The Church as a Political Actor

Thought exercise:What is the appropriate political role of the religion in a

democratic society? What about religious institutions?

How would American politics be different if we had one dominant religious tradition? What if our founders had saw the proper role of government and the military as including a an obligation to defend of this faith?

What political role did the church play in Latin American history?

• Why did the Catholic Church come to dominate Latin American society, while religion didn’t do this in the US?

• What type of political role did the Church play in the region’s history? (Conservatives vs. Liberals). Why did the Church almost always side with the powerful?

• What (again) are the essential differences between Catholicism and the Prot. Tradition?: Soc. capital & the role of lay people, worldview/fate/self-reliance, the contestation of ideas & church ownership

• Is there any history of progressive politics within the early Latin American Catholic church: Yes: Brazil’s Jesuits & Mexico’s (1805) Miguel Hildago (Watch the Mission… Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PvWaD-NErlY)

Why and when did the Catholic Church become “progressive”?

• What are “liberation theology,” “Christian base communities,” and “the third way”?– Pope Paul XXIII’s Second Vatican Council (1962-65);– The Medellin Conference (1968)

• What specific role did the Catholic Church play in anti-military regime protests? – Organizational space, counter legitimacy up and down, the power of

hierarchy• How and why has the Vatican restricted liberation theology since the

1980s? How have everyday Latin Americans responded to the Vatican?• How much of the region is Catholic (70%)? Why is Prot. so high in

Belize, Guatemala (39%), Honduras (29%)

A RESEARCH ARTICLE

Do LA protestants engage in politics differently than is the case with Catholics?

Theory? Hypotheses? How measure “dependent variables”?

A MINI WORKSHOP: SOME STATISTICS BETWEEN YOUR METHODS CLASS AND YOUR

SENIOR THESIS• How do you graph a bivariate relationship? (X, Y)• What is a regression line? What’s a correlation (R)? What’s the

slope (b = regression coefficient)? What happens if you square the R (R2)? When are R, R2, and b “significant”: Plants and water

• All statistics from samples have standard errors. What are they?• How do you control for a variable? Hours of study and calc grade

(those without a pre-calc class vs. those with it)• Why do we sometimes use B (beta coefficients)? Measuring

impact of height vs weight on age at death, Percentile or raw?• What’s the linearity assumption? Cacti and H20• What is the relationship between various variables and political

participation and protest activity?

MEASURING VARIABLES

MEASURING VARIABLES (CONTINUED)