Religion and American Political Life

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Religion and American Political Life

• Wald and Calhoun-Brown Our conclusion, that
  religion in politics is neither an unvarying
  source of good nor a consistent evil influence,
  is unlikely to please either the most ardent
  advocates of a Christian America or secularists
  who want to keep religion safely outside the
  public square. It is consistent, however, with
  the historical record, which has shown that
  religion has the capacity both to ennoble and to
  corrupt political life.

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The Case Against Religious Influence in Politics

• The rise of religious activism in politics has
  been a source of concern and apprehension for
  many observers. They fear that religious
  controversy in politics will lead to extremism
  and polarization, infecting the body politic with
  unhealthy doses of fanaticism and ill will.
• Why? Many commentators have insisted that
  democratic government depends on willingness to
  bargain and negotiate, to approach politics in
  the spirit of compromise. Because religious and
  moral issues do not lend themselves so readily to
  compromise solutions, religious issues may
  challenge the normal system of governance.

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The Case Against Religious Influence in Politics 2

• Religious values may produce rigidity, dogmatism,
  and contempt for alternative points of view. One
  aspect of religious faith that encourages
  extremism, its claim to posses the truth,
  inspires believers with unshakable confidence in
  the rightness and inevitability of their efforts.
  Religion also provides standards of truth and
  justice believers may push relentlessly to bring
  all of society under these ideals. Finally, a
  person who believes that he is acting under Gods
  direct command may be prone to perceive opponents
  as not merely misguided or confused but as evil
  and malevolent.

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Dangers posed by fundamentalis involvement in
politics

• Fundamentalist who chart a morally black and
  white path out of the gray zones of intimidating
  cultural and religious complexity.
• 1- religious passions may inspire displays of
  individual intolerance and uncivil behaviour.
• 2- Religious commitment is expressed in violent
  acts such as property crimes, assaults, terrorist
  attacks, and killings.
• 3- systematic, organized violence against people
  or nation stimulated by conflicting religious
  identities.

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Antiabortion Violence, 1993-1998
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The Case Against Religious Influence in Politics

• Dogmatism, close-mindedness, and intolerance are
  not traits that promote civility or the free
  exchange of ideas. If such fundamentalist traits
  are pronounced among religious activists and
  their opponents, there is a solid basis for
  concern about the increasing politicization of
  religious issues. In our view, however, the
  evidence supporting a link between religiosity
  and the propensity to intolerance is not strong
  enough to warrant alarm.
• We are comforted by the belief that political
  participation may actually teach religious
  activities to moderate their style and tame their
  expectations.

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The Case Against Religious Influence in Politics

• Some authors argues that religion is an essential
  support for a democratic political orientation.
• Griffith, Plamenatz, and Pennock attempted to
  list the beliefs essential to the survival of
  democracy and to show how each one depended on
  the Judeo-Christian heritage
• 1- love for and belief in freedom best based
  upon belief in the sacredness of the individual
  as a child of God.
• 2- Active and constructive participation in
  community life best based upon the obligation of
  Christian, the Jew to accept responsibilities,
  cooperating with and working for their brother.
• 3- Integrity in discussion best based upon the
  inner light of truth being primary in a world God
  meant to be righteous.
• 4- The freely assumed obligation of economic
  groups to serve society.
• 5- Leadership and office holding regarded as
  public trusts.
• 6- Attitudes assuring that passion will be
  channelled into constructive ends.
• 7- Friendliness and cooperation among nations.

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The Case for Religious Influence in Politics 2

• However, to maintain that religion is the only
  basis for morality is to ignore the existence of
  secular philosophies that also support respect
  for human rights and liberties.
• On the other side, religious groups do perform
  the important task of reminding us that public
  decisions inescapably involve and reflect values.
  Without such remainders society might be willing
  to sacrifice the aged and the ill in the name of
  efficiency or some other standard.

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Some conclusions

• There is little alternative but to conclude that
  religion may sometimes sustain democratic values
  and sometimes undermine them.
• Ex. The veneration for authority said to
  characterize Protestant fundamentalism seems to
  pervade many of the institutions that compose the
  subculture. Thus, the dynamic evangelical
  churches that have provided leadership for the
  Christian Right conform to fairly rigid and
  hierarchical authority patterns that give members
  very little experience of democratic decision
  making.
• In the main time given the ambiguity of religious
  texts and teachings, the mixed historical record,
  and the empirical evidence, it would be foolhardy
  to assert that religious faith necessarily uphold
  democratic values.