The Relationship between Religion and Social Change

I really do not think that the base of the relationship between religion and social change. Instead, I think it has more to do with how church responds to social change. I think that people or religious institutions can or cannot make religion coincide with social change. For example, the Catholic Church is still anti-contraceptives but our era almost requires it, especially the high rate of teenage pregnancy and AIDS (in reference to condoms only). Yet there are other churches that support the use of contraceptives. This is a good example: both religions use the Bible as a source for their information yet they take different points with social change.

In my opinion, religion is meant to respond to social change. The basic point of religion is to provide comfort, support, and advice for people. This will not work if people approach religion with a 19^th century viewpoint. I think that each generation and each religious institution can approach the basic tenets of a religion but extract a whole new meaning that coincides with their lifestyle and the modern world around them. This is the same method that Margaret Fell used when establishing the Quaker religion. She looked as the basics of the Bible, only approached it with a different viewpoint. Instead of reading passages in a way that demeaned women, she interpreted them in a way that emphasized the importance of women.