Overview of Key Concepts
1) Religion
Religion is an explanation of the ultimate meaning of life, based on a notion and experience of the Transcendent, and how to live accordingly.
It includes the “three B’s”: Believing – the creeds, affirmations and faith claims that comprise the explanation of the ultimate meaning of life (theoretical); Belonging – the community structure or relationship among followers that shapes the collective experience of those beliefs (sociological), and Behaving – the ethical conduct and ritual activities by which the community expresses its beliefs in everyday life (practical). The Transcendent, means “that which goes beyond” the every-day, surface experience of reality. It can mean spirits, gods, a Personal God, Impersonal God, Emptiness, etc. In modern times there have been developed “explanations of the ultimate meaning of life, and how to live accordingly” not based on the Transcendent, e.g., secular humanism. Although these “explanations” function as religions do in human life, because the Transcendent is not included they are given a different name, which often is Ideology.
2) Religious Pluralism Vis À Vis Plurality
Let’s start with the easy term, religious plurality. It clearly refers to a demographic fact, namely, that in a particular area or country there are multiple religious bodies. For example, this is very much the case with the United States of America, among other countries—and it is becoming increasingly true of countries which formerly were largely mono-religious, for example many European countries.
Religious pluralism, building upon religious plurality, goes further by recognizing this religious plurality as potentially adding several positive values. For one, having multiple religions in a country helps its citizens to experience in their own country the pluralistic reality of the world, rather than live in a less reality-reflecting religious cocoon, which does not adequately mirror the rest of the world’s religious multiplicity.
Beyond that, religious pluralism tends to lead, first to toleration of the religious other, then to positive tolerance and mutual respect, and finally to dialogue and cooperation—in order to mutually make the world more peaceful and flourishing.
3) The Relationship between Religious Communities and the State
The First Amendment to the US Constitution states that the national government will not be involved in regulating religion and religious life in the country. This means that there is no official religion in the USA, or a religion whose members enjoy privileges over those of other religions. The government does not give money to religious communities for activities relating to religious worship. However, so-called faith-based initiatives (social and other services provided by religious communities or religious organizations in addition to or in the absence of government-sponsored services of the same) may receive limited financial support from the government.
4) Freedom of Religion and Freedom of Speech
When America fought for its independence from England in the late 18th century, citizens of this new country wanted certain freedoms as a foundation for the new government and society. Many of these freedoms were written into a set of Amendments to the US Constitution. The First Amendment (ratified in 1789) described the freedom of religion, speech, press, and assembly that this new government would protect for each individual.
Freedom of religion is a principle that supports the choice of an individual or community, in public or private, to express beliefs and teachings as well as practice worship and observances that identify a religious affiliation. The concept is generally recognized also to include the freedom to change religious affiliation or not to identify with a religious community at all. This freedom of religious expression is considered by many people and nations to be a fundamental human right.
The modern American conception of freedom of speech derives from the principles of freedom of the press (mainly in the context of political criticism) and freedom of religion as they developed in England, starting in the seventeenth century. Freedom of speech is the freedom to speak without censorship. The synonymous term freedom of expression is sometimes used to indicate not only freedom of verbal speech but any act of seeking, receiving and imparting information or ideas, regardless of the medium used. In practice, the right to freedom of speech is not absolute in any country and the right is commonly subject to limitations, such as libel (deliberately telling lies about someone) and the use of "hate speech.”
The right to freedom of speech is recognized as a human right under Article 19 of the U.N. Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) and recognized in international human rights law in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR – 1976).
5) Separation of Powers – Checks and Balances
As prescribed by the US Constitution, the three branches of government (executive, judicial, and legislative) are separate from one another and have power to decide on issues only within their own realm of authority. The system of checks and balances tries to guard against absolute power, in other words, to make sure that no one branch or individual in the government can override and take over the authority delegated to the other branches. The following are the highest levels of each governmental branch in the US: the President of the United States (executive); the US Supreme Court (judicial); and the United States Congress (legislative, consisting of two chambers: the US House of Representatives and the US Senate). In addition to the federal government, the principle of the separation of powers and the system of checks and balances are also built into lower-level (e.g. state, city-wide etc.) governments. The separation of powers means that no one government branch may exercise absolute power and that they are independent of one another (for example, the same person cannot be a US Senator and a US Supreme Court judge at the same time). Checks and balances is the system in which the different branches of government balance each other out. Although their mandate and responsibilities are different, this system tries to ensure that no branch of government exercises power over the others. For example, decisions made by Congress can be vetoed by the President, which can in turn be overturned by a 2/3 majority vote of both houses of Congress.
