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Religion and politics are never far from the headlines, but their
relationship remains complex and often confusing. This book offers
an engaging, accessible, and balanced treatment of religion in
American politics. It explores the historical, cultural, and legal
contexts that motivate religious political engagement and assesses
the pragmatic and strategic political realities that religious
organizations and people face. Incorporating the best and most
current scholarship, the authors examine the evolving politics of
Roman Catholics; evangelical and mainline Protestants;
African-American and Latino traditions; Jews, Muslims, and other
religious minorities; recent immigrants and religious "nones"; and
other conventional and not-so-conventional American religious
movements. New to the Sixth Edition * Covers the 2016 election and
assesses the role of religion from Obama to Trump. * Expands
substantially on religion's relationship to gender and sexuality,
race, ethnicity, and class, and features the role of social media
in religious mobilization. * Adds discussion questions at the end
of every chapter, to help students gain deeper understanding of the
subject. * Adds a new concluding chapter on the normative issues
raised by religious political engagement, to stimulate lively
discussions.
First Published in 1993. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor &
Francis, an Informa company.
A selection of papers from an April 1990 Carl Albert Center
conference commemorating the bicentennial of the US Congress and
the centennial of the U. of Oklahoma. The conference was entitled
Back to the Future: the US Congress in the 21st Century, and its
focus was on change and candidate-centered
Religion and politics are never far from the headlines, but their
relationship remains complex and often confusing. This book offers
an engaging, accessible, and balanced treatment of religion in
American politics. It explores the historical, cultural, and legal
contexts that motivate religious political engagement and assesses
the pragmatic and strategic political realities that religious
organizations and people face. Incorporating the best and most
current scholarship, the authors examine the evolving politics of
Roman Catholics; evangelical and mainline Protestants;
African-American and Latino traditions; Jews, Muslims, and other
religious minorities; recent immigrants and religious "nones"; and
other conventional and not-so-conventional American religious
movements. New to the Sixth Edition * Covers the 2016 election and
assesses the role of religion from Obama to Trump. * Expands
substantially on religion's relationship to gender and sexuality,
race, ethnicity, and class, and features the role of social media
in religious mobilization. * Adds discussion questions at the end
of every chapter, to help students gain deeper understanding of the
subject. * Adds a new concluding chapter on the normative issues
raised by religious political engagement, to stimulate lively
discussions.
In recent years, interest in religion and politics at the national
level has surged while extensive activity at the state level has
gone largely unnoticed. Yet, with state government budgets
increasing exponentially over the past three decades, churches and
religious organizations are focusing tremendous energy and
resources toward influencing the ways states are spending their
money and governing their populace. In this groundbreaking
collection, Edward Cleary and Allen Hertzke bring together nine new
essays that provide the first systematic, comparative view of
religion and politics at the state level. These essays take an
in-depth look at the pressing issues facing states across the
nation and how religious lobbies and organizations are addressing
them. By examining the responses of different denominations and
their rationales for involvement, the contributors explore the
enormous diversity of interests being represented at the state
level. As highly controversial programs and laws continue to divide
state governments, Representing God at the Statehouse provides an
important look at the current state of religion and democracy.
Conservative Protestants are mentioned repeatedly in the ongoing
conversation about social capital, individualism, and community in
the United States. As John Wilson notes in his introduction,
evangelicals are frequently discussed either as a threat to civil
society or as apparent counterexamples to the prevailing view of
American society's fragmentation. The essays in this volume take
another look at the role of evangelicals in American civic life.
The prominent contributors examine evangelicals' beliefs and
activity on topics ranging from bioethics to race relations and
welfare reform to international human rights. Taken together, the
essays show that, contrary to what critics have proclaimed, the
social commitment of evangelicals extends considerably beyond
family-related issues, and that their activity in the public sphere
makes an essential contribution to the public good. Clearly written
and persuasively argued, A Public Faith: Evangelicals and Civic
Engagement is a powerful correction to the misconceptions about
evangelicals that abound in the current civil-society debate.
Co-published with the Ethics and Public Policy Center.
All Americans, liberal or conservative, religious or not, can agree
that religious freedom, anchored in conscience rights, is
foundational to the U.S. democratic experiment. But what freedom of
conscience means, what its scope and limits are, according to the
Constitution - these are matters for heated debate. At a moment
when such questions loom ever larger in the nation's contentious
politics and fraught policy-making process, this timely book offers
invaluable historical, empirical, philosophical, and analytical
insight into the American constitutional heritage of religious
liberty. As the contributors to this interdisciplinary volume
attest, understanding religious freedom demands taking multiple
perspectives. The historians guide us through the legacy of
religious freedom, from the nation's founding and the rise of
public education, through the waves of immigration that added
successive layers of diversity to American society. The social
scientists discuss the swift, striking effects of judicial decision
making and the battles over free exercise in a complex,
bureaucratic society. Advocates remind us of the tensions abiding
in schools and other familiar institutions, and of the major role
minorities play in shaping free exercise under our constitutional
regime. And the jurists emphasize that this is a messy area of
constitutional law. Their work brings out the conflicts inherent in
interpreting the First Amendment - tensions between free exercise
and disestablishment, between the legislative and judicial branches
of government, and along the complex and ever-shifting boundaries
of religion, state, and society. What emerges most clearly from
these essays is how central religious liberty is to America's civic
fabric - and how, under increasing pressure from both religious and
secular forces, this First Amendment freedom demands our full
attention and understanding.
