Conservative Religion Research Articles

College Educated Religious Conservatives’ Support for Capital Punishment

Abstract Higher education is associated with reduced support for capital punishment among white Americans. Conservative religion, however, is associated with moral foundations and schemas that lead to greater support for capital punishment, which we expect moderate the association between education and views of capital punishment. Using nationally representative survey data, we found that the negative association between higher education and support for the death penalty was attenuated for white religious conservatives. This finding did not apply to nonwhite Americans. We conclude with a discussion of how the moral worldview associated with conservative religion may affect the future of capital punishment, by addressing how the association between higher education and views of capital punishment is contingent on other individual and contextual factors, and by situating the results within the contemporary American context that is characterized by political polarization and the decline of religion.

The Theological Imperative of Marine Ecosystem Conservation via Mangrove Forest Preservation: A Study of the Social Construction of Kyai Nahdlatul Ulama and Muhammadiyah

This article analyzes the theological urgency of preserving marine ecosystems through mangrove forest conservation in a study of the social construction of Nahdlatul Ulama and Muhammadiyah Kyai in Ujungpangkah District, Gresik. Social construction theory plays an important role in shaping society's views on the need to protect the marine environment, which is increasingly threatened by the pace of industrialization. Using the social construction theory framework by Peter L. Berger and Thomas Luckmann, this research analyzes how Nahdlatul Ulama and Muhammadiyah Kyai construct a theology of marine ecosystem conservation and connect it with mangrove forest conservation. Data was collected through interviews and content analysis of lectures and religious literature through a qualitative approach. The research results reveal that Nahdlatul Ulama and Muhammadiyah Kyai have formed a social construction that prioritizes theological values ​​in the context of environmental conservation, especially marine ecosystems through mangrove forest conservation. This construction provides a spiritual and moral foundation for society in the face of ecological change and rapid industrialization. This research provides new insight into the potential role of religion in environmental conservation and provides an in-depth view of the urgency of mangrove forest conservation from the perspective of the social construction of Nahdlatul Ulama and Muhammadiyah Kyai.

Demons in San Francisco Bay

In 1967, street minister Kent Philpott began outreach to lesbian, gay, and bisexual hippies in the Haight-Ashbury district of San Francisco. Over the next decade, he counseled those who purportedly wanted out of what he referred to as “the gay lifestyle,” combining charismatic religious beliefs in demons, divine healing, and glossolalia with psychological theories on gender and child development. This article examines Philpott’s efforts to provide the nascent “ex-gay movement” with cultural, social, and intellectual foundations. This article specifically documents how sexual liberation, hippie culture, and conservative religion converged in San Francisco and spawned the “ex-gay movement.” Philpott, swept up by the Jesus People Movement, incorporated religious and psychological beliefs prominent in the Bay Area and infused charismatic Christian influences and traditional understandings of masculinity and femininity into the “ex-gay movement.”

The Role of African Indigenous Religion in Natural Resources Conservation among the Ngoni Speaking People of Mpezeni Chiefdom in Chipata District, Zambia

Africa, Zambia in particular, is endowed with a rich and diverse natural resource base on which the livelihood of its people, especially rural constituents, depends. Over the years, traditional African societies have observed environmental religious ethics that have helped in regulating the interactions with the natural environment. However, rural parts of Zambia continue to experience indiscriminate exploitation of natural resources. The objectives of this study were threefold; (i) to investigate the African indigenous religious beliefs and practices used to conserve natural resources by the Ngoni people, (ii) to describe how natural resources are conserved through religious beliefs and practices among the Ngoni people and (iii) to explain how African Indigenous Religious (AIR) beliefs and practices contribute to natural resources conservation among the Ngoni people. The study was qualitative in approach and adopted a case design to address the research questions. The data was collected through guided interviews. The study has established that among the Ngoni, taboos and totems are common beliefs and practices that help in conserving natural resources. The study also revealed that among the Ngoni natural resources are conserved in the form of sacred places such as; graveyards, sacred forests, sacred streams, and sacred animal and plant species. Study findings further revealed that among the Ngoni, things such as; hunting and setting fires in sacred areas, cutting trees for timber, and gathering plants for medicine is strictly regulated and sometimes completely prohibited. The study concludes that, among the Ngoni, African religious beliefs and practices have contributed to the creation of a culture where communities are highly integrated with nature, valuing it, respecting it, and striving to live in harmony with it. The Ngoni AIR beliefs and practices promote conservation of some trees and animal species which would have otherwise been extinct.

