,

Religious Persecution – Personal Decision

Sheet

Directions: For this activity, one assumes the following is true.

Date: Monday, 9 September 1987

Location: Communist Eastern Germany

Situation: As a member of the country's secret police, your job is to protect, at all costs, the communist government. The communist government is officially atheist. They have no religious affiliation, nor do they openly support organized religion. The country's churches and religious communities are considered a 'thorn' in the government's attempts at strict control of society and its citizens. Since the end of world war two, churches have maintained a certain degree of independence in an otherwise strictly controlled state. Many churches throughout Eastern Europe influence local citizens to criticize government policy and often provide a safe harbor for environmental, peace, and human rights groups. Fearing a political backlash from its European neighbors, the communist government will not close the different churches throughout the country. Instead, controlled measures seek to 'limit' the religious threat. The ongoing investigation into church activity uncovered several perceived threats directly related to the Church's influence. The government views the Church as a threat because 1) the Church represents strength and retreat in a harsh daily living environment; 2) the Church provides hope and salvation through the belief in a higher power and afterlife and not allegiance to the communist government; 3) the Church can connect to the masses through outside activities not related to Church-related operations; 4) the Church provides a counterbalance to the government's strict control of society. The government's policy is to stop or decrease the Church's influence directly or indirectly. Several proposals limit the Church's overall authority as you read the government report.

Proposal A: Infiltrate Church Seminaries. Stasi agents recruit fellow seminary students as informants to gather information on individuals seeking to become pastors. Information collected includes political beliefs towards the government, church activities, and underground movements.

Proposal B: Removal of Religion in schools. As part of the official atheist policy by the government, all school curricula will follow strict science guidelines and doctrines followed by humanistic theories. All reference to religion is mysticism. The desired outcome is that humans control their destiny, not religion.

Proposal C: Government-led anti-church activities. Pressure youth to participate in government-organized activities after school and on weekends. Such activities include political meetings, work internships, and sports events. Students who refuse are isolated and ridiculed.

Proposal D: Promote Social Differences. Encourage youth to pursue different music, politics, and entertainment preferences from older generations. Promoting a humanistic (atheist-centered) form of self-gratification is counter to traditional faith-based families. The desired outcome is a cultural divide between youth and older generations.

Proposal E: False information. Spread false news and rumors about beloved pastors and clergy. Stories include but are not limited to fabricated stories about church members, fake accounts of power struggles within the Church, or affairs among married members. The desired outcome is to create distrust among members and clergy.

Proposal F: Recruitment of Pastors/Clergy. Stasi agents recruit pastors and clergy to become informants. Informants spy on one another, providing critical information on Church activities, relations, scheduled events, and members. The information provides counternarratives for Church activities and vital information to spread rumors and disinformation.

Proposal G: False information and blackmail. Using elements of options A and C, Stasi agents create damaging rumors among the Church about leadership in the effort to expose and extort. Actions may include extramarital affairs, illegal drugs, or theft of Church funds. The desired result is removing specific Church leadership and replacing it with informants.

Proposal H: Government loyalty and acceptance. Students must take an atheistic oath to the government and pledge to live their lives as members of a communist society. Such allegiance includes active participation in political organizations, after-school activities, and job training. Failure to take the oath often results in denial of higher education, specialty schools, or desired jobs.

Directions: On the lines below, record your decision for each statement. Remember to consider these proposals as a member of the secret police and the government's protection.

1. The three proposals that should be assigned top priority are:

A)

B)

C)

2. The three most important reasons why these three proposals were selected as being the most effective for immediate implementation are:

A)

B)

C)

3. The results of these proposals that I would hope for are:

4. The three proposals that should be assigned the lowest priority are:

A)

B)

C)

5. The three most important reasons why these proposals are considered the least effective of all the plans are:

A)

B)

C)

6. The probable advantages lost by the government by making these three options the lowest priority is:

A)

B)

C)

Religious Persecution – Group Decision Sheet

Directions: For this activity, one assumes the following is true.

Date: Monday, 9 September 1987

Location: Communist Eastern Germany

Situation: As a member of the country's secret police, your job is to protect, at all costs, the communist government. The communist government is officially atheist. They have no religious affiliation, nor do they openly support organized religion. The country's churches and religious communities are considered a 'thorn' in the government's attempts at strict control of society and its citizens. Since the end of world war two, churches have maintained a certain degree of independence in an otherwise strictly controlled state. Many churches throughout Eastern Europe influence local citizens to criticize government policy and often provide a safe harbor for environmental, peace, and human rights groups. Fearing a political backlash from its European neighbors, the communist government will not close the different churches throughout the country. Instead, controlled measures seek to 'limit' the religious threat. The ongoing investigation into church activity uncovered several perceived threats directly related to the Church's influence. The government views the Church as a threat because 1) the Church represents strength and retreat in a harsh daily living environment; 2) the Church provides hope and salvation through the belief in a higher power and afterlife and not allegiance to the communist government; 3) the Church can connect to the masses through outside activities not related to Church-related operations; 4) the Church provides a counterbalance to the government's strict control of society. The government's policy is to stop or decrease the Church's influence directly or indirectly. Several proposals limit the Church's overall authority as you read the government report.

