Using Material from Item a and Elsewhere Assess the Contribution of Religion to Social Change

Identify and briefly explain three reasons why the New Christian Right might have failed to achieve its aims.

The New Christian Right may have failed to achieve its aims because the group lacked support from groups who stand for freedom of choice, e.g. Planned Parenthood and People for the American Way. Another reason why the New Christian Right might have failed is that it’s campaigners found it difficult to cooperate with people from other religious groups, even when campaigning on the same issue such as abortion. Another reason is that the group was, at most, 15% of the population, meaning it was never a majority.

Using material from Item A and elsewhere assess the contribution of religion to social change.

Religion has been touted to delivering a contribution towards social change to bring us to the social order we have in our present day. Sociologists look to explain the contribution of religion in social change movements such as the black civil rights movement which is said to have come about with the assistance of the church. However it is also argued that there was little contribution or none from religion that actually made a difference towards social change, thus religion is also argued to be a conservative force.

Religion has been viewed to be a powerful force for change and plays an important part. Weber used his study of Calvinism to explain how religious ideas can be a powerful motivation for change. Weber argues that the religious beliefs of Calvinism helped to bring about social change to northern Europe by introducing a modern capitalism which came about through Calvinism. This is because Calvinists seek to work as it was a religious duty, like a vocation, and shunned luxury in the process. Thus Calvinists gained more wealth and they took this as a sign of God’s favour and reinvested this money into their businesses which grew and prospered. Weber sees this as the very spirit of modern capitalism and thus...