Religious Freedom as a Political Technology

The principles of freedom of conscience and of non-discrimination on religious and national grounds, forming the basis of international declarations and constitutions of most states of the world, have become a great historical achievement of mankind. However, at a certain stage, the freedom of conscience became a political tool. This was caused by the desire of Western governments, mainly the United States, to create their own democracy canon that could be introduced into other societies and states, making them open to American interests. The religious factor has acquired a great political signifi cance both in regional and global confl icts, and in the struggle between neoliberal anti-traditionalism and identism, which protects the right of nations, cultures and conservative religions to preserve their identity, instead of transforming along with the pattern of left-liberal elites, LGBT communities, feminists and environmentalists. Neoliberalism, or anti-traditionalism, eagerly brands any declaration of civilizational identity as “xenophobia” and “fascism”. Religion has become one of the main fi elds, where the struggle between identity and anti-traditionalism or “liberal democracy” takes place. The article highlights several areas, where the religious freedom is used as a technology in real politics. The fi rst one is the democratization of legislation in individual countries and the adjustment of its provisions related to the freedom of conscience, the status of religious associations and the regulation of their activity. The second one is the shaping of public opinion and the formation of public interest organizations that promote the principles of religious freedom and act in line with the neoliberal understanding of democracy and the norms of political correctness. The third one is interreligious round tables and trainings with the participation of public off icials, religious leaders and public associations, which is something other than just an interreligious dialogue. They “equalize” Muslims, Orthodox Christians, Catholics, and Protestants in the public fi eld. The principles of religious freedom that the society and the state need in the context of Western anti-traditionalism have become their opposite. Pluralism and religious diversity started to be used as the primary target, since they both most closely corresponded to the demands of American liberal democracy and world anti-identity. The current religious freedom turned out to be far from the tolerance of the Peace of Westphalia. Instead of peaceful coexistence, the new concept of the freedom of conscience, on the contrary, often suggests the oppression of dominant churches and traditions.

Negotiating Gender and Religion: Comparative Perspectives from Judaism and Islam

Abstract: Women in Orthodox Judaism and mainstream Islam are discriminated against in Muslim and Jewish family law; subjected to rulings elaborated by men regarding female purity and reproductive rights; segregated in the spaces of synagogues and mosques; and excluded from advanced study, interpretation of religious law ( fiqh and halakha ), and spiritual leadership. Gender-nonconforming believers have no place, either. Nonetheless, since the mid-twentieth century, Jewish and Muslim women as well as sexual minorities have been making claims for gender justice, attempting to change from within these conservative religions. The article shows convergences and divergences in women's strategies to undermine male hegemony on religious authority in both faiths. If numerous works have dealt with female agency and resistance to patriarchy in each tradition, comparative studies are still lacking, and this article suggests areas in family law, ritual purity, and procreation to further feminist and queer interreligious research.

Negotiating Gender and Religion: Comparative Perspectives from Judaism and Islam

Abstract: Women in Orthodox Judaism and mainstream Islam are discriminated against in Muslim and Jewish family law; subjected to rulings elaborated by men regarding female purity and reproductive rights; segregated in the spaces of synagogues and mosques; and excluded from advanced study, interpretation of religious law ( fiqh and halakha ), and spiritual leadership. Gender-nonconforming believers have no place, either. Nonetheless, since the mid-twentieth century, Jewish and Muslim women as well as sexual minorities have been making claims for gender justice, attempting to change from within these conservative religions. The article shows convergences and divergences in women's strategies to undermine male hegemony on religious authority in both faiths. If numerous works have dealt with female agency and resistance to patriarchy in each tradition, comparative studies are still lacking, and this article suggests areas in family law, ritual purity, and procreation to further feminist and queer interreligious research.

The Politics of Belonging: A Study of Educated Jewish Ultra-Orthodox (Haredi) Women in Israel

The past few decades have witnessed significant increases in levels of education among women members of conservative religions. Contrary to the expectations of both researchers and policymakers, this trend has not been accompanied by decreases in levels of piety. The purpose of this article is to explore what it means to educated religious women to belong to conservative religious communities that embody values and practices that do not conform to the values of modernity associated with exposure to higher education. On the basis of a series of group interviews with educated Jewish Haredi women in Israel, we examined this very question. We found that the women we interviewed demonstrated a deep pride in their religious identity and an ongoing and strong commitment to their community. At the same time, they regarded membership in their community as a form of social capital enabling them to secure a wide array of benefits, which provided compensation for the demand to conform to conservative practices. We conclude that through a process of exchange (social capital against the price of conforming), the women challenge existing norms while maintaining strong religious identities, taking part in democratic processes, and, together, forging articulated bonds of membership and belonging.

