{"title":"Leaving Christianity","authors":"Teemu T. Mantsinen, Kati Tervo-Niemelä","doi":"10.1163/9789004331471_007","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004331471_007","url":null,"abstract":"The body of research on leaving Christianity is expansive, ranging from the historical and social scientific study of religion to practical theology and religious education. Just as the array of Christian churches and their nature is wide, so too is the nature of leaving Christianity varied. This chapter presents an overview of key aspects regarding leaving Christianity and its major trends and debates in history. Leaving Christianity is closely entwined with definitions of membership and being a Christian, changing social norms, and codes of conduct of church officials, but also broad historical socio-cultural changes.","PeriodicalId":364665,"journal":{"name":"Handbook of Leaving Religion","volume":"51 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-02-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"129890901","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Leaving Islam from a Queer Perspective","authors":"E. Lundqvist","doi":"10.1163/9789004331471_019","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004331471_019","url":null,"abstract":"This chapter puts queer theory in dialogue with the study of religion, specifically in relation to Islamic studies and those who have left their religion or are in the process of doing so. It also explores the intersection of sexuality and religion and uses queer theory to investigate the taken-for-granted categories of “normal” and “natural,” asking what they mean in religious terms when religion is studied as a socially constructed and cultural phenomenon. Queer theory does not consist of just one theory, or even a number of clearly formulated theories, but of several different perspectives and ways of interpreting society, culture, and identity (Kulick 1996; Kulick 2005). Queer theory draws on poststructuralism, deconstruction, and psychoanalysis, and scholars such as Michel Foucault (1978), Eve Sedgwick (1990), and Judith Butler (1990, 2003) are major influences in the field. One feature common to all queer perspectives is critique of what is perceived as normative, destabilising the status of norms as “given” or taken for granted. If we apply a queer perspective to people who are leaving religion, rejecting religiosity or religious faith altogether, then the irreligious position can, on one hand, be understood as opposing religious norms and, on the other, also be destabilised and called into question as a fixed, non-religious position (Taylor and Snowdon 2014). In short, no position is safe or stable from a queer perspective. As subject positions, identities, and bodily experiences merge within complex networks of norms, the content of a queer theoretical approach seeks to engage and disrupt these norms, or at least describe and expose them (Schippert 2011). What is interesting from a queer-theoretical perspective is to see how religious norms are socially produced and maintained, and what consequences these norms have for people about to leave their religion. Therefore, reconciliation or disaffiliation with religion should not be considered a static two-sided coin (that is, believing or not believing) but rather as a dynamic process of doubt, ambivalence, and religious crisis. I therefore call for a more dynamic and intersectional approach that views unbelief and disaffiliation as processes combining various subject positions, competing values,","PeriodicalId":364665,"journal":{"name":"Handbook of Leaving Religion","volume":"296 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-02-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"114611249","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Leaving Pentecostalism","authors":"Teemu T. Mantsinen","doi":"10.1163/9789004331471_015","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004331471_015","url":null,"abstract":"Pentecostalism is often described as an expanding and dynamic form of Christianity (Martin 1990; Vasquez 2009; Anderson 2014: 1–2), rife with disruptions and divisions (Coleman 1998, 2013). In the beginning of the twentieth century, when large numbers of Pentecostal groups and congregations were being founded, many of them strictly defined their identity and moral boundaries by opposing both mainstream Christianity and the contemporary society and culture. For example, the Finnish Pentecostal Movement (henceforth fpm) identified itself in terms of a community of believers, in contrast of the Finnish Lutheran Church. In the fpm, many of the first-generation members came from the Lutheran Church and Laestadian groups with a historical background in Pietism, a revival movement which favoured individual vocation and holiness teachings of Christian morality. (Mantsinen 2014: 17–19; 2015a: 45–48.) In the first sixty years of its history, the fpm and its congregations saw constant mobility and membership turnover, with people joining, leaving, and being expelled. Due to these disruptions, new congregations and deviated groups were formed. Especially the 1960s has been labelled by many in the fpm as an era of “legalistic spirit,” when different criteria for a “true believer” were invented. In many cases, breaking social norms – for example, smoking or dating an outsider – demanded a ritual of public apology if one wished to remain in the group. The harsh treatment of members in the past