This document discusses the political influence of religion and religious organizations. It defines religion as a system of beliefs, practices, and documents that shape people's way of life. The church is defined as a community of believers in a specific religion that also represents a social structure. Religious groups have motivated political actions like revolutions. In pluralist democracies like the Philippines, religion is an important part of political culture and churches can be involved in elections, policymaking, and interest articulation within the separation of church and state. The major politically influential religions in the Philippines are Catholicism, Islam, and Protestantism, with the Catholic Church historically playing a prominent political role and religious groups influencing elections.

1. Religion and Church: The Political Force
of Beliefs and Organizational Resources

2. Conceptual Nuances
Religion
• is generally viewed as the system of beliefs and practices; it is commonly
called faith
• Referred to as a system of beliefs, principles, doctrines, symbols, including
rituals, and practices, norms, and moral prescriptions, and pertaining to
man’s relationship with a supernatural being, a creator or some power
beyond
• Permeates the people’s way of life as it is associated with the meaning and
value that people give to economic goods, labour, wealth, social class,
marriage customs, political authority and other aspects of life

3. The system of beliefs and practices are
written in some form of document or
book such as:
• Bible
• Qur’an
• Books of Philippine Independent Church
• The Iglesia ni Cristo

4. Church
• Community of persons
• Believers and adherents of a specific religion
• Denotes the physical edifice or place where
the believers hold their religious activities
• Considered a social structure and a social
institution, as patterns of interaction occur
persistently, becoming part of the way people
live and organize thmeselves

5. Johnstone asserts that religion is a group phenomena that such
that six characteristics can be applied when identifying a
religious group:
1. At least two or more people who have established certain patterns of
interaction
2. With common goals
3. Shared norms
4. A role for every member, or set of functions, a division of labor
5. A status system or hierarchy with different levels of power, authority,
prestige and its corresponding roles and engagements
6. The members sense of identification with the group

6. Religious movements have been known to direct
its force upon political causes such as:
• Revolution
• Independence
• Secularization
• Modernization
• Re-sacralization of modern and secular
institutions

7. Stategic Functions in Political
Socialization and Political Culture
People’s orientations to political symbols,
structures, and processes, their preferences
and actions, are shaped by their values and
beliefs (Almond & Verba, 1963)

8. Religion is a most important component of political culture
tracing the evidence from ancient civilization such as;
China and the Middle East and even in Medieval Europe
Qur’an served as the Muslims basis for an Islamic
base
Scriptures as the basis for the claims raised by
Christian Church leaders and monarchs during
Europe’s medieval period to establish the
domains of the church and state

9. • Religion can be considered as an important
political resource, since religious qualities that
motivate people can be channeled to political
action.
• When political issues are couched in religious
terms, believers can be motivated toward
certain forms of commitment and action.

10. Political Behaviour in a Pluralist
Democracy

11. What is a Pluralist Democracy?
- It describe a political system where there is
more than one center of power.

12. • churches and religious groups find latitude
for political involvement under the principle
of separation of church and state.

13. • In the case of the Philippines, the political
currency and social roles of religion, churches
and religious groups can be situated in the
Philippines’ colonial history.

14. Political Salience in the Philippines
Politically relevant religions in the Philippines are:
• Islam
• Roman Catholicism
• Protestantinism
*since the 1950’s, the religious beliefs of the Iglesia
ni Cristo and of many religious movements have
also exerted their political influence

15. • Among the churches, the Catholic Church has
figured prominently in the Spanish colonization of
the Philippines and was the subject of the
Philippine Revolution in the Spain in 1890’s
• In 1946, Philippines is already under the
constitutional provision of separation of church
and state – Catholic church and other churches
found new arenas for political involvement such
as: elections, policy making, and interest
articulation

16. • Catholic church has been known for its influence
over its large membership during elections
• 1986 EDSA People Power Revolution, the
Catholic Church and various Protestant churches
took activist positions that helped topple
President Ferdinand Marcos
• 2001 EDSA 2 event that caused President Joseph
Ejercito Estrada to step down from office, the
Catholic church and, in a less visible but
significant way the Protestant churches, took a
politically vital role in political mobilization and
regime change

17. • Muslims groups are crucial in the issues of
constitutionalism, political and national
integration, considering their years of
resistance and separist struggles against the
Philippine state.

18. • In elections, the Iglesia ni Cristo has long been
associated with bloc voting
• Other religious organizations and movements,
paricularly the El Shaddai and Jesus Is Lord
Fellowship, gained political value