And your religion, you know, teaches you, theologically, shes not supposed to be able to go to heaven. But it is not entirely clear how this influence is spreading orhow strong it is. It may very well be that this tolerance that comes from the experience of other kinds of people is very fragile. So to many Catholics its just not a matter of shopping. Somalia is one of the most unstablecountries in Africa; it is also one of the most religiously homogenous countries onthe continent. It does suggest that its not only the fact that youre American and therefore shopping, but theres something going on there with what your religious leaders are saying and probably the culture youre inheriting. Religion and Conflict | Beyond Intractability I think its a very important book; I think its going to change the way we talk about religion and public life in the United States. On January 4, Vox published a lengthy article on the Saudi-Iranian rivalry that concluded, predictably, that "it's not really about religion.". Religion has also been associated with social changes in the form of conflicts around the world. But I mention that because Im happy to talk in the Q&A about some of the observations we make from these vignettes, but they wont feature prominently in this particular discussion. We, too, were skeptical. And that group is only going to grow. We have a chapter in the book where we are able to look at why people switch from one religion to another and also from one congregation to another. These are groups that are relatively unknown to most Americans, especially on a personal level. CAMPBELL: Let me just address one of the points that we actually make in the book about the potential future for the God gap and that is that on the two issues that most divide religious and secular Americans, you find among young Americans opposing trends. The three groups that scored near the bottom are Mormons, Buddhists and Muslims. How does religion cause discrimination among people? How does it I have to admit Im always a little hesitant to use the word tolerance because it can mean so many different things to so many different people. Im particularly interested in this younger generation. In northwestern Nigeria, a lethal conflict between the authorities and the outlawed Islamist group IMN continues one year after hundreds were killed in clashes. Its really difficult to predict whats going to happen except we are pretty confident that there are going to be a lot of attempts to do it. DW: In your study on the subject of religious conflicts in Africa, you claimeight out of ten active armed conflicts have a religious dimension. Maybe a better way to put it is that the Republicans have a way they talk about religion and a way they exploit religiously oriented issues that if that continues, its hard to see how the God gap would close. I think this is a very important book, and, Dave, Im going to do what I promised. And what do we mean by better citizens and neighbors? First of all, Americans are religiously devout, and Ill talk a little bit about that in some detail. I really enjoyed this. Another thing that Id like to raise is the limits of the goodwill generated by all this social capital and all this social interaction. Another interesting point about the folks who are nones, and I think this speaks directly to what youre finding when you interview folks, is that when you go back to those same people a year later and ask what religion are you, it turns out that roughly a third of those folks who initially said they have no religion a third of them when we ask a second time say, well, yeah, I have a religion. What Im going to do today is talk about both sides of our story. Limits of Goodwill I think there are a lot of other values that get connected to beliefs, but I think the beliefs are very real things and many people do indeed hold them. Now, the third of those three is the one that often causes audiences to sit back and say, what? When we came to Simon & Schuster and said we wanted to write a big book about religion, I dont know if they understood we meant that literally a big book about religion. Again, just looking at the past. I guess I would respond by saying I dont have any quibble actually with how people want to characterize one party versus the other. It will not inspire people to heroic deeds of self-sacrifice for the greater good, nor is it likely to endure.. I think that is an open question and well just have to wait and see what happens. In the book we mention a movement that undoubtedly is familiar to some in the room the emerging church which some believe may be an example of the type of religion that is reaching out to young people. I cant speak to the data because we didnt ask a question of, what do you think of people who shop around for churches? John is going to be the respondent. This event is part of our Pew Forum Luncheon Series, which brings together journalists and important public figures to discuss issues of the day at the intersection of religion and politics. Its widely known that theres an increasing proportion of Latinos within the Catholic Church, as you mentioned yourself just now. One of them said this is one of the two most important holidays for Christians. So what I thought I would do is just end there really is an end, I promise I thought Id end on two other quick things that we found that many audiences are quite interested in, that I wont go into a lot of detail about, but will nonetheless put on the table, if youd like, to use it as fodder for discussion. Religious differences are a source of potential conflict in almost every varied society. And to go to Rod Drehers quote, to have a prophetic tradition, you need a critical distance