RELIGIOUS OFFENSES AND CULTURAL TRAITS
Student’s name
Professor’s name
Class
Date
Abstract
An offense or a criminal act refers to any action against the rules and regulations in any country, which constitutes the law of the land in its existence from time to time. In religion, there are some of the activities which in a way are not as per the requirements of the law and which makes the actions to be viewed as offenses in the eyes of the law, and the individuals undertaking those actions are bound to prosecution for the works which they have done. Such efforts have resulted in some incidences of conflict between the religion and the government from time to time, and which has affected the relationship between those two parties. The paper will be outlining some of the significant religious offenses and cultural traits and their impact on the individuals (McLaughlin et al. 2019).
Religious Offenses and Cultural Traits
Introduction
Some of the significant pillars in the country play a vital role in ensuring unity in the community and a sense of togetherness and belonging of the individuals in the city from time to time. Among those pillars are the religions, which gives people a sense of belonging as they come together to worship and build one another spiritually from time to time. From that, it is evident in the importance of religious occasions and groups in the community. In any society, many individuals, except for a few, usually have a particular religion they belong to and attend. Even those who do not attend regularly have somewhere where their family members and relatives go, showing the importance of faith in the community. The religious practices are essential in their application to the people. They offer some of the exclusive teachings, which allows an individual to handle some of the critical situations they may be facing from time to time in their lives.
There are some of the activities which take place in those religious organizations from time to time and which include guidance and counseling and also some of the teachings on how to live well with the other people in the society. Some actions such as work of compassion and mercy and helping the miserable and living righteous lives are taught in churches and other religions places from time to time, giving the people such values that help them in their lives from time to time. But, despite having all those advantages and benefits to the people who attend those religious place, there are some challenges which those religious organizations face from time to time in their operations and which are as a result of their conflict with the law of the country and thereby causing much harm to the religions. In this paper, I will focus on some of the religious offenses that happen from time to time and how they affect religious organizations’ operations from time to time. Also, I will be connecting those offenses with the cultural traits in those religions as they are closely related in their application from time to time.
There are different activities in various religious organizations. They do not conduct their businesses in the same way, which in some cases may conflict with the law and become offenses from time to time. Some of those actions are from the doctrines or cultural traits of those religions. In contrast, others in most cases originate from the effects of the leaders or members in those religions and which are even against requirements and the will of the other people in those religions from time to time. In such incidences, there may be an aspect of offense in the operations and which may result into legal action against those religions which may include the closure of those religious organizations from time to time and also the prosecution of those members of the denominations who have been directly involved in those activities. I will be outlining some of the significant actions and practices of the religious organizations that have been considered offenses from time to time, leading to legal actions being taken to such individuals from time to time (Jackson et al. 2020).
One of the primary religious practices that have been considered offenses believes that the people in a particular religion can get well from an illness with a little prayer without seeking medical assistance from the healthcare services. There have been some of the beliefs which have forbidden their members from attending any medical facility at any time, believing that the illness can be reduced from prayers. Therefore an individual does not need to visit any hospital or medical facility at any time. According to the culture of such religions, which now forms the cultural traits, prayers answer all the problems of an individual and therefore there is no need to seek for the medication in case an individual falls sick from time to time and which makes him or her well only with the prayers from both himself and the other members of the religion (Meyer, 2018).
According to government requirements, one of the significant elements and vital sectors that it has to invest more in is healthcare. A healthy country usually has higher economic growth since almost everyone is energetic and puts more effort into archiving the best. That forms the primary reason why many governments prioritize the healthcare department or ministry in the country from time to time. That is a significant implication of the conflict between religious organizations’ actions, claiming that treatment is not necessary where there are prayers. Some religions claim that even vaccination of the children at an early age is not required as they can be well protected through prayers and other rituals they conducted on their occasion. According to the provisions in the government and more so the ministry of health, failing to give a child all the vaccine as prescribed by the department is a gross violation of the law, and therefore it is an offense. Thus, failure of those religions to allow their members to vaccinate their children and seek medical services becomes an offense and which has created a lot of conflict between the government and those religions from time to time. As a result of those conflicts, the suffering party is those religions as the government forces them to seek medical services and vaccinate their children. Therefore, that forms one of the significant causes of conflict and religious offenses that occur from time to time in their application (Eko, 2019).
The other religious offenses that have been witnessed in the different areas concern the kinds of teachings given in those religions and which, in a way, promote violence and hatred to other individuals in society. There has been some training of terrorists in some of the religious organizations, and which has made those individuals be violent and develop some hatred to the other people in the society from time to time and which is of a significant challenge to the national security and even the international security from time to time. The ministry of security has had a great application of those practices of monitoring what is being taught in those religions to ensure that they do not in any way promote hatred among the communities as well as any other basis of discrimination which may exist among the people from time to time in their application (Barak-Erez, 2007).
