Discuss the importance of Religion in "To Kill a Mockingbird" by Harper Lee.

The theme of religion in 'To Kill a Mockingbird' is an extremely important one. It stands as a crucial point for other themes in the novel such as racism, sexism and discrimination. The community of Maycomb County all believe themselves to be devout, wholesome people; we discover that they are using their religion to indulge in other criticisms. Although they listen to the sermons about their religion and pretend that they practise it outside of church on a Sunday, the rest of their time, their beliefs on social harmony are far from the perfect Christian morals they believe themselves to have.

This is evident in Chapter twenty-four, the scene that involves the 'ladies of the missionary tea circle'. Here the majority of women believe themselves to be utterly perfect 'southern-belles', who devote their life to discussing the works of Jesus .One thing is apparent, though, the women in the group hold diverse viewpoints and represent the various liberal, conservative, and hypocritical viewpoints found in the general population of Maycomb county. We see how shallow they actually are when they go into discussion about the "Mrunas" and how awful it would be to have people such as this living in their community, with "lots of children running round" "all dirty" and "flea ridden". Here we see the uncanny irony because, these women have these type of people living amongst them; the Ewell family. But although they may see this similarity, they may refuse to accept it because as "Ladies", they cannot accept such atrocities in their own town.

Although the theme of religion is though to be taken seriously by every member of the community, it is only really practised by the black community. Indeed, the white people practise it. But, in measures such as when Miss Maudie is condemned for...