from the culture and you need to have a set of religious beliefs that stand apart. Carrying a purse would be one of those things, maybe. I would argue that the Democratic Party and Im going to try to show it in this forthcoming book is rooted in the Bible. In other words, religion doesnt matter much to them, and we can see, again, over that year period for most of those folks theres been no other change in their life. CAMPBELL: On the question of how does somebody get classified as an evangelical in our survey, we use a system thats actually used here at Pew John Green is the pioneer of it whereby we take the denomination that someone affiliates with and sort those, in the case of Protestants: the mainline Protestants, the evangelical Protestants and the black Protestants. Well, thats a reflection of the fact that in America, we have a lot of religious fluidity, a lot of switching back and forth between one religion and another. Its also true that other surveys, whether done by Pew or others, that ask similar things with different wording all got kind of the same story, which tells us that it doesnt hang on whether its can or will, but rather its capturing a general sentiment among the American population. From that point of view, both people on the progressive side who advocate social justice and people on the more traditional side who advocate morality may be on the outs because both of those approaches to religion in public life demand public justice of one kind or another. So some parts of the country the South and Utah are the two sections of the country where people are most likely to be religious by any measure. This slide separates Americans by the religious tradition that they adhere to, and it shows how, say, mainline Protestants or Catholics or evangelicals respond to that question, do you think people who are of another faith can go to heaven? More Republicans coming in youre already hearing things about abortion and gay rights policies. Were reasonably confident that the calls weve made are at least justified on the basis of what we see in the data and what other people have done as we stand on the shoulders of giants. Thank you all very much for coming. You dont find as many people in the moderate religious middle today as we once did. CAMPBELL: Which, by the way, is 100 percent consistent with our evidence as well, so yes, were onboard there. December 21, 2015 Source: University of Central Florida Summary: Humans haven't learned much in more than 2,000 years when it comes to religion and politics. But we are also aware ofexamples of Christian rebel groups in sub-Saharan Africa who have theological demands. Other belief that religion is important in society and does not cause war. A study by a German academic says religious conflicts in sub-Saharan Africa have been on the rise for decades. Religion and conflict - GSDRC Putnam, who was unable to attend due to bad weather, is a professor of public policy at Harvard University and a visiting professor at the University of Manchester in England. Americans, again, are comfortable saying that theres truth in other religions. The threat of religious extremism is real and well documented. Campbell has written a book with Harvard professor Robert Putnam, entitled American Grace, which examines the changing role of religion in America since the 1960s. Im sitting in for Luis Lugo, our director, whos out of town. Its the more conservative way of doing it, which is that if you report that you are a Christian and dont give us any more detail, we assume youre an evangelical, even though we know thats not correct in many cases. How Does Religion Cause Conflict Among Citizens | ipl.org Some critics and people who are basically sympathetic to the argument may wonder if the book isnt just a little too optimistic. I think thats a very good way to put it. Part of the reason for that is simply that the religions that are least likely to quote, unquote, lose their members are also those religions that are concentrated in the South and in Utah. The Republican Party has now spent a generation building up its brand along those lines in a way that we did not see, say, back in the 1970s or certainly not back in the 1950s, where there was no God gap. But America relative to the rest of the world, were actually still quite a joining society, whether you look at religious groups or secular groups. The spike in religious violence is global and affects virtually every religious group. But as I said at the outset, thats not our whole story. If, for example, youre a Baptist, do you attend one of the Baptist churches that is thought of as being more on the evangelical side of the spectrum? Religious conflict has a long history and it characterizes several groups today. Key Terms proletariat: the working class or lower class status quo: the current state of things; the way things are, as opposed to the way they could be; the existing state of affairs. The region is generally vulnerable to conflicts because many states in sub-Saharan Africa are often weak. Is intermarriage a distinctly American phenomenon compared to other industrialized nations or even other Western nations? But one of the more interesting ones is just simply the fact that when you plot what Americans, themselves, were saying about religion in American society beginning in the 1950s and continuing forward in time, based on Gallup polls, you find that Americans in the 1950s said, yeah, religion has a huge influence in our society. So with that Ill end and welcome Johns comments and then your questions after that. Ask them on Wednesday, well, mom was a Lutheran; dad wasnt anything. Religion teaches us toler So CNN comes and asks them one day, what religion are