Having such teaching is against the laws of the country, and therefore they are considered as offenses in their application. Consequently, anyone conducting those activities can be arrested and prosecuted to become a threat to the country’s security. There have been some incidences where some of the training of the terrorists has been happening in the religious places such as churches and mosques among other places of worship and which has raised the alarm to the government to be keen on the activities which are going on in those areas from time to time in their application. Some of the teaching in those religious places are not ethical at all. Still, they try to influence the people to revenge for the other people may be for an action that took place in the past, and which serves as a significant challenge to the security in the country. Such action is an offense, and therefore the state cannot condone it in any way from time and which results in closure of those religions and their leaders being taken to court and prosecuted for their actions from time to time (Eko, 2019).
The other religious offenses that have emerged recently and which have a great application from time to time are that of the people. More so, the religious leaders use religion as a source of income for their lives and luring people. There have been increasing incidences of preachers in the religious organizations attracting their members of the faith to send some money for prayers that the funds could multiply immediately or heal instantly from their diseases from time to time is not valid. As a result, some individuals may have been conned by those individuals some of the reporting the matter to the law enforcement team from time to time. From that is has now been clear that some of those religious leaders are taking advantage of the situation and getting money from the members by an illegal means, which has made the members more miserable than helping them. The interpretation of such activities is different in the eyes of the government, as it has been considered that those are illegal actions. Therefore any individual found doing such is bound to imprisonment or hefty fines for conning people. That also shows a religious offense, although it is narrowed down to a personal level, where the leaders who are running those religious organizations have a particular interest in the religion other than aiming at helping the other individuals to grow spiritually (Harris, & Feldmeyer, 2015).
The last incidence of religious offenses that I would like to focus on is the failure of the religions to adhere to the guidelines and directives which it has provided for a particular reason. For example, the government has, as a result of the disease such as coronavirus, given some instructions on actions and conduct of all the religions and places of worship to curb the spread of the disease to more people from time to time. Some of the beliefs, through their leaders, have ended up becoming resistant to the directives and thereby conducting services without the permission of the government. In such a case, there is a significant violation of the law which has been given by the government in its application from time to time. Some of the directions were that religious gathering, and any other group was suspended until further notice, thereby being a regulation that the government has given. With such a law, some religions have ignored the directive and decided to assemble for their services, which has endangered the lives of the individual attending those places and going against the government’s guidelines. Therefore, that is a kind of a religious offense that has resulted in different legal actions to those people from time to time (Kundt, 2017).
Conclusion
From the above discussion and scenarios, it is evident that some of the activities have been taking place in the religions and have been amounting to religious offenses from time to time. Religion should be in the dependent body, which helps the government build peace among the citizens and reduce criminal cases in the country through training good morals. But instead of doing that, some religions are just becoming offenders from time to time, thereby conflicting with the government by conducting religious offenses in their operations, which is not allowed by the government in its application. Therefore, those form some of the significant religious crimes that occur from time to time and their impact on the people they happen to and how they bring conflict between the religion and the government from time to time (Harris, & Feldmeyer, 2015).
References
Barak-Erez, D. (2007). Outlawed Pigs: Law, religion, and culture in Israel. Univ of Wisconsin Press.
Eko, L. (2019). The Charlie Hebdo Affair and the Right to Take Offense: Religious Sensibilities Versus Freedom of Expression in India. The Charlie Hebdo Affair and Comparative Journalistic Cultures (pp. 221-255). Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. Characteristics and violence. Sociological Spectrum, 35(3), 229-253.
Harris, C. T., & Feldmeyer, B. (2015). A shot of morality? Hispanic immigration, religious contextual
Jackson, J. C., Caluori, N., Abrams, S., Beckman, E., Gelfand, M., & Gray, K. (2020). Tight Cultures and Vengeful Gods: How Culture Shapes Religious Belief.
Kundt, R. (2017). Contemporary evolutionary theories of culture and the study of religion. Bloomsbury Publishing.
McLaughlin, A. T., Shodiya-Zeumault, S., McElroy-Heltzel, S., Davis, D. E., McLaughlin-Sheasby, A., & Hook, J. N. (2019). Test of the social buffering hypothesis in the context of religious disagreements. Journal of Psychology and Theology, 47(2), 100-111.
Meyer, B., Kruse, C., & Korte, A. M. (Eds.). (2018). Taking offense: religion, art, and visual culture in plural configurations. Wilhelm Fink.