Religion is an organized system of beliefs, practices, rules and ceremonies used to worship a god or groups of gods. Religion as an organization has an overall leader who is normally elected by a special council of church leaders. From this the church is seen to have defined structures that enable it perform its duties. On the other hand, the State is an organization that is the governing authority of a political unit. The leader of a state is normally elected by the majority. This shows how religion is closely related to the state in terms structures and management. The relation between religion and state is a very important subject that helps in the establishment of the political philosophy of a state. However, at some point the religious demands conflicts with the political philosophy of the state. For example, in the case of the Islam that demand absolute obedience to Allah’s will.
In most cases, the religious beliefs and practices supports the state politics in many ways like the morals and ethical norms taught by the church strengthen the faith in the state thus promoting good governance although the extent of the form and support can be source of conflict in the state (Martin,n.d). The intersection of religion and politics in a state is therefore of great concern as it determines the sustainability and the coexistence of a state and help in solving the philosophical problems such as faith versus separation between the church and the state, tolerance versus coercion of religious beliefs and conflicts between religious practice and political authority, liberal citizenship and its demands on self understanding and the role of religion in political deliberation.
Religion has played a key in the political life of various states...
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...eligious involvement in state governance, I agree with the religion involvement in government for the peace, conformity, coercion and tolerance, ethics and morals it emphasizes thus promoting good governance.
Works Cited
Flood, G. D. (2012). The Importance of Religion: Meaning and Action in our Strange World. Chichester, West Sussex, UK: Wiley-Blackwell.
Martin.R.(n.d).Religious Freedom and Conflict. A Review of the Evidence. Retrieved 27 April 2014 from http://www.thearda.com/workingpapers/download/USAID%20Religion%20and%20Conflict%20Final%20Report%209-18-12.pdf
Bingham.J.(2012).Christians must Choose between Religion and Obeying law, says Equalities chief Trevor Phillips. The Telegraph. Retrieved 27 April 2014 from http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/religion/9088352/Christians-must-choose-between-religion-and-obeying-law-says-equalities-chief-Trevor-Phillips.html
Religion is a part of society that is so closely bound to the rest of one’s life it becomes hard to distinguish what part of religion is actually being portrayed through themselves, or what is being portrayed through their culture and the rest of their society. In Holy Terrors, Bruce Lincoln states that religion is used as a justifiable mean of supporting violence and war throughout time (Lincoln 2). This becomes truly visible in times such as the practice of Jihad, the Reformation, and 9/11. The purpose of this essay is to show that as long as religion is bound to a political and cultural aspect of a community, religious war and destruction will always occur throughout the world. A historical methodology will be deployed in order to gain
Throughout history, and in many nations and empires throughout time, governments are affected by religions of different kinds. Religion has been an integral component of humanity, as a way to search answers to existential questions that they might have as well as possibly giving a reason as to why the things they saw happen occur, mostly in older religions. Religion is used by people in power to govern the citizens of their nations on a basis of that religion, as a way to set the foundations of the rules and regulations that must be followed. The Han Dynasty and the Gupta Empire during the classical ages of China and India, respectively, are examples of how their emperors used religion to exert control and shape their nation. The methods in
The modern state seeks its self-preservation above all else, and history reveals that governments are more than willing to exercise their monopoly on force and coercion in order to cement and defend their authority (5-6). Normally, unified social bodies such as the Church seek to counteract the dominance of the state through their public and political influence. However, when the Church simultaneously abdicates its political connections and powers and interiorizes itself within individual Catholics, it frees the state to exercise its will with little backlash: “Once the church has been individualized and eliminated as Christ’s body in the world, only the state is left to impersonate God”
For more than a century, the concept of secularism and its boundaries has been widely disputed by secularists and non-secularists alike. English dictionaries define secularism as simply the separation of church and state, or, the separation of religion and politics. Michael Walzer, a true secularist, believes that this separation is an essential democratic value and ultimately fosters toleration of a plurality of religions (Walzer, p. 620). Wæver, an opponent of secularism, defines secularism as “a doctrine for how society ought to be designed”– that religion and politics ought to be divided in order to ensure religious liberty, as well as religious-free politics. However, he does not deem that such a principle exists (Wæver, p. 210). Based on these different viewpoints, I have established a unique concept of secularism: the principle that religion and politics be kept apart, that the state remains neutral in regard to religion, and that liberty, equality, and fraternity be upheld in an attempt to successfully promote religious toleration and pluralism.
