RELIGION AND POLITICS IN A GLOBAL VILLAGE

 

RELIGION AND POLITICS IN A GLOBAL VILLAGE

Those who believe religion and politics aren't connected don't understand either.

Mahatma Gandhi

 

Religion is excellent stuff for keeping common people quiet.

Napoleon Bonaparte

Religion and Politics are almost as old as humanity. Every man, some say, is a political animal. All men also have a pact with the divine, by believing in the existence of a supreme being or a super force.

Politics is a relationship with fellow man while religion is man’s relationship with his creator.

Both have had tremendous influence on human behavior and development, and have shaped the world into what it is today.

At a stage in human history, Nation States and Empires were ruled by Religious Heads.

But political and intellectual orders remain permanently distinct from the spiritual. They follow their own ends. They obey their own laws, and in doing so they support the cause of religion by the discovery of truth and the upholding of right.

They render this service by fulfilling their own ends independently and unrestrictedly, not by surrendering them for the sake of spiritual interests.

Whatever diverts government and science from their own spheres, or leads religion to usurp their domains, confounds distinct authorities, and imperils not only political right and scientific truths, but also the cause of faith and morals.

‘A government that, for the interests of religion, disregards political right, and a science that, for the sake of protecting faith, wavers and dissembles in the pursuit of knowledge, are instruments at least as well adapted to serve the cause of falsehood as to combat it, and never can be used in furtherance of the truth without that treachery to principle which is a sacrifice too costly to be made for the service of any interest whatever.”

― John Emerich Edward Dalberg-Acton, The History of Freedom and Other Essays

Religion plays a powerful role in modern politics, and the relationship between the two is ever changing. The governing of a state cannot be separated from the religious views of its people that affect the leaders and lawmakers of a country. Law mirrors society.

Religious beliefs, practices, and communities shape and are shaped by the political expectations and necessities of a nation.

Because religion and politics are always changing and adapting, the foundational ideologies of the relationship between these two entities are continually challenged, reimagined and modified.

People act politically, economically, and socially in keeping with their ultimate beliefs. Their values, mores, and actions, whether in the polling booth, on the job, or at home, are an outgrowth of the god or gods they hold at the center of their being.

Religion has the power to affect how people act politically, economically, and socially.

Religion and politics are concepts that designate two different and interdependent subsystems of society. Although the concepts are separated analytically, the relationship between religion and politics is characterized by interdependence.

Contemporary states exhibit great variation in the formal relationships between religion and politics. Some level of connection of religion and politics in the modern state is the rule, while a strict institutional separation between the two is the exception.

Most states entertain complex relationships between religion and politics, in that they, for instance, allow for religious instruction in public schools, provide public subsidies for private religious schools, recognize religious holidays as state holidays, provide welfare through (or in partnership with) religious institutions, grant tax breaks to religious organizations, allocate to religious institutions and authorities time in public broadcasting, and maintain or subsidize buildings and venues used or owned by religious institutions.

These arrangements are prevalent in most societies, irrespective of the majority religion—they can be found around the world, whether the majority religion is Hindu, Jewish, Muslim, Christian, or otherwise. Some states even recognize an official state religion; this is the case among long-standing democracies such as Denmark, Finland, Greece, Norway, and the United Kingdom, as well as nondemocratic regimes, such as Iran and Saudi Arabia.

Religion has played significant roles during campaigns and elections. Political support and decisions have determined loyalty and support for candidates at elections and for rulers.

Integrity, competence and capabilities have been sacrificed on the altar of religion.

On the global scene, wars have been fought because of religion.

It is difficult to separate the two but the influence of religion on politics should be minimal.