Queer in the Latter Days: An Integrated Model of Sexual and Religious Identity Development Among Former Mormon Sexual Minority Adults

ABSTRACT Sexual minority individuals often have complicated relationships with conservative religion, including conflicts between their sexual and religious identities. Sexual minority members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (CJCLDS) experience unique struggles, given the policies and doctrine of the CJCLDS and its commitment to heteronormative family structures and gender roles. A better understanding of the identity development trajectory for sexual minority individuals formerly involved in the church can deepens our understanding of sexual identity development in constrained contexts and help promote successful identity integration within this subpopulation. Transcripts from semi-structured interviews with thirty-four sexual minority individuals who identified as former members of the CJCLDS were analyzed using an inductive thematic approach, followed by a deductive theory-building process in which Cass’s Homosexual Identity Formation Model and Genia’s Religious Identity Development Model were overlaid on themes. We present a model that captures the trajectory of sexual and religious identity development that captures the experiences of sexual minority adults within the constraints of the CJCLDS, a non-affirming religious denomination.

The politics of LGBTQ rights expansion in Latin America and the Caribbean

Latin America is a region that has seen much progress in LGBTQ rights, including the decriminalization of same-sex sexual conduct, marriage equality in six countries and the implementation of anti-discrimination laws for sexual orientation. Yet, as this book contends, this progress has been uneven, given a variety of factors: conservative religion and machismo; limited engagement from philanthropic organizations; competition with other issues because of governance questions; and few openly LGBTQ celebrities and political leaders in the region. In his book, Javier Corrales sets out the ambitious task of summarizing the scholarly literature on political challenges and achievements in LGBTQ rights in Latin America and the Caribbean since the 1960s. The first three chapters review the regional history of LGBTQ rights in the last 60 years, with a focus on three major themes: cultural attitudes, political institutions and the internal characteristics of the LGBTQ movements across time. Corrales distinguishes between four time periods: the authoritarian era (1960s to late 1970s), the democratization era (1980s–90s), the rights-expansion era (from the 2000s onwards) and the current backlash era. The second part of the book explains the rise of LGBTQ rights. Here, Corrales brings in several potential factors to account for this change, such as religious attitudes; support of ruling parties; the role of courts; federalism; and unity in the LGBTQ movement. The author explores each of these factors, as well as their limitations, in a skilful and nuanced way. For instance, Corrales illustrates that federalism is a double-edged sword, as subnational progress in states can bring victories but also backlash, and create barriers to nationwide progress.

Sheikh Nawawi Al-Bantani: Thoughts, Educational and Relevance to Islamic Contemporary Education

The purpose and urgency of this study are to find out the biography of Sheikh Nawawi Al-Bantani, his thoughts on conservative religion, and the relevance of his thinking on Contemporary Islamic education. Collecting data for this research is a qualitative method with a type (library research) library study. Meanwhile, in analyzing the data, researchers use content analysis. The results of this study show that Sheikh Nawawi was born in 1230 H / 1815 AD in the village of Tanara Serang Banten, and he died when he was even 84 years old. Moreover, he can be categorized as a figure from the conservative religious school (al-Mazhab al-muhafiz al-diniyya), where this school has several criteria. First, seeing that the concept of Islamic Education must be built on spiritual values. Secondly, studying and classifying science is based on religious matters. Third, the source of income is purely from the teachings of the Islamic religion. Fourth, it does not consider the concrete dynamics of the Muslim community in the classical and contemporary eras. The relevance of sheikh Nawawi's thought to contemporary Islamic Education is that Islamic Education should be built based on religion and aim to be closer to Allah Azza wa jalla and not aim to gain office, wealth, and worldliness alone.

