The Globalization of Religion

Learning Outcomes
At the end of this lesson, you should be able to:
1. Explain how globalization affects religious practices and beliefs:
2. Identify the various religious responses to globalization; and
3. Discuss the future of religion in a globalized world.
Religion, much more than culture, has the most difficult relationship with
globalism (remember the distinction between "globalization” and “globalism” in
Lesson 1). First, the two are entirely contrasting belief systems. Religion is
concerned with the sacred, while globalism places value on material wealth.
Religion follows divine commandments, while globalism abides by human-made
laws. Religion assumes that there is the possibility of communication between
humans and the transcendent.”52 This link between the human and the divine
confers some social power on the latter. Furthermore, “God,” “Allah,” or “Yahweh”
defines and judges human action in moral terms (good vs. bad). Globalism's
yardstick, however, is how much of human action can lead to the highest material
satisfaction and subsequent wisdom that this new status produces.
Religious people are less concerned with wealth and all that comes along
with it (higher social status, a standard of living similar with that of the rest of the
community, exposure to “culture,” top-of-the-line education for the children). They
are ascetics precisely because they shun anything material for complete
simplicity—from the domain to the clothes they wear, to the food they eat, and
even to the manner in which they talk (lots of parables and allegories that are
supposedly the language of the divine).
A religious person's main duty is to live a virtuous, sin - less life such that
when he/she dies, he/she is assured of a place in the other world (i.e., heaven).
On the other hand, globalists are less worried about whether they will end
up in heaven or hell. Their skills are more pedestrian as they aim to seal trade
deals, raise the profits of private enterprises, improve government revenue
collections, protect the elites from being excessively taxed by the state, and,
naturally, enrich themselves. If he/she has a strong social conscience, the globalist
sees his/her work as contributing to the general progress of the community, the
nation, and the global economic system. Put another way, the religious aspires to
become a saint; the globalist trains to be a shrewd businessperson. The religious
detests politics and the quest for power for they are evidence of humanity's
weakness; the globalist values them as both means and ends to open up further
the economies of the world.
Finally, religion and globalism clash over the fact that religious
evangelization is in itself a form of globalization. The globalist ideal, on the other
hand, is largely focused on the realm of markets. The religious is concerned with
spreading holy ideas globally, while the globalist wishes to spread goods and
services.
The "missions" being sent by American Born-Again Christian churches, Sufi
and Shiite Muslim orders, as well as institutions like Buddhist monasteries and
Catholic, Protestant, and Mormon churches are efforts at "spreading the word of
God” and gaining adherents abroad. Religions regard identities associated with
globalism (citizenship, language, and race) as inferior and narrow because they
are earthly categories. In contrast, membership to a religious group, organization,
or cult represents a superior affiliation that connects humans directly to the divine
and the supernatural. Being a Christian, a Muslim, or a Buddhist places one in a
higher plane than just being a Filipino, a Spanish speaker, or an Anglo-Saxon.
A Mormon missionary

These philosophical differences explain why certain group "flee" their

communities and create impenetrable sanctuaries where they can practice their
religions without the meddling and control of state authorities. The followers of the
Dalai Lama established Tibet for this purpose, and certain Buddhist monasteries
are located away from civilization so that hermits can devote themselves to prayer
and contemplation. These isolationist justifications are also used by the Rizalistas
of Mount Banahaw, the Essenes during Roman-controlled Judea (now Israel), and
for a certain period, the Mormons of Utah. These groups believe that living among
"non-believers" will distract them from their mission or tempt them to abandon their
faith and become sinners like everyone else.
Communities justify their opposition to government authority on religious
grounds. Priestesses and monks led the first revolts against colonialism in Asia
and Africa, warning that these outsiders were out to destroy their people's gods
and ways of life. Similar arguments are being invoked by contemporary version of
these millenarian movements that wish to break away from the hold of the state or
vow to overthrow the latter in the name of God. To their "prophets," the state seeks
to either destroy their people’s sacred beliefs or distort religion to serve non-
religious goals.

