27
apartheid’s demise was likely multivariate, the preceding account makes a compelling case that
South Africa’s clergy, acting on behalf of the country’s black majority, was essential to the cause.
Conclusion
The sheer diversity of religious expression in politics precludes any single factor model of
broad applicability. Over the last two decades, we have witnessed religiously based political
action overthrow seemingly entrenched dictatorial regimes, impose theocratic states, seek
freedom for oppressed minorities, and reinforce the dominance of specific social groups.
Virtually every major and many minor religious traditions have been mined for their political
utility in nations old and new, economically advanced and desperately poor, core and peripheral
to the global order. The mode of this action has varied from quiet and worshipful petitioning of
the state to violent terrorist assaults that left thousands dead and wounded.
This explosion of interest in religion contrasts sharply with its long neglect by the
discipline of political science. Though we are of the mind that this attention is warranted and
long overdue, the new attentiveness brings challenges of its own. In particular, we have argued,
the ubiquity of religion as a political force may convey the impression that religious engagement
with politics is the norm, natural or, at least, unproblematic. In fact, as we have argued, there is
no necessary linkage between religious communities and political action. For that linkage to be
forged, religious groups must come to consider political action as a sacred obligation, draw upon
various internal resources to prosecute that action, and confront a political environment that may
hinder such efforts. Because of their comprehensive nature, we argue, the various branches of
social movement theory offer a unique framework by which to understand how religiously based
organizations negotiate the various steps that lead to political engagement.
Convention