Transnationalism

Wuthnow describes the idea of transnationalism and religious connections. Religion has become an increasingly fluid social context across national borders. With this rise in flow of religion, there have been both negative and positive impacts. Certain countries have become much more accepting of varying religious identities while other countries have become even more resistant to religious equality. Christianity as a universal religion has played an interesting role throughout history, varying from patriarchal dominance to evidence for discriminating against people who don't fit the majority to making good change in some communities and becoming more accepting of the "other" in certain denominations and congregations. Something that I have become passionate about through learning about global inequalities in this class is how to change short term missions in a way that preserves dignity for the receiving communities, educates the sending congregations, and makes actual change rather than not being helpful. Something that is often lacking in international relations is trust. Whether that's trusting that the receiving community will be able to allocate resources given to them well or lack of trust in the officials, this aspect of missions especially seems to be missing.

Analysis

I was most struck by Wuthnow's analysis of religious dynamism, especially in regards to American influence and the idea of "de facto congregationalism". This phenomenon is that even other religions have begun to mirror the protestant definition of congregation and "church" even if the original context of that religion does not mirror that whatsoever. An example of this is with Hindi temples in the U.S. and how there has been an increase in having a specific service time, much like protestant Christianity, and that the religion has become more based on making connections with their community than with their religion. A presupposition of the article is that "the United States is a dominant player within the current international political and economic system, and continues to be a prolific producer and exporter of religion, especially of Christianity" (Noll 2002; Yang and Ebaugh 2001). Seeing Christianity as an export has impacted transnational religious connections in a monumental way, and continues to put pressure on both congregations in America who are trying to represent a different side of Christianity as well as communities that Christianity is being imposed upon.