Throughout the “Followership” chapter of our course material (Northouse, 2019), an organization and its leader(s) depend on the dedication and obedience of its followers. Specifically, the Kelley Typology of followership explains, “believes followers are enormously valuable to organizations and that the power of followers often goes unrecognized” (Northouse, 2019). Religion, an idea that is built upon the dedication, obedience, and followership of its members, is a perfect example of this typology. Religious matters have become increasingly prominent in different aspects of an individual’s life, regardless of their religious beliefs or the degree of their followership to a specific church, if any. For example, elections bring issues to surface that question the distinction between church and state for legislative purposes, a heightened emphasis on diversity and inclusion has brought more acceptance to previously discouraged ideals of a church, and personal experiences may contradict a church’s ideals. A combination of these factors and more have culminated to a very new wave of religious dedication, essentially a lack thereof. This relates to our recent course topic of followership, because it is the people who make up a church that allow any religion to surpass changing times. However, I have noticed from my own perspective just how differently those who were once devout to their religion have grown further from their faith and beliefs with these changing times and dynamic personal viewpoints. Faith is the main virtue which makes up the foundation of any religion, and is carried out by a church’s followers. When the leaders of any religion take actions which the followers of that religion disagree with, this is when followership holds the influence in a leader-follower dynamic. Relevant news stories and scandals coupled with a progressive ideology held throughout the nation or in legislative and political situations have caused followers of the Catholic faith, specifically, to stray from their followership to their faith.
Many followers of the Catholic faith decided to digress and stray from their faith during the early 2000’s, when the well-known scandals regarding the sexual abuse of children by priests across the nation surfaced, which stemmed from an investigation in the Archdiocese of Boston in 2002. An article from The Guradian titled “How the Boston Globe Exposed the Abuse Scandal That Rocked the Catholic Church” explained the realities and continuance of these scandals, which were kept in secret by leaders of an organization trusted by a major followership (Henley, 2010). Many followers of the Catholic church were so distraught that their very own leaders could condone and even try to cover such horrible acts. While it was only in recent years I learned the true extent of and story behind these scandals, I distinctly remember learning from my mother that our friends and neighbors who attended our Catholilc church were no longer attending, or would be changing to a different denomination such as a broader church of Christianity and not specifically of Catholic denomination. Priests are seen as such holy individuals of the Catholic faith, with a purpose to be a symbol of Christ and someone who holds their credibility and good-natured respect to such a high standard. When the followers of the Catholic church saw these men as an entirely different idea of the one they had been following and respecting for centuries, their dedication to the followership dwindled and lost purpose. Recently, I have come to understand that these scandals continue today by priests of the Catholic church, and while more surveillant regulations to avoid these scandals have been implemented, followers of the Catholic church continue to feel less attached to their faith from knowing that the leaders they once trusted are not proper idols.
Growing up in my Catholic family, we attended church weekly and recognized the new changes in the Mass as decided by the Pope at the time, Pope Benedict XVI. As followers of a faithful practice, we obeyed the new order of the Mass and took the rigid orders of this particular pope seriously, heeding to his strict views on such topics as birth control and same-sex marrriage as is denoted in the Holy Bible. As the years drew on and I was able to meet a diverse array of individuals throughout school and other outlets, my own personal viewpoints on these topics changed. Peers of my grade school classes and academic clubs who acknowledged their homosexuality felt like outsiders in small town that was guided by opposing viewpoints of same-sex marriage. Having to attend a service each week that discouraged the way these individuals innately felt about themselves inherently causes the followership to theoretically fall apart. Even for members of the Catholic church who were not homosexual, but felt that these viewpoint standings on the matter were unfair to those individuals who declared themselves homosexual, decided that any church which taught ideas to undermine their friends and neighbors should not be a church they were going to heed and follow, encouraging these individuals to leave the church as well. However, there is a reverse effect which has caused a decrease in followership more recently. Specifically, the current pope, Pope Francis, has publicly changed a major viewpoint held by the Catholic church when he announnced on behalf of the faith that same-sex marraige should be allowed in every place of the world. While this progressive announcement was rejoiced by so many, those fundamentalists of the Catholic faith began to believe that the teachings of the faith they have followed for their entire lives are now changing direction, encouraging them to leave the church and to stop attending weekly services, as well.
On a different note of progressive matters, the Catholic church also holds a stern viewpoint on contraception, discouraging women to use birth control and to prioritize the idea of every human life. With marches and political debates surrounding the pro-life and pro-choice movements, United States politicans have been scrutinized for their personal viewpoint on this matter, because their stance has the power to change legislation and affect the lives of women throughout the nation. As a female, the idea of abortion was so horrible to fathom while growing up as a young girl and living in a town which held a similar stance as a consensus and as the Catholic church taught us to believe. After attending college and encountering differing viewpoints, many female friends and peers have expressed that they were also raised in the Catholic church and abided by the teachings we heard each week at Mass. However, they have since drifted from the faith because they feel that a matter, which is very prominent in political debates and legislative decisions today, such as their own reproductive rights should never be in question and that they should be free to decide for themselves regarding contraception and abortions as they wish. This particular issue and debate topic has brought many followers of the Catholic church, not solely females, to disagree with the teaching they once followed and to disband their followership to the Catholic church.
Throughout the most recent decades, my personal followership to the Catholic church and dynamic perspective on its teachings has supported the idea of a departed followership to Catholicism, as shown on a greater scale by other individuals. The leaders of the church should lead their lives with utmost credibility and high moral standards for their followers to be encouraged by and to feel reason to continue in their followership. However, scandals carried out by the Catholic leaders- which surfaced in 2002 yet continue today and surely occurred before that year as well- caused a major drop in followership number to the Catholic church and continue to do so. Human rights for all to be treated equally is an ideal held by members of the Catholic church, yet its discouragement of same-sex marriage simultaneously discouraged its members who wish to support their homosexual friends, neighbors, or family to be able to be legally married if they wish to. Other teachings of the Catholic church are highly debated topics in the mainstream media and are contemplated in legislative decisions, specifically the matter of reproductive rights for women. While the Catholic church holds a fixated stance that contraception and abortions are not acceptable, Catholic female across the nation have drifted from their church for this very reason. As explained in the “Followership” chapter of our course material, “Like leadership, followership is not amoral; that is, it is not a process that is morally neutral. Followership carries with it a responsibility to consider the morality of one’s actions and the rightness or wrongness of the outcomes of what one does as a follower” (Northouse, 2019).
References:
Henley, Jon. “How the Boston Globe Exposed the Abuse Scandal That Rocked the Catholic Church.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 21 Apr. 2010, www.theguardian.com/world/2010/apr/21/boston-globe-abuse-scandal-catholic.
Northouse, Peter G.. Leadership (p. 295). SAGE Publications. Kindle Edition.