Evil Deeds in High Places: Christian America's Moral Struggle with Watergate by David E. Settje

Reviewed by: Evil Deeds in High Places: Christian America's Moral Struggle with Watergate by David E. Settje Robert Benne Evil Deeds in High Places: Christian America's Moral Struggle with Watergate. By David E. Settje. New York: New York University Press, 2020. 275 pp. As a rule, Lutherans' political presence in American life has been neglected by scholars of religion and politics. Lutheran political involvements are not as well-known as those of the mainline denominations nor as effective as the Southern Baptists or United Methodists. Lutherans have not played as prominent a political role in American life as Roman Catholics and they have not spawned politically powerful voluntary associations—Moral Majority, Christian Coalition—as have fundamentalists and evangelicals. Yet, they have been involved far beyond the attention they have been given by scholars. This book by David Settje, Professor of History and Director of the Honors Program at Concordia University Chicago, corrects that lack of attention. Here he adds to his considerable prior efforts to plumb the political involvements of American Lutherans in the great issues of the day. Two books precede this current effort: Lutherans and the Longest War: Adrift on a Sea of Doubt about the Cold and Vietnam Wars, 1961–75 (Lexington, 2006) and Faith and War: How Christians Debated the Cold and Vietnam Wars (New York University Press, 2011). This book focuses on the Watergate scandals that led to the resignation of President Richard Nixon in August of 1974. As the "evil deeds in high places" and the dishonesty that surrounded them shook the confidence of the country, Settje argues that the churches played an increasingly important role in political life in America. The crisis especially provided an occasion for conservative religion to provide a stronger voice in public life. That is where at least some Lutherans (Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod) come into play in the book. Other Lutherans (Lutheran Church in America) trained their influence on the liberal side. But all Christian traditions exercised new and important roles in both moral judgment and renewal in America. So, while Settje gives due attention to Lutheran voices, he also covers other major traditions, as well as the journals that represented those traditions. [End Page 241] The main part of the book provides an exhaustive account of those religious bodies' grappling with the many facets of the Watergate crisis. It is highly detailed and thorough. The notes and bibliography together are forty pages long. Recounting that upheaval brings back many memories of that era and its primary actors to those who lived through it. To those who did not it provides excellent historical instruction. While for the most part, Settje's work is fair-minded, it is clear that he favors liberal Protestant political incursions. He tends to argue that evangelicals have violated their emphasis on piety in their affection for Nixon and later Trump. He ends the book by arguing that Christians "must advocate for the moral and ethical leadership that will protect democracy. But this requires, within the Christian comfort of mixing religion and politics, they put morality first and politics a distant second." (216) This obviously is a criticism of those who thought that Nixon's—as well as Trump's—political agendas were important enough to support in spite of their personal foibles. The choice between a politician's character and his or her agenda is not as neat as Settje suggests. Liberal support for Clinton demonstrates that ambiguity on the other side of the political spectrum. Settje also makes the claim that the Watergate imbroglio was the doorway to much more religious involvement in politics, whereas it seems to me that the civil rights movement and the Vietnam war provided an earlier occasion for heavy religious involvement. Also, the Supreme Court's decision in Roe vs. Wade was a huge stimulation for religious involvement in politics that was just as strong as Watergate and far more long-lasting. Nevertheless, this book is a welcome examination of a watershed moment in American politics as well as American religions' political role in it. [End Page 242] Robert Benne Institute of Lutheran Theology Brookings, South Dakota Copyright © 2022 Johns Hopkins University Press and Lutheran...

“I Was Always Trying to Figure It Out… on My Own Terms”: Structural Barriers, the Internet, and Sexual Identity Development among Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Queer People of Different Generations

ABSTRACT Recognizing the historical grounding of sexual identity development, we examined the spontaneous narration of the internet’s significance among a diverse sample of three distinct birth cohorts of sexual minority adults (n = 36, ages 18–59) in the United States. Thematic analysis revealed two structural barriers and four roles of the internet in sexual identity development. Structural barriers were being in a heterosexual marriage (exclusive to members of the older cohort), and (2) growing up in a conservative family, religion, or community (which cut across cohorts). Roles of the internet included: learning about LGBQ+ identities and sex; watching pornography (which appeared only in narratives of the younger cohort); finding affirming community; and facilitating initial LGBQ+ romantic and sexual experiences (which appeared mostly in narratives of the younger cohort). Most participants who described the internet as playing a role in sexual identity development were members of the younger (ages 18–25) and middle (ages 34–41) cohorts. We discuss how the internet has assumed a unique role in history in the development of sexual minority people. Further, our findings highlight that sexual identity development occurs across the lifespan, and how that process and the roles of the internet vary by generation and structural realities.

The False Dichotomy of Sex and Religion in America

AbstractReligion and sexuality are polysemic categories. While conservative religion often fights against progressive sexual politics in contemporary America, this “usual story” is fractured and destabilized by people navigating the relationship between religion and sexuality as complex social creatures, not pundits or caricatures. Drawing from interdisciplinary scholarship, I examine salient issues of sexual politics—including abortion and reproductive rights, LGBT rights, and pornography—to show how religious actors have been on both sides of these debates. Because of this polysemic complexity, scholars of religion must not only tend to the dynamic interaction between religion and other categories, we must also recognize and study the diversity within the categories themselves.

