Transcript Baker New Forms of Public Religion Conference2

Dr Chris Baker – William Temple Foundation and University of Chester
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Concept of Moral Freighting
 ‘…. tends to evoke peer pressure for you to do good
deeds as well’ (p.477)
 Although we lack the systematic information about
what is exactly discussed in religious networks it is
possible that religious friends are more likely to raise
moral issues, principles and obligations than friends
from a non-religious context and thus to heighten
your attentiveness to such concerns (p.478)
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‘ …. a cumulative journey (or dialectic)
between three elements – a sense of
belonging that engenders a sense of
becoming that in turn can lead to a variety of
technologies and performances of
participation in the wider community’ (Baker,
2012)
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‘What benefits do you derive from being a
member of this religious/spiritual group?’
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‘Are these benefits shared within the wider
community, and if so, how?’
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Q1 What benefits from being a member of this religious
or spiritual group
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Belonging
Huge sense of friendship
Sense of community – I feel warmhearted
A sense of belonging, but also being able to feel an
individual
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Becoming/development
Improve my compassion
Insight into my own behaviour
Helps me to act more critically
I learn key practical skills such as patience, openness and
different perspectives
Opens up a different perspective
Making contact with your heart
Helping others helps me develop my full potential
Q2 Are these benefits shared in the wider community – and if
so, how?
Participation
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‘Moral Freighting ‘
Gives meaning and values but in the context of the huge
support of friendship
A strong sense of shared commitments and an ethical
framework that challenges you and each other
When we fall out we do know that we are all committed
to the five precepts
Before and after – in the past I was less open and
wouldn’t have engaged – now I am less judgemental and
more open
Through my spiritual practice I get a sense of social resp.
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Living out a life of radical difference
Gaining skills that you can take out and use
A model of being for others
Ways of speech that avoid judgemental words
I teach jobseekers in Manchester and am involved in
climate change issues
Environmental issues
Guide leader
I can show how belief links to citizenship concepts and
social issues
I see this building makes a contribution to Manchester’s
civil life
By taking responsibility for becoming wiser, I want to be
less part of the problem
My influence is mainly my family and extended family - a
ripple effect
FIGURE 1
BUDDHIST MEDITATION/SANGHA GROUP BBP GRID
1 – What benefits from being a member of
this R/S Group
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


Belonging
Huge sense of friendship
Sense of community – I feel warmhearted
A sense of belonging, but also being able to
feel an individual
Becoming/development

Improve my compassion

Insight into my own behaviour

Helps me to act more critically .

I learn key practical skills such as patience, openness and different
perspectives

Opens up a different perspective

Making contact with your heart

Helping others helps me develop my full potential
‘Moral Freighting ‘

Gives meaning and values but in the context of the huge support
of friendship

A strong sense of shared commitments and an ethical framework
that challenges you and each other

When we fall out we do know that we are all committed to the five
precepts

Before and after – in the past I was less open and wouldn’t have
engaged – now I am less judgemental and more open

Through my spiritual practice I get a sense of social responsibility













Participation
Living out a life of radical difference
Gaining skills that you can take out and use
A model of being for others
Ways of speech that avoid judgemental words
I teach jobseekers in Manchester and am involved in climate change
issues
Environmental issues
Guide leader
I can show how belief links to citizenship concepts and social issues
I see this building makes a contribution to Manchester’s civil life
By taking responsibility for becoming wiser, I want to be less part of the
problem
My influence is mainly my family and extended family - a ripple effect

‘…. a vocation to ‘being mindful’ in the public
space, as well as ‘doing good’.
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‘It is a low-key, unobtrusive presence which
nevertheless seeks to add to the wellbeing of
the social fabric by living out the virtues of
responsible citizenship’. (Baker, 2012)
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‘…the notion of a ‘ripple effect’ that
emanates slowly, quietly and unobtrusively
from the individual, through their immediate
family and religious group and thence
onwards in ever-widening circles into society
as a whole’.(Baker, 2012)
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Moral freighting as BBP – more dialectical, not
linear (affective as well as rational)
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Moral freighting as public deportment – hypermundane – taken for granted social
stabilities/civilities rooted and emerge from
religious socialities
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Spiritually rooted as well as religiously rooted
(i.e a non Protestant civic religion paradigm)