Religion and Politics

Religion and Politics

US Christian Right, a comment: • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o0Kc3iHr6xg • Radical vs. moderate Muslims: • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y557sMqA5mw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=odFJr3Krr3A

The global religious landscape (Pew Research global study, 2012): • http://www.pewforum.org/global-religious-landscape-exec.aspx

Modernization and secularization • C. Wright Mills, 1960s: • “Once, the world was filled with the sacred – in thought, practice, and institutional form. After the Reformation and the Renaissance, forces of modernizations swept across the globe, and secularization, a corollary process, loosened the dominance of the sacred. In due course, the sacred will disappear altogether, except, possibly, in the private realm.” • Peter Berger, 2000s: • “The world today, with some exceptions, is as furiously religious as it ever was, and in some places even more so than ever. This means that a whole body of literature by historians and social scientists loosely labeled “modernization” is mistaken.”

Christianity’s southern shift* • Sub-Saharan Africa: the Christian share of the population has soared from 9% a century ago to 63%. • 24% of the world’s Christians live there. • Nigeria has more Protestants than Germany: 80 mln. people • Europe: the Christian share has dropped from 95% to 76%. • The Americas: decline from 96% to 86%. • *Pew Research, Dec. 2011 - http://www.usatoday.com/news/religion/story/2011-12-20/christianity-growth-africa-europe/52125920/1

Ten global trends in religion, by Jay Gary: http://www.wnrf.org/cms/print_tentrends.shtml Religious Change around the World: a massive 2009 study, University of Chicago: http://news.uchicago.edu/article/2009/10/23/growth-secular-attitudes-leaves-americans-room-belief-god

Trends in the West • Church attendance has fallen • Clergy has lost its authority over the public in such matters as birth control, divorce, sexual orientation, and necessity of marriage before childbirth • Growing religious diversity and politicization of religious differences • In America: rising power of Christian fundamentalists

Trends in the post-communist East • End of persecution of religion • Post-atheistic religious revival in most countries, especially among Orthodox Christians and Muslims • The church increases its influence on state and society • Religion acquires a growing role in underpinning conservative forces in societies

Trends in the Global South • The rise of political Islam • The growth of Christian churches, especially in Africa • Rising Christian-Muslim tensions and conflicts • Growing persecution of Christians

Nationality and faith: competing identities

The state is defined by its monopoly on the use of force • And by its legitimacy • For legitimation of power, most states in history have needed religion • The state’s need to justify itself in the minds of the ruled • The church (mosque, ashram, synagogue) plays a mediating role between the rulers and the ruled: • It helps rulers maintain a social order • And, as a major institution of civil society, it helps the people adapt to a social order – or change it • Interactions, contradictions and balances between these two functions are at the core of the problematic of church-state relations

Models of church-state relations • Religious and state institutions are closely bound together • Religion is separate from the state and persecuted by it • Religion and the state are constitutionally separate, faith is a private matter, no religious discrimination

With rare exceptions, the rulers need religion • But they often keep a wary eye on religious activities • Because the church can never be fully controlled • What are the loyalties of the church? • To God • To the ruler • To the state, irrespective of the ruler • To the nation • Can these loyalties be broken? • Criticizing the ruler • Questioning some laws • Criticizing society

To what extent and in what ways can the Church influence the exercise of state power? • The church may help protect society from the state’s aggressions • It may help maintain a moral order • It may speak out against injustice in society • It may foster national unity in the face of threats to the nation • Or, • It may stand in the way of social and political change • Advocate discrimination and oppression • Foster social discord • Rationalize tyranny, aggression and militarism

Whether organized religion sides with the state against society or reinforces society vis-a-vis the state • Whether the church helps society to solve its problems or hinders the search for solutions - • Depends on many different factors: • Political, economic, cultural • In an age of democratic proliferation, the roles of organized religion are determined less and less by its power structures, and more and more by the laity – common parishioners

Religion and Politics