ADAPTATIONS

Adaptations



Adaptations

Introduction

This essay is about the understanding the differences in France and the United States when it comes to the role of religion in politics. The French system strives to protect the state from religion, whereas the American system works to protect religion from the state. One could posit a spectrum of responses to this question of the proper relationship between religion and government: with regard to the role of religion in government, France would be on one end (the secularist ideal, i.e., no religion in government) (Wilcox, 2002).

Role of Religion in Politics

United States

Americans are not very enthusiastic about the mixing of religion and politics. When asked abstractly about whether churches should speak to social issues or remain on the sidelines. In the field of religion and politics, the extra attention paid to the United States is warranted. The United States is the outlier, the exception to the rule in many ways. It is a modern, rich, and developed nation that is remarkably religious. Why is the United States unique in this regard? This chapter reviews the significant literature produced over the past century attempting to answer this complex question. First, this chapter provides evidence that the United States is indeed unique and shows why this fact is important. Then the chapter works to understand some of the characteristics of religion and politics in America that attract researchers to this field (Berger, 1999).

The irony here is that by all measures, the United States is a relatively religious nation. From a macro perspective, the importance of religion on politics in the United States is easy to see. Public debates over social issues take on a much more religious tone in the United States than they do in Canada, England, or many of the other modern nations. Religion provides the foundation for mainstream arguments on political issues such as abortion, gay marriage, the death penalty, and many others. Religion plays a significant role in electoral politics, especially in recent decades. The importance of religion in American politics may be intuitively clear, but the political scientist is not satisfied with mere observance. Political scientists must provide evidence to support their intuition. Only then can they begin to explore the causes and implications of a phenomenon (Gill, 2001).

The fundamental importance of religion to an individual can have various manifestations in a society. One way to study it is how religion affects the institutions of government. This conventional approach can focus on the structure of the institutions (whether a nation has a church-state or not) or how the politicians incorporate religion into the way they represent their constituents in a democracy. Another way is to examine the political behavior of the citizens, or the political culture of the nation, as represented by public opinion. In a pluralist nation like the United States, which has a strong civil society, religion can play a significant role in the exchange of ideas (Wilcox, 2002).

Religion has a unique ability to promote civil society and social capital (Smidt, 2003) ...