NOTE and reflection

In Religious Culture and Political Action by Richard L. Wood, he concludes from the political sociology literature that religion provides an important source of social capital and democratic skills that facilitate democratic participation (Greeley 1997; Putnum 1993, 1995; Warren 1995; Verba Schlozman, and Brady 1995; Wood 1995, 1997). However none of the studies on this and other conclusions address whether religious faith matters:

"That is, they leave unanswered whether it matters that the people mobilizing resources, generating social capital, learning democratic skills, or engaging in civic life are doing so within a religious context, with a worldview constructed through religious sources of meaning."

In his study he seeks to ask what religious culture per se might contribute. He cites Christian Smith's work on an overview of "disruptive religion" (1996b), documenting the "multifaceted 'religious assets for activism". The conclusion shows how religion matters for social protest. In another study (Smith 1996a, esp. 133ff.)

"He documents how religion made certain individuals “cognitively accessible” for mobilization by shaping the moral sensibilities whose violation generated outrage, and how religious networks madesome people “subjectively engageable” for mobilization."

Woods' study eventually comes to observations of a completely politicized, Catholic Church with an activist Priest and a pentecostal style congregation. It of course, was successful in seeking to define itself via social justice outreach in the community. In a comparative contrast he described a Pentecostal Church:

"But Full Gospel Church contrasts starkly with St. Elizabeth in the other facets of its organizational culture examined here. Full Gospel did successfully transform Pentecostal-  ism’s traditional other-worldliness in order to justify this-worldly activism, by interpreting   the slogan “Taking the City for Jesus Christ” specifically in social and structural terms.   But in its sharp division of the world into the “saved” and “unsaved,” its relatively rigid   church vs. world boundary (Douglas [1970] 1996), and its identification of the concept of   evil with a rather narrowly conceived set of practices of personal immorality, Full Gospel’s   religious culture presented two difficulties to successful political organizing."...

..."In arguing that Full Gospel’s religious culture undermined the church’s ability to engage  in the political tasks of community organizing, I do not want to suggest that these diffi  culties arose as a necessary product of Full Gospel’s “other-worldliness.” Rather, they   arose due to the way that the transcendent realm was understood at Full Gospel and the   way it was connected back to "this-worldly" reality: the vivid experience of Jesus and the   Spirit that the worship service made available to members is “tied back” historically and   scripturally to images of Jesus as personal healer and moral judge, with little sense of Jesus   as a social prophet who denounced societal exploitation and elite hypocrisy. Even the   “Kingdom of God” image was interpreted in terms of individual psychological healing, rather than in the terms of social justice and political reality that it also makes available, as seen at St. Elizabeth."

Woods continued with two other groups, however for the sake of this page, I used the article to highlight the political social justice lens and how advocates of social justice theory can effectively use religious groups for their own political ends, as ''"religious assets for activism". ''As long as the ideology becomes emmeshed in any given theology, from anywhere for anything, that religio-political template, combined with repeated agitation coupled with a sense of urgency, can move groups of people to build up or to tear down. This does not appear to connected one's faith however, it's actually more conducive in groups that shape their faith around their politics, or, in the most ideal scenerio for activists, to have social justice politics be the object, justification and reward of  socio-political "faith-oriented" sermons, meetings, etc. This can be achieved by minimizing non-political issues of the individual within the church or by defining all personal issues through the activists' core issues via the immersion of the "collective" with a staple of politically charged sermons, speakers and demonstrations.

God in this scenerio is regarded as the one with rubber stamp authority of the proposed redress, just like the pope in the last crusades would do when various proposals landed on his desk, seeking to further "the will and kingdom of God" when in fact many such proposals had more to do with political families vying for land or access to trade routes. In a different political climate, social justice theory might best spread through atheist or agnostic forums, perhaps using religion as the epitomy of "empire" rather than capitalism, as is cited today. The point is that social justice/liberation theories per se have little to do with religion outside of the brick and mortar of life, i.e. they have little to no investment in the Divinity of Jesus, that's an optional feature of their Christianiacs. The highly motivating dymanics of social justice theology is by it's nature restless, and impatient with the spiritual "other-worldly" values of religion, unless those values can be garnished to suit it's ends, that of ushering in a utopian kingdom through the transformation of religions into universal irrelevance.

--Ecumenistan

https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:rSazAVFLdhwJ:www.clas.ufl.edu/users/kenwald/pos6292/wood.pdf+&hl=en&gl=us&pid=bl&srcid=ADGEESjYeJhV5Jxn0IhimBmBPu9TkHOSl7eHp9XjO7y9c_f7uDCX7nW281OuIza6BWdebZCnEx8KD91VT6LkuctvRo-0Peu0TljZy9RPjarzm-qKRpDFkl53Qz-dFnTah2omTNpKx6En&sig=AHIEtbRLPydPTxIlypqhEIe_PYowLb-8VQ