Notes About Module 9

• Religion much more than culture has the most

difficult relationship with globalism.
• First , the two are contrasting belief systems .
Religion
• Concerned with the sacred
• Follows the divine
commandments
Globalism
• Places value on material
wealth
Abides by human –made laws.

• Assumes the possibility of

communication between
humans and transcendent
• The link between
human and divine
confers some social
power on divine.
• God, Allah, Yahweh defines
and judges human action in
terms of moral terms (good
or bad )
• Globalism yardstick is how
much of human action can
lead to the highest
maximum satisfaction a d
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
to the rest of the
community
-exposure to culture
- top of the line education
for the children -
• Globalist are less worried
about –whether they will
end –up in heaven or hell.
• Their skills are more
pedestrian as they aim to
seal deals.
• Raise the profits of private
enterprises
• Improve government
revenue collections
• A religious person’s main duty
is to live a virtuous , sin-less
life such that he can be
assured of a place in the other
world.
• They are ascetics because they
shun anything material for its
complete simplicity from their
domain to the clothes they
wear , the food they eat and
even to the food they eat and
even to the manner in which
they talk.
• Protect the elites fro being
excessively tax by the state
and naturally enrich
themselves .
If he has a social conscience ,
the globalist sees his work
as contributing to the
general progress of the
community .
(lots of parables and allegories
that are that are supposedly
the language of the divine . • Globalist trained to be
• Religious aspires to be saint shrewd businessman

• The religious detest politics • Globalist values them both

and the quest for power – as means and ends to open-
for they are evidence of up further the economies of
humanity’s weakness the world.
• Religion and globalism clash over the fact that
religious evangelization is in itself a form of
globalization .
• The religious is concerned • Globalist ideal is largely
with the spreading holy focused on the realm of
ideas globally. markets
• The globalist wishes the
spread of goods and
services.
• The missions being sent by the American-Born
Again Christian Churches , Sufi, Shiites Muslim
orders ,as well as institutions like Buddhist
Monasteries , Catholics , Protestants ,
Mormons –churches are efforts of spreading
the words of God and gaining adherents
abroad.
• Religion regard identities associated with
globalism (citizenship, language and race )as
inferior and narrow because they are earthly
categories .
• In contrast membership to religious group ,
organization or cult represents a superior
affiliation that connects human directly to the
divine and the supernatural.
• Being a Christian , a Muslim or Buddhist places
one in a higher plane than just being a
Filipino, a Spanish speaker or an Anglo-Saxon.
• These philosophical differences explain why
certain groups flee their communities and
create impenetrable sanctuaries where they
cam practice their religions without the
meddling and control of state authorities.
 Followers of 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 Mt Banahaw, the Essenes
during Roman-controlled Judea (now Israel)
and for certain period ,the Mormons of Utah .
• These groups believe that living with 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 versions 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 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.
 Religions
• are the foundations of modern republics
• The Malaysian government places religion at
the center of its 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.
• The late Iranian leader Ayatollah Ruhollah
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
regime .
• 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.
 NAHDLATUL ULAMA
• Religious movements do not hesitate to
appropriate secular themes and practices .
• Moderate Muslim Association NAHDLATUL
ULAMA in Indonesia has Islamic schools where
students are taught not only about Islam but also
about modern science, social sciences, modern
banking, civic education , rights of women ,
pluralism and democracy.
• In other cases , religion was the result of the shift
in state policy.
 Church of England
• shaped by the rationality of modern
democratic (and bureaucratic culture )
• King Henry VIII broke away from Roman
Catholicism and establish his own church to
bolster his own power.
 In the United States
• Religion and law were fused together to help
build a modern secular society.
• It was observed in the early 1800s by French
historian and diplomat ALEXIS DE
TOCQUEVILLE, “ not only do Americans
practice their religion out of self-interest ,but
they often even place in this world the
interest of which they are practicing”.
 Jose Casanova confirms that :
• According to him ,religion has always been at
the center of all great political conflicts and
movements of social reform .
• From independence to abolition
• From nativism to women’s suffrage
• From prohibition to civil rights movement
Religion has been at the center of these
conflicts , but also on both sides of the
political barricades.
• It remains the case until today.
Religion for or against Globalization
• There is hardly a religious movement today
that does not use religion to oppose profane
globalization.
• Yet , two of the old world religions –
Christianity and Islam see globalization LESS
as an OBSTACLE and MORE AS AN
OPPORTUNITY to expand their reach all over
the world.
• Globalization has freed communities from
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 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 health to social
conflict to even personal happiness.
• Religion is thus not the regressive force that
stops or slows down globalization, it is a PRO-
ACTIVE FORCE
that give the communities a new and a
powerful basis of identity.
• It is an instrument with which religious people
can put their mark in the re-shaping of this
globalized 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
communication , the availability of English as a global
vernacular 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
direction.”
• It is therefore not entirely not entirely correct
to assume the proliferation of Born-again
groups or in the case of Islam , the rise of
movements like DAESH (more popularly
known as ISIS –Islamic State in Iraq and Syria)
signals religion’s defense against materialism
of globalization .
• It is in fact the opposite .
• The fundamentalist organizations are the
result of the spread of globalization and both
find ways to benefit or take advantage of each
other.
• While religion may benefit from the processes
of globalization , this does not mean that its
tension 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.
 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 powers.
 Catholic Church
• And its dynamic leader –Pope Francis, likwise
condemned globalization’s throw –away
culture and is fatally destined to suffocate
hope and increase risks and threats .
 Lutheran World Federation 10th
Assembly 292 –page declaration
• Message included economic and feminist
critiques of globalization
• Sharing the voices of the members of the
church who were appointed by globalization
and
• Contemplation on the different pastoral and
ethical reflections that members could use to
guide their opposition.
• Our world is split asunder by forces we often
do not understand but that result in stark
contrast between those who benefit and
those who are harmed , especially under the
forces of globalization.
• Today , there is a desperate need for healing
from terrorism , its causes and fearful
reactions to it.
• Relationships in this world continue to be
ruptured due to greed , injustices and various
form of violence.
• These advocacies to reverse or mitigate
economic globalization eventually gained the
attention of globalist institutions .
 1998: World Bank
• Brought in religious leaders in its discussion
about global poverty , leading eventually to a
cautious , muted and qualified collaboration in
2000.
• Although , it yielded insignificant results(the
World Bank agreed to support some faith-
based anti-poverty projects in Ethiopia and
Kenya )
• It was evident that the institutional advocates
of economic globalization could be responsive
to the liberationist, moral critiques of
economic globalization (including many
writings on social justice coming from the
religious.
• With the exception of militant Islam, religious
forces are well-aware that they are in no position
to fight for comprehensive alternative to
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.
• The terrorism of the ISIS is unlikely to create a
CALIPHTE governed by justice and stability.

