Essay Sample on Religion: Mobilizing Believers for Worship and Social Cohesion

Introduction

Religion is about the human relationship with the creator. Plato defined piety as "doing and saying what pleases the gods at sacrifice and prayer" (Steinberger 141). That means the primary role of religion should be to mobilize believers to pray and worship the creator. One of the critical aspects of worshipping the creator is having good and upright relationship with fellow humans. This role of religion should be about social cohesion and harmony, both of which require the intervention of the government and the rule of law. It also means that religion should promote the social welfare of society through activities that help people access basic needs like healthcare, education, and shelter. However, it is impossible to restrict religion to a few specific roles in the society because different religions have different beliefs and uphold diverse values. In Euthyphro, Plato stated that sometimes even the gods do not always agree among themselves on issues of godliness (Steinberger 143). He claimed that some gods may love something, while others may hate it. Therefore, in an ideal situation, the role that religion plays in any society would be dynamic, ever-changing, and fluid for every society.

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The US history, for example, tells of many instances when religious organizations and their leaders changed their positions on significant public policy matters. Religions in America have made such shifts on marriage equality, abortion, women's rights, divorce, slavery, etc. Religious leaders tend to update the official positions of their groups to maintain the support of their followers (Melendez 1). Most Christian denominations sometimes have a change of mind on such issues due to a reinterpretation of scriptures.

Nonetheless, all religions, at least, should be about morality and righteousness. As Plato puts it, "piety is what is loved by all the gods. Impiety is what all the gods hate" (Steinberger 143). That means religion is a universal moral control. As such, it should form the basis of and basis of the political, social, and economic ideals of any society. In the United States, religion is a critical component of national history. The majority of Americans are immigrants, of whom, some fled their original countries in search of religious freedom. This is why the US constitution and laws are carefully written to protect such liberties. Also, the government has lots of ancient and modern reminders of the key role that religion plays the country's affairs as well as politics. For example, at least half of the political speeches made in the United States are based on religious ideology (Simmons 567). However, the high penetration of religion in our society should not only exist in beliefs and speeches but should also translate to the national culture and general behavior of the people.

While religion should inform the socio-political basis of public policies, it should be kept distinct from civil law to maintain religious freedom and equality. Countries governed by religious law mostly deny their citizens religious freedom. A good example is Saudi Arabia, which uses Islamic Sharia as the supreme law. Such negative outcomes should be avoided through the separation of religion from state. The idea of separating church and state is embodied in the function and spirit of the Free Exercise Clause and the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution, which prohibits the Congress from making any legislation that favors or outlaws the existence of any religion. Similarly, the US Constitution in Article Six prohibits any requirement of religious tests as a qualification for a public office in the country.

However, the Supreme Court of the United States does not intemperate the principle of separation of church and state as absolute. The precedence for this position is Zorach v. Clauson (1952), in which the Supreme Court upheld accommodationism over separationism. The ruling held that the institutions of the nation "presuppose a Supreme Being," and the government recognizes God, but that does not establish a state church, which the authors of the First Amendment intended to prohibit. Therefore, the right extent to which the US law separates the religion and government is a matter that continues to elicit impassioned debate.

Natural law should be considered in the separation of religion and government on civic matters. The concept of natural law was developed in ancient Greek philosophy. The existence of natural law is independent of civil law or a nation's or society's political system. This was the case in Sophocles' Antigone. In his Rhetoric, Aristotle claimed that Sophocles Antigone represents an ancient application of natural law as a concept for political debate and argument (van den Berge 208). The dilemma that Creon ran into would be a common one in the separationism systems. Being the head of the family, he had an obligation to lead the burial of his kin, Polyneices, according to Athenian religious customs. But because his cousin was a traitor, Creon also had the power to deny him decent burial rites. Eventually, Creon decided to uphold the law of the land and go against religious law:

As for his brother- that Polyneices, who returned from exile, eager to wipe out in all-consuming his ancestral city and its native gods, keen to seize upon his family's blood and lead men into slavery-for him, the proclamation in the state declares he'll have no burial mound, no funeral rites, and no lament. He'll be left unburied, his body there for birds and dogs to eat, a clear reminder of his shameful fate (Steinberger 126).

Antigone disobeyed the king's decree and went ahead to bury her brother, claiming to be adhering to religious custom, which she said was supreme over civic orders. Her actions in the situation constituted civic disobedience against which the law does not clearly define the course of action. According to Antigone, it would offend the gods if the body was not buried, and that would make it impossible for the deceased to enter the underworld. In her response to Creon on why she disobeyed the decree, Antigone claimed that no man had the power to give orders that override the laws of religion:

I did not think anything which you proclaimed strong enough to let a mortal override the gods and their unwritten and unchanging laws (Steinberger 129).

Unfortunately, this is the same discourse that surrounds the abortion law debate in the United States. When it recently passed the anti-abortion law, the state of Alabama demonstrated the difficulty in dissecting the complicated role of religion in the abortion debate. When the governor of Alabama, Kay Ivey, signed the state's abortion law, she referred to it as a "powerful testament" (Burke 1). Notably, all the major religions in the US are against murder and uphold the sanctity of life as a gift from God. However, the governor's strong stance has been attributed to her being a Southern Baptist. Southern Baptist church is now considered the most restrictive denomination in the country.

Conclusion

In conclusion, religion should promote righteousness, peaceful coexistence, and the general welfare of the society. Religion should inform the development of public policy, but the church must be separated from the state to safeguard religious freedom. In multi-religious societies like the US, care should be taken when using religious doctrines to support or discredit civil policy because religions differ in values and standards. For instance, while Christianity upholds gender equality, Islamic principles emphasize the functional differences between men and women.

Works Cited

Burke, Daniel. "Yes, Abortion Activists Use Religious Language. But It's Still About Politics." CNN, 23 May 2019, edition.cnn.com/2019/05/23/politics/abortion-religion-views-alabama/index.html.

Melendez, Brian. "Understanding the Role of Religion in American Politics." Department of Political Science | University of Washington, 27 June 2016, www.polisci.washington.edu/news/2016/06/27/understanding-role-religion-american-politics.

Simmons, Paul D. "Religious liberty and the abortion debate." J. Church & St. 32 (1990): 567.

Steinberger, Peter J. Readings in Classical Political Thought. Hackett Publishing, 2000.

van den Berge, Lukas. "Sophocles' Antigone and the promise of ethical life: tragic ambiguity and the pathologies of reason." Law and Humanities 11.2 (2017): 205-227.