Abstract
In times of unusual tension and anxiety, social systems tend to produce fractures and polarities more readily than under less stressful conditions. Lines of cleavage develop along established or recognized “faults” or weak places in the social structure where the strain in normative social relationships is already endemic, or recurrent because of a confusion of values, or competing interests. Ordinarily, it might be supposed that religion, if not altogether exempt from such cleavages, would certainly be among the last of the major social institutions to show strain, especially if the long-established notion that the church is the leading conservator of established social values is valid. However, on closer inspection it is apparent that the values the church would conserve are often precisely those society seems ready to dispense with, so the church often finds itself on the tail end of social change. If, on the other hand, the church assumes the role of change agent, or departs too readily from established convention, the church may well find itself fragmented by dissenting factions, or suddenly depleted in membership. Certain mainline, characteristically “liberal” denominations are in the painful process of learning this by experience right now.