Religion(s) comes in many forms with so much diversity, but at the same time, it unites people through a common set of beliefs and practices, especially with globalization. The relationship between globalization and religion opens the doors for new possibilities and challenges. Religion benefits from the opportunities that are an offer by globalization, as it uses communication and transportation technology, to transfer its message.
Globalization, respond by allowing for daily contact, where religion enters a circle of conflict in which religion becomes more self-conscious of themselves as being a world religion. This essay examines the relationship between religion and globalization as complex, one with new possibilities and further challenges, as globalization engendering greater religious tolerance in law. Due to the massive different rough, these concepts can take, it will be impossible to cover every single or most route. Therefore, this essay will try its best to illustrate some important parts of the debate and problems.
Globalization has created greater religious tolerance. As it has led to the development of new ideas about human rights. For example, in the US Bill of Rights of 1789, the first provision was to separate religion from state sponsorship and to guarantee religious freedom (Campbell, 2007). Innovations like these are the ones that help benefit the strength of religion, by recognizing it and making it free from the interference of the state. The consciousness of human rights has helped conserved religion as a factor important in a human’s life since there is no persecution in some areas of the world to practice or not any religion.
At the same time, religion in responses to this human right consciousness has influence laws as it has promoted two global movements, the abolition of slavery and caring for the low socioeconomic population (Campbell, 2007). This human right consciousness can be also seen in a place like Africa. Where there is been pressure from international human rights activists forbidding the practices of female genital circumcision. These group of activists has worked closely with religious leaders to convince those who perform the female circumcisions that the practice is wrong (Berman, 2004).
Globalization through its tolerance of religion has led for a new way of enforcing and influence law in every corner of the world, from the global north to the global south. Working as a mechanism, where the international governance cannot change the customs of an ethical group religion takes over to modified it to the international law norms. Movements like these ones, make religion see as a positive factor in the globalization process.
Religion functions as a form to create a personal identity, where there is a sense of meaning and belonging in the social group. It serves to create social order, by working as an impulse that has motivated attempts to improve society, and not infrequently involved it in power struggles and sometimes persecution when it seems a threat to established power (Campbell, 2007). Since religion serves as a personal identity, as people migrate around the globe for whatever the reason is, it has cause religions and religious ideas to move with them.
Religion and religious ideas serve as a way of identifying and connecting with others that shared the same beliefs. Since it brings a sense of belonging and helps cope with the nostalgia experience from been away from home. The way it serves as a social order is that some of the migrants use religious organizations or institutions that are interconnected around the globalized world as a network for settlement and guidance in the new host country. These institutions or organizations served as a bridge of integrating the migrates to the social structure of both
