Beyond Iraq and Afghanistan: Religion and Politics in United States War‐Culture

Abstract : This article digs beneath the surface of American assumptions regarding war to explore the ethical interconnections between national identity, war, and religion. Striking differences emerge between the dynamics of religion and politics with regard to war and peace in presidential speeches regarding the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, and the analysis of war from an earlier generation, encapsulated by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s “Beyond Vietnam: A Call to Conscience,” from 1967. Study of this political discourse helps us better understand our own reality in the United States, and the moral consequences of our beliefs about war, sacrifice, the human character, and the identity of the nation.     

How Religion Predicts Pet Ownership in the United States

Over 60 percent of Americans have some sort of family pet. Although studies have explored the personality and demographic correlates of pet ownership, none have considered whether religious characteristics may influence not only pet ownership, but the kind of pet Americans own. Drawing on data from the 2018 General Social Survey, we examine the religious antecedents of pet ownership in general as well as owning a cat or a dog, taking into account factors previously associated with owning certain pets (e.g., urban vs. rural residence, political affiliation). Although religious tradition and biblical literalism generally do not predict pet ownership, frequent worship attendees and the most conservative evangelicals report owning fewer pets. Religious characteristics also predict Americans’ ownership of particular pets. Most notably, we find a strong, negative association between worship attendance and cat ownership. We theorize potential mechanisms. On the one hand, certain personality types might simultaneously attract some Americans toward religious participation and away from pets, and cats in particular. Alternatively, to the extent that pet ownership is a partial substitute for human bonding and interaction, Americans more deeply embedded within a religious community may have less need (or time) for pets generally, and specifically more independent “roommate pets,” like cats.     

Religion and Religions in Prisons: Observations from the United States and Europe

Despite manifest differences and internal variety, this article attempts to integrate the histories and present landscapes of religious practice in prison in the United States and in Western Europe. We identify, among incarcerated people in the United States, Italy, and Germany, discernible drifts toward religious pluralization, privatization, and individualization. Over the past half‐century, the administration of religion in prison has been loosened to allow for a wider variety of religious beliefs and practices. Meanwhile, as subsidized by outside volunteers, religion, especially of a socially “useful,” capitalism‐friendly sort, remains a cost‐effective means for prison administrators to efficiently subcontract their mandate to rehabilitate. Due to the decentralization and diversification of religion in contemporary prisons on both sides of the northern Atlantic, this article concludes by encouraging would‐be ethnographers of the prison interested in religion to venture beyond the expressly delineated religious space and into what we call “religious gray zones.”     

Religion and Gambling Among Young Adults in the United States: Moral Communities and the Deterrence Hypothesis

Despite voluminous research examining religion as an integrative force and a mechanism of social control, relatively few studies have examined the association between religion and proscribed or morally ambiguous behaviors beyond crime and drug use. The present exploratory study examines the role of religion, at both the individual and county levels, in predicting self‐reported gambling problems. Hierarchical linear models are employed to examine religion and self‐reported gambling problems using the restricted use data of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health. A negative association between religious attendance and problem gambling (at the individual level) is strongest when church adherents per capita is relatively high (measured at the county level). However, when the number of conservative Protestants per capita is relatively high, religious attendance (measured at the individual level) is associated with an increased risk of gambling problems. These countervailing findings are interpreted as supportive of the bonding and bridging capital thesis.     

Divided We Stand: The Politics of the Atheist Movement in the United States

The United States is one of the most religious countries in the Western world. Yet a notable feature of the past decade has been the growth of a self-conscious, politically active atheist movement. Academic analysis of this topic, however, remains limited. This article addresses this lacuna by examining the political dimension of the US atheist movement across a number of themes, including its organisational structure and composition, as well as its goals, strategies, and direction. Deploying insights drawn from Social Movement Theory, it shows that the development of the movement has been shaped by a number of factors which have facilitated growth, but which have also led to a series of internal tensions and schisms that could threaten its ability to exert political influence.     

论宗教与政治的互动关系

宗教的花朵盛开在天国,宗教的枝干扎根于尘世。宗教的这种两重性是宗教本质的必然结果。在这个意义上,宗教无论作为社会文化还是作为社会力量,都不可避免地会与政治形成这样那样的互动。宗教与政治的关系和相互作用主要地互动于社会的权力结构和利益分配并波及社会生活的各个层面,因而宗教与政治的互动关系,要比宗教与其他社会文化范畴的关系更为复杂,其对人类社会生活和历史进程的影响,也更为重大。本文以宗教的两重性为基础探讨了宗教与政治互动的方式、宗教与政治结合的模式,以及多元宗教社会中的二者互动的条件。     

Religion as Politics not Law: the Religion Clauses in the Australian Constitution1

Abstract

The Australian Constitution provides for the protection of religious freedom and prohibits establishment in very similar terms to the United States Constitution. Yet while Australian judges have often stated the importance of religious freedom in a democratic state and have defined religion in a broad, culturally sensitive way, they have taken a narrow approach to the scope of religious freedom and to the meaning of establishment. The end result is that the courts have played very little role in determining the boundaries of acceptable government or legislative behaviour in the regulation of religion. Instead, the key decisions have been left to the political branches of government, which have been given a broad scope of power to engage in all but the most direct and egregious breaches of religious freedom. This article begins with an overview of the history of the drafting of the religion clauses of the Australian Constitution and then gives a detailed analysis of the way in which those clauses have been interpreted by the High Court. It concludes that the approach of the High Court in interpreting the religion clauses narrowly, as a constraint on government power rather than a right, has limited the capacity of the Court to participate meaningfully in the key legal questions around religious freedom. While this approach might have been workable in the past, the growing complexity of regulating religion means that the courts need to be able to develop more sophisticated legal approaches to questions of religious freedom.     

印度宗教与统一民法问题

本文论述了印度属人法的历史与独立后《印度宪法》所规定的“统一民法”目标、独立后印度属人法的改革及其所面临的困难、民法改革与印度教民族主义政治的冲突等。本文特别分析了在印度特殊的宗教政治氛围中,人们的宗教权利与政府的宗教平等政策之间,尚存在着协调的难题;作为立国基础的世俗主义在印度并没有形成共识,更没有成为宗教与立法分离的依托。在生活方式即是宗教的国情下,统一民法不能够避免依赖宗教和习俗,更不能最终解决民法与宗教文化、多元社会、民族政治相关的矛盾问题。     

9·11之后的美国政教冲突

这不是一个什么特殊的日子,但在美国当代政教关系史上,却是充满象征意义的两天。 2002年6月26日,美国加利福尼亚州第九巡回上诉法院以2比1的多数作出裁决:向国旗效忠的誓词违反美国宪法第一修正案。 次日,美国最高法院以5比4的多数作出判决:俄亥俄州克利夫兰市允许家长用政府教育券送孩子上私立教区学校不违宪。 同样是有关政教关系的案子,同样以微弱多数通过,而且是在相邻的两天,但其价值倾向却截然对立:前者要求政府与基督教传统更彻底地分离,后者则暗含了政府对基督教会的支持。 这两个案例生动地反映了9·11之后美国政教关系的复杂性。