Now, that part of our story is, I think, fairly well-known. It's the people. Ill talk about some ways that religion does divide American society but then some other ways in which we are united by religion, or at the very least, united in spite of our religious differences. I cant speak to the data because we didnt ask a question of, what do you think of people who shop around for churches? Whats new is that it used to be the Poles, the Lithuanians, the Italians and the Irish. He is an expert on religion and politics and public policy and has published widely on these subjects, including his prior book, Why We Vote: How Schools and Communities Shape Our Civic Life. How does religion cause conflicts in society? - Similar Tips Now, I have to admit, Im not sure I entirely agree with this statement, but I think its a useful point of discussion, something to consider whether the religious environment that were describing in American Grace foretells big changes in the way we see religion and its role in American society. Again, an overwhelming majority of folks in these different religious groups agree that, yes, even if youre not a Christian, you can still go to heaven. So its not just high-educated or low-educated people. A study by a German academic says religious conflicts in sub-Saharan Africa have been on the rise for decades. This chapter surveys the literature on the economics of religion, with a particular emphasis on its association with conflict. Its not what they believe. The raids took place in neighboring Somalia, where the government is fighting the Islamists. But the fact that these groups are near the bottom reminds us that our inclusiveness perhaps still has a ways to go. DON LEE, LOS ANGELES TIMES: I wanted to ask you about the economic impact. I guess that makes me a Lutheran, right? CAMPBELL: Thats a good question. Again, its the Aunt Susan principle. (+1) 202-419-4372 | Media Inquiries. And one of the interesting things about the book is that those different things are looked at carefully. I know thats not always a satisfying answer to a group of journalists, but thats about all we can do to try to figure out where people go. CAMPBELL: When we speak of religious beliefs, the questions that weve asked folks and we compiled them with the help of people like John Green and then a whole group of others who have spent a long time studying this sort of thing to advise us when we speak of religious beliefs, they are beliefs that are religious in nature. Weve actually not found many examples of it, but its useful fodder for discussion. That maybe says something about what we might be seeing in the future. And religious beliefs are amazingly stable, especially when theyre compared to political beliefs or political opinions. Because after Billy Graham emerged on the scene in the 50s, even evangelical Protestants would say only God would know. Several measures will be required butthe good news is that some of these are already in place. And now its the Guatemalans and the Mexicans, and to see the interplay between those groups is interesting. The answer, we suggest, is your Aunt Susan. We dont have to go way back in the past. There has been an entire industry in political science trying to basically justify a Democratic society on the basis of the fact that people seem to be guessing when we ask them about their political opinions. And so I was wondering whether somebody had picked up on, whats Harry Reid going to tell us about Christianity? That is one way that we get all the religious mixing and mingling that we find in the United States. If youd read our book, you would have seen it. What this graph shows you the percentage of Americans who are willing to say that a person who does not have religious faith can still be a good American. If you look at that data and the percentage of Americans who married across specifically Catholic versus Protestant lines, America a hundred years ago looks like Northern Ireland today. One's beliefs does not match with another. All the Yes points: Religion is a stronger force than any material incentives. But saying grace is one of them, and so we found that this is a useful indicator. So thats the sense that we have American grace. On the religious side, one can carry out de-radicalization measures, thus strengthening peaceful interpretations of faith. You can see that in each case, relatively small percentages say, all my friends, all my family, all my neighbors are of the same religion. Its differentiated because there are all different kinds of ways to be religious. There are very few things in survey-type research of this sort that divide Americans as cleanly as this. Now, there are lots of different ways that we can represent that shock. But that doesnt mean that that would necessarily stay the same over time. Functionalism Functionalists generally argue that religion promotes value consensus in a society. Actually, the role that ethnicity and race play within religion is a major theme in the book. Matthew White's The Great Big Book of Horrible Things gives