you? Pew Research Center does not take policy positions. So on gay marriage or just homosexuality in general, itll come as no surprise, Im sure, to folks in this room that young people are increasingly accepting of gays and therefore of gay marriage. That has never been called part of being religious by the press. But it is striking that the issues on which you find the biggest differences between religious and secular Americans are, again, the sex and family issues of abortion and gay marriage. COOPERMAN: No more questions? Well, this was a period of great tumult as sexual mores in the country, in particular, changed. It is a little bit humbling to be asked to stand in for Bob Putnam. Political scientist Professor Matthias Basedau conducts research on peace and security at the GIGA Institute of Global and Area Studies in Hamburg. We call those folks the liminals. On the question of economic trends, theres not a terribly tight connection between economic conditions and religiosity. Was a year enough time statistically for people to really have any significant change in their beliefs and opinions on this? Is Religion a Source of Consensus or Conflict? - ReviseSociology But then by the time you hit the 60s, that drops off dramatically, and it correlates very tightly with all of these other changes, particularly those related to sexual beliefs and attitudes and customs and practices in the United States. So care for the poor or the sort of thing youre describing is popular among both religious and secular Americans, whereas a traditionalist position on marriage or a pro-life position on abortion is largely concentrated among those who are more religious, and thats really all we mean by saying that religiosity is reflected in one party versus the other. STONE: Theyre still going tit-for-tat over this, and then other people have talked about, well, plenty of people work on Christmas, and the soldiers in Afghanistan dont get to come home, and working people have worked on Christmas and all. On the question though of who goes to heaven, its interesting that thats a belief that is held among Catholics but also Protestants as well, even though Protestantism, particularly of the evangelical flavor, should hold to the belief that theres a particular set of things you need to do and believe in order to go to heaven. This A-Level Sociology vide explores some of the reasons. Thanks. Weve worked together on lots of different things, and I had the privilege of being one of the academic advisers to the Faith Matters Survey that makes up the backbone of American Grace. The Impact of Religious Conflict in Society - GraduateWay Its an interesting story because having diverse ethnic groups within the Catholic Church thats nothing new. The very next day, the same author published a . Special thanks to Dave Campbell and John Green for making it here today. We thought maybe thats what wed find about religious beliefs. We have much more as well. It was an empirical question. Rachel Woodlock (Islam) Religion is powerfully motivating and belligerent humans fight over it. ANTHONY POGORELC, CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY: I just wanted to make a point on orthodox beliefs. They often tinker and are able to combine things that their parents, certainly their grandparents, would not have been comfortable doing. Active radical groups have a more direct influence in North Africa, such asAl-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), oroffshoots of the so-called Islamic State. The answer, we suggest, is your Aunt Susan. I believe them. It is the opium of the people". So thats the puzzle. When people talk about their religious belief, whats in that bucket? Religious conflict | World Problems & Global Issues | The Encyclopedia COOPERMAN: On that just a Christian, we do it a little bit differently here. Its almost true, I think, by definition if youre able to make an interfaith relationship work and you come up with compromises where you raise kids in sort of an amalgam of the two religions. Actually what youre describing is remarkable, given what we see in our data. Actually, the role that ethnicity and race play within religion is a major theme in the book. Kyl and DeMint and Sen. Reid. That, for the most part, hasnt yet happened with the millennials. You commented about the fact that the public generally would consider the Republicans more friendly to religion than the Democrats. The book holds those two things together, I think, in a very creative way but ultimately comes down on an optimistic side. Theparties involved may differ on the question of what rolereligion should play in the state. But theres still an awful lot of people on that low end of the spectrum who are frequent church-attenders. The interview was conducted by Gwendolin Hilse, Nigeria: tensions persist after Zaria mass killings, Kenyan army battles al-Shabab militants in Somalia, IS-affiliated militant group seizes port town in Somalia, Ukraine: Deadly Russian missile strike hits Kramatorsk, Wagner chief Prigozhin arrives in Belarus, Prigozhin's tanks: A stress test for Putin, In Zambia, postnatal depression is neglected, Bangladesh heatwave brings on crippling power cuts, Germany: Racism, antisemitism reporting on the rise, Greece: Mitsotakis takes office after conservative landslide, International African American Museum opens on historic site, Amazon rainforest study: Brazil led deforestation in 2022. advance of religious conflicts in sub-Saharan Africa? What we plotted along the bottom is individuals level of religiosity. So what are some stressors and what are some things that could probably lessen that God gap and really pull people back into the pews? How religious conflict affects