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Making Sense of Religion in Political Life
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environment affect the action repertoires of poor urban Catholics in Peru. They find that unsettled times encouraged a resort to personal, self-help strategies and something of a turn away from collective, public solutions.
10
On the power of race as a reference group in this context, see Hill (1993).
11
SMT and resource mobilization are sometimes portrayed as contending approaches. In
truth, scholars who felt that collective behavior research gave too much emphasis to organizational resources often championed SMT. Nonetheless, we believe that resource mobilization, like political opportunity theory, should be considered a part of the SMT family, a specialized body of theory that helps explain the transformation of grievances into organizational form. We see the approaches as complementary rather than competitive.
12
In one of the very few attempts to balance the pros and cons of clerical influence on
black politics, Adolph Reed (1986) emphasizes the down side to ministerial leadership in politics. He argues that ministers by their nature are given to authoritarian leadership style that discourages the development of democratic habits and inhibits the emergence of other leadership sectors in the black community. The scandals that have engulfed a number of prominent political ministries, Jackson's included, also suggest that lack of accountability may encourage excess and redound against political movements that are hitched to religious stars.
13
Religiously based social movements seem to have the greatest success when they
persuade believers that political action is a religious duty, i.e., when they engage in successful frame bridging. Attempts to draw on religious legitimation for political ends may backfire when members of the religious community do not see the political program as a valid expression of religious purpose. When clergy from mainline Protestant denominations asserted a Biblical basis for their positions on such disparate controversies as open housing, the Vietnam War, and farmworker rights in the 1960 and 70s, many parishioners rejected the linkage and drove the social justice advocates from the pulpit. (Hadden1969).
14
Moreover, the lack of opportunity for dealing with the issue of abortion in Canada has
resulted in significantly lower levels of abortion related violence there. It would seem that the frustration that results from the US pro-life movement’s inability to effectively capitalize on the political opportunity surrounding the issue of abortion, frustration that seems to lead to fairly high levels of political violence, does not exist in Canada. In this instance the lack of opportunity also means the lack of frustration at the failure to bring about effective change on the issue. This seems to inhibit extreme behavior.
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36
environment affect the action repertoires of poor urban Catholics in Peru. They find that
unsettled times encouraged a resort to personal, self-help strategies and something of a turn away
from collective, public solutions.
10
On the power of race as a reference group in this context, see Hill (1993).
11
SMT and resource mobilization are sometimes portrayed as contending approaches. In
truth, scholars who felt that collective behavior research gave too much emphasis to
organizational resources often championed SMT. Nonetheless, we believe that resource
mobilization, like political opportunity theory, should be considered a part of the SMT family, a
specialized body of theory that helps explain the transformation of grievances into organizational
form. We see the approaches as complementary rather than competitive.
12
In one of the very few attempts to balance the pros and cons of clerical influence on
black politics, Adolph Reed (1986) emphasizes the down side to ministerial leadership in
politics. He argues that ministers by their nature are given to authoritarian leadership style that
discourages the development of democratic habits and inhibits the emergence of other leadership
sectors in the black community. The scandals that have engulfed a number of prominent political
ministries, Jackson's included, also suggest that lack of accountability may encourage excess and
redound against political movements that are hitched to religious stars.
13
Religiously based social movements seem to have the greatest success when they
persuade believers that political action is a religious duty, i.e., when they engage in successful
frame bridging. Attempts to draw on religious legitimation for political ends may backfire when
members of the religious community do not see the political program as a valid expression of
religious purpose. When clergy from mainline Protestant denominations asserted a Biblical basis
for their positions on such disparate controversies as open housing, the Vietnam War, and
farmworker rights in the 1960 and 70s, many parishioners rejected the linkage and drove the
social justice advocates from the pulpit. (Hadden1969).
14
Moreover, the lack of opportunity for dealing with the issue of abortion in Canada has
resulted in significantly lower levels of abortion related violence there. It would seem that the
frustration that results from the US pro-life movement’s inability to effectively capitalize on the
political opportunity surrounding the issue of abortion, frustration that seems to lead to fairly
high levels of political violence, does not exist in Canada. In this instance the lack of opportunity
also means the lack of frustration at the failure to bring about effective change on the issue. This
seems to inhibit extreme behavior.
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