religion as the primary cause of 11 of the world's 100 . And that puzzle is how can Americans be religiously devout, religiously diverse and religiously tolerant? It was an empirical question. But yeah, theyre a little more likely. But its also where you find the sharpest class divide. Ninety-one percent. From that point of view, both people on the progressive side who advocate social justice and people on the more traditional side who advocate morality may be on the outs because both of those approaches to religion in public life demand public justice of one kind or another. MARRAPODI: Just one quick follow-up question on that. So if you have a Muslim friend and you thought you lived in this Catholic universe, and then you think, okay, your pal Sal, shes not so bad, does that have a direct relationship on all of these orthodox beliefs? STEENLAND: Right, right. As a result, powerful religious movements constrain state-led efforts to provide social protection, increasing income inequality. Why Religions Facilitate War and How Religions Facilitate Peace It is far better at directing behaviour The very existence of theocratic states, for example, Iran, proves that religion can be a legitimate Biblical commandments are the basis of Western ethical and legal systems. CAMPBELL: We account for it by first, if somebody says they have no religion, they go into that category, and then we know lots of other things about them and they fit the profile that youre describing. But your Aunt Susan, or whoever your Aunt Susan might be in my case, its actually Uncle Harry your Aunt Susan is of another religion. The Middle East's Conflicts Are About Religion Religion and Politics Confusion may arise over whether a terrorist group has a religious agenda, a political agenda, or both. CAMPBELL: On the question of how does somebody get classified as an evangelical in our survey, we use a system thats actually used here at Pew John Green is the pioneer of it whereby we take the denomination that someone affiliates with and sort those, in the case of Protestants: the mainline Protestants, the evangelical Protestants and the black Protestants. Im reacting primarily to a great book written years ago by Stephen Bates called Battleground about public education issues in America. Economic Inequality, Relative Power, and Religiosity - JSTOR Thats an awful lot to absorb. Basically, one must distinguish between two types of religious conflicts. DAVID CAMPBELL, UNIVERSITY OF NOTRE DAME: The first thing I need to note that I guess is now obvious, but lets just make it clear: I am not Bob Putnam. (Applause.). COOPERMAN: (Inaudible, applause) a diverse, differentiated and dynamic discussion. This slide confirms what weve all suspected, which is that beginning in the late 1980s, early 1990s, we began to see a strengthening of the connection between religiosity and conservative, particularly Republican, politics. Im sitting in for Luis Lugo, our director, whos out of town. Actually what youre describing is remarkable, given what we see in our data. Sometimes they fight because they're scared.. I work for Swedish Public Radio. In fact, some historians would argue that it was the most religious period of all of American history. Below that, we find evangelical Protestants and Americans who are not religious. You talked about specifically glomming on politically and just because Im a Christian doesnt mean Im a Republican. MCMANUS: I wanted to ask what happens when you apply those screens to the phenomena youre talking about, but also when you look at the question of what makes religious people happier and more engaged citizens. The type of entrepreneurial response on the religious side to the growth of the nones that we would expect would probably be a religion that has an evangelical flavor to it but was devoid of the politics, and specifically devoid of the emphasis on homosexuality, that that seems to be the one issue that young people just pull away from and dont necessarily want to hear religious leaders emphasize. I kind of understand how pinch hitters who have to go in for Derek Jeter must feel, except I guess in this case youd have to say that Im a pinch bowler. The idea is to provide vignettes of how folks of different religious backgrounds live out their faith in the U.S. Finally, the very last thing I wanted to raise is actually a new point and not something we discuss in the book. They hold onto their young. You also mentionedin your studythat countries with a heterogeneous population and religious communities are particularly susceptible to religious conflicts. So now they represent roughly 17 percent of the American population overall. Neither of those are Catholic orthodox beliefs. COOPERMAN: On that just a Christian, we do it a little bit differently here. The Impact of Religious Conflict in Society - GraduateWay I mean, its like asking what do you think of when we say the word Coca-Cola or Pepsi cola? But one of the more interesting ones is just simply the fact that when you plot what Americans, themselves, were saying about