Proposal A: Infiltrate Church Seminaries. Stasi agents recruit fellow seminary students as informants to gather information on individuals seeking to become pastors. Information collected includes political beliefs towards the government, church activities, and underground movements.

Proposal B: Removal of Religion in schools. As part of the official atheist policy by the government, all school curricula will follow strict science guidelines and doctrines followed by humanistic theories. All reference to religion is mysticism. The desired outcome is that humans control their destiny, not religion.

Proposal C: Government-led anti-church activities . Pressure youth to participate in government-organized activities after school and on weekends. Such activities include political meetings, work internships, and sports events. Students who refuse are isolated and ridiculed.

Proposal D: Promote Social Differences. Encourage youth to pursue different music, politics, and entertainment preferences from older generations. Promoting a humanistic (atheist-centered) form of self-gratification is counter to traditional faith-based families. The desired outcome is a cultural divide between youth and older generations.

Proposal E: False information. Spread false news and rumors about beloved pastors and clergy. Stories include but are not limited to fabricated stories about church members, fake accounts of power struggles within the Church, or affairs among married members. The desired outcome is to create distrust among members and clergy.

Proposal F: Recruitment of Pastors/Clergy. Stasi agents recruit pastors and clergy to become informants. Informants spy on one another, providing critical information on Church activities, relations, scheduled events, and members. The information provides counternarratives for Church activities and vital information to spread rumors and disinformation.

Proposal G: False information and blackmail. Using elements of options A and C, Stasi agents create damaging rumors among the Church about leadership in the effort to expose and extort. Actions may include extramarital affairs, illegal drugs, or theft of Church funds. The desired result is removing specific Church leadership and replacing it with informants.

Proposal H: Government loyalty and acceptance. Students must take an atheistic oath to the government and pledge to live their lives as members of a communist society. Such allegiance includes active participation in political organizations, after-school activities, and job training. Failure to take the oath often results in denial of higher education, specialty schools, or desired jobs.

Directions: Imagine the group are members of the secret police. The job is to protect the government at all costs. On the lines below, record the group's decisions for each statement. Consider these decisions as a member of the secret police and how best to eliminate the Church's influence.

1. The three proposals that should be assigned top priority are:

A)

B)

C)

2. The three most important reasons why these three proposals were selected as being the most effective for immediate implementation are:

A)

B)

C)

3. The results of these proposals that we would hope for are:

4. The three proposals that should be assigned the lowest priority are:

A)

B)

C)

5. The three most important reasons why these proposals are considered the least effective of all the plans are:

A)

B)

C)

6. The probable advantages lost by the government by making these three options the lowest priority is:

A)

B)

C)

Questions for Review and Reflection

Suggested follow-up questions to focus and guide inquiry, reflection, and learning.

1. What is the group's primary problem(s) to resolve in this situation?

2. What is the significant difference between the group's best and worst solution?

3. Assuming the situation was actual, how would the group feel if the person or group had to make this decision?

4. In this situation, what information and efforts by the government are warranted to limit the power of religious organizations?

5. When does the government have the right to spy and manipulate its citizens to maintain national security?

6. When do an individual's liberties and freedoms outweigh a government's power for national security and control?

,

NEGOTIATION CHECKLIST ____ /20

PLEASE PROVIDE EITHER A PERSONAL OR GROUP ACTIVITY

VALUE	ELEMENT	PRESENT	NOT PRESENT	Comments
———	Negotiation Procedure
8	A situation or short story that provides sufficient background information
5	Options or arguments to be evaluated for top and bottom selections (minimum of nine)
.50	Directions illustrating how the student will select the top 1/3 and bottom 1/3 options listed
2	Decision sheet which contains top three priority, rational for selection, and desired results for such policies
2	Decision sheet which contains the lowest three, rational for selection, and lost results for such policies
2.50	Pre-decision sheet designed encourage discussion and interpret findings (minimum of four)

,

Decision-Making: Exploration

Often, students may encounter information, data, a situation, materials, or even events in time that do not require them to decide on how to resolve a problem or conflict. In such times, students should be encouraged to explore the details of a situation and find ways to make it more relevant to their lives. The Exploration format serves as a regular exploration and reaction task that enables students to consider a situation, themselves, a set of data, or textbook materials by framing responses to a set of questions. These are questions students can learn to ask themselves to explore other situations independently in the future.

