West Must Bridge Globalization's 'God Gap'

A recent report issued by the Chicago Council on Global Affairs highlights an enduring but growing mismatch between how America conducts its foreign policy and how the world beyond the West is spiritually evolving. Describing what the newspapers immediately dubbed a "God gap," the report (.pdf) decries Washington's "uncompromising Western secularism" as a self-imposed obstacle to broadband engagement of religious groups and parties in emerging economies and failed states. This, despite the fact that many of these religious actors are playing leading roles in facilitating their societies' embrace -- or driving their rejection -- of globalization's numerous opportunities and challenges.

Continue reading this week's New Rules column at WPR.

Comments

[David Emery]

[i]- To exploit the progressive political impulses of that awakening, a competitive religious marketplace -- where all faiths must compete equally for believers, without benefit of state sponsorship -- must be encouraged.[/i]I guess this is the point in the article I don't understand. Do people really shop for religions? What characterizes as successful religious marketplace? By what rules should it operate? (i.e. should there be any government oversight, as there is for economic markets and cultural markets - copyright, etc.)

[Dan Hare]

Excellent! Puts an insightful perspective... especially for the USA who include a large population of 'people of faith' and have varying degrees of fervency.

[Louis Heberlein]

Great article. I hope Tom gets E-mail feedback from government and media players. I'd also like to see the insights of people with Amish and Mennonite backgrounds.

[Tom Barnett]

Americans change religion more frequently over their lifetimes than any other society in the world (show in studies). That's a competitive religious landscape.

And yes, Americans do shop for religions all the time. Not all Americans, but a good portion. They keep switching churches til they find the right fit. I've done it within Catholicism (by parish) and have switched to Episcopalian and back. Only one member of my immediate family has stayed with a single religion their entire life.

Find out you're gay and your current religion condemns that? Not a problem. Three or four adjacent ones will let you in.

Ditto for a host of other issues/characteristics/life changes.

There is a huge political/social effect here: in a society where people travel up and down with relative ease, they need to be able to swap out their religions to match their changed circumstances--if they so want.

it also helps to be an immigrant culture, because we see every religion in the world here in the States. Canada and Australia aren't that different, for that reason.