examples of what can happen when politics and religion get intertwined
Over the past few weeks, we have discussed some examples of what can happen when politics and religion get intertwined. We have seen examples of states that tried to exclude religion completely (Revolutionary France, Russia, China) and states that use powerful religious groups (and are used by them) for political purposes (the USA under Trump). Write a reflection that applies and compares what we have learnt in class to your own home country, explaining how your home country uses or excludes religion from the public sphere and why, and how you personally feel about this. Please use the theories, insights, and ideas we discussed in class to help you frame your analysis- It must be pinned with theoretical principles and knowledge.
Italy has a strong religious history, and just like the United States, it is interlinked with politics and being used for political purposes for decades. But over time, the country as influenced by western countries is becoming a secular state. Catholics were the most influential religious group in Italy and still have impacts on the people and can thus be used for the voting. As in the United States, the people have significant religious influence, but they voted for Donald Trump. He is said to be a non-religious person as he married thrice and had a very rough history (he drinks, interested in sex and porn, etc.). This shows the turning of politics in America that the influence of religion is fading in politics. According to Professor Phil Gorski, American history is based on “civil religion.” Some take this civil religion term to be the in religious sense others take it in nations sense. In Italy, the impact of religion on politics can be seen in history, and the changes occurred with time.
Religious institutions of Catholics have a significant influence on Italian Politics, and the Vatican’s actions sometimes played a vital role in developing the country’s internal affairs (Cipriani, 1984). Thomas Luckmann proposed the theory known as “Invisible Religion” that is the mean of attraction for the Italian Sociologists. The approach has similarities with secularization as it includes ideas in support of auto fulfillment, sex, familism, etc. The theory proposed by Thomas Luckmann is related to certain aspects of the modern societies in Italy and so not wholly ignores the Church religion (Luckmann, 1967). Another theory given by Ballah is known as “Civil Religion,” was not so useful in Italy due to fanaticism view of sociological study of religious directions that is precisely favorable for the American society. Bellah’s theory includes religious believes and rituals; that is the essential factor of the theory. The element of the religious beliefs in the theory keeps the religious perspectives in politics (Bellah, 1967).
Italian Sociologists mapped Italy’s religious structure, and the first survey in Italy for identification of religion was held. In the survey, five subcultures of Italian religion were identified, including atheism, prophetic innovation, indifference, belief in the Sacro-magical world, and acceptance of the official model of Church (Burgalassi, 1970). In 1975, Pin conducted the study in the city of Rome and made more than 15 categories based on the believes and practices of his defendants. Another study was also held in 1993 by the resident of Sicily identified five groups of religion, including; religiously critical, acritical, diffused religion, critical and distance from the church, and three remaining non-religious groups. In 1995, research studies were held in different universities in Italy, and the results show ten different religious groups (Cesareo et al., 1995). All these studies show that Italy is a multi-religious country and have a variety of religions.
All the research studies based on the religions in Italy confirm that Catholicism is the reference religion of most of the citizens of Italy. Still, there appear changes in the religious thoughts of Italians due to Western religious and cultural influence. All the religious differences in Italy took place by the globalization that favored the exchange of religions between the people belonging from different regions. Significant non-Catholics groups living in Italy make it easier for Italians to learn about other religions also. The individualization process also gradually created the privatization of the religious belongings, practices, and beliefs of Italian citizens (Martino, 2015). These changes lead the Catholics also to view religion more carefully and clearly. These aspects of the secularism influence in Italian society faded the impact of faith in the community. But still, religion is the main factor affecting the Italian politics, as according to the Italian national survey in 2007 exposed that 67 percent of people of age group between 16 to 74 years Italian stated that “religion strongly influences politics in Italy” (Martino, 2015). All these discussed historical perspectives show the importance of Catholicism in understanding the relationship between religion and politics in Italy. Catholicism plays an essential role in Italians’ lives in three ways; a strange version of “civil religion,” political parties inspired by Catholics, and the discussion of the Church’s intervention in debates that directly affect the lives of people in Italy (Martino, 2015).
Over the past years, as the non-Catholic communities arrived in Italy, the purity of the single religion in Italy has been changed. The most active non-Catholics foreigners that are populating Italy are Muslims, even they are minorities and are have representation only in foreigner’s rights, but they are strengthening their roots in Italy. And in the coming years may be the Muslims’ population increase to a level that they will have a quota everywhere in Italy. If this happened, Italy would surely enter the new phase where the Muslims also have the right to present their views on ethical, moral, and political issues. And these changes turned the whole politics of Italy into the new phase. Unlikely, to the situation in the 1990s and 2000s, when the ethical matters war leads many people to commiserate with Church, the situation is different. In the near past, the Right-wing of Italy attacked the position of the Church to support immigrants’ rights. The religion in today’s Italian society became private and limited matter.
Despite all these changes in Italy’s society, the use of religion in politics has not diminished yet because people still have a strong religious influence. But on matters like sex education, children adoption by homosexual couples, gay marriages, and wealth distribution among the foreigners, the Church has different views than the politics. According to the survey report of 2007 (NRI 2007), about 66% of the Italian public stated that the Church should do its job without interfering in personal matters. Seventy-three percent of the Italian people also expressed that it is not necessary to follow the instructions from Church on the sexual issue for being a good Catholic. In political matters, the Churches in Italy always inhibited the nation’s unity and created the fractures in the country’s politics.
Keeping all in mind, it is difficult to identify whether the Churches will strengthen the country or will weaken the country. However, it can be concluded that in Italy, the religion is closely linked with politics, and Catholic Churches has still impacted on the social and political matters of Italian citizens (Martino, 2015).
From my point of view, I guess that with modernization, there are more important factors that we should not use religion for the sake of politics. Faith should be limited and marginalized as it is getting with time. As its everyone’s matter to spend his life according to his own will. And the rights of minorities should be reserved, and it is not wrong to provide them quota and citizens’ rights. In the present war of economics, we all should join hands and work together for the well being of our country despite boundaries of color and religion. In this way, we can unite the whole nation and will see the betterment in all the fields.
References
Cipriani, R. (1984). Religion and politics. The Italian case: diffused religion. Archives de Sciences Sociales des religions, 29-51.
Luckmann, T. (1967). The invisible religion: The problem of religion in modern society. Macmillan.
Bellah, R. N. (1967). Civil religion in America. Daedalus, 1-21.
Green, E. (2017). Do the Culture Wars Represent America? The Atlantic. theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/04/gorski-civil-religion/521751/
Martino, S. C. (2015). Politics and religion in Italy: A Catholic history. Politics and Religion Journal, 9(2), 233-247.