6) One (Adult) Person One Vote
The principle of one person one vote seems to emanate from a definition of person deriving not from gender, ethnicity, race or religion – but rather from membership in the species of homo sapiens. Further, this definition is understood to imply consequent right to influence issues affecting that person. This right to influence seems positively related to both the relative influence that issue has over that person and to the expertise that person has regarding that issue. So children as theoretically non-experts do not vote and persons vote for representatives in their home districts. Further, a vote for a regional post carries more relative weight than the same vote for a state post. This principle also allows for each person to influence other persons and so to exercise even more influence in the process. This influence relies upon human cooperation and not compulsion, however. In the US, any person of or over the age of 18 has the right to vote in a public election.
7) Citizenship – What It Means to Be an American
The USA has often been referred to as the “melting pot” of many nations, cultures and peoples. This means that from its beginnings the country has had citizens who came from diverse cultural, religious, and ethnic backgrounds and who all accepted a new, common identity – that of being Americans. In the United States people can become Americans (not only American citizens, but assuming a new way of primary identification) even if they were born elsewhere. In contrast to many countries where one’s citizenship is based on belonging to a specific ethnic, linguistic, cultural or other group/communal identity, being an American citizen is understood more as a civic concept. This is illustrated by the fact that one can be an Italian-American or an Irish-American, in which cases the first part designates their ethnic origins, while making it clear that they are American citizens, as opposed to being simply Italians or Irish who happen to be living in the US. These two different ways of identification by one person can continue to coexist peacefully without conflict. In order to become an American citizen, immigrants must take a naturalization test, an English and civics test and publicly express their loyalty to the United States and their pledge to abide by its laws by taking an Oath of Allegiance.
8) Rule of Law
The principle of rule of law is a corollary of one person one vote, in that law (presumably determined by direct vote or voter representation) and not personality has authority. Rule by established law (instead of by arbitrary personality) creates predictability in that subject persons know the law better than they can predict the whims of a person. This predictability facilitates social stability, prosperity, and cohesion/positive relations. In this way the law provides a framework where persons can exercise their freedoms to a greater extent.
Rule of Law includes several aspects. In his book The Morality of Law, American legal scholar Lon Fuller identified eight elements of law which have been recognized as necessary for a society aspiring to institute the rule of law. Fuller stated the following:
1. Laws must exist and those laws should be obeyed by all, including government officials.
2. Laws must be published.
3. Laws must be prospective in nature so that the effect of the law may only take place after the law has been passed. For example, the court cannot convict a person of a crime committed before a criminal statute prohibiting the conduct was passed.
4. Laws should be written with reasonable clarity to avoid unfair enforcement.
5. Law must avoid contradictions.
6. Law must not command the impossible.
7. Law must stay constant through time to allow the formalization of rules; however, law also must allow for timely revision when the underlying social and political circumstances have changed.
8. Official action should be consistent with the declared rule.”
9) Civil Society, Community Building, NGOs, Volunteerism
The American government provides many services and programs to assist citizens in securing basic necessities (job training, food assistance, subsidized housing, etc.), as well as addressing wider social issues (environmental preservation, immigrants’ rights, etc.) These programs are, by necessity, supplemented and extended by the efforts of countless not-for-profit or non-governmental organizations (NGOs). Such organizations make up the “voluntary” or “third” sector of society---in addition to the “public” (governmental) and “private” (business/enterprise) sectors. Not-for-profit organizations that fulfill specific federal guidelines (such as not lobbying for political candidates, etc.) are granted tax-exempt status by the government. Volunteer participation in and financial support for such organizations is considered by vast numbers of American citizens both a right and a responsibility. In the United States, all religious organizations are considered part of this nonprofit sector of society.