still represents collective trauma in the fpm, as well as for many who left or were forced to leave. The turnover rate has since decreased significantly; in the 2010s, a member rarely gets expelled. Local disruptions and conflicts do exist, but the majority of experiences of leavers are specific to individuals, not necessarily collectively shared. (Mantsinen 2015b.) In addition to group control and maintaining the sacred borders of a religion, some aspects of Pentecostal religion can be emotionally and mentally burdening: namely, highlighting the end times and the coming of Christ, a vivid and intense worldview of personal good and evil, and ecstatic-charismatic practices, such as glossolalia and prophesies. The high intensity of living up to expectations of a committed personal practice of religion and its moral","PeriodicalId":364665,"journal":{"name":"Handbook of Leaving Religion","volume":"72 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-02-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"127044548","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Leaving Roman Catholicism","authors":"Hugh Turpin","doi":"10.1163/9789004331471_016","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004331471_016","url":null,"abstract":"This chapter presents the Republic of Ireland as a case study in how a once deeply Catholic society is renegotiating its relationship with religion. It draws on my own research to describe the particular style of exit these conditions encourage for those leaving the Catholic Church. Existing Irish secularisation literature demonstrates that changes in social expectations led to a collapse in embodied religiosity. While this has likely reduced the overall transmission and importance of Catholic belief and identity, the Church retains significant institutional influence, supported by widespread “cultural Catholic” affiliation. A series of scandals has acted as a lightning rod for the tensions implicit in this situation, “morally contaminating” the Church and enabling discourse around the rectitude of Catholic affiliation. Together, these contribute to morally charged secularism focussed on severing the default link between Irish ethnic and religious identity to erode lingering Church influence. Against this background, Irish ex-Catholics do not simply leave the Church; many also depict themselves as repudiating “inauthentic” cultural Catholicism which irresponsibly supports the status quo.","PeriodicalId":364665,"journal":{"name":"Handbook of Leaving Religion","volume":"31 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-02-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"124962184","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Leaving Theravāda Buddhism in Myanmar","authors":"Niklas Foxeus","doi":"10.1163/9789004331471_010","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004331471_010","url":null,"abstract":"This chapter examines narratives of Burmese Buddhists who have left the “traditional” Theravāda Buddhism in Burma, into which they were born, for the teachings – stamped “heretical” and illegal by the state – of a dissident Buddhist monk, Ashin Nyāna. Since 1980, the State and monastic authorities have sought to regulate orthodox Theravāda Buddhism by means of the law. Monastic courts backed by the state have scrutinised cases charged with “heresy” (P. adhamma),1 that is, teachings not considered to be in accordance with the Buddhist canon, a contested issue. Heresies are declared illegal and the dissemination of such teachings is punishable with imprisonment (see Tin Maung Maung Than 1993; Janaka Ashin and Crosby 2017). Apostasy and heresy tend to blend into one another, and the state may serve as an arbiter to decide the nature of the case (see Larsson 2018: 7, 20). From the state’s point of view, Ashin Nyāna and his followers represent a kind of disloyal Theravāda Buddhist apostates disseminating doctrines that deviate from orthodox Theravāda Buddhism and that pose a threat to the maintenance of the latter in society. From the perspective of Ashin Nyāna and his followers, Theravāda Buddhism represents a deviation from the original teaching of the Buddha, and they have therefore abandoned it and do no longer attribute authority to its monks. They do not regard their teaching as a branch of Theravāda Buddhism and therefore it cannot, in their view, be regarded as a “heresy.”2 The state-sanctioned form of Buddhism represents a collectivist and antisecularising tendency, and likewise an enchanted form of religion, with a “traditional” cosmology comprising 31 levels, with heaven and hell, inhabited by gods, hell-beings, ghosts, and spirits.","PeriodicalId":364665,"journal":{"name":"Handbook of Leaving Religion","volume":"2 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-02-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"114368531","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Leaving Islam","authors":"Christine Schirrmacher","doi":"10.1163/9789004331471_008","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004331471_008","url":null,"abstract":"Looked at from a global perspective, possibly more people than ever are changing or leaving their religion. At the same time, while it is legally impossible to leave Islam in all Middle Eastern countries, it is considered to be a punishable crime under Sharia law, and the death penalty can be applied in a handful of countries like Saudi-Arabia or Iran. Interestingly enough, the Koran does not