THE INTERFAITH: A PHENOMENOLOGICAL STUDY OF FAMILY

INVOLVING DIFFERENT DENOMINATIONS

A Research Proposal in

Inquiries, Investigation, and Immersion (Qualitative Research)

Presented to the Research Committee of

Sto. Tomas National High School

Senior High School Department

By:

Joy May D. Campilanan

Cyrie Mae H.Gonzaga

Honey Jane D. Manubis

CHAPTER I

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 INTRODUCTION

Background of the study

Religion is very important especially in our family. The family is the

place where the intergenerational transmission of religious beliefs and this is

of crucial importance for the persistence and traditions and communities. The

first thing you need in a family is to respect to each other, especially in the

religion they believe in. Most of Filipinos have a one religious belief. They

have different types of faith made for people of different religions. In one or

more family member there are different religions and different faiths. Though

we have different ways of praising our God, still the respect for each other is

still there.

Global indices if individual religiousness yield small between-group

difference and reveal little about the conceptually unique functions of religions

for families (Mahoney, A., 2011).There are lots of factors that influence the

family, some of the family members are Christian while some are Muslim and

etc. But interfaith movement in United State, scholars say, is unique to the

way Americans views religion, individually, and marriage. Although many in

the US see religion as a personal choice often switch faiths, the nation as a

whole is still deeply religious (Stephanie Hanes 2014).

The study will be conducted at Sto.Tomas National High School

located at Menzi, Tibal-og,, Sto.tomas Davao del Norte, Mindanao,

Philippines. This school is the biggest school in the whole Davao del Norte.

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The research will be conducted through an interview among students who

were involved in a family with different denomination.

Statement of the Problem

1. What are the experiences of a family involving different

denominations?

1.1 Does your courtyard feel different when it comes to worshiping your

family members?

1.2. In what way are you more inclined to worship differently?

2. What are the insights of a family involving different denominations?

2.1. What are the influence the new religion towards you?

2.2. What have you learned in your worship that you can share with

your family?

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Theoretical Lens

Etiene Wenger (1991) summarizes communities of practice (COP) as

“groups of people who shares a concern or a passion for something they do

and learn how to do it better as they interact regularly” This learning that takes

place is not necessarily intentional. Three components are required in order to

be a COP: (1) The domain, (2) The community, (3) The practice.

Scope and Delimitations

This research studies how to discuss the experience and challenges of

the different denominations within family and how they understand with their

beliefs. This will be conducted in the Municipality of Sto.Tomas using the

interview as an instrument. As a connection, the respondent of this study are

knowing one or more family member have different religions and different

faiths. In the said municipality and it has five participants to answer our

interview guide questions. After the interview, this research study will be able

to know the different religion within family.

Significance of Study

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 We are certain that gist of this phenomenological study would add to

the importance and significance of knowing the different religion within family.

It is through this study that we were able to understand why they have

different denominations in one family member and how it was being

formulated as well as the different religion they encountered their beliefs.

The significance of this study is to show and to know the difference religion

within family. The study will focus in the family of the different religion.

Therefore, it is beneficial to the three persons. The first is family, second are

the students and lastly are the future researchers.

As one of the beneficiary of this, the student may get knowledge and

perception about the different religion within family.

Lastly, future researchers can also learn something about this research and it

can quite help the specific researchers in this topic. This can somehow ease

the difficulty of conducting this research study.

Review Related Literature

Herein, we review relevant literature touching on the issues of (a)

intergenerational transmission of religion, (b) parenting style, and (c) family

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processes, particularly as they pertain to firmness and flexibility in religious

beliefs and practices.

Intergenerational Transmission of Religion A 20-year longitudinal study

by Spilman et al. (2013) found that intergenerational transmission of religiosity

was associated with higher quality of family relationships and family

functioning. They concluded, “All in all, the results suggest that religiosity

promotes competent family functioning across generations and was positively

associated with observable attributes of family relationships” (772).

Many parents wonder how to best transmit their religious beliefs and

values to their children and how to help their children have a desire to

maintain these values through adolescence and into adulthood. Many studies

have been conducted on how to effectively transmit religious values from

parents to children (Bao et al. 1999; Myers 1996).

Parental behavior has been identified as an important factor in

transmitting values to adolescents (Bengtsonet al. 2013; Flor and Knapp

2001; Kim-Spoon et al. 2012).

