"Right is right, even if everyone is against it, and wrong is wrong, even if everyone is for it." – William Penn
Philadelphia was a city founded as a religious experiment. Its Quaker roots gave way to rich religious diversity. Historic churches of every imaginable denomination dot the city's landscape, while modern progressive congregations assemble in disused storefronts or in the basements of schools to spread their own brand of religion. Contrary to the perception of the east coast as a haven for Ashkenazi Jews with a history solely of Christian Protestantism, the oldest synagogue in Philadelphia dates to the 1740's and houses a Sephardic congregation. By comparison, Islamic congregations are relatively new to the region, most appearing in the 1960s or later. But Hindu temples, pagan assemblies, Unitarian Universalist churches, and even Scientologists have house of worship here.
Most Philadelphia congregations regardless of their religious affiliations tend toward the progressive here. The number of LGBT pride flags you will find flying outside houses of worship would surprise and even shock a more conservative mind. Many have a focus on charity, on housing the homeless, feeding the hungry, healing the sick, and generally improving their communities. They are havens for those who seek to do good, and sanctuaries for those who know they've done wrong. Recent years have seen a stark demographic shift among the faithful, as some denominations dwindle and others begin to thrive.
Religious institutions have their fingers in many pies in the region. Hospitals bear the names of religious organizations, politicians court the support of religious leaders, and the more activist congregations feed the media a constant supply of public interest stories and controversial coverage. For better or worse, religion remains one of the most critical avenues of social change within the region. And controlling it a means of maintaining the status quo.
Rules and System
Religion status reflects your ability to influence congregations, push conversations within movements, direct funding and charitable giving to certain causes, mobilize protests and demonstrations, create letter writing campaigns, and generally shift the conversation within your religious community and the religious communities of others. Maybe you're a firebrand pastor preaching warnings of the predations of hell, a rabbi seeking to create a safe and inclusive environment for your congregation, or a priest seeking to put an end to the church's abuse of children. Maybe you are trying to start a movement of faith leaders committed to ending violent crime, or the Imam at a local mosque eager to end racism and discrimination in your community. Whatever your goal, you're going to need to sway the minds of those who believe as you do. And it's easier to do that when you have a microphone.
Status 1: Lay Leader, Congregation Official, Committee Chair,
Status 2: Deacon, Congregation President, Mosque President, Board President, or similar head of the laity.
Status 3: Imam, Rabbi, Priest, Minister, Monk, or similar religious leader of a congregation.
Status 4: Bishop, Movement President, or similar regional head of a religious group.
Status 5: A religious head on a national level with national influence, face, and name recognition. Franklin Graham, for example.
Joining the Sphere
Aquiring religious status is a simple matter either in or out of character creation. True, religious education can be a lengthy affair, especially in religions with formal education requirements. But even lay leaders can acquire a great deal of influence over congregations, and one's influence in other sectors of society can lend itself quite well to increasing the reach of your religious opinion. The airwaves are full of religious leaders without a formal education, and opinion columns devote considerable column issues to well regarded lay speakers. It's just a question of how you're trying to manifest your influence, and how you seek to grow it.
For those taking the conventional approach of leading followers of a given faith, the following stats are suggested:
Wits, Resolve, Presence
Academics, Empathy, Expression, Persuasion
Allies, Contacts
Theme and Society
Religion is an opiate to the masses, Marx is famously said to have wrote. Many people view this as an indictment of religion, taking that quote out of context entirely. The actual quote was: "Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the masses." This was an indictment of the dominant culture, not of religion per se. Just as opiates can relieve the suffering of those in chronic pain, religion in this day and age can help bring meaning to a world gone mad and help alleviate the suffering of those living with the alienation and desperation of the modern world.
Religious leaders-- the good ones --try to direct this positivity towards healing the social ills that make religion necessary to so many. They feed the hungry, clothe the naked, house the homeless, give voice to the voiceless, speak out against injustice, and champion equality. Others instead use the audience they have as a source of temporal power, of influence in government, as a revenue stream and little more. It can be hard for those caught in the middle to discern a charlatan from a true believer, and this is entirely to the benefit of the charlatans of the world. Even those who want to believe in something must confront the ills modern day religious practice has brought to the world, and so jaded and disillusioned former faithful wander away from the faith as a result.
What do you believe? And what are you willing to sacrifice in its pursuit?
