Religion and Democracy

In the Summer 2004/2005 edition of Dissent Magazine, Dr Denis Kenny wrote "Religion and Democracy". An online version of this article is at Margo Kingston's Webdiary.

Dr Kenny'e thesis is that the reduction in participation in civil society is accompanied by an increase in religious activity as compensation. In other words, the more people lose control over their materials lives, the more they seek compensation through their spiritual lives. He refers to Marx's comment that religion is ...the sigh of the oppressed. Religion is not the cause but a symptom of the current political malaise.

In my own experience of street campaigning, I have come across Christians who believe that:

• Jesus is coming soon to set all things right so there is nothing to do;
• If all people in power became true Christians, then everything would be better;
• Capitalism is good but Communism/Socialism/Anarchism is very, very bad.