Migration and Modern Religious Pluralism

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Melissa Borja
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Immigration Policy ◽  
Religious Freedom ◽  
Religious Pluralism ◽  
The United States ◽  
Religious Institutions ◽  
The Public ◽  
Religious Difference ◽  
Recent Developments ◽  
American Churches

In the second half of the twentieth century, the United States enacted major changes in immigration policy that, in turn, produced dramatic changes in the ethno-racial and religious makeup of the American population. Especially after 1965, unprecedented numbers of Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, animists, and ancestor-worshippers migrated to the United States, as did Asian, African, and Latino Christians who introduced new cultural diversity to American churches. During the same period, ideology of pluralism gained currency, and Americans revised their understanding of what it means to pursue harmonious relations across lines of religious difference. Ideas and practices of pluralism not only adjusted to these new conditions but also powerfully reshaped both secular and religious institutions in the United States in the process. However, despite the public embrace of pluralism, recent developments have made clear that aspirations of religious freedom and interfaith harmony have been more difficult to put into practice than many people have expected.

scholarly journals The War on Sex Offenders: Community Notification in Perspective

2001 ◽  
Vol 34 (3) ◽  
pp. 256-276 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lyn Hinds ◽  
Kathleen Daly
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Sex Offenders ◽  
Sex Offender ◽  
The United States ◽  
Community Notification ◽  
Megan's Law ◽  
The Public ◽  
Public Campaign ◽  
Recent Developments ◽  
Naming And Shaming

This article explores the contemporary phenomenon of “naming and shaming” sex offenders. Community notification laws, popularly known as Megan's Law, which authorise the public disclosure of the identity of convicted sex offenders to the community in which they live, were enacted throughout the United States in the 1990s. A public campaign to introduce “Sarah's Law” has recently been launched in Britain, following the death of eight-year old Sarah Payne. Why are sex offenders, and certain categories of sex offenders, singled out as targets of community notification laws? What explains historical variability in the form that sex offender laws take? We address these questions by reviewing the sexual psychopath laws enacted in the United States in the 1930s and 40s and the sexual predator and community notification laws of the 1990s, comparing recent developments in the United States with those in Britain, Canada, and Australia. We consider arguments by Garland, O'Malley, Pratt, and others on how community notification, and the control of sex offenders more generally, can be explained; and we speculate on the likelihood that Australia will adopt community notification laws.

Religious Freedom and the Churches: Contemporary Challenges in the United States Today1

2019 ◽  
Vol 33 (2) ◽  
pp. 194-204
Author(s):  
Richard W. Garnett
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Sexual Abuse ◽  
Civil Society ◽  
Constitutional Law ◽  
Religious Freedom ◽  
The United States ◽  
Religious Institutions ◽  
General Decline ◽  
The Supreme Court ◽  
Constitutional Right

A crucial, but often overlooked, dimension of the human and constitutional right to religious freedom is the autonomy of religious institutions, associations and societies with respect to matters of governance, doctrine, formation and membership. Although the Supreme Court of the United States has affirmed this autonomy in the context of American constitutional law, it is vulnerable, and even under threat, for a variety of reasons, including a general decline in the health of civil society and mediating associations and a crisis of confidence and authority caused by clerical sexual abuse and churches’ failure to respond to it.

The judicialization of religious freedom: Variations on a theme

2021 ◽  
pp. 003776862110210
Author(s):  
James T Richardson
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Religious Freedom ◽  
The United States ◽  
Sociology Of Law ◽  
Legal Systems ◽  
Religious Groups ◽  
European Court ◽  
The Supreme Court ◽  
Recent Developments ◽  
Variations On A Theme

This article discusses places and historical circumstances where religious freedom is generally protected by governments, including their judicial systems, and contrasts this with examples where such is not the case. Societal conditions contributing to religious freedom derived from theorizing on the ‘sociology of religious freedom’ are discussed, focusing on the characteristics of legal systems. Included is an application of sociology of law theories concerning how minority religious groups sometimes prevail in legal battles, followed by discussion of ‘judicialization of religious freedom’ concept. International legal systems and organizations that promote religious freedom are briefly described before discussing recent developments in the United States involving conflicts between the Supreme Court and Congress as well as the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR), with its generally strong record concerning religious freedom. Russia and China, where religious freedom is severely limited or virtually nonexistent, demonstrate conditions not conducive to religious freedom, causing minority faiths to suffer severe consequences.

Religion and Civil Liberties in the United States

2011 ◽  
pp. 274-288
Author(s):  
Tony Gill
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Free Speech ◽  
Religious Freedom ◽  
Religious Pluralism ◽  
Civil Liberty ◽  
Civil Liberties ◽  
The United States ◽  
Civic Culture ◽  
Regulatory Issue ◽  
The World

In the contemporary era, and indeed ever since the Age of Enlightenment, the issue of civil liberties has taken an increasingly important role in the world of politics and economics. These civil liberties frequently include the rights to free speech, to petition government, to a fair trial before a jury of one's peers, to assemble peacefully, and prohibitions on the arbitrary seizure of property. Given that religious freedom is a crucial link in the economic explanation of religion, it behooves us to understand how this vital civil liberty produces religious pluralism and vibrancy, and how religious freedom develops within polities. This article frames religious freedom in the United States as a regulatory issue, proposes an economically rooted explanation for why politicians would deregulate the religious marketplace, and discusses why religious civil liberties are important for promoting spiritual vibrancy and a strong civic culture in society. It also examines the link between religious liberty and political economy.

