20 Examples of Religious Norms

The religious norms are, as their name indicates, are those that make up the code of conduct proposed by a religion specific, and that dictate various aspects of the lives of the faithful. They are usually contained in some type of sacred text (such as the Bible, the Koran, etc.) and are interpreted by a priest or spiritual guide of some nature. For example: celibacy, fasting, prayer.

These rules, which regulate various vital aspects from food, sex, hygiene, family construction, prayer, justice and even clothing, are assumed by the parishioners with greater or lesser less rigor, understood as a divine command (heteronymous norms) whose disobedience will bring eternal punishments or the loss of the subsequent state of grace. The nature of these norms obeys that of the specific religious cult and, in the long run, the culture who saw him born.

At the time, religious norms were an important ethical code, moral and social of the primitive societies, offering to the human collectives a code by the which to govern their conduct and a primitive form of jurisprudence, based on the unquestionable will divine.

This is why many of the legal codes current are heirs to varying degrees of the moral and religious codes that preceded them.

However, in many cases they can be source of conflict with more secular views of organized society, whose social and legal foundations were separated, at least in the case of the West, religious texts centuries ago and today constitute a code of coexistence autonomous.

Examples of religious norms

1. Pig ban. In the Jewish religion, the pig is considered an impure animal, and therefore its consumption is strictly prohibited. The most orthodox practitioners of this religion, therefore, never taste a bite of said meat.
2. Cover the woman. Very controversial tradition in western countries with a strong Muslim presence, such as France. Islam proposes that women should hide their bodies from the view of strangers, so as not to incur the sin of inciting them to lust. This is strictly observed in the most radical Muslim countries, which cover with a burqa women, barely letting their eyes show (sometimes not even that). Less strict variants are content with the woman covering her hair with a discreet veil.
3. Wearing white when you get married. Is customMore than the norm, of Christian religious marriages, it requires the bride to wear white when going to the altar to be joined by the priest with her future husband. This color is a symbol of purity and chastity, although nowadays there are not many who cling to the mandate to become virgins at marriage.
4. Celibacy. For many religions, chastity is a vow to renounce the callings of the body and surrender to a spiritual model of existence. In that sense, it is imposed on its priests and imams, since they have the mission of connecting the congregation with what divine, but also monks and enlightenment pursuers, as in the case of Zen Buddhism and other religions oriental.
5. Fasts. Both the Arab and the Jewish religion contemplate fasting as a method of expiation or purging of the sins of the soul through the body. In the month of Ramadan and on Yom Kippur, respectively, food intake and in some cases even personal hygiene and sexual relations are prohibited or restricted.
6. Alcohol restriction. While no religion welcomes the abuse of the alcohol, many use it in their rites, such as Catholic consecration wine, such as Islam, they are particularly strict with it, prohibiting all kinds of alcoholic beverages or recreational drugs, since they divert man from the path laid out by the regulations divine.
7. Baptisms or purifications. Religions such as Hindu or Christian contemplate purification rituals that must be done frequently (bathing in the Ganges river) or once in a lifetime (be baptized) to cleanse the spirit and make a full commitment to the model of values ​​embodied in the religion.
8. The sentence. Probably the most universal of religious norms is prayer in its various aspects and possibilities, understood as supplication, prayer, prayer, petition or simply meditation and introspection, according to the religion that is practiced and the link that it proposes with the divine. Prayer should be done daily, either at certain special times (before eating, before sleeping, at sunset, etc.) or as part of mass rites (masses, the salat).
9. The Crossing. In the Catholic religion, the cross is an important gesture of acceptance of the faith, as well as protection or invocation of divine help. The sign of the cross of Jesus Christ is made on the body itself, first on the head, then the torso and finally the shoulders. This gesture should accompany every prayer and should often be done while in the presence of a church or cemetery.
10. Cow worship. For Hinduism the cow is a sacred symbol and therefore a protected animal. Not only is it forbidden to eat their meat, but they should not be touched, much less hit or forced to move, or restrict their passage under any circumstances.
11. Wear white for a year. In the Yoruba religion (Santeria), the commitment of the faithful to the specific deity that will protect them throughout the Life is expressed for a whole year, during which they will not be able to wear anything but white clothes and the specific necklaces of the worship.
12. Punish murder and robbery. Perhaps on this the religious and modern legal codes are very much in agreement, although the forms of punishment are different. In the more radical Islamic religions thieves are cut off the hand with which they stole, while the Catholic world threatens eternal perdition in hell.
13. Punish infidelity. In this, certain religions are more police than others, but in general, no one looks favorably on the desire of other people's women. Islamic radicals will stone adulterers, while Christianity, inspired by Jesus Christ's forgiveness of the prostitute Mary Magdalene, may be more permissive about it. Even so, in both religious settings, women always have the losers in those cases.
14. Do not intervene the body. Many religions pose the human body as a form of sacred temple, whose intervention is punished by God. In that sense, they reject tattoos, piercings or even, as in the case of Jehovah's Witnesses, blood transfusions.
15. Rejection of menstruation. This is an unfortunate norm, a product of the macho tendencies that are found in many of our religions and cultures. According to the Bible, the woman during her menstrual cycle is "unclean" and therefore should not have sexual intercourse with her, nor should she even sleep together with her husband. Fortunately, this is not fully fulfilled except in very extreme cases, but it is part of the discourses of shame about the female body that many feminist groups fight today.
16. Attend Sunday Mass. This obligation of life concerns most of the Christian sects, but especially the Catholic one. The parishioners should meet in church on Sundays to worship God and carry out certain rites of faith reaffirmation in community. To do this, they must go at the same time, with a more or less formal dress, and handle themselves within a certain behavior of obedience and generosity.
17. Control of female clothing. For the Orthodox Evangelical Church, the use of earrings, earrings or this type of clothing is prohibited, since they refer to ancient forms of slavery. The same goes for makeup, or cutting hair above the shoulders.
18. Cremation. Although many religions prohibit cremation or view it with bad eyes, others such as the Hindu adopt it as a commandment, to prevent precisely the decomposition and decay of the body that occurs after the death.
19. Do not eat red meat. During Holy Week, in most Catholic countries no red meat is eaten, but instead it is replaced with chicken and fish. This as a symbol of I respect for the physical sufferings and the blood shed on the Cross by Jesus Christ.
20. Do not worship false idols. This Christian commandment has been interpreted variously by religious sects that are ruled by the Bible, many of which reject the acquisition and worship of images (statuettes, saints, carvings, etc.) because they consider that the divine cannot be represented. Other churches, such as the Catholic one, practically base their worship on these images and on a representative pavilion or saints.

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