Children often are observant of their parent’s actions and values,

including to what extent they are consistent-or firm-in their religious beliefs

and practices. Dudley and Dudley (1986) found that conflict between parents

or between parent and child can inhibit transmission of values, while intimacy

in the home facilitated children internalizing values. Similarly, a recent

landmark, three-decade, longitudinal study with more than 3,000 participants

found that warmth and closeness between parent and child significantly

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predicted whether children continued in the parent’s faith-a finding that held

for both mother-child and father-child relations (Bengtson et el. 2013).

Across studies, it appears that when parents found a balance between

emotional support and control with adolescents, they were more likely to be

successful in transmitting their religious values. If parents were rigid in their

approach to religion, their children were more likely to become disaffiliated

with their parent’s religion as adults (Hansen 1998).

Empirical work on family rituals has offered additional insight. Although

family ritual typically benefits individuals and relationships (Chelladurai et al.

2018; Fiese et al. 2002; Marks and Dollahite 2012), additional empirical

support for the danger of excessive religious rigidity is offered by a study that

found that compulsory family worship was more detrimental than no family

worship at all (Lee et al. 1997). It appears possible that a major cause of

parent-parent and parent-child conflict over religious matters may stem from

unhealthy levels of firmness (rigidity) and/or unwillingness to manifest

appropriate kinds of flexibility in religious belief, practice, and ritual. A study by

Gane (2014) that examined parent to adolescent faith transmission found that

(a) meaningful relationships with mentors within the adolescent’s church and

(b) parents openly sharing their faith with their children were both major

contributors to transmitting faith to adolescents. Additional positive

transmission influences identified in other studies include helping youth learn

the stories of their religious heritage, encouraging youth to develop a personal

relationship with God, providing opportunities for youth to engage with other

members of the religious congregation, strengthening parent-child

relationships, parental modeling of religious commitment, fostering

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connections between youth and religious leaders, and engaging in religious

conversations with youth (Dollahite and Thatcher 2008; Smith and Denton

2005).

Definition of Terms

This content may refers to define those difficult words, this are the following:

Denominations. A religious group

Phenomenology. The study of the development of human consciousness

and self-awareness as a preface to or a part of philosophy

Religion. The belief in a god or in a group of gods

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Interfaith. Describe an interaction between people of different religions or

faith traditions.

Family. Defined as a specific group of people that may be made up of

partners, children, parents, aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents.

CHAPTER II

METHODOLOGY

The chapter contains the content of the procedure and methods gathering

fact and evidence also information about the different denominations within

family.

Research Design

This is qualitative research which deals with the interview study of

certain life. According to Crossman (2019), Qualitative research is a type of

social science research that collects and works with non-numerical data and

that seeks to clarify meaning from these data that help us understand social

life through the study of targeted populations or places. People often frame it

in opposition to quantitative research, which uses numerical data to identify

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large-scale trends and employs statistical operations to determine casual and

correlative relationships between variables.

Narrative researcher enables you to explore the meaning of human

action and phenomena constructed in narratives. Narrative as a concept

combines stories and narration. Your narrative researcher started will focus

on the types of stories told about the researched phenomenon and on the

type of story in culture and society which presents the phenomenon. The

starting point in your strategy is the idea of language and language use as a

primary elements in the construction of meaning. (maaliskuuta, 2010)

Research Locale

This study will be conducted in Sto.Tomas National High School Menzi

Sto.Tomas Davao Del Norte, especially at the Senior High School building.

The interview will manage outside the school.

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Figure 1: Vicinity Map of Sto.Tomas Davao Del Norte

Research Participants

The participant of this study is a different religion within family who

encountered their beliefs in a denomination.

The selected participant will be the family who have a different religion.

Consequently since it was a narrative then the researchers will select five

participants.

Research Instrument

In this qualitative research is a research guide question that describes

the tools for data collection, and also assure that the instruments chosen

probable and reliable. It’s signifies the both side. In relation to deal of what is

the feeling of being a different religion within the family.

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 According to Steber (2017), In-depth interviews are a qualitative data

collection method that involves direct, one-on-one espousal with individual

participants. In-depth interviewing can take place face-to-face, or in some

cases over the phone. However, for the latter to be effective and deliver

reliable information, the interview must be highly skilled to prevent data loss.

