Religion can be a useful resource for critiques of the wider society. Because religions attempt to derive values and ideals from sources which believers think are transcendent, it's possible for believers to at least attempt to step outside some of the cultural and political assumptions of their contemporaries. It often doesn't work, but at least the effort can be helpful.

In New Religious Movements: A Documentary Reader, Dereck Daschke and W. Michael Ashcraft write:

[Some New Religious Movements] do not so much reject society outright as seek to reform it. These groups promote a new, comprehensive moral code or social justice imperative, thus working to transform the existing institutions and mores into ones that achieve a unified higher purpose while improving the daily lives of the needy or deserving within the social sphere. New Society NRMs view their own group structure not just as an exemplar for society as a whole — even globally — but often, in fact, as the catalyst that will ultimately create a permanent perfect society.

Very frequently, these NRMs will self-identify with the biblical Zion, Israel, or Promised Land, imparting a sacred sanction to their efforts. Therefore, their own social relations and personal ethics are held to a divine standard; moral failings could jeopardize nothing less than the promise of a hard-won paradise on earth. With this goal at the forefront, recruitment and evangelism may focus on larger themes of oppression, injustice, moral decay, and marginalization, making these groups at times overtly political and activist.

One of the things which is important about this is that the push for greater critique and reform seems to come from new religious movements — not necessarily old and established religions. These new religious movements are usually called “cults” and aren’t respected by traditional religious groups. One of the reasons is precisely because of the radical critiques offered by these movements.

Traditional religious groups tend to be so enmeshed within a given culture that radical critiques of that culture tend to also be critiques of traditional religion — either implicit or, sometimes, explicit because traditional religion is perceived as having been coopted by the culture. Such perception is often true. Sometimes a religion derives as many of its values and ideals from the surrounding culture as from extra-cultural traditions or scriptures.

It’s not impossible for traditional religious groups to break out of this and become more independent, but it is usually very difficult and it can cost a group many members who are comfortable with the culture and don’t like having their assumptions and privileges challenged too sharply. This is often the case with Christianity in America — it has become so closely associated with contemporary American culture and traditional American values that it has lost much of whatever voice and authority it could have to critique American culture and suggest improvements.

 

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