• In Iran, the unchallenged superiority of a

religious autocracy has stifled all freedom of
expression , distorted democratic rituals like
elections and tainted opposition.
 Conclusions:
• For a phenomenon that” is about everything “,
it is odd that globalization is seen to have very
little to do with religion.
Peter Bayer and Lori Beaman observed
that:
• Religion , it seems is somehow, outside –
looking at globalization as a problem or
potential .
• One reason for this perspective, is the
association of globalization with
modernization, which is the concept of
progress that is based on science , technology,
reason and the laws.
• With reason , one will have to look elsewhere
than to moral discourse for fruitful thinking
about economic globalization and religion.
• Religion, being a belief system that cannot be
empirically proven , and is therefore
anathema to modernization.
• The thesis that modernization will erode
religious practices is often called
SECULARIZATION THEORY.
• Historian, political scientists and philosophers
have now debunked much of secularization
theory .
 Samuel Hungtinton
• One of the strongest defenders of
globalization admits in his book , THE CLASH
OF CIVILIZATION
-that civilization can be held together by
religious worldviews .
-this belief is a hardly new .
-as far as the 15th century, Jesuits and
Dominicans used religion as an ideological
armature to legitimize the Spanish empire.
 Max Weber
• Observed the correlation between religion
and capitalism as an economic system.
 Calvinism
• Branch of Protestantism
• Believed that God , therefore has already
decided who would and would not be saved
• Calvinist , therefore made their mission to
search for clues as to their fate and in pursuit
, they redefined the meaning of profit and
acquisition .
• This inner-worldly ascetism –as Weber
referred to this Protestant ethic –contributed
to the rise of modern capitalism .
• 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 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 and Christianize them and by
God’s grace do the very best we could by
them”.
• Religious leaders have used religion to wield
influence in 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.
 Perdition
• The warnings of perdition (hell is 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 (visit to
Bethlehem or Mecca )-religions are actually
malleable .
• Their resilience has been extraordinary that
have outlasted secular ideologies
(communism )
• Globalist ,therefore , have no choice but to
accept the reality that religion is here to stay.
 Reference:
• Claudio, L. (2018).The Contemporary World. C
and E Publishing. Quezon City :Philippines.