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Religions > Atheism |
| User: |
"ShyDavid" |
| Date: |
01 Mar 2004 11:54:33 AM |
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How Religion Impedes Moral Development |
How Religion Impedes Moral Development
Magazine: Free Inquiry
Issue: Summer 1994 (vol. 14 no. 3)
Author: Brad Clark
It isn't widely known, but some of the most religious people are found
among the incarcerated. Many inmates claim jailhouse conversions.
Others claim long-term but "lapsed" commitments to religious beliefs.
Contributing to these conversions and renewals are government financed
chaplains employed at the federal, state, and county levels to provide
religious counseling and services to prisoners. In addition to this
government-sponsored religious indoctrination, a large number of
conservative evangelical organizations provide reams of free religious
material to prisoners. The popular assumption is that a convict will
return to society with a higher level of moral functioning if he or
she "gets religion." While religious belief can play a complex role in
an individual's decision-making process, some general observations can
be made about religion's negative effect on the development of those
functioning at low moral reasoning levels. In particular, the
contributions of biblically based religious instruction and high
levels of religiosity deserve investigation.
Examination of the relevant literature suggests that religious
instruction is a counterproductive method of inmate rehabilitation.
The underlying assumption that religion and morality are interrelated
is simply untenable. For example, Freud ([1928] 1949) suggested that
religion served to undermine moral responsibility while promoting
fanaticism. He contended that people who behave morally only out of
fear of supernatural penalty would be unlikely to respect and care for
others from an altruistic perspective. This argument receives support
from the theory of moral reasoning developed by the late Lawrence
Kohlberg.
By moral reasoning, Kohlberg (1981) meant the process behind the
conceptualization of the rights and obligations that define an
individual's relation to others and to society as a whole. He
recognized that moral growth, like cognitive growth, is developmental
in nature. Maturation proceeds from a desire to enhance one's self by
any means as long as one escapes penalties (stage 1), to a willingness
to do for others if there is a clear reciprocation (stage 2), to a
need to conform to peer expectations (stage 3), to a need to follow
the law uncritically (stage 4), and finally to concern for the rights
and humanity of every person that is not bounded by conditions (stages
5 and 6). At the highest "post conventional level," moral judgments
must be justified on rational-moral grounds rather than by appeal to
the order of nature or to religious authority or revelation. Healthy
people normally move from one stage to the next, progressing as each
stage is understood. In studies involving various cultures,
researchers have found that individuals work through these stages
between early childhood and young adulthood, although they estimate
that only about 20 percent of the population reach the post
conventional levels of stage 5 or 6. What does this research say about
the role religion plays in moral growth? Clouse (1985) summarizes, "It
would appear from the literature that adults who accept the basic
doctrines of the Christian faith are less apt to reason at Kohlberg's
highest stages than those who do not accept the Christian faith"
(1992).
This comment probably applies to all religious traditions. While
Kohlberg never explicitly examined whether religion could arrest moral
development, a study he conducted in Turkey found individuals in a
strict Muslim community demonstrated no "post conventional" thinking.
Clouse's assessment of the relationship between Christianity and moral
growth finds confirmation in the circumstances surrounding the quick
religious conversions and renewals of prisoners. These result from
moral reasoning on Kohlberg's lowest levels. The prime motivation is
to assure pleasant circumstances in an afterlife, an incentive that
has nothing to do with examining one's relationship to others.
Accepting "Jesus Christ" as your "Lord and Savior" under these
conditions is an example of a stage 2 deal with God. Most religious
texts are concerned with defining human-to-God relationships. Four of
the Ten Commandments dictate rules of behavior toward [YHWH], not
other humans.
The Bible, and most other religious books, contain numerous examples
of low level moral reasoning, and this makes them poor vehicles for
moral development. Consider, for example, the popular Sunday school
story of David and Goliath. In the tale, David becomes enraged at the
taunting challenge Goliath makes to the Israelites. After volunteering
to answer the challenge, David brutally kills Goliath and becomes a
tribal hero. To the literal understanding of most children and
inmates, the story teaches that violence is an appropriate way to
resolve conflict and its use will gain you respect among your peers.
Inner-city youths use the same level of moral reasoning when they
commit drive-by shootings against those who have offended them.
If, then, biblical instruction and the basic doctrines of religion do
not contribute to moral growth, does a high level of religiosity
improve moral reasoning? This question has special relevance since
inmates seem particularly inclined to zealotry and are attracted to
extremes such as the Calvinistic view of humanity as vile and
depraved. Such a perspective seems to speak directly to their own
inadequate self-esteem and sense of identity. But it reinforces a
belief that they are compelled by their nature to sin, a view that can
serve as a rationalization for committing further crime.
The high number of religious child molesters illustrates that
religiosity provides no guarantee of moral behavior. It is well
recognized that religiosity is central to the personality structure of
certain types of child sex offenders (Schouweiler, 1993). The
Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (Hathaway and McKinley,
1943), a widely employed psychological assessment, uses religiosity as
one indicator of pedophilia. In the reasoning often associated with
such individuals, they have been forgiven for all sin (and criminal
behavior) through acceptance of "Jesus Christ," who redeemed their
sinful deeds before they were born. As a consequence, they relinquish
all personal accountability for their actions. In addition, a
religiously deterministic rationale for criminal behavior could claim
that such conduct is all part of "God's Plan."
Research thus indicates that both religious instruction and high
levels of religiosity should not be expected to contribute to moral
development. Advancement in moral reasoning depends on exposure to the
thought processes of Kohlberg's higher stages. The absolutism of
religious reasoning encourages an inflexibility that stifles the
cognitive conflict required to advance to the next stage.
A fundamentalist position also limits an individual's ability to
understand situations from another's point of view. It creates a
personal and subjective orientation that interferes with the
development of effective problem solving skills (Hanson, 1991).
Further, as Wendell Watters (1992) has noted, emphasis on the
human-God bond inhibits the development of supportive human bonds
required for adaptive interpersonal and social functioning. These
human connections are what prison inmates need to develop most. It
must be concluded that the use of religion for correctional
rehabilitation is counterproductive to the type of growth that inmates
need to make for their successful reintegration into society. When the
issue of the religious indoctrination of children is raised it should
be recognized that, from a developmental perspective, the use of
religion for moral growth is clearly inappropriate.
References
Clouse, B. 1985. Moral Reasoning and Christian Faith. Journal of
Psychology and Theology 13: 190-198.
Freud, S. [ 1 928] 1949. The Future of an Illusion.
Trans. W. Robson-Scott. New York: Liverlight Publishing.
Hanson, R. 1991. The Development of Moral Reasoning: Some Observations
About Christian Fundamentalism. Journal of Psycho and Theology 19:
249-256.
Hathaway, S. and J. McKinley. 1943 Minnesota Multiphasic Personality
Inventory. Minneapolis, Minn., University of Minnesota.
Kohlberg, L. 1981. Essays on Moral Development: The Philosophy of
Moral Development. Vol. 1. San Francisco: Harper & Row.
Schouweiler, W. 1993. Religious Fundamentalism and Repression in Child
Molesters. Ph.D. diss., Professional School of Psychology, San
Francisco.
Watters, W. 1992. Deadly Doctrines: Health, Illness, and Christian
God-Talk. Buffalo, NY -Prometheus Books.
Brad Clark is a correctional educator in California and a member of
Atheists and Other Freethinkers in Sacramento.
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