religion in American society beginning in the 1950s and continuing forward in time, based on Gallup polls, you find that Americans in the 1950s said, yeah, religion has a huge influence in our society. Weve actually done a version of our Faith Matters Survey in Northern Ireland, as well as in the Republic of Ireland and the U.K., and thats just one finding thats really striking to us, that there you have a religiously segregated society today that looks like what America looked like a hundred years ago. Do you really, really, really, really, really believe in God? That has never been called part of being religious by the press. (Applause.). But historically, it is remarkable, and its yet another way that Americans have managed to build bridges across different religions. As a result certain kinds of violence are condemned, and others are ignored. We hypothesize that along with religious conflict, regardless of the source, other protective factors may be lost including social support networks. More recently, Ren Girard saw early religions as a kind of Freudian displacement mechanism whereby we ritually sacrifice a kind of . You dont find as many people in the moderate religious middle today as we once did. You got a lot of Republicans who supported those. Its whether or not they have a lot of friends within their religious congregation, which suggests that perhaps whats going on could be replicated in secular organizations, although the sort of secular group that would replicate what a congregation does is pretty rare. A really good example of unity is the kind of tolerance and civic culture that he also talked about. Is Religion a Source of Consensus or Conflict? - ReviseSociology And in a sense, Putnam and Campbell are arguing that Americans had no really good reason to be this way, but it turned out that way and it was really quite good and positive for the most part. It is a little bit humbling to be asked to stand in for Bob Putnam. So those two things are sort of cutting against each other. CAMPBELL: Yeah, I dont know if I want to say that were at a point where theres a sharp divide between those who are highly educated and less-educated in terms of their church attendance. It is often claimed that religion causes conflict and war. They dont know whether they are in or out. You also asked about whether the religious intermarriage you find within couples suggests that theres a blurring of the lines between religious traditions, and I think that that is certainly the case. Causes of religious conflicts Religious conflicts arise from a variety of causes, including different interpretations of scripture, competition for resources, and the desire to spread one's own faith. CAMPBELL: Thats a good question. CAMPBELL: Yes, thank you. I dont want to overstate the class differences in religiosity in the U.S., but there are some differences and were able to account for that. Being religious didnt tell us anything about your politics. How does that happen? This can lead to inflexibility and intolerance towards other beliefs. Another thing that Id like to raise is the limits of the goodwill generated by all this social capital and all this social interaction. We do so using a thing called a feeling thermometer.. There, we might get a different story. In other words,governments and states must offer their citizensbetter prospects. That suggests actually that theres a high level of religious intermarriage in other countries. Oh, great, there we go; were better than everybody. Religions may accuse each other of sacrilegious. This is a pretty useful indicator of the level of an individuals own religiosity that weve found to be somewhat interesting. The post-September 11 world is seized with the dangers of religious extremism and conflict between religious communities, particularly between two or more of the Abrahamic faiths: Islam, Christianity, and Judaism. And to do so, Im going to present a geological history of postwar America because we do see, along societal and political lines, polarization when it comes to religion. As was noted in that very kind introduction, Im going to talk a little bit today about a book that Bob and I have recently published, entitled American Grace: How Religion Divides and Unites Us. But in spite of that, we still find a high degree of religious acceptance. And you can see that the United States, when compared to other industrialized nations, scores very highly on this one measure of religiosity, although this would be true for others as well. I think youre right. Often, religion is a contentious issue. But some of you are sitting there and saying, well, wait a second, is that just Methodists saying that the Presbyterians can go to heaven and the Episcopalians just saying that the Lutherans can go to heaven which might be significant, but isnt quite the same thing as a Southern Baptist saying that a Muslim can go to heaven or a Catholic saying that a Jew can go to heaven. They also have a higher birthrate. Doesn't religion cause most of the conflict in the world? How can religion resolve