Comparing Religion and Moral Politics in Western Europe and the United States of America

On the one hand, there is an ongoing theoretical debate on separating state and church in liberal-democratic states and associated with this on the legitimacy and functionality of religious interventions in the “secular” state. On the other hand, we find a continuing entanglement of Christian religious actors in the field of moral politics in Western Europe and the United States By a focused-structured comparison I will recognizes the debates on embryonic stem cell research, human cloning and preimplantation genetic diagnosis in Europe and the USA. Many countries have imposed legislation on biotechnological and embryonic procedures. However, the way the debates have developed, as well as the degree to which embryo politics have been restricted differ widely from country to country. Within these debates religion played an important role. I will show how religious actors get involved into the political discussion and the legal, and what form and content the used arguments have. Questions considered are of the influence religion may have on politics (“if any and what influence does exist?”), its structural and institutional prerequisites (“What elements of the system enable/encourage the influence?”) and its argumentation patterns (“Which arguments were used in which discursive environment to what ends?”). Although representatives of liberal democracy theories claim that religious arguments and actors should not have any decisive part in political debates and laws, it turns out, that religion do play an important role in moral policy. Entanglements of religion and politics and a high influence of particular religious’ convictions/ actors could be found in nearly all researched states. It seems to be less the question if, but to what scope and with which intensity the influence of religion exists. The willingness of even secular societies to accept religious arguments and actors in public discourse is mostly due to the fact that the church continues to be accorded a social role or historical core competence as moral authority and “specialist” for questions concerning for example of the meaning of life and the caring for the weak members of the community. This agreement is independent of the fact that the church may only ‘salvific important’ for a minority of citizens and that religious contents are regarded as irrelevant in most situations. Empirically this leads to a quite high acceptance of church commitments in certain policy fields as well as a clear support of the ‘Christian image of man’ in western states. This is especially true for states with low anti-clericalism and a religiously influenced civil religion like in the USA, Germany, and Ireland. And in all countries, the existence of influential political religious parties is a less decisive factor for restrictive laws than the existence of low religious pluralism or a religious duopoly in society.