week 3

Last week we read an excerpt from the book Cruel Creeds, Virtuous Violence in which Jack David Eller explains how religious groups often act as interest groups. This idea ties directly into the writing of Mark Juergensmeyer in Terror In The Mind of God when he discusses the different types of Westerner religious groups that align themselves with Christianity. He explains the Christian Identity movement and how they feel it is a "necessity for the Anglo-Saxon race to retain its purity and political dominance, and the need for Western societies to establish a biblical basis for government" (Juergensmeyer33) and how in the US this "ideology has taken a more strident and political turn" (34). This shows how rather then their only/main goal being to spread their religion and convert others, the Christian Identity have the goal to improve the social dominance of a race and increase their political power. In other words, they are acting in group interest for power and stature rather then to simply spread religion. The reason I bring this up is because I think it is important to realize that this is another way conflict and religion are tied together. It is an example of the way that groups separated by religious difference tend to oppose each other politically, socially, and economically as well, once again leading to conflict between religious groups that is not directly caused by religion.