10) Positive Valuing of Difference and Negotiation of Minority Rights
Diversity of any kind in society may be viewed in different ways. Some members of the majority (whether ethnic, religious, racial, linguistic or other) may perceive minorities as potentially threatening to their previously homogeneous identity. Although from its inception the US has been constituted by people from varied backgrounds, acceptance of “the newcomers” and of “the Other” was not always easy. For example, intra-Christian tensions in the early years (e.g. between pro- and anti-establishment Protestants; later between Protestants and Catholics) were followed by suspicion of Jewish immigrants, and later of newcomers of other religious traditions (e.g. Hinduism, Islam etc.)
Diversity can also be perceived as a source of strength and richness in a society. Positive valuing of difference (or, moving from acknowledging plurality to embracing pluralism) means that one sees the heterogeneity of the population as different reflections of the human experience which can all contribute to enriching the common good. In other words, we can all learn from those who are significantly different from us – and not regard them as potentially dangerous because of “taking away” our own identity.
Minority rights in the US today are negotiated within the context of great diversity, in light of the historical developments in the civil rights and women’s movements, and on the basis of the US Constitution.
11) Nonviolent Conflict Resolution
Nonviolence is a philosophy and strategy for social change that rejects the use of violence. As such, nonviolence is an alternative to passive acceptance of oppression and armed struggle against it. Practitioners of nonviolence may use diverse methods in their campaigns for social change, including critical forms of education and persuasion, civil disobedience, nonviolent direct action, and targeted communication via mass media. In personal relationships, the skills of “I” statements, reflective listening, agreeing to disagree, and mediation agreements are used.
Nonviolence has been a powerful tool for social protest. Well-known examples of nonviolent resistance and nonviolent revolution include: a) Mahatma Gandhi leading a decades-long nonviolent struggle to achieve independence in 1947 from British rule in India; b) Martin Luther King’s adoption of Gandhi's nonviolent methods in the struggle to win civil rights for African Americans; c) Cesar Chavez’ campaigns of nonviolence in the 1960s to protest the treatment of farm workers in California; and d) the 1989 "Velvet Revolution" in the then Czechoslovakia that saw the overthrow of the Communist government is considered one of the most important of the largely nonviolent revolutions of 1989. Most recently the nonviolent campaigns of Leymah Gbowee and the women of Liberia were able to achieve peace after a 14-year civil war. This story is captured in a 2008 documentary film “Pray the Devil Back to Hell.” The 14th and current Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso, has said nonviolence is the only way progress can be made with China.
The term nonviolence is often linked with or even used as a synonym for pacifism; however, the two concepts are fundamentally different. Pacifism denotes the rejection of the use of violence as a personal decision on moral or spiritual grounds, but does not inherently imply any inclination toward change on a sociopolitical level. Nonviolence, on the other hand, presupposes the intent of (but does not limit it to) social or political change as a reason for the rejection of violence. Also, a person may advocate nonviolence in a specific context while advocating violence in other contexts. A pacifist will disavow violence in any and all contexts.
12) Interfaith Groups in the US
In 1893, the first World Parliament of Religions was held in Chicago, Illinois, USA. About one hundred religious leaders from around the globe met to discuss the need to respect differences in religious expression and to find other ways to settle conflicts than through religious violence. After two world wars in the beginning of the twentieth century, many leaders worked to create the United Nations that published the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948 in the hope of helping all countries work to secure individual rights in their own societies and to help prevent further world war. The World Council of Churches was also formed in which people of differing Protestant faiths would agree to cooperate to do the same. By the 1960s the Catholic Church took up a major revision of its thinking toward faith traditions other than their own of Catholic Christianity; Vatican II reformations of doctrine opened that door to interfaith understanding and cooperation.
Today, interfaith groups are forming in every part of the country carrying a concern that we work as much as we can to increase interreligious dialogue as a form of religious diplomacy. Especially since 9/11, persons in the United States have awakened to a very pressing need to understand Islam in its many differing traditions around the globe, and by extension, to understand religious traditions different from their own but represented in US society.
