Folk Religions Thrive with Women's Spirit

FOLK RELIGIONS THRIVE WITH WOMEN'S SPIRIT [Excerpts]

In her Georgia home, Tammy Bloome says her rosary to Santa Muerte, a skull-faced version of the Grim Reaper in woman’s garb.

In Maryland, Sonia Doi gathers with her fellow spiritists - mostly women - to discuss the philosophical vision of reincarnation.

Folk religions such as Santa Muerte and spiritism are thriving around the world, often powered by women as followers - and leaders.

A new Pew Research study projecting the growth of world religions found that in 2010 about 405 million people (roughly 6 percent of the world’s population) identified with folk or traditional religions without formal creeds, sacred texts and institutional structures.

In China, where the government allows only five official religions, most say they have no faith. But folk religions, which technically are not permitted, have the highest market share of religious identity (21.9 percent), according to the Pew study.

However, sociology professor Fenggang Yang, director of the Center on Religion and Chinese Society at Purdue University, said polls underestimate the true numbers because researchers allowed people to choose only one religion and few would list something practiced in secret.

“If you are born in a village with many gods you belong to that folk religion community,” he said. “You can be both a Christian and a follower of a folk religion.”

As Chinese society becomes “more individualistic and independent,” many women and young people are choosing traditions such as feng shui, with its emphasis on personal harmony with one’s environment, he said.

But living folk traditions with spiritual rites and practices for healing thrive underground in cities and countryside, hidden from official notice.

“Most of these are still village-centered indigenous folk religions where women tend to take the lead,” said Nancy Chen, a professor of medical anthropology at University of California Santa Cruz. “Any time there are rituals of ordination or recognition, the institution becomes intertwined with patriarchal hierarchies.”

(Cathy Lynn Grossman, "Folk religions thrive with women’s spirit," Religion News Service, May 7, 2015)

[TBC: “This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away. For of this sort are they which creep into houses, and lead captive silly women laden with sins, led away with divers lusts, Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth” (2 Timothy:3:1-7 [1] This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. [2] For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, [3] Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, [4] Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; [5] Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away. [6] For of this sort are they which creep into houses, and lead captive silly women laden with sins, led away with divers lusts, [7] Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.
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