Religious or political?

"Is conflict in Northern Ireland really religious, or is it political?" Some versions of this question frequently appear in analyes of Northern Ireland. Answers vary, but an adequate answer is always unlikely, because the question is wrong, based as it is on two reductionist assumptions about the role of religion.

The first problem is that the question assumes an either/ or choice: the conflict is either religious or it is something else. In fact the story of religion and conflict in Ireland, historically and today, is the story of intersections and combinations of religion and politics (understood broadly as the organization of public life and taking in economics, culture, etc.). Understanding the role of religion requires a both/and approach.

Second, the question is flawed because it assumes that religion and politics are separate discrete categories. In fact they are intersecting categories, as illustrated by two simple but fundamental examples. Defining politics as the organization of public life suggests the first intersection: religion also has a vision for the organization and conduct of public life.

Although the intersection is most visible when political and religious models for public life are in conflict, it is always there. Another intersection is that both religion and politics make claims on loyalty, even ultimate loyalty and these claims are sometimes in conflict. These politics and religion are not accidents of Irish history; they are inherent to both modern states and Christian churches.

A common effect of treating politics and religion as discrete spheres is to reduce religion to those aspects, which are outside the intersection, which are purely or narrowly religious. By this logic, religion is often equated with doctrine, so that when analysts of Northern Ireland announce that the conflict is not really religious, they frequently mean that it is not a doctrinal dispute. The equation of religion with doctrine is an absurd reduction, and when it is used to dismiss religion, it distorts analysis.

Freed from the unnecessary compulsion to make either/or choices, we can explore the way religion has combined with other forces. In every post-reformation generation in Ireland, religion has had some part in causing, shaping, or sustaining conflict.

Dimensions Today

Today conflict has three dimensions: British/Irish, North/South, and in the North, Protestant/Catholic. The issues at task between Britain and Ireland are constitutional, and religion is no longer a factor. Religion remains significant in North/South relations, because partition of the island in 1921 resulted in two confessional states, and Northern Protestants continue to fear and reject incorporation into a state in which an overwhelmingly Catholic ethos has sometimes been enshrined in law.

Role of Churches

However, religion is most significant within Northern Ireland. That significance can be defined in many ways, but none is more fundamental than the churches' role in socialization. Parish and congregational life are by definition confessional (and the lines between Protestant and Catholic are quite rigid), marriage rarely crosses the Catholic/Protestant divide, residence is mostly segregated along Catholic/Protestant lines, as is education. These are the basic elements of socialization, and each is divided along Catholic/Protestant lines. Much of that socialization is very good, but it is also socialization into conflicts and divisions in which the churches are implicated.

Although any examination of religion and conflict is entirely incompatible with complacency, there are reasons for hope. Taking the long view, it is striking that the doctrinal nexus from which sectarianism emerges-one true church, error has no right, providence-has been fundamentally altered. During this century the main churches have recognized each other's salvific integrity, if not full equality, and rejected the idea that error has no right. The fate of the doctrine of providence is waning. This has had the happy side effect of reducing our tendency to read God's approval of our cause into all the signs of the times.

Sectarianism is too well entrenched to disappear quickly, and these changes are still only partial. The contempt inherent in the old terms "heretic" and "papist" can still surface from time to time, the temptation to use power to impose one's views on others has not disappeared along with the doctrine that error has no right, and a narrow view that "God is on our side" may be one of the most durable aspects of the providential outlook. Nonetheless these relatively recent changes mark what we may reasonably hope will be a watershed. The ideological props of sectarianism are gone, and the churches are now in a strong position to combat enduring sectarian reality, if they have the will to do it.

 by

Joseph Liechty

September 1998 pp34-35