Inte var väl det så synd? Om församlingspedagogers syn på synd och hur de hanterar ämnet i barn- och konfirmandgrupper
The ambition of this paper is to study the construction of the categorization between ?us? and ?them? in a religious minority, represented by Jehovah?s Witnesses and a nationalist political party, represented by the Swedish Democrats. This will be done by a discursive psychology analysis of their official publications on each group?s website. By a deductive study using Henri Tajfel?s Social Identity Theory trying to disclose the psychological processes; social categorization, social identity, social comparison and psychological distinctiveness. The study will also include one potential danger of the ?us? and ?them? categorization ? terrorism, through Fathali M. Moghaddam?s Staircase to Terrorism. This will be done partly through comparing the two theories to see where they overlap and how they differ. Partly through looking at Jehovah?s Witnesses and the Swedish Democrats publication in light of the Staircase to Terrorism. The aim is not to accuse either of these groups of terrorism, but mainly to show what preconditions each groups? ideologies contain as formulated on their websites. The achieved results of this study shows that the psychological processes to create and maintain the dichotomy between ?us? and ?them? in a religious minority and a nationalistic political party overlap in several ways. For instance both claim that everybody is welcome to join the ingroup, if they are prepared to assimilate. This however might be harder for some groups than others in the case of the Swedish Democrats. The differences is mostly found in the psychological distinctiveness, where Jehovah?s witnesses focus on social creativity, that is to choose social comparison group and changing dimensions of comparing. While the Swedish Democrats do obtain these strategies as well as their aim to improve the ingroups? status focuses on social competition through political action. As for terrorism both groups shows some tendencies that overlap with the preconditions for potential terrorist groups or ?steps? of the Staircase to Terrorism. For instant they both have a clear dichotomy between ?us? and ?them?, and they believe their ?we? ? ingroup to be threatened and considers the society to be in need of great change. This does not mean however that either of these groups is on the edge to terrorism. The main reason found to why they don?t take terrorist action is, in the case of Jehovah?s Witnesses that they believe it to be Gods mission to create societal change. In the case of the Swedish Democrats they do not consider violence to be the only option. But it shows the danger of categorization between ?us? and ?them?.