Sociology

Sociology

Institutions are very essential in maintaining the way of life of almost all the communities existing in the world today. Most of the institutions have their own rules and regulations that are used to enforce discipline and obedience to the set rules and conditions that in the end aid in ensuring the smooth running of all the activities. These institutions can be generally influenced by the cultural, social, societal or family affiliations and they essentially play a very big role in shaping how a person will behave in their later life.

The Ethiopian Orthodox Church has in a very big way influenced my life through the set rules, procedures and customs. The most important custom is the removing of shoes before participating in any form of worship in the church. This has essentially played a very big part in molding the spiritual and moral behavior of most of the members of my community (Ethiopian othodox church, 2014). Removal of shoes is generally seen as Great respect to God and as my community has adopted this practice for over 1700 years both at my home country and the Diaspora it has played a very major role in shaping the behavioral characteristics of all the members of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church. The practice cuts across all gender and age groups while at the same time it has been very strictly observed through the various generations in the Ethiopian orthodox community (Miller, 1984).

This practice, although being practiced originally in the church, has played a very major role in maintaining the close knit relationship among the folks that engage in the religious practice in general. First the practice has instilled a lot of discipline among the members of the church as most of the practices focus on humility as a virtue among all the members. This has enhanced a lot of harmony among people who practice this form of worship and it has gone through very great lengths in maintaining the peace and harmony in the community as a whole.

Secondly, this practice has enabled all the participants to see others as their equals and has effectively minimized pride and ensured that all the people are treated as equal thereby ensuring that any effective and advantageous idea is passed across to the betterment of the society in general. However these rules should not be used as an excuse to excommunicate any member from the church. It is essential that those church members who diligently follow these rules may be able to advise the others who stray and thereby maintain the others in the circle that will enhance the creation of a society that is more interdependent. This implies that no matter how tough the rules may seem to be it is advisable that all the members work diligently to maintain a dignified society (Ethiopian othodox church, 2014).

Another institution is the family. In many cases, most of the families find themselves in very hard situations that force the members to work independently of each other. This generally crops up when the family members follow different career paths and in essence end up dealing a major blow to the set rules and guidelines that govern the family. In my case there are several family members that practice different careers and this ends up hurting the overall relationship by taking essential time since the careers have different working hours. However, in line with this, the family rules like the time of coming home and general participation in religious holidays has not changed. In respect to this it is essential that the family mates arrange their times such that it will have minimal effect on such holidays so as not to offend the community in general (Miller, 1984).

In conclusion it is essential that the rules that have been set up socially by our forefathers are followed to the latter to ensure that there is smooth running of the society. No matter how hard the rules may seem it is important that a member of the community puts in much effort as this will play a very big role in distinguishing the important social and moral aspects of the community.