In Volume 1 of Christianity and Freedom, leading historians uncover
the unappreciated role of Christianity in the development of basic
human rights and freedoms from antiquity through today. These
include radical notions of dignity and equality, religious freedom,
liberty of conscience, limited government, consent of the governed,
economic liberty, autonomous civil society, and church-state
separation, as well as more recent advances in democracy, human
rights, and human development. Acknowledging that the record is
mixed, scholars document how the seeds of freedom in Christianity
antedate and ultimately undermine later Christian justifications
and practices of persecution. Drawing from history, political
science, and sociology, this volume will become a standard
reference work for historians, political scientists, theologians,
students, journalists, business leaders, opinion shapers, and
policymakers.
Volume 2 of Christianity and Freedom illuminates how Christian
minorities and transnational Christian networks contribute to the
freedom and flourishing of societies across the globe, even amidst
pressure and violent persecution. Featuring unprecedented field
research by some of the world's most distinguished scholars, it
documents the outsized role of Christians in promoting human rights
and religious freedom; fighting injustice; stimulating economic
equality; providing education, social services, and health care;
and nurturing democratic civil society. Readers will come away
surprised and sobered to learn how this very Christian link to
freedom often invites persecution. What are the dimensions of
persecution and how are Christians responding to that pressure?
What resources - theological, social, or transnational - do they
marshal in leavening their societies? What will be lost if the
Christian presence is marginalized? The answers to these questions
are of crucial relevance in a world awash with religious extremism
and deepening instability.
With the dawning of the 21st Century a new human rights movement
burst unexpectedly onto the global stage. Initially motivated by
concern for persecuted Christians around the world, unlikely
alliances emerged, and the movement grew to encompass a broader
quest for human rights. Now, American evangelicals provide
grassroots muscle for causes joined by a wide array of activists
from Jews to Catholics, feminists to Pentecostals, African American
leaders to Tibetan Buddhists in the most important human rights
movement since the end of the Cold War. Given unprecedented insider
access, author Allen D. Hertzke charts the rise of this faith-based
movement for global human rights and tells the compelling story of
the personalities and forces, clashes and compromises, strategies
and protests that shape it. In doing so, Hertzke shows that by
bringing attention to issues like religious persecution, Sudanese
atrocities, North Korean gulags, and sex trafficking, the movement
is shaping American foreign policy and international relations in
ways unimaginable a decade ago."
In Volume 1 of Christianity and Freedom, leading historians uncover
the unappreciated role of Christianity in the development of basic
human rights and freedoms from antiquity through today. These
include radical notions of dignity and equality, religious freedom,
liberty of conscience, limited government, consent of the governed,
economic liberty, autonomous civil society, and church-state
separation, as well as more recent advances in democracy, human
rights, and human development. Acknowledging that the record is
mixed, scholars document how the seeds of freedom in Christianity
antedate and ultimately undermine later Christian justifications
and practices of persecution. Drawing from history, political
science, and sociology, this volume will become a standard
reference work for historians, political scientists, theologians,
students, journalists, business leaders, opinion shapers, and
policymakers.
Volume 2 of Christianity and Freedom illuminates how Christian
minorities and transnational Christian networks contribute to the
freedom and flourishing of societies across the globe, even amidst
pressure and violent persecution. Featuring unprecedented field
research by some of the world's most distinguished scholars, it
documents the outsized role of Christians in promoting human rights
and religious freedom; fighting injustice; stimulating economic
equality; providing education, social services, and health care;
and nurturing democratic civil society. Readers will come away
surprised and sobered to learn how this very Christian link to
freedom often invites persecution. What are the dimensions of
persecution and how are Christians responding to that pressure?
What resources - theological, social, or transnational - do they
marshal in leavening their societies? What will be lost if the
Christian presence is marginalized? The answers to these questions
are of crucial relevance in a world awash with religious extremism
and deepening instability.
What is the status of religious freedom in the world today? What
barriers does it face? What are the realistic prospects for
improvement, and why does this matter? The Future of Religious
Freedom addresses these critical questions by assembling in one
volume some of the best forward-thinking and empirical research on
religious liberty, international legal trends, and societal
dynamics. Top scholars from law, political science, diplomacy,
sociology, and religion explore the status, value, and challenges
of religious liberty around the world - with illustrations from a
wide range of historical situations, contemporary contexts, and
constitutional regimes. With a thematic focus on the nature of
religious markets and statecraft, the book surveys conditions in
different regions, from the Muslim arc to Asia to Eastern Europe.
It probes dynamics in both established and emerging democracies. It
features up-to-date treatments of such pivotal nations as China,
Russia, and Turkey, as well as illuminating new threats to
conscience and religious autonomy in the United States and in kin
countries of the English speaking world. Finally, it demonstrates
the vital contribution of religious freedom to inter-religious
harmony, thriving societies, and global security, and applies these
findings to the momentous issue of advancing freedom and democracy
in Islamic cultures.
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