Ethical Considerations

In conducting this study, it concerned about the participant of getting its

permission involving verbal and consent form. The researcher prepare

intensive that is being answer by the participant and the researchers also

ensure the privacy of the participant will kept and still remain on the place

where they conduct the study. Confidentially and anonymity will manifest to

ensure the safeties of the participants. All important details will be noted and

audio recorder will be kept.

Data Gathering Procedures

The type of procedure that we used is in-depth interview. In-depth

interviewing is a qualitative research technique that involves conducting

individual interviews through a discovery-oriented approach, which allows the

interviewer to explore the respondent’s point of view and perspectives on a

topic. The method involves selecting a number of respondents to explore their

perceptions, behaviors, and attitudes regarding a particular idea, issue, or

situation. This technique relates to qualitative approaches where

standardization is not a requirement and depending on the research question,

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the researcher decides on a case-by-case basis whether to record different

pieces of information and at what level of depth. (Sbalchiero, 2018)

Data Analysis

The data would be analyze by the known procedure through determining

the patterns of answers during all the interviews as the inductive analysis. The

conversation would be recorded and transcribed. From the transcribe

discussion, the patterns of experiences and structural themes appeared base

bon the given ideas.

Role of the Researchers

The role of the researchers in this study is essential to the credibility of

the research problem. The researcher is careful in constructing words to

prevent plagiarism and also in interviewing the respondents the researcher

use intensive words as promise by the research by the first place.

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 Chapter III

RESULT AND DISCUSSION

All of this Information that was gathered through interview formulated

by a family involving different denomination herein Sto.Tomas Davao del

Norte. The data were being transcribed through a written copy or some of a

recorded matter to sum up our result and was translated thoroughly by the

researchers.

The conducted interview was composed of 5 single fathers answering

our research questionnaires. This data gathering was all conducted in a week

and used the same questionnaires to gather the same thoughts of ideas. The

three key points of our research questionnaires are:

Research Questions #1: What are the experiences of a family involving

different denominations?

Research Questions #2:What are the insights of a family involving different

denominations?

We put the thematic statements of our participants in data analysis in

chapter 2. The thematic statements will verify that the interviews did not

fabricate the answers of our participants itself, and all the opinions and

statements were recorded via cellphone from the different denomination in

one family.

The experiences of a family involving different denominations

As we interviewed our participants, we have these sub-questions that can

lead our participants to direct or indirect main question.

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The time that the interview was finished, the researcher three core

experiences of a different denomination within family, and these are the

following experiences: Faith, Experiences and Strong Beliefs. The essential

themes and core ideas were presented table-by-table, table 1 were the

experiences being a different denomination within family. The theme also

explained and supported by the thematic statements of our participants.

Table 1: Experiences of a family having a different denomination

Essential Themes Core Ideas

Faith One of the reasons why I'm still having my

commitment to God. It's everything to me.

Experiences A worth life a lesson, it brought me to the highest peak

of happiness where I can only have in ways of serving

the Lord. Sometimes, yes and maybe not, because I

can do nothing if that is what they believe and of

course our principles of life are different even though

we are one family.

Beliefs Undeniable, believe it more, because it says the true

word from God and we believe in the sect and we feel

that we are here to be saved.

Faith

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 It was revealed in the depth interview that we conducted from our

participants who are different denomination in one family experience of being

a Faith is confidence or trust in, a person thing or concept in a particular

system of religious. (James W. Fowler 2010)

Mr. Participant 2 one of our participant stated that the experiences a faith.

She still has strong faith or beliefs. She stated:

“….sa amo man gud relihiyon kay gina practice gyud namo ang word of

god, human kay gina tudlo gyud ang tinuod na salvation”

(In the religion that I believe we are practice the word of God and then

teaching the true salvation)

Mr. Participant 3

Experience

The religious identity formation of young people in mixed-faith families,

this article focuses on their experiences and perceptions of religious nature in

the community. (Elisabeth Arwerck 2011)

“….Sa akoa, kay maka experience ko sa akong pamilya og dili pagka

sinabtanay labaw na kay lahi-lahi mig gina samba , niya mao lagi mag dibati-

dibati me mahitungod sa among gipang samba niya usahay kay maabot gyud

sa time nga maglalisay na gyud me”

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(For me, I experienced my family’s misunderstanding especially in terms of

our beliefs, this is why sometimes we across a misunderstanding.)

