33. Religion and Politics

Joel Fetzer, Pepperdine University, joel.fetzer@pepperdine.edu

Religious identification is one of the most important categorizations in the post-9/11 world.  Although some political leaders would have us view adherents of the major world religions as undifferentiated blocs, scholars of religion and politics realize that reality is more complicated.  The section would thus be eager to consider proposals exploring the causes and implications of political diversity among members of the same religious tradition as well as panels and papers investigating the conditions under which persons and groups from divergent traditions form effective pan-religious political coalitions. A related topic of interest is the political behavior of individuals whose religious identification seems to push in a political direction opposite that of their non-religious identity or status (e.g., ethnicity, nationality, sexual orientation, gender, immigration status, class).

Media reports proliferate about religious institutions and actors who give their blessing to oppressive social, economic, and political structures. Far less attention is paid to religious groups and religiously motivated individuals who resist structural injustice. The section would welcome papers seeking to explain why some religious people or traditions side with the powerless or marginalized and under what circumstances religion can be used to advance various kinds of equality instead of to whitewash repression.