Restoration and Conservation Based on Community Empowerment and Religious Understanding

Community empowerment is one of the effective strategies in conservation efforts. However, empowerment-based conservation still leaves some problems to be solved. The most significant issues in empowerment-based conservation are sustainability and human resource issues. This study sees the problem can be solved by integrating religious aspects in empowerment-based conservation efforts. Through its teaching about the environment, religion can instill values and shape the behavior of people and people who care about the environment. For demonstrating this possibility, this study reviews the literature available in discussions on the role of religion in environmental conservation, community empowerment, and conservation efforts. From the existing literature, religion instills values, shapes behavior, and ensures its sustainability. This is possible through features in religion, such as the message of responsibility in the concept of divinity, karma and reward/sin, or other features such as the ability of institutions to spread values that are intertwined with the emotional, cognitive, and even political aspects of society.

Religiousness and Minority Stress in Conservatively Religious Sexual Minorities: Lessons from Latter-day Saints

ABSTRACT Sexual minorities who engage in conservative religions may experience both stress and support from their engagement with their faith. However, it is unclear how religion/spirituality and minority stress may simultaneously affect mental health. To address this gap, we recruited 1,083 U.S. adults reporting varied engagement with a conservative religious tradition, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormon; LDS), belonging to one of four groups: (a) heterosexual, LDS; (b) sexual minority, LDS; (c) heterosexual, nonLDS; and (d) sexual minority, nonLDS. We found that LDS sexual minorities reported more religiousness/spirituality and described experiencing more minority stressors, relative to nonLDS sexual minorities. Interaction analyses indicated that internalized homonegativity was more strongly associated with depression for LDS sexual minorities than for nonLDS sexual minorities. We suggest that aspects of religion/spirituality may buffer the effects of minority stress experienced by sexual minorities who choose to remain engaged with conservative religious traditions.

Australian Secularism, the Sexual Revolution and the Making of the New Christian Right

This article seeks to explain the origins and continued rise of the New Christian Right (NCR) in Australia since the sexual revolution. Australia is an increasingly secular country, yet conservative religion continues to strongly influence sexual discourse in Australia. The success of the NCR in Australia thus requires explanation. Proportional representation in the Australian parliamentary system explains the unique role that the NCR political parties have played in the Australian sexual polity. The article suggests that Australia’s pragmatic and pluralistic secularism was a necessary condition for the making of the NCR. It argues, following Janice Irvine, that the rise of the Right did not simply trigger bitter conflicts over sexuality; it was accomplished through them. They produced a new, conservative, ecumenical, and politically engaged Christian movement that was defined by sexual politics.

Evidence for Hope?: Mississippi Christians’ Views Toward Gay and Lesbian Equality Post Obergefell v. Hodges

Despite the legalization of same-sex marriage, gay and lesbian people still lack full rights and equality in the USA. People in the USA who adhere to conservative religion and politics continue to create obstacles to full equality for gay and lesbian citizens. Through semi-structured, qualitative interviews, I provide an exploratory look at the shifting views toward gay and lesbian equality by highlighting the stories of six Mississippi Christians’ over a 6-year period. Overall, the six Mississippi Christians who agreed to participate in a follow-up interview in 2019 all became more accepting of gay and lesbian people and more open to gay and lesbian equality in the USA to various degrees. Continued social contact with gay and lesbian people, along with policy changes in the USA, led to more acceptance of gay and lesbian Americans by southern Christians. Striving to bring conservative Christians along on this journey toward more acceptance and support of gay and lesbian equality is not a futile effort. Christians who are “on-the-fence” are slowly progressing toward more acceptance. While religion may serve as a negative feature that deters the positive benefits of social contact, knowing someone who identifies as gay or lesbian remains a vital component of bringing more moderate Christians to acceptance of gay and lesbian people and rights.

