Parsons/Irfa Paper
...Administration to take legislative action by signing the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998, a religious revolution blossomed. This Act was implemented on behalf of persecuted Christians and other religious minorities.
The International Religious Freedom Act of 1998 (IRFA) can best be thought of as a policy tool, created as a response to changes in the religious environment of societies, that fits the framework of societal change created by Talcott-Parsons.
Using Talcott Parsons as a sociological lens amidst the ever-changing social system, I examined the International Religious Freedom Act (IRFA), its advantages, and its criticisms in regards to the global community. IRFA attempts the stop the religious persecution of minority faiths, forcible conversion, desecration of religious sites, the proscribing of beliefs, pervasive discrimination, killings and torture (Hertzke and Philpott, 74). These atrocities were daily occurrences at the end of the twentieth century and remain prevalent in a society riddled with violence and crime. It is my contention that IRFA serves as a unique policy tool created from a society whose values were changing positively; in turn, IRFA prompts even greater transformation through economic sanctions and thus fits into Talcott Parsons’ evolutionary model of change.
The IRFA legislation brings to mind Thomas Jefferson’s notion that religious freedom is the First Freedom. Wherever religious freedom is found so too is the freedom of association, the freedom of speech, and the freedom to believe.
Theory
It should be noted that Talcott Parsons is a staunch structural functionalist, interested primarily in its structural components and unable to focus on any other element of social systems other than their strict structure. The Social System is based on the conviction that there are two essential reference points for this...
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