Religion In American Grace: How Religion Dividees Us

Great Essays
In a nation that pledges allegiance to itself under god, religion is bound to become a factor in the politics that govern it. Religion did not start to be integrated into public affairs until the mid 1980s. It was at this time that abortion and other personal issues began to emerge into the political spectrum. By incorporating aspects of the moral being into government decisions, coalitions were formed to unite for certain issues. Due to the increased combination of religion and partisanship, the ideologies of religious politics and political religion became more prominent, as can be seen in the case of abortion described in American Grace: How Religion Divides and Unites Us.
Religious politics can be explained as the activation of religion through specific political issues. It affects citizens on an individual level. Through the inclusion of high intensity issues, such as abortion, into political debate, this causes religious politics to be activated because people have a social moral that stems from their religious faith. It creates a motive for people to respond from the position that their religion would. This social morality, in turn, causes voters to respond from a standpoint that aligns with their beliefs and faith. Moreover, people feel pressured to vote a certain way because this affects their moral being and many do not want to go against their faith (Magagna, Jan. 27). Since faith is a major factor in how people identify themselves and how they live their day-to-day lives, this causes a big influence on how they act in their lives as well as how they decide which way to vote. They affect one’s social and political behavior. Nonetheless, Magagna also states that not all deeply religious people have to respond in a religious manner to all political topics that are at debate by the church, but some will closely touch base and have a high effect (Jan. 8). One example of religious politics being executed is through the politics of same sex marriage.
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Same sex marriage has been a very controversial topic because it challenges the social norms of marriage. It is also contradicts the views of many members of the church because the pious believe that marriage is sanctioned for a man and a woman. Therefore, when homosexuals began to fight for their rights to marriage, this caused an uproar amongst members of the church. In this example, one can tell that religion is shaping the views that the religious have about marriage, and in turn about how they would vote when making political decisions about the legalization of marriage. As Magagna stated in lecture, the uproar against same-sex marriage can be considered as incentive for collective action to occur (Jan 27). Because members of the church were bound together against same-sex marriage, the non-passing of these legislations would mean higher credibility and status of the church. Therefore, by standing together for this common purpose and performing collective action, they were increasing their standings as a group. This type of politics becomes a part of political religion which incorporates the mobilization of religious institution, such as churches, mosques, synagogues, etc., that are to be used for large scale political goals and purposes (Magagna, Jan. 27). It is a much larger political force. Considering that the United States was founded based on Anglo-Saxon beliefs and the belief of Manifest Destiny that these lands were meant to be conquered and expanded, the U.S. has continued to revolve its political structure around religious beliefs and moral ethics. These beliefs are meant to be institutionalized in order to help govern the nation so that the nation can continue to stay pure and united as a whole. Therefore, while religious politics influence people on more of an individual level by helping citizens decide how to vote according to their faith, political religion refers to the entire institution of incorporating religion into the governing body of the nation and its political structure. One example that Professor Magagna used to explain political religion in lecture was the use of the Catholic Church towards the fall of Communism. The Catholic Church was mobilized in Poland during the 1980s in order to combat Communism. This had a large effect because members of the church came together in solidarity in order

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