Realities
In actuality, the relationship between religion and globalism is much more
complicated. Peter Berger argues that far from being secularized, the
"contemporary world is...furiously religious. In most of the world, there are veritable
explosions of religious fervor, occurring in one form of another in all the major
religious traditions-Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, and even
Confucianism (if one wants to call it a religion)--and in many places in imaginative
syntheses of one or more world religions with indigenous faiths."54
Religions are the foundations of modern republics. The Malaysian
government places religion at the center of the political system. Its constitution
explicitly states that "Islam is the religion of the Federation," and the rulers of each
state was also the "Head of the religion of Islam."55 The late Iranian religious
leader, Ayatollah Ruholla Khomeini, bragged about the superiority of Islamic rule
over its secular counterparts and pointed out that "there is no fundamental
distinction among constitutional, despotic, dictatorial, democratic, and
communistic regimes."56 To Khomeini, all secular ideologies were the same--they
were flawed-and Islamic rule was the superior form of government because it was
spiritual. Yet, Iran calls itself a republic, a term that is associated with the secular.
 Moreover, religious movements do not hesitate to appropriate secular
themes and practices. The moderate Muslim association Nahdlatul Ulama in
Indonesia has Islamic schools (pesantren) where students are taught not only
about Islam but also about modern science, the social sciences, modern banking,
civic education, rights of women, pluralism, and democracy. In other cases, religion
was the result of a shift in state policy. The church of England, for example, was
shaped by the rationality of modern democratic (and bureaucratic) culture." King
Henry VIIl broke away from Roman Catholicism and established his own church to
bolster his own power. In the United States, religion and Iaw were fused together
to help build this modern secular society. It was observed in the early 1800s by
French historian and diplomat Alexis de Tocqueville who wrote, "not only do the
Americans practice their religion out of self-interest but they often even place in
this world the interest which they have in practicing it."59 Jose Casanova confirms
this statement by noting that "historically, religion has always been at the very
center of all great political conflicts and movements of social reform. From
independence to abolition, from nativism to women's suffrage, from prohibition to
the civil rights movement, religion had always been at the center of these conflicts,
but also on both sides of the political barricades. It remains the case until today
with the power the Christian Right has on the Republican Party.61
Religion for and against Globalization
There is hardly a religious movement today that does not use religion to
oppose "profane" globalization. Yet, two of the so-called "old world religions"-
Christianity and Islam globalization less as an obstacle and more as an opportunity
to expand their reach all over the world. Globalization has "freed communities from
the constraints of the nation-state, but in the process, also threatened to destroy
the cultural system that bind them together. Religion seeks to take the place of
these broken "traditional ties" to either help communities cope with their new
situation or organize them to oppose this major transformation of their lives. It can
provide the groups "moral codes” that answer problems ranging from people's
health to social conflict to even personal happiness."*4 Religion is thus not the
"regressive force that stops or slows down globalization; it is a "pro-active force"
that gives communities a new and powerful basis of identity. It is an instrument
with which religious people can put their mark in the reshaping of this globalizing
world, although in its own terms.
Religious fundamentalism may dislike globalization's materialism, but it
continues to use the full range of modern means of communication and
organization that is associated with this economic transformation. It has tapped
"fast long distance transport and communications, the availability of English as a
global vernacular of unparalleled power, the know-how of modern management
and marketing" which enabled the spread of "almost promiscuous propagation of
religious forms across the globe in all sorts of directions." It is, therefore, not
entirely correct to assume that the proliferation of "Born-Again" groups, or in the
case of Islam, the rise of movements like Daesh (more popularly known as ISIS,
or Islamic State in Iraq and Syria) signals religion's defense against the materialism
of globalization. It is, in fact, the opposite. These fundamentalist organizations are
the result of the spread of globalization and both find ways to benefit or take
advantage of each other.
