Findings from our NSF-funded project on church-state interaction at the local level. For the most current updates, please see churchstaterelations.com.
Abstract : Relationships between religion and state are a core focus for social scientists, but little is known about a central set of actors in “church-state” relations in the United States: local elected officials (mayors, town councilpersons, city commissioners). We report on a unique, representative survey of local elected officials, examining their religiosity, their interactions with religion through governance (prayers, meetings, symbol placement requests), and their preferences for religion-state relations. Our results show that local elected officials are no more religious than the general adult public, that they interact with religion in their formal governance at low rates, and that a quarter strongly prefer increased state engagement with religion. Minority religious affiliation, Democratic political affiliation, and urban context predict opposition to religion-state engagement. We describe how local elected officials may produce local regimes of religion-state interaction that vary by geographic location and suggest pathways for future research.
2022 Distinguished Article Award, Society for the Scientific Study of Religion
Abstract : Frontline officials (such as mayors and commissioners) are responsible for local-level responses to the COVID-19 pandemic across the United States. Their actions and attitudes, either in support of or opposition to public health recommendations, have resulted in widespread variation in local-level pandemic response. Despite evidence that religion significantly impacts the general public’s response to the pandemic, the influence of religion on officials’ behaviors and attitudes is unknown. Using a unique, two-wave, representative survey of frontline officials, we examine how religion influenced officials’ reported personal health behaviors (mask wearing, social distancing) and attitudes toward institutional reopenings. Results show high levels of compliance with public health recommendations, but religious nationalism negatively influences all outcomes. Other religious factors, like affiliation and attendance, vary in their influence and even work differently among officials compared to the general public. Frontline officials are key for understanding how religion influences the pandemic and state action more generally.
Abstract : Despite a recent trend toward the judicialization of religious freedom (JRF), both historical experience and theoretical considerations suggest ‘dejudicialization’ is likely at some point. Yet, dejudicialization has provoked a little comment, and even less theorization, among social scientists studying religious freedom. This article conceptualizes the dejudicialization of religious freedom (DRF) in institutionalist terms, examines the structural forces that have facilitated JRF, and considers whether and how they may be waning in recent years. We argue conditions favorable toward dejudicialization in general, and DRF more specifically, are already emerging; highlight recent developments consistent with such a turn; and develop a typology of the forms that DRF may take.
Abstract : Scholars have taken a growing interest in what we call “culturalized religion”—that is, forms of religious identification, discourse, and expression that are primarily cultural in character, insofar as they are divorced from belief in religious dogma or participation in religious ritual. This article aims to clarify our current thinking about these phenomena so as to facilitate future theoretical and empirical work. Drawing on recent work in the sociology of culture, we distinguish between culturalized religion as a form of constituted culture, a form of pragmatic culture, and a form of identity; and theorize three principal types of relations connecting each of these modalities: reinforcing relationships, resource relationships, and destabilizing relationships. In so doing, we develop an inclusive and dynamic approach to studying culturalized religion that clears the ground for further research into its diverse modalities and manifestations, as well as their points of intersection and interaction.
Abstract : Recent years have seen growing interest in the judicialization of religious freedom (JRF). In this article, I identify two distinct meanings of JRF, which are often conflated but which need to be kept separate. I then argue for a stronger institutionalist approach to JRF. An institutionalist approach focuses our attention on both the rules internal to courts, and the relationship of courts to administrative agencies, legislatures, and other governing bodies. I argue that there is room to strengthen our analyses of JRF by paying greater attention to these institutional dynamics. I demonstrate this by highlighting two overlooked features of courts—interpretive rules and access rules—that are particularly important for governing JRF; and by developing a framework that relates the courts to other institutional venues and political actors. In so doing, I identify a number of promising directions for future research into the causes and consequences of JRF.
Abstract: Minority religious communities can often promote alternative visions of the role of religion in education. In this chapter, I argue that these visions are shaped not only by the intrinsic interests of religious minorities, but also by an array of political, organizational, and cultural factors. I develop this argument by examining how Jewish communities in Australia and the United States contributed to the development of new religious education policies in the 1960s. While American Jews were often at the forefront of the campaign to exclude religion from the public schools, Australian Jews instead adopted a less aggressive stance that supported a place for religious education in that nation’s schools. I analyze how internal and external politics, national cultural repertoires, and organizational dynamics shaped Jewish interests, ultimately yielding divergent policy priorities in each country.