Beliefs

A different faith is that constellation of beliefs. Communicate about

religious differences with love and respect; look for ways to adapt traditional

religious practices get together with other interfaith families. (Alden 2010)

“…ni tuo ko aning relihiyona dili tungod kay kini ang maka luwas nako kundili

akong pag tuo sa ginoo”

(I believe in this religion is not because it can save me but only my belief in

God.)

Insights of a Family Involving Different Denominations

After we gathered the data that our participants given to us and

categorize it, we researchers discovered the insights of the different

denominations in one family by the following themes: Spiritual, Commitment,

Showing Respect. Table 2 shown the essential themes and core ideas of the

participants. After the table was the themes explain and supported by the

thematic statements. .

Table 2: Insights of a Family Involving Different Denominations

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 Essential Themes Core Ideas

Spirituality Relationship between ourselves and something greater

compels us to seek answers about the infinite, may include

religion for some, but still stands alone without connection to

any specific faith. All aspect that can strengthen my faith and

will serves as my spiritual foundation

commitment Not what we say perfect because we all know that all of us

are prone on committing wrong deeds. But, aside from having

that weaknesses, I’m faithful to God I’m sincere and genuine

to my love to him. Since I’ve met him. I’m used to be

responsible in my spiritual life and this is how my commitment

to Him works. I have a strong faith, and I’m beyond grateful of

having it.

Showing Respect A feeling of admiring someone or something that is good,

valuable, important, serious and should be treated in an

appropriate way and I used to appreciate things.

Spiritual

It was revealed in the depth interview that we conducted from our

participants, who are the different denomination within family that one of their

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insights as a different denomination is that you need Spiritual, Mr.

Participant 4 stated that the insight of Spirituality. She stated:

...’’isip usa ka bata nga nangalagad sa Ginoo akung maingun kay bisan lahi-

lahi mig relihiyon o gituohan, isa ra gihapon ka ginoo among gituohan’’

(As a child of God who is praising Him. I’m just want to say that we have a

different religion or belief but theirs one god that we believe)

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 Chapter IV

IMPLICATION, RECOMMENDATION, & CONCLUSION

Implication

Having different beliefs in a family is not easy. Thus its effect of a

family of different religions or beliefs can lead to misunderstanding and

disagreements about their religion being worshiped.

Family is a wonderful gift to us by or God. In the family there is no loss

of self-respect, understanding, love, mutual, trust and faith in God. This study

is about families of different faiths and why they are not united in the belief

that they are one family. Having a different belief God in family is not bad and

it is even more wonderful to illustrate for those family having this issue.

Recommendation

We would like researchers to recommend this study “Home Religion”:

This study helps you to realize the importance of each and every one of your

families even though their beliefs are different researchers want to add this to

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families with issues like these, so they can see that it does not hinder a

family’s different beliefs.

Conclusion

Based on our study we have come across different faces, especially to

family members. They had at first experienced of misunderstanding and

disagreement because of their various faith in God. Although thy may not

have the same faith, it has not been a hindrance to break the communication

of each of their families. Their beliefs are different, but they choose to be

good, understanding and respectful of each other and respect the religion

they worship.

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APPENDIX

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 References

Chia (2009) Interfaith Groups Retrieved by

https://www.palgrave.com/look/9781137596970

John Fahy & Jeffry Haynes (2018) Interfaith on the world stage Retrieved by

https://www.doi-org/10.1080/15570274.2018;1509278

Hadi Kusuma (2012) Interculturall and Religious Retrieved by

https://www.mdpi.com/2077-1444/11/1/12

Shellnut, Kate (2018) Religion Retrieved by

https://www.christianity.com/news/full/10.10801570274,2018.1509278

Keny John (2015) Way to talk about Interfaith Retrieved by

https://wwwamericamgazin/religion-and-deplomacy

Jeffrey Haynes (2009) Religious Fundamental Retrieved by

http://www.brookings.edu/research/articles/2011/04/international-relations

Hilary Dalton (2011) Faith and Family Retrieved by

https://www.uua.org/reach/winter02/curriculum/fam

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