 While religions may benefit from the processes of globalization, this does
not mean that its tensions with globalist ideology will subside. Some Muslims view
"globalization" as a Trojan horse hiding supporters of Western values like
secularism, liberalism, or even communism ready to spread these ideas in their
areas to eventually displace Islam. The World Council of Churches--an association
of different Protestant congregations has criticized economic globalization's
negative effects. It vowed that "we as churches make ourselves accountable to the
victims of the project of economic globalization," by becoming the latter's
advocates inside and outside the centers of power."69
The Catholic Church and its dynamic leader, Pope Francis likewise
condemned globalization's “throw-away culture” that is “fatally destined to
suffocate hope and increase risks threats.”70 The Lutheran World Federation 10th
Assembly’s 292-page declaration message included economic and feminist
critiques of globalization, sharing the voices of members of the Church who were
affected by globalization, and contemplation on the different "pastoral and ethical
reflections” that member could use to guide their opposition. It warns that as a
result of globalization: “Our world is split asunder by forces we often do not
understand, but that result in stark contrasts between those who benefit and those
who are harmed, especially under forces of globalization. Today, there is also a
desperate need for healing from 'terrorism,' it’s causes, and fearful reactions to it
relationships in this world continue to be ruptured due to greed, injustices, and
various forms of violence.”72
These advocacies to reverse or mitigate economic globalization eventually
gained the attention of globalist institutions. In 1998, the World Bank brought in
religious leaders in its discussions about global poverty, leading eventually to a
"cautious, muted, and qualified” collaboration in 2000.73 Although it only yielded
insignificant results (the World Bank agreed to support some faith-based anti-
poverty projects in Kenya and Ethiopia), it was evident enough that institutional
advocates of globalization could be responsive to the “liberationist, moral critiques
of economic globalization” (including many writings on “social justice") coming from
the religious. 74
With the exception of militant Islam, religious forces are well aware that
they are in no position to fight for a comprehensive alternative to the globalizing
status quo. What Catholics call "the preferential option for the poor” is a powerful
message of mobilization but lacks substance when it comes to working out a
replacement system that can change the poor's condition in concrete ways.75 And,
of course, the traditionalism fundamentalist political Islam is no alternative either.
The terrorism of ISIS is unlikely to create a “Caliphate” governed by
Conclusion
For a phenomenon that "is about everything," it is odd that globalization is
seen to have very little to do with religion. As Peter Bayer and Lori Beaman
observed, "Religion, it seems, is somehow outside looking at globalization as
problem or potential.") One reason for this perspective is the association of
globalization with modernization, which is a concept of progress that is based on
science, technology, reason, and the law. With reason, one will have "to look
elsewhere than to moral discourse for fruitful thinking about economic globalization
and religion."78 Religion, being a belief system that cannot be empirically proven
is, therefore, anathema to modernization. The thesis that modernization will erode
religious practice is often called secularization theory.
Historians, political scientists, and philosophers have now debunked much
of secularization theory. Samuel Huntington, one of the strongest defenders of
globalization, admits in his book, The Clash of Civilizations, that civilizations can
be held together by religious worldviews.80 This belief is hardly new. As far back
as the 15th century, Jesuits and Dominicans used religion as an “ideological
armature" to legitimize the Spanish empire. 81 Finally, one of the greatest
sociologists of all time, Max Weber, also observed the correlation between religion
and capitalism as an economic system. Calvinism, a branch of Protestantism,
believed that God had already decided who would and would not be saved.
Calvinists, therefore, made it their mission to search for clues as to their fate, and
in their pursuit, they redefined the meaning of profit and its acquisition. This "inner-
worldly asceticism"-as Weber referred to this Protestant ethic-contributed to the
rise of modern capitalism.82
It was because of "moral" arguments that religious people were able to
justify their political involvement. When the Spaniards occupied lands in the
Americas and the Philippines it was done in the name of the Spanish King and of
God, "for empire comes from God alone." Then over 300 years later, American
President William McKinley claimed that after a night of prayer and soul-searching,
he had concluded that it was the duty of the United States to educate the Filipinos,
and uplift and civilize Christianize them, and by God's grace do the very best we
could by them.84 Finally, as explained earlier, religious leaders have used religion
to wield influence in the political arena, either as outsiders criticizing the pitfalls of
pro-globalization regimes, or as integral members of coalitions who play key roles
in policy decision making and the implementation of government projects.
In short, despite their inflexible features--the warnings of perdition ("Hell is
a real place prepared by Allah for those who do not believe in Him, rebel against
His laws, and reject His messengers"), the promises of salvation (“But our
citizenship is in Heaven"), and their obligatory pilgrimages (the visits to Bethlehem
or Mecca)-religions are actually quite malleable. Their resilience has been
extraordinary that they have outlasted secular ideologies (e.g., communism).
Globalists, therefore, have no choice but to accept this reality that religion is here
to stay.