Sociology and Religion

This paper is from a catholic feminist's perceptive that the church, as an institution, is structured as a pyramid modeled on the patriarchal family with the custom of father-right. The patriarchal decision-maker has the power to shape, form and control the "poor of the world" (McCormick, pg. 240) mirroring the aspect of the conflict theory. The poor of the world are the people who work for the institution of the Church controlled by the patriarchal power elite. These established masses of people feel no control, which cause anxiety and they continue to perform their means of production as a formed unit. The power elite's fear of being overthrown by the poor of the world is fueled with sheer determination and consistency to stay on top. In the article "Sociology and Sexuality" women and women's sexuality is stated to be oppressed with the poor of the people and is examined through human rights, religious desacralization, religious sacralization, women's human rights and social conditioning.
The concern for human rights is for the two-thirds of the people who live below the level of endurance but have the knowledge of the lack of social relations in the world of distributing goods. The poor is aware of their civil rights to take part in decisions that will affect their lives such as developing resources of places where they would live instead of having those resources used in the interest of the powerful nations of the world and multinational corporations. The right to life of these people is systematically denied in social systems. Liberation Theology is a direct approach in being freed from this structure. This is where people mediate on the Gospel in company with the poor and by the mandate of the Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World to help and work with the poor for their own liberation. This movement aroused the re-ordering of priorities for the structure of the church, which was visible in the Second Vatican Council's Dogmatic