Every Sparrow That Falls: Understanding Animal Rights Activism as Functional Religion

This ar ticle reports original research conducted among animal rights activists and elites in Switzerland and the United States, and the Žnding that activism functioned in activists’ and elites’ lives like religious belief. The study used reference sampling to select Swiss and American informants.Various articles and activists have identiŽed both latent and manifest quasi-religious components in the contemporary movement. Hence, the research followed upon these data and anecdotes and tested the role of activism in adherents’ lives. Using extensive interviews, the research discovered that activists and elites conform to the Žve necessary components of Yinger’s deŽnition of functional religion: intense and memorable conversion experiences, newfound communities of meaning, normative creeds, elaborate and well-deŽned codes of behavior, and cult formation. The ar ticle elaborates on that schema in the context of animal rights belief, elucidates the deeply meaningful role of activism within a Žligree of meaning, and concludes that the movement is facing schismatic forces not dissimilar to redemptive and religious movements