Discussion activities

1. Explain if observing religious traditions influences production in different countries and how.

2. Exchange views on the following questions:

   1. What elements of national religion should an international manager take into account preparing to start business in another country?

   2. What should human resources managers be aware of in the country of operation?

F ocus on speaking and writing

1. Ask your classmates about:

   • predominant religions in the world;

   • religions, denominations, and churches existing in their countries;

   • whether for most people of their countries religion is a part of their world view, or pattern of behaviour, or both.

2. Tell what religions you know of and what is characteristic of them.

3. Write an essay on one of the following topics.

   • What should be the role of religion for an individual and for a nation?

   • Describe some religious ritual or ceremony that you find impressive.

   • Are religious wars inevitable?

4. Discuss the following quotations with your partner(s) and comment on them.

• All religions are founded on the fear of the many and the cleverness of the few.

M.H.B. Stendal

• If Jesus Christ were to come today, people would not even crucify him. They would ask him to dinner, and hear what he had to say and make fun of it.

T. Carlyle

• Religion has done love a great service by making it a sin.

A. France

• The worst sin towards our fellow creatures is not to hate them, but to be indifferent to them: that’s the essence of inhumanity.

G.B. Shaw

Unit 3 rreligion in the usa and in the united kingdom text 1

FREEDOM FOR RELIGION

1. What religions are most common in the u.S.?

2. Before you read, decide if the following statements are true (t) or false (f). Discuss your answers with your classmates.

1. _____ Every country should have a national religion.

2. _____ Everyone in the United States is a Christian.

3. _____ Roman Catholics are Christians.

4. _____ Protestants are Christians.

5. _____ Jews believe in God.

6. _____ The majority of people in the United States are Protestants and Jews.

7. _____ President John F. Kennedy was Roman Catholic.

8. ______ Two people of different religions cannot get married in the United States.

9. _____ Natives of a country should share a religion.

10. ____ People never have trouble in the United States because of their religion.

B efore you begin to read, look at these topics. There is one topic for each paragraph. Look quickly at the reading to find these topics. Do not read every word at this point. Write the number of the paragraph next to the topic of that paragraph.

1. ____ general description of Christianity

2. ____ the Jewish religion

3. ____ the Protestant church

4. ____ historical background for freedom of religion

5. ____ the Roman Catholic church

6. ____ traditional feelings about non-Protestant beliefs

7. ____ de-emphasis on religion

The first immigrants who came to New England in the 1600s left their own countries for religious reasons. They had religious beliefs different from the accepted beliefs of their country; they wanted to live in a place where they could be free to have their own beliefs. When they came to establish new communities in the New World, they decided that there would be no official religion. When this new country gained its independence from Britain in 1776, the separation of church and state was one of the basic laws for the United States. This absence of an official national religion and the resultant freedom to believe in whatever one wants has attracted many new immigrants. In the United States, there are examples of every kind of world religion—Buddhist, Islamic, Baha'i, to name only a few. Many religions also began in the United States such as the Pentecostals, Mormons and Christian Science religions. But most of the people in the United States fall into one of two categories—Christian or Jewish.

The majority of people in the United States were raised as Christians. Quite simply, Christian means believing in Christ, or Jesus. Christians celebrate Christmas, the birth of Christ, and Easter, the time at which Christians remember Jesus's death and celebrate His rebirth. They think of Sunday as a holy day and worship in churches. In the United States, Christianity can be divided into two major groups: Roman Catholicism and Protestantism. A third group, Orthodoxy, is not as common in the United States.

A s its name suggests, the Roman Catholic church is based in Rome. It is centered around the authority of one man, the Pope, who is the head of the Roman Catholic church throughout the world. There is a hierarchy of authority and responsibility beginning with the Pope in Rome and ending with the priests who are the heads of the churches in individual neighborhoods and communities.

As its name suggests, the Protestant church began as a protest against another church: the Roman Catholic church. Protestant is a very general term; it includes many different church groups, such as Episcopalian, Presbyterian, Lutheran, Methodist, Baptist, and many more. The majority of people in the United States have Protestant backgrounds. However, since there are so many Protestant churches, each with its own traditions, people who are Protestants do not really share similar religious experiences. As opposed to the Roman Catholic church in which there is a lot of central control, Protestant churches are generally more autonomous, with more control and authority on a local level.

Jews and Christians share many of the same basic principles and beliefs. They both believe in the existence of one God. But whereas Christians believe in Christ, a representation of God on earth, Jews do not believe that God has come to earth in any form. Jewish people celebrate a weekly holy day from Friday evening to Saturday evening and worship in synagogues. The head of a synagogue is called a rabbi. Many Jewish people came to the United States in the first half of the twentieth century because of religious intolerance in their own countries.

Although freedom of religion is an important concept in the United States, religious intolerance sometimes occurs. Because the majority of early Americans were Protestant, there has sometimes been discrimination against new immigrants, such as the Irish and Italians, who were Roman Catholic. Protestants were reluctant to share their traditional power with members of other churches or religions. The year 1960 marked a breakthrough in the religious tolerance of the country when John F. Kennedy, a Roman Catholic, became the first non-Protestant President of the United States.

The second half of the twentieth century has seen a decline in the strength of traditional religion in the United States. It is probably to be expected that in a society that accepts so many different religions, religion would be de-emphasized. Intermarriage is now common and fewer people think about traditional religious beliefs.