Today in class we talked about the challenge of seeing seemingly irrational behavior as rational in the understanding of the person acting. If you think you might have trouble doing this in your own fieldwork site, try reading this article about members of a new religion on trial in China. I suspect it will make what you encounter seem much more rational by comparison.
In late May, the group entered the McDonald's in Zhaoyuan to solicit phone numbers and recruit new members. 37-year-old Wu Shuoyan, who was dining there at the time, refused to give over her number. Witnesses say the group then became enraged, and began beating the victim with a mop handle, all the while screaming at the other customers to stay away.
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That's kind of disturbing to read that the founding couples are living in the United States. It's very eerie to hear about, any religion, that violently attack people for not joining. But it's also ironic that they came here too. Because even though we say we have freedom of religion it seems we don't allow freedom of religious expression.
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