RELG236

This course focuses on the ways religion has been a source of political division and unity in America. Polls indicate that America is, by far, the most religious of industrial democracies and that our contentious political debates are, in large part, due to the religious dimensions of morally evocative issues like abortion and gay marriage, and the firm positions of such constituencies as the Christian Right and new Religious Left. Historically, public debates concerning abolition, suffrage, and temperance drew on scholarly and legal interpretations of the Constitutional promise of both religious freedom and the separation of church and state. We examine the role of religion in the founding of the American republic, and in contemporary political movements such as Black Lives Matter, the Federation for Immigration Reform, and 21st century civil rights organizations, which address issues including prison reform, the environment, and the 2020 U.S. Presidential election. No prerequisites.