scholarly journals Mass Opinion and Immigration Policy in the United States: Re-Assessing Clientelist and Elitist Perspectives

2016 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 660-680 ◽  
Author(s):  
Morris Levy ◽  
Matthew Wright ◽  
Jack Citrin
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Immigration Policy ◽  
The United States ◽  
Attitudes And Beliefs ◽  
Immigration Reform ◽  
Public Preferences ◽  
Majority Opinion ◽  
The Public ◽  
Popular Pressure ◽  
Mass Opinion

We argue that widely accepted elitist and “clientelist” models of immigration policy in the United States unduly minimize popular pressure on policy-making. These models portray majority opinion in ways that fail to recognize divergence between the public’s abstract goals for immigration policy and its support for the concrete policy changes needed to achieve them. As a result, they obscure many important instances in which immigration policy accords with public preferences despite counter-pressure from elites and organized lobbies. We demonstrate this point by identifying and explaining gaps between generalized attitudes and beliefs about specific policies in the domains of both legal and illegal immigration, showing that status quo legal admissions policies are not starkly at odds with majority preferences and that, contrary to interpretations of most commercial polling on the topic, majorities reject specific aspects of legalization programs that organized lobbies insist on as components of a “grand bargain” to overhaul an immigration system widely viewed as “broken.” Appreciating the nuance in mass opinion toward immigration policy helps explain policy stagnation that confounds elitist models and suggests that forging ahead with immigration reform will require persuading the public and not only successful bargaining among elites and interest groups.

Chrismukkah: Millennial Multiculturalism

2015 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 82-109 ◽  
Author(s):  
Samira K. Mehta
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Public Discourse ◽  
Religious Practice ◽  
The United States ◽  
Religious Institutions ◽  
Turn Of The Millennium ◽  
Moral Formation ◽  
The Public ◽  
Greeting Cards ◽  
Truth Claims

AbstractChrismukkah and its increased public presence marked a shift in the public discourse around Christian–Jewish interfaith families in the United States in the years surrounding the turn of the millennium. In children's literature, greeting cards, humor books, on television and in blogs, interfaith families who practiced elements of both Christianity and Judaism constructed a multicultural identity by the strategic reframing of practices from both backgrounds. Rather than understanding this identity as based in a failure to choose one religious practice over another, multicultural interfaith families argued that their blended practices both reflected an unavoidable reality and offered distinct advantages and moral formation to their families. “Religion,” as used by these multicultural families, becomes the domain of religious institutions, with membership lists and competing truth claims. “Culture,” their preferred term, denotes practices that are equivalent and can exist simultaneously in the lives of families and individuals. The article argues that interfaith families who practice both traditions use language of multiculturalism to create a space for such choices to be framed as morally cohesive. This multicultural framing then re-casts these practices, re-inscribing them with values of tolerance and minimization of difference rather than the theological and historical content ascribed by many of the religious institutions that these families avoid.

Wrestling with 9/11: Immigrant Perceptions and Perceptions of Immigrants

2006 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 107-124 ◽  
Author(s):  
Caroline Brettell
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Immigration Policy ◽  
Asian Indians ◽  
World Trade Center ◽  
The United States ◽  
Fort Worth ◽  
Foreign Born ◽  
Immigrant Populations ◽  
Trade Center ◽  
The Impact

Soon after 9/11 a research project to study new immigration into the Dallas Fort Worth metropolitan area got under way. In the questionnaire that was administered to 600 immigrants across five different immigrant populations (Asian Indians, Vietnamese, Mexicans, Salvadorans, and Nigerians) between 2003 and 2005 we decided to include a question about the impact of 9/11 on their lives. We asked: “How has the attack on the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001 affected your position as an immigrant in the United States?” This article analyzes the responses to this question, looking at similarities and differences across different immigrant populations. It also addresses the broader issue of how 9/11 has affected both immigration policy and attitudes toward the foreign-born in the United States. 

Verán ustedes las chozas más humildes. El discurso de pobreza en la diplomacia pública cardenista dirigida a Estados Unidos

2019 ◽  
Vol 35 (2) ◽  
pp. 255-281
Author(s):  
Sylvia Dümmer Scheel
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
New Deal ◽  
Public Diplomacy ◽  
The United States ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Poor ◽  
The Face ◽  
The Government ◽  
Lazaro Cardenas ◽  
The New Deal

El artículo analiza la diplomacia pública del gobierno de Lázaro Cárdenas centrándose en su opción por publicitar la pobreza nacional en el extranjero, especialmente en Estados Unidos. Se plantea que se trató de una estrategia inédita, que accedió a poner en riesgo el “prestigio nacional” con el fin de justificar ante la opinión pública estadounidense la necesidad de implementar las reformas contenidas en el Plan Sexenal. Aprovechando la inusual empatía hacia los pobres en tiempos del New Deal, se construyó una imagen específica de pobreza que fuera higiénica y redimible. Ésta, sin embargo, no generó consenso entre los mexicanos. This article analyzes the public diplomacy of the government of Lázaro Cárdenas, focusing on the administration’s decision to publicize the nation’s poverty internationally, especially in the United States. This study suggests that this was an unprecedented strategy, putting “national prestige” at risk in order to explain the importance of implementing the reforms contained in the Six Year Plan, in the face of public opinion in the United States. Taking advantage of the increased empathy felt towards the poor during the New Deal, a specific image of hygienic and redeemable poverty was constructed. However, this strategy did not generate agreement among Mexicans.

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