The exploration format contains two components:

1. A resource that provides information linked to the focus of learning. The resource may be provided through one of the several varieties of media, print, or traditional learning outlets. For example, teachers might select for students to explore the following material discussed/covered in class:

0. Political cartoons

0. Webcasts

0. Experiments

0. Simulations

0. Magazine articles You can take any one of these

0. Items found on the internet (teacher-vetted) that align with your

0. Youtube clips curriculum and makes an

0. Movies activity. Most will use a case

0. Case studies study or primary resource,

0. Primary resources but all apply!

0. Maps

0. Speeches

0. Television or news stations

As the list suggests, teachers can vary the instructional media or material for exploration activities to gain student interest.

1. A set of questions relevant to at least three of the four elements (Conceptual, Relational, Valuation, and Decisional) of reasoned decision-making.

Unlike other decision-making / content-centered lessons, this approach does not have a list of options or arguments. Instead, these questions are designed to help students comprehend available information, generate interconnections with the resources about curriculum, and consider and make decisions based on students’ values and criteria.

Teachers and students use and encounter resources such as textbooks, video clips, or primary resources as they study and learn content. To learn in situations where little to no structure or directions are provided, students must pose questions that enable or guide them to generate information from the resource or situation. Often, teachers ask questions, conduct student searches for information, and respond to the final approach.” When there is no consistency in the type of pattern of teacher questions, students become dependent upon the teacher to serve as the guide and solution to their problems; thus, teaching students to ask questions is vital for the student to learn how to generate their questions for understanding and resolution to issues, dilemmas, etc.

The set of questions that students answer should contain the following:

1. One question is designed to help students conceptualize (to see the idea or general problem in their head) available information in the resource.

1. One question considers possible relationships within and among the available resources.

1. One question is intended to help students express feelings or values associated with the resource(s).

1. One question designed to improve student shows their choices and possible or desired consequences, policies, reasons, and decisions.

The goal is that after students have written individual or group responses to these questions, the stage is set for a class discussion designed to examine their thoughts, reactions, and feelings that made up their exploration.

The following lesson is an example of an Exploration decision-making lesson. You will notice that all the required components/steps are included in the case below. To get a sense of this strategy and format, assume the role of the student.

Who is Right?

For this lesson, you must consider the four individuals' beliefs about law, order, and law and order. The opinions of the four people may be expressed below:

Citizen 1: Mr. Abrams, “I believe in the law. Citizens should always be protected from unreasonable search and police interrogation. Those who seek order are most likely to be those who will risk losing an individual’s fundamental freedoms. To the extent that the search for social order risks the freedom of persons, those who believe in order are hostile to the fundamental rights of citizens. Criminals should go unpunished than a single innocent person be punished.”

Citizen 2: Mr. May, “I believe order and stability must be maintained. A person must feel safe in their home and safe to walk the streets. Those who would sacrifice to maximize certain individual freedoms are likely to make freedoms meaningless. Innocent citizens should not be punished. However, persons guilty of acts that threaten order and stability must receive punishment. If I had to choose between law and order, the order is what I would want to see enforced. You should ignore the law to maintain order.”

Citizen 3: Mrs. Smith, “Both social stability and the protection of individuals through the law are critical. However, when a decision must be made between public order, the law should be protected at the expense of order. This means I am willing to tolerate certain actions and demonstrations that threaten to disrupt current conditions as long as existing laws are not violated.”

Citizen 4: Ms. Tara, “Both social stability and the protection of citizens by due process of law are crucial. Nevertheless, when a decision must be made in which either social stability or law is taken away, social order and stability must be protected at the expense of law and following the law. In short, while I believe in public order, it is far more important than our society has ordered. I think this even if we occasionally suspend or break the rules to obtain a better society.”

In this par

Collepals.com Plagiarism Free Papers

Are you looking for custom essay writing service or even dissertation writing services? Just request for our write my paper service, and we'll match you with the best essay writer in your subject! With an exceptional team of professional academic experts in a wide range of subjects, we can guarantee you an unrivaled quality of custom-written papers.

Get ZERO PLAGIARISM, HUMAN WRITTEN ESSAYS

Why Hire Collepals.com writers to do your paper?

Quality- We are experienced and have access to ample research materials.

We write plagiarism Free Content

Confidential- We never share or sell your personal information to third parties.

Support-Chat with us today! We are always waiting to answer all your questions.