Your assignment is to study a religious organization from a political perspective. You are to select a religious group/congregation (a specific church, synagogue, mosque, etc.) and study it by means of both personal observation and the Internet. In selecting a group for study, you must be able to make a firsthand visit during worship services. During the visit, you should observe the group and talk to the members. In the second data collection strategy, you will "visit" the web page of the church (and its Facebook page or other social media presence) or its central denomination and examine the contents and links.

What to Look For: Based on your observations, discuss the role of politics in the religious group you have visited. In visiting the actual church, you can watch, talk to people and read literature. Using the web, you will have to examine the contents closely and follow any links to other web sites. Because "politics" can be subtle as well as overt, it is important to look for a variety of clues. Look for

• evidence of political activities such as voter registration, recruitment for political campaigns, and political slogans on bumper stickers, publications, and links
• the nature of appeals to intellect and emotion, a this-worldly vs. other-worldly orientation, ritual, participation of members, etc.
• leadership activity and styles, political advocacy, civic involvement, etc.
• group activities involving society and community, civic activities, policy positions, endorsement of candidates or movements
  
• role of women, governing structures

• provide a summary of the history and evolution of the religious organization and its core doctrines. Such papers often demonstrate how the organization's history and development affected its political perspectives.

• emphasize the political positions that are taken by the organization (to the degree they are discernible) and how they are linked to the organization's religious vision. This often includes comments about the political structure of the organization itself and discussion of the role of women in the church.

• exploit the available sources thoroughly. This means, for example, that students should cover the Web pages thoroughly (rather than simply listing it by topic) and follow the links. Students should report thoroughly on what they saw and what they found out in their conversations. Multiple visits are better than a single visit.

• utilize as many sources as possible. In particular, when there is something unique or distinctive about the tradition under study, the best papers will consult additional information (books, newspaper articles, etc.) to explore further.

• follow accepted rules of good writing - proper grammar, correct spelling, complete sentences rather than fragments, appropriate capitalization of words, etc.

• provide full information on citations and references, including the source of quotations, controversial comments, etc. Web pages should also be cited properly and you can find a guide to doing that below.

Some Guidelines and Rules:

• The paper is due  on Thursday, September 12th. Submit it through the Turnitin program which you can access through Sakai. Do not email it to me (although you may email early drafts if you would like comments.) Late papers are dropped one grade for each day they are late.
  
 
• You are not restricted to the Gainesville area for this assignment. However, I want you to stay away from campus for this assignment. Except for religious groups with main headquarters across from campus (the Mennonites) and St. Augustine (a Catholic church which serves the entire city), you are to go elsewhere for your case study.
  
 
• You will write a better paper if you cover a religious tradition other than your own. That's advice rather than a rule. I've never received a good paper on the Hare Krishnas so I would advise you to avoid them as well.
  
 
• Students may form teams to visit churches but should still write individual papers.
  
 
• All sources must be properly documented in a list of references. I require what is usually known as the Chicago style (also known as author-date style) with brief references in the body of the text and a full references at the end of the paper. Anything cited on the Web must present sufficient information so that I can look it up. This requires providing the author's name, (if known); the full title of the work in italics; and the date of the document or last revision (if available). Next, list the protocol (e.g., "http") and the full URL, followed by the date of access in parentheses.  
  

What to Hand In: Submit a hard copy printed with dark ink and leave a generous left-hand margin for my comments. Do not bind this with anything more elaborate than a staple. The  paper should be long enough to cover all the suggested contents. So to give you a completely arbitrary guideline, the paper should run between 5 and 10 pages.