seem to have a clear verdict on apostasy. Muslim theologians hold different views as to whether Islam favors complete religious freedom or whether the culprit is unpunishable as long as he does not rock the boat of the community. Many Muslim theologians still hold to the death penalty.","PeriodicalId":364665,"journal":{"name":"Handbook of Leaving Religion","volume":"62 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-02-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"129596095","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Leaving Mormonism","authors":"Leaving Mormonism, Amorette Hinderaker, J. Christ","doi":"10.1163/9789004331471_017","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004331471_017","url":null,"abstract":"In March 2017, a counter-organisational website made national headlines after its release of internal documents belonging to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (henceforth lds) drew legal threats from the Church. MormonLeaks, a WikiLeaks inspired website launched in December 2016, released internal Church documents including financial records and memos that were largely ignored by Church officials. It was the March posting of a Power Point presentation detailing “issues and concerns leading people away from the gospel” (www.mormonleaks.io), however, that raised Church ire. Following a take-down order, the document was removed for a few days before being restored with an attorney’s letter. In the meanwhile, several media outlets had already captured and published the content. Both the content and the Church’s protection of the document suggest an organisational concern over member retention. With 16.1 million members worldwide (Statistical Report 2017), the lds, whose followers are commonly referred to as Mormons, is a rapidly growing faith and the only uniquely American religion to gain global acceptance. Like many faiths, the Church is concerned with new member conversion. In addition to children born into the faith each year, the church baptises nearly 250,000 new converts through their active missionary system (Statistical Report 2017). But, as new converts join, a number of the formerly faithful leave. The Pew Forum (2015) reports that Americans, particularly young adults, are leaving churches in record numbers, with a third of millennials reporting that they are religiously unaffiliated. This trend, coupled with the interest the Church has shown (through leaked documents) in reasons members leave makes a consideration of Mormon exit particularly pertinent.","PeriodicalId":364665,"journal":{"name":"Handbook of Leaving Religion","volume":"48 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-02-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"133256157","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Leaving Evangelicalism","authors":"P. Francis","doi":"10.1163/9789004331471_014","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004331471_014","url":null,"abstract":"Exiting from a religious community, like joining, entails more than just intellectual recalibration or tinkering with belief. It is, rather, an overhaul of one’s previous conception of self, a re-creation of one’s way of being in the world. For this reason, the transition out of any religious community—and notably evangelicalism—is rarely smooth. For example, James Baldwin, the famed American writer (1924–1987), described his exit from evangelicalism as a “pulverisation of my fortress.” John Ruskin (1819–1900), leading English social thinker of the Victorian era, referred to his deconversion as a “crash” (Hempton 2008). Numerous “obstacles”—theological, psychological, and relational—rise up and block the way. From the perspective of the evangelical community, these “obstacles” are more accurately described as methods of identity preservation. These are intentionally cultivated ways of being, intended to render certain evangelical beliefs and practices steadfast, to establish the faithful in their Christian identity. In other words, the evangelical identity, like all identities, is established through a repertoire of repeated, ritualised performances, in the sense given the terms “identity” and “performativitity” by American Philosopher Judith Butler (1956–) in Gender Trouble, her groundbreaking work in 1990. Identity, in her terms, is a sense of self that congeals over time through performance of a series of socially prescribed bodily practices that transpire within the framework of a particular social unit with its unique codes and compulsions. In my fieldwork on evangelicals who leave the fold (from 2007–2017), particularly at a unique American (in the state of Oregon) school run by renegade post-evangelical Christians called the Oregon Extension (established in 1975–), I have documented the manner in which evangelical deconversion entails not only a relinquishment of the performative practices of evangelicalism, but also, simultaneously, the cultivation of performative strategies by which one signifies to self and other that a new identity has been assumed. In fact, my field work convinces me of the importance of defining conversion and deconversion in such Butlerian terms.","PeriodicalId":364665,"journal":{"name":"Handbook of Leaving Religion","volume":"31 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-02-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"129271891","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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