13) The Rise of Religious Diversity in the US, Especially as Related to Immigration
Religious diversity has been a key element of American society from earliest times. Prior to the arrival of the first European settlers, a wide variety of Native American cultures and spiritual traditions were present throughout the continent. Although the English Puritan colonists in New England sought to establish a uniform religious society, most other settlements along the eastern seaboard – in the areas that became New York, New Jersey, Delaware, Pennsylvania and Maryland – were comprised of immigrants of diverse ethnic backgrounds and a variety of Protestant Christian groups (an even Catholics in the case of Maryland). Official support for religious pluralism and the free exercise of diverse religions was set forth in the First Amendment to the Constitution. Yet, in practice, religious diversity originally referred primarily to acceptance of different types of Protestant Christians; going beyond that definition has not always been easy. Since the colonial period, religious diversity has been increased by successive waves of immigration from different parts of the world. Each new ethnic and religious group has forced an expansion of the nation’s understanding of such diversity – beginning with Irish, German and Italian Catholic, along with Jewish, immigrants in the late 18th and 19th centuries, through the influx of Japanese and Chinese immigrants in the late 19th century and continuing through the 1965 Hart-Cellar immigration act, that opened the doors to increased immigration especially from South and Southeast Asia. As recently as the 1950s and 60s, scholars of religion described the U.S. as predominantly “Protestant, Catholic and Jewish.” But in the last 50 years, immigration has resulted in a vast expansion of America’s religious diversity, to include significant communities of Muslims, Buddhist, Sikhs, Hindus, Baha’i and numerous other traditions.
14) The Civil War, Race Relations, and the Civil Rights Movement
The Civil War was a result of economic, political, and social issues (slavery) which divided the northern and southern states. The primary issue was whether or not states have the right to secede from the Union. The nature of states’ rights was being explored. Slavery was considered a blight on the nation by the majority in the more populated north where slavery was a very rare exception. The war was extremely bloody with a huge loss of life on both sides, with a higher price paid in the south. The Confederacy was defeated and the Union was preserved. Amendments to the Constitution after the war ended slavery in the US but did not achieve full equal rights for black Americans. The economy of the south as well as its political parties was shattered by the war. The issue of secession from the Union was ended but the issue of state versus federal rights is still a dynamic of American democracy.
Civil Rights Movement
Because of the extreme inequalities enjoyed by whites and black in the south after slavery was abolished, American citizens, both black and white, created organizations focused on assuring equal rights across America regardless of race, religion, ethnicity, gender. Key issues to be addressed were legal restrictions on who could vote. Literacy tests and poll taxes had to be eliminated to assure that blacks could vote and have representation in government. Jim Crow laws in the south which effectively controlled where blacks could sit, shop, eat, study etc. were challenged both legally and through political activism including boycotts, sit-ins, amassing of people, etc. Segregation of the races, which had been allowed if it could be argued that the facilities provided to the races were “equal”, was disallowed. “Separate” facilities were categorically defined as unfair and illegal. Desegregation of schools and other institutions was a complex process which brought state governments in conflict with the federal government and tradition in conflict with legality.
Dr. Martin Luther King and numerous other black leaders created a non-violent movement to achieve social equality. The 1964 Civil Rights Act signed by President Lyndon Johnson was one of their achievements. During subsequent years some black political groups emerged promoting black violence and the rejection of white participants in their efforts. To date, numerous civil rights organizations continue to lobby to enforce social equality between races, religions, ethnicities in America. They often monitor cases of discrimination and violations of the law. The issue of economic inequality between various American groups remains a major concern of many Americans. It is an issue which has been addressed by various pieces of social legislation but continues to be a significant issue in contemporary America.
15) Religious Environmentalism and Our Planet's Future
Increasing numbers of organizations, religious and secular, are taking up concern for how our planet will endure beyond the next few decades. Each religious tradition recognizes the human responsibility for sustaining the earth’s resources as part of religious practice. Concern for sustainability is one of the areas where religious pluralists can work to make a difference for themselves as well as the global population. Few people disagree about the need; the challenge then is how to understand the differences in each religion on behalf of the common need.
The word sustainability is derived from the Latin “sustinere” (tenere, to hold; sus, up). Dictionaries provide more than ten meanings for sustain, the main ones being to “maintain,” “support,” or “endure.” Since the 1980s, however, sustainability has been used more in the sense of human sustainability on planet Earth and this has resulted in the most widely quoted definition of sustainability, that of the Bruntland Commission of the United Nations from March 20, 1987: “sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.” At the 2005 World Summit it was noted that this requires the reconciliation of environmental, social and economic demands - the “three pillars” of sustainability. This view has been expressed as an illustration using three overlapping ellipses indicating that the three pillars of sustainability are not mutually exclusive and can be mutually reinforcing.
