The Role of Religion in Secular Societies: Examining American, French, and Turkish Examples

Mahmut Sait Arslan 04 January 2013 The Role Of Religion in A Secular Society According to secularization theory, as societies become more modernized and rationalized, religion will gradually lose it’s authority in social life and governance(Norris & Inglehart, 2004, p. 4). Modernization did “undermined” lots of accepted beliefs(Holloway, 2011, para. 7). But, by contrast with secularization thesis, there is no significant diminution in people’s religious demands(Kuru, 2011, p. 4). Appearently, not all modernized societies call themselves as “secular” and not every secular state can completely ignore religion.

In this work, I’m going to inspect secular societies and question how religion can take part in their governance, concerning American, French and Turkish examples. Historically, American’s and French have seperated the church and state for different reasons. The establishment of secular state in America was a result of a compromise between rationalists and evangelists. These groups have agreed on the secular state for different reasons. Thomas Jefferson, one of the America’s Founding Fathers, had foreseen that the secular state would lead to the “freedom and triumph of the reason”.

Oppositely, a famous Evangelist, Isaac Backus had believed that secular state would provide the spread of the religion(Kuru, 2011, p. 84). Because in America’s early years, none of the Protestant churches could provide the majority that is necessary to be legitimized as the official church. So, as the second best choice, they accepted the state to be secular(Kuru, 2011, p. 86). The secularization of the France is rooted in the ideas of Enlightenment. Philosophers of Enlightenment was trying to replace dogmatic values with rational and humanistic ones(Wikipedia, 2009).

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After the French Revolution, with the abolition of monarchy, the close relation between the French State and Catholic Church finished. According to Tocqueville, Christianity was the object of aggression not as a religion but as a political establishment. This was because of the cooperation between the monarch and the Church before the revolution(Kuru, 2011, p. 142). The different reasons led to different results in these countries. From the beginning of the 19th century, evangelists have strenghtened the socio-cultural hegomony of the Protestant college. Casanova, 1994, p. 137) Christianism was, in public sense, accepted as semiofficial religion of the U. S. It was also, accepted as a part of the state’s civil law(Kuru, 2011, p. 88). Even Supreme Court of U. S have acknowledged the U. S nation as a Christian nation(Kuru, 2011, p. 91). In this period, state was not neutral against all religions, but neutral amongst Protestant sects. Up till now, there has been ideological conflicts between rationalists and conservative people about the religion. There have been exclusivist and compromiser interpretations of the secularism.

But generally, it hadn’t been understood as hostility against religion. In America, churches are relieved from state’s effect, wheras in France the state is relieved from the Church’s effect. A radical interpretation of secularism which advocates the seperation of not just state and church, but of all kind of values like moral and human values, is hegemonic in France. In other words, eliminating the religion from public life and confining it with the soul of human. Some people even exceed it to create a “religion of humanity”(Holloway, 2008, para. 12).

But, there have been lots of significant deviations from the ideology because of Catholic roots of French public and opposing ideological attempts. French government could easily ignore the religious demands of minorities like Muslims and Jewish. But they pay much attention to the demands of Catholics who form the majority. At the end of the first quarter of the 20th century, Turkey had to quote the Swiss Civil Law because when they tried to make their own law, commission members couldn’t liberate themselves from their religious beliefs(Oguzman & Barlas, 2012, p. 27).

But even when quoting they had to make some modifications according to Turkish culture. This was made in the name of being secular and neutral against all beliefs. Putting the history aside, I want to examine the impact of religious law in secular societies’ law system. Human made laws are inspired by lots of different sources like ethics, religion, philosophy, convenances, other law systems etc. These rules have some commonalities because they’re all aimed to establish the ideal society. Concerning this, secular legislatives should concern every law system and utilize them.

For example, marriage is, in religious world, concerned as a religious practice. For secular people this mean nothing. But, if we take human nature into the account, inexistence of the institution of marriage could be a threat to the mental and physical health of the progenies(Oktem & Turkbag, 1999, p. 209). So, the legislatives may foresee a religious institution like marriage as necessary for secular reasons. The implementation of the secular law in Turkey has caused many problems because there were some rules which were opposite to the belief and perception of majority of the public like prohibiting headscarves.

Ordering a believer not to do what they believe is like ordering somebody to jump off a cliff. Because they’re sure that they will be rewarded or punished according to their loyalty to their beliefs. The secularization thesis promise to be neutral against all religions. But applicating the inhibition of a religious obligation to all members of the society equally, is like prohibiting to sleep under the arch of a bridge for both rich and poor people equally(Kuru, 2011, p. 108). The acceptance of secularism as being neutral, and religiousity as differantiality makes secularists more advantagous.

To eliminate unequality, chaos and tension states should pay more attention on public demands and trends. Compared to French and Turkish history, there were less religious related slaughters in American history. Without renouncing secularism, Americans could identify themselves as religious. They used secularism not as a tool to restrict and transform the public, but to ensure the freedom of different groups within the society. To be able to equal aginst every belief, each belief system should be approached equally.

Like Islam or Christianity, secular people should be concerned as believers, believers of secularism. References Age of Enlightenment. (2009). In Wikipedia. Retrieved january 4, 2013, from en. wikipedia. org Casanova, J. (1994). Public Religions in the Modern World. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press. Holloway, D. , (2008). The Secular State and The Oxford Union. Retrieved January 4, 2013, from http://www. church. org. uk/resources/csdetail. asp? csdate=01/02/2008 --(2011). A Judge, Secularism, Pluralism and Fundamentalism.

Retrieved January 04, 2013, from http://www. church. org. uk/resources/csdetail. asp? csdate=01/03/2011 Kuru, A. (2011). Pasif ve D? slay? c? Laiklik: ABD, Fransa ve Turkiye. Istanbul: Istanbul Bilgi Universitesi Yay? nlar?. Norris, P. & Inglehart, R. (2004). Sacred and Secular: Religion and Politics Worldwide. New York: Cambridge University Press. Oguzman, M. K. & Barlas, N. (2012). Medeni Hukuk. Istanbul: Vedat Kitapc? l? k. Oktem, N. & Turkbag, A. U. , (1999). Felsefe, Sosyoloji, Hukuk ve Devlet. Istanbul: Der Yay? nlar?.

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