Politics of Religion
Religious Action in the Social and Civil Order: Religious Propaganda and Nationalism from the Mid-twentieth Century to Today
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Andrew Polk
Recent years have given rise to a heightened sense of nationalism throughout the world in which movements and leaders often present religious traditions as keys to returning their homeland to a supposedly pristine past. Although Narendra Modi and the Bharatiya Janata Party’s elevation of Hindutva in India has vast contextual differences with U.S. president Donald Trump’s promise to “Make America Great Again” by returning it to some ambiguous, Protestant Christian heritage, both use religious concepts and language for explicitly political purposes. This paper explores some of the twentieth-century roots of this phenomenon in the U.S. in hopes of shedding light on the ways similar processes are happening throughout the world today. Although many are aware of the intimate connection between Protestant leaders and Ronald Reagan’s presidency in the 1980s, the interconnection between religion and politics in the United States seen in the Reagan administration goes back several decades. During and immediately after the Second World War, presidents Harry Truman and Dwight Eisenhower partnered with advertising and media executives to champion a version of religion that promoted nationalism, militarism, and free market capitalism. By promoting national unity through the lens of religious devotion, they hoped to advance policies that moved the nation closer their own preferred visions. The cultural and geopolitical differences between the worlds Truman and Trump navigate are perhaps even greater than those of Modi and Trump, yet examining the ways these past leaders used religion for political gain helps illuminate the ways others use similar tactics today.
Daughter of the King: Understanding the White Evangelical Woman Who Voted for Trump
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Ashley Starr Morris
Donald Trump’s path to the White House was paved with the votes of evangelical Christians, specifically white evangelicals and white women. What about the point of convergence of these areas: the white evangelical woman who voted for Trump? Why did the vast majority of white evangelical women vote for Trump? What were their motivations? Was it really in their best interest? Using an intersectional approach to their identities, this paper seeks to better understand, if not complicate, this voting block. The first section will discuss whiteness: what it means as a phenomenon in America, its connection to nationalism, and white women’s role in the privileges it constructs. The second section will address the contribution of evangelical Christianity, particularly how it articulates “ideal” evangelical womanhood through the lens of authoritarianism, and will also examine the messianic expression around the figure of President Trump. The last section will delve into the gender identity of the phrase, exploring how women could ostensibly vote against their self-interest by using gender’s positionality in relation to the other identity descriptors as well as the role of marriage in their voting patterns, all in an effort to more effectively determine if a gendered argument is an advantageous one--or not. Each identity will be further understood in relation to a common phrase used amongst white evangelical women, “Daughter of the King,” on the grounds that it serves as a valuable metaphor through which to analyze the complex identities of the white evangelical woman who voted for Trump.
Religious factors in Current Russian Protests: Religious Rhetoric in an Ideological Vacuum
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Aleksei V. Andreev
In the summer of 2019, in many regions of Russia, protest movements arose, caused by the discontent of a certain part of the population with the political situation in the country. The protests were triggered by the elections to the Moscow State Parliament, to which no opposition candidates were allowed. The current protest movement was distinguished by the fact that religious discourse began to be included in the essentially political rhetoric. After the fall of the Soviet Union, most religious leaders in Russia supported democratic change, and for two decades traditional religions have been a pillar of the political regime in Russia. However, due to the fact that in today's Russia many democratic mechanisms no longer function, and in the intellectual space there is an ideological vacuum, more and more Russian citizens are turning to religious rhetoric and religious organizations in the hope of supporting people's initiatives. This paper describes how appeals to the teachings of the Orthodox Church, Islam, and other religious traditions of Russia are used in the modern protest movement. The study also highlights how various religious traditions of Russia can become a consolidating factor in helping to normalize the democratic process in the country.
