any spiritual concept...
Further reading
- Oakes, Len Dr. Prophetic Charisma: The Psychology of Revolutionary Religious Personalities, 1997, Syracuse University press ISBN 0-8156-0398-3 excerpts
- Wright, Stuart A. Leaving Cults: The Dynamics of Defection, published by the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion: Monograph Series nr. 7 1987 ISBN 0-932566-06-5
External links
- Apostasy and defection entry by Ross P. Scherer in the Encyclopedia of Religion and Society edited by William H. Swatos, Jr.