John F. Kennedy and the Politics of Faith by Patrick Lacroix

Reviewed by: John F. Kennedy and the Politics of Faith by Patrick Lacroix Mark Massa S.J. John F. Kennedy and the Politics of Faith. By Patrick Lacroix. [Studies in US Religion, Politics, and Law] (Lawrence, Kansas: University Press of Kansas, 2021. Pp. 272. Hardback $34.95. ISBN 978-0-7006-3049-3.) Patrick Lacroix has written an important work of revisionist scholarship. Indeed, he argues—for the most part quite convincingly—that scholars of American religion (and of U.S. Catholicism in particular) have largely gotten the "secular sixties" completely wrong. As Lacroix argues the case, most previous scholars studying the contours of twentieth century American religious history have taken it as axiomatic that the famous "religious revival" of the 1950s ended with Dwight Eisenhower, and that the election of JFK in 1960 ushered in both the end of anti-Catholicism as a mainstream American pastime and the beginning of the era of waning religiosity during the 1960s and 1970s. But according to Lacroix, there was no "secular sixties." And Lacroix points to the person Kennedy himself and his presidency for understanding the quite important intersection of religion and politics at the beginning of the 1960s. He argues that scholars studying American [End Page 636] religion have tended to echo (far too uncritically) the Christian right's own assertion that the "secular sixties" were a decade of waning religiosity in which faith-based groups largely eschewed political engagement. In this quite mistaken periodization, the naked public square that Kennedy's presidency ostensibly ushered in itself helped the forces of conservative religion to build up steam to emerge in the 1980s as the "New Religious Right." But from Lacroix's vantage, "the Kennedy years represent an important moment in the arc of U.S. religious history, connecting the religious revival of the 1950s to the conservative religious activism of the last quarter of the twentieth century" (2). As Lacroix shapes the story, both Kennedy himself and his presidency were key factors in a decade when "progressive religion"—far from staging a retreat—played a key role in politics and the public square. Indeed, the author constructs a narrative that seeks to displace most previous histories of U.S. religion that have largely ignored Kennedy's impact on faith-based activism. The creation of the Peace Corps, as well as his growing appreciation for the social vision of Pope John XXIII (documented in papal encyclicals like Pacem in terris) illustrate Kennedy's growing commitment to utilizing inter-denominational faith-based groups in realizing his social vision in civil rights and economic aid initiatives, both in the United States and abroad. And the author is at pains to document how Kennedy's own commitment to the causes of civil rights and the work of young people in the Global South were rooted in his own "progressive" Catholic values and moral sense, values seemingly given official church approbation by the "other John." Lacroix argues that religion was "repurposed" during the Kennedy presidency: religion certainly had been instrumentalized at the beginning of the Cold War in the late 940s in the U.S. battle against "godless communism." But both the tone and location of that marshaled faith was relocated after 1960: the religious faith of the American mainstream was utilized under JFK to promote liberal reform both domestically and abroad, specifically around the issues of racial justice, arms control, and U.S. contributions to developing countries in organizations like the Peace Corps. And the author argues that it was Kennedy himself who functioned as the center of gravity for this new ("progressive") religious activism, all the while espousing a firm commitment to a high wall of separation between church and state, the latter rising more from Kennedy's own deeply-held understanding of constitutional principles and from his "realist" recognition of anti-Catholic impulses on the Protestant right, rather than from his ostensibly secular values. [End Page 637] Lacroix's study is rife with historical ironies, not the least of which was that it was the Catholic candidate in 1960 who played a key role in uncovering and deepening the rift between the "Seven Sister" mainstream Protestant groups affiliated with the National Council of...

Environmental ethics, religious taboos and the Osun-Osogbo grove, Nigeria

PurposeThe United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) identifies building and development, a major corollary of population growth and urbanization, as the number one primary threat to the conservation of heritage sites worldwide. With efforts at conserving these sites focussing on anthropocentrism and ecocentrism, this study introduces and examines the role of the traditional African religion as a conservation strategy using the Osun-Osogbo grove in Nigeria as a case study.Design/methodology/approachSatellite imageries of the grove and surrounding areas were analysed for land-use and land cover change using Geographic Information Systems (GISs). A review of documentary evidence and key-informant interviews were also carried out on the state of the grove and how religious beliefs impact same.FindingsResults showed that between 1986 and 2017, vegetal covers decreased by 77.1% while built-up areas grew by 342.4%. Despite the phenomenal rate of urbanization in the study area, the grove remained largely intact and even recorded a marginal increase in its vegetal cover and plant species. Qualitative data revealed that the fear of the religious taboos associated with the resident goddess of the grove, rather than a moral responsibility to the environment, was responsible for these outcomes.Originality/valueThe application of remote sensing and GIS in a transdisciplinary study of cultural heritage makes the work novel and contributes to the methodological approaches for such studies. The findings also show the potency of religion in environmental and cultural conservation.