Wood, James E, Jr. "Religious Human Rights and a Democratic State." Journal of Church and State 4(2004):739. eLibrary. Web. 31 Aug. 2011.
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In 1789, the First Amendment established that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion…” This meant the Federal and State Governments could not be partial or show support for any certain denomination or religious organization. However, throughout the history of the United States the controversial question over the relationship between church and state has always been called into question in establishing a one religion government. The main focus of the inquiry is to decide whether to keep the establishment clause or to tear it down and move towards a theocratic system. One side of the debate is the group against the separation of Church and State, who believe that if America was a more religious nation that it would become more moral as well as bring everyone in agreement with national decision making. Therefore the belief is that the United State would become more unified in an already corrupt system. On the other hand, the side for separation argues that the distance between established religion and national government is inherently necessary to keep maintain: religious tolerance, prevent biases, and prejudices, along with any sort of religious freedom in country that has thousands of different organized religions.
* McCuen, Gary E. Religion and Politics: Issues in Religious Liberty. Hudson: G.E. McCuen Publications, 1989.
There is a significant difference between government and religious morals even though both are ethical authorities. These two moral authorities conflict with one another while both are to help people make sou...
The influence of religion on humankind can be traced back to the first records of history. Religion has served as a pillar of strength to some and binding chains to others. There are vast amounts of information and anthropological studies revealing the interaction of religion and humankind. However, for the purposes of this paper, the time periods of study will be broken up into three sections. Each section will give a general description of how religion affected the institution of the state and its Sovereignty in a Euro-centric perspective. The first period is the early period, which will encompass from Christianity and the Roman Empire to the Medieval times (approx. 311 to 1100 A.D.).
"Center Update: Case Studies on Religion and Conflict." The Berkley Center. Georgetown University, n.d. Web. 20 Oct. 2012.
Religion is considered as a pervasive force in this world. It shapes people as to how they behave and interact with almost everything present in the society. Influencing behavior, character formations, ideals, policies, standards are just among the dimensions and societal perspectives affected and impacted by religion. Because of these applications and implications in human lives and existence, religion should be understood deeply, particularly, on how it affects the world. Looking at the American perspective of the term "religion," it could be simply
the appearance of the ruling in the name of religious doctrines like mercy, faithfulness integrity, and religion, because they have to act in the opposite manner when they are obliged to do so. The state or a political leader must always act contrary to the promise of maintaining charity, and religion in order to maintain their state. He views religion as an organization necessary for the preservation of public authority because religion instills the fear of God; a fear that keeps man disciplined and obedient and always in check. He says “ these citizens were more afraid of breaking an oath than of breaking laws, since they respected the power of God more than that of man”.
For thousands of years, religion has exerted a great influence over economic and political life. Even today religion is called upon to support rulers, contacts and other legal procedures.
The role of religion in politics is a topic that has long been argued, and has contributed to the start of wars, schisms (both political and religious), and other forms of inter and intra-state conflict. This topic, as a result of its checkered past, has become quite controversial, with many different viewpoints. One argument, put forth by many people throughout history, is that religion and the government should remain separate to avoid any conflicting interests. This view also typically suggests that there is one, or several, large and organized religions like the Roman Catholic Church, which would be able to use their “divine” authority to sway the politics of a given state by promising or threatening some form of godly approval or disapproval. By leveraging their divine power, individual figures within a religion, as well as the religion as a whole, could gain secular power for themselves, or over others. A second view, which was developed by many theologians through history, suggests that that without religion there would be a general lack of morality in the people and leaders of a given state, which would give way to poor political decisions that would not be in the interest of the people and perhaps even God (or the gods). This argument, however, does not address the fact that morality can exist without religion. In sociology, it is commonly accepted that social norms, which include morality, can result from any number of things. Religion, laws, or the basic desire of survival can all create these norms, so it suffices to say that as a society, our morals reflect our desire to live in relative peace through the creation of laws that serve to help us to survive. The argument of whether or not religion and politics should mix...