I felt so....dark after writing my post on Secret Combinations that I had to follow up with nice bit about religion and how it also is spread by folk knowledge.
Typically, when religion is brought up, we usually resort to consulting holy books such as the Bible, Koran, Book of Mormon etc. While these print materials may be of great importance, when they are the only sources considered, often times they result in irrational Bible bashes. Often times, we forget the original essence of religion. Think back, way back to when you were a kid, who first introduced your religion or beliefs? Was it a book? Most likely, it wasn’t. More likely it was your parents, or friends. 
When you consider ancient times, where print was not readily available. The primary responsibility of keeping religious traditions alive lay within the family. When considering the Bible, the religious traditions of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and so forth were all kept alive, not from books, but from strong family values. This proves that religion is a folk knowledge it must be taught and practiced on a personal level rather than institutions. Also, in the book of Mormon, Helaman’s 2000 stripling warriors obtained such strong testimonies, enough to vanquish the armies of evil, all because simply their mothers taught them (Alma 56:47). The seeds of testimonies begin with the source of original folk knowledge.
Another interesting tid bit I researched was about the early Massachusetts colony in the New World during the mid- 17th century. Due to their unwavering commitment to religion, a large part of their culture centered around the parents teaching their children religion. In fact, in 1642, the colony passed a law that required parents to school children in the Bible and morality. The link to this interesting article is found here: http://education.stateuniversity.com/pages/2246/Moral-Education.html
Then, to even further my point, there was a Pew Forum Religious Knowledge survey done a year ago that concluded that those who knew more about religion admit to having meaningful religious discussions with family and friends. See http://pewforum.org/other-beliefs-and-practices/u-s-religious-knowledge-survey.aspx
Sorry you'll have to copy and paste the moral education link in order to find the article:)
ReplyDeleteAndrew! Thanks for this - I really loved your example of the "mothers who knew;" that is a really apt example, and I think it's interesting that the sins of the fathers in the Book of Mormon will be visited on the children to the third and fourth generation, the idea that the actions of their parents and their failure to teach them of the Book of Mormon and of Christ would make a HUGE impact on the transmission of religious knowledge to those later generations.
ReplyDeleteI love that you bring up religion as folk knowledge because although one can obtain degrees in religious studies, the first and most impressionable time when we learn about religion and morals is in the family. In my government class in high school, we talked a lot about political socialization, or the way in which we become acquainted with political and moral beliefs. The number factor that impacted someone's political viewpoint was the one they experienced in their family. I think that this is hand in hand with religion as Rachel explains.
ReplyDeleteOne of my Dad's favorite quotes is about a parent's example. He says a good example is necessary but not sufficient; however, a bad example is sufficient but not necessary. In the case of the Nephites and Lamanites in The Book of Mormon, this can be seen clearly. When their parents were righteous, then the generations to follow were that much more likely to be righteous. However, when the parents acted unrighteously, their children would also be removed from the truth. The righteousness and spirituality of families makes the largest impact on future generations.
We did an activity in priesthood one time where we listed a bunch of things we had learned throughout our lives, including many gospel principles, and then marked whether we had learned them at school, home, or church. I would say on all of our lists at least 75% of religious learning came from home. Church is so important because it's where we take the sacrament, but as far as learning the gospel I'd say we do the majority of that from our parents and our own personal study at home.
ReplyDeleteJust another thought: what if someone rejects the folk knowledge taught to them? For example, lets say I rejct the religion of my parents. What effect would that have on the family itself? In theory, parents should respect their children's decisions and encourage them to think in their own ways. However at the same time, children rejecting their parent's teachings usually leads to heartache and a break-up of the family itself. We see this a lot with converts to the Church and families that disown their children just because they choose to accept folk knowledge that did not stem from in the family itself. It makes me wonder whats the difference between a hard core Catholic joining the LDS church, rejecting his parent's traditions, and a Mormon breaking away and joining some Buddhist monastary in Asia or something.
ReplyDeleteI guess that's why God put in the commandment about honoring thy mother and father. Rejecting the parent's teachings has such a negative impact on the family.