Public Policy & the Emergence of Religious Politics

Abstract

Studies of religion and politics have tended recently to ignore the role played by public policy in the political activity of religious groups. This article, which examines religious politics in the 1970's and 1980's, finds reasons for this tendency in both liberal society's view of religion and the dynamics of social science in a liberal society. It suggests that different types of public policy, classified here as church-state, personal morality, and peace / justice, will have different effects on religious interests and promote different kinds of political activity by religious groups. The authors analyze major theoretical perspectives on religion and politics-interest group theory, civil religion, status politics, and secularization, and they conclude that conditions are such as to suggest the persistence of religious activity in American politics.