society? The specific wording actually does say can rather than will, although I will also point out again that our argument about religious tolerance does not hang on that one question because I know this isnt the first time Ive had people ask about it and its a reasonable thing to ask. I guess that makes me a Lutheran, right? CAMPBELL: Thats a good question. How Religion Causes Conflict - Medium If youd read our book, you would have seen it. And yet at the same time, as I mentioned, America has a high degree of religious tolerance. It is true that sometimes deeply held beliefs can lead to clashes, and there have been many wars that were caused by disputes over religion and beliefs. One of the more interesting ways is if you ask Americans which party is friendlier toward religion, theyre much more likely to say the Republicans than the Democrats. Countries like Saudi Arabia or Qatar are spreading Wahhabism, or similar variants, which can indirectly create aradical ideology that leads to violence. SAMUEL: If I could just follow up with that? And we always find that our results converge with those of others. Theres a whole bundle of things that weve asked people in these surveys, and other people have asked in their surveys, that all point to the same conclusion, that Americans on the whole are very comfortable with people who are of another religion and in many cases even those who have no religion. And are we creating a society in which we have nominal Methodists because theyre kind of like Baptists in a Methodist church or Methodists worshipping in a Catholic church? A prediction is hard, especially about the future. A really good example of unity is the kind of tolerance and civic culture that he also talked about. You got a lot of Republicans who supported those. Reasons Why Religious Conflicts Occur - Promoting peace around the world In a society if the beliefs are different, then one should compromise or understand another. This is different from theological conflicts which are mostly about religious ideas. I actually found it was interesting that when Alan was introducing me, he mentioned the first part of the subtitle, the dividing part, but not so much the uniting part, which is probably the way most people think of religion in America, actually, that its more of a divider than a uniter. We live in a true melting pot. I know thats not always a satisfying answer to a group of journalists, but thats about all we can do to try to figure out where people go. David Campbells a very dear friend of mine and a good colleague. Instead, theyre saying, my friends, my family, my neighbors are of different religions. Increasingly whats happened is that many Americans who are themselves somewhat moderate, maybe on the left side of the political spectrum, when asked today, are you of a particular religion, think, well, wait a second, religion that equals a particular brand of politics. In particular, what happens when you add a friend to your social network who is of another faith? Also to remind you, of course, that the Forum is very happy to host these events, but as part of the Pew Research Center, is a nonadvocacy organization so we do not take any positions on issues of public interest. ANDREA STONE, AOL NEWS: I have a news-related question. Thank you all very much for coming, especially on a day like today. Its kind of hokey, but basically the way it works is if youre a respondent to this survey, youre told, were going to give you a list of names, in this case a list of groups, and we want you to rate your feeling toward that group, where zero means youre really cold, 100 means youre really warm, 50 means youre neutral. A good example of that can also be found in the 2010 election, where in an election that was manifestly about the economy, religious variables attendance, affiliation and so forth turned out to be very, very powerful predictors of the vote. DENNIS CROWLEY, UNITED NEWS & INFORMATION: Did you find out if any denomination is affected by immigration the changing role or the changing landscape? So we didnt just take just a Christian and make just a Christian evangelical. You also asked about whether the religious intermarriage you find within couples suggests that theres a blurring of the lines between religious traditions, and I think that that is certainly the case. PDF The Role of Religion in Today's Conflict - United Nations Alliance of You can see that across the board, overwhelming percentages say, yes. Where are they going to settle down? Because two or more religions contradict one another. That manifests itself in lots of different ways. It is about spreadinga radical version of Islam. And thats certainly true within the Mormon population as well. We did it in the summer of 2006. The reason why that pro-life finding about young people is so interesting is that they are also the most secular group of the population. Superiority Members of the Islamic State in the Levant (ISIL) carry the ISIL flag. So Im wondering how you accounted for those folks. And what do those three groups share? Theyre half in; theyre half out. Religious extremism can contribute to the escalation of conflicts. So what does that all mean? TERRY MATTINGLY, SCRIPPS HOWARD NEWS SERVICE: I was interested in knowing how your book defines tolerance. It may be that this goodwill thats generated that Dave and Bob talk about at such length is very fragile and may fall apart when, really, push comes to shove. So if you have a Muslim friend and you thought you lived in this Catholic universe, and then you think, okay, your pal Sal, shes not so bad, does that have a direct relationship on all of these orthodox beliefs?
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