conflict? - TimesMojo When I asked the millennials in our 2005 survey what identified them most closely as a Catholic, 91 percent, the first thing they said ahead of Jesus being important to them was concern for the . I would argue that the Democratic Party and Im going to try to show it in this forthcoming book is rooted in the Bible. And thats true. COOPERMAN: Thats terrific for teeing up the fact that the Pew Forum will be coming out with a report next month on the growth of the Muslim population in the United States and around the world. Today Im going to try to cover at least some of the highlights of what weve done. Due to poorly treating members of society. Its widely known that theres an increasing proportion of Latinos within the Catholic Church, as you mentioned yourself just now. Religion and Conflict | Beyond Intractability But, Dave, briefly, did you want to respond to anything that John said before we open it up to questions? The reason why this is so interesting is its not just that it splits 50-50. But we should not expect that this alone will make a quick and sustainable difference. The threat of religious extremism is real and well documented. Those are my version of the D words. It turns out that that simple question, how frequently you say grace, divides Americans almost exactly in half. MCMANUS: Let me just back up, though, to take the first point. This written transcript has been edited by Amy Stern for clarity, grammar and accuracy. In the cases of parental beliefs and leaving one's religion, internalized homophobia had a minimal effect, suggesting that these indicators of conflict are independently associated with suicidal . When we say religious beliefs, we are asking things that we think people would perceive as religious in a traditional sense. ALAN COOPERMAN, PEW FORUM ON RELIGION & PUBLIC LIFE: Good afternoon. That said, however, its also worth noting that the frequency of shopping varies across religious traditions because it turns out that we have at least a few religious groups in the country that actually assign people a place to worship on the basis of where they live. Somalia is one of the most unstablecountries in Africa; it is also one of the most religiously homogenous countries onthe continent. JOHN GREEN, PEW FORUM ON RELIGION & PUBLIC LIFE: Thank you very much. So evangelicals and Mormons are a little more likely to hold onto their flock than other groups. Superiority Members of the Islamic State in the Levant (ISIL) carry the ISIL flag. Were reasonably confident that the calls weve made are at least justified on the basis of what we see in the data and what other people have done as we stand on the shoulders of giants. It is a subsidiary of The Pew Charitable Trusts. CAMPBELL: I wont try to respond to all of this. Im Methodist or Lutheran or whatever. They clam up and say, Im not anything. How Does Religion Cause Conflict Among Citizens | ipl.org But by historical and international standards, that is historical comparing the United States against itself in times past but international comparing the United States to other countries today, the U.S. actually does present a very unusual environment for religion in that it simultaneously combines three things. Views about religion in American society. CAMPBELL: Thank you for that comment. Countries like Saudi Arabia or Qatar are spreading Wahhabism, or similar variants, which can indirectly create aradical ideology that leads to violence. The respondent today will be John Green, who is director of the Ray C. Bliss Institute of Applied Politics and a distinguished professor of political science at the University of Akron and a senior researcher here at the Forum. CAMPBELL: Thank you for raising that. Thank you all for braving the snow and the bad weather. For example, radical Muslim groups demand the introduction ofSharia law. It is so common that we often dont even remark upon it at all. And yet in spite of those two things, we are also a country that is religiously tolerant. Why are countries in sub-Saharan Africa so vulnerable to this kind of conflict? I alluded to this in the presentation, but I can talk about it here in slightly more depth. We have a chapter in the book where we are able to look at why people switch from one religion to another and also from one congregation to another. The secular volunteering and the secular giving of folks who are religious is actually higher than folks who are secular. Robert Wuthnow at Princeton, whos a sociologist of religion, refers to todays young people as tinkerers in their religious beliefs and practices. Religion teaches us toler Increasingly whats happened is that many Americans who are themselves somewhat moderate, maybe on the left side of the political spectrum, when asked today, are you of a particular religion, think, well, wait a second, religion that equals a particular brand of politics. makes religion more attractive to wealthy individuals, it also magnifies their ability to spread religion to others.
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