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Post by Josh on Aug 4, 2008 15:21:51 GMT -8
Mo, would you support such a bill? I mean, don't we want to know our candidates as well as possible? And don't beliefs, even in subtle ways, affect the choices of person? (I sure hope so)
I do think questions about religious beliefs can get out of hand, and be used inappropriately, but I think banning such things would be crazier still.
How does it work in Germany? Wasn't your last president/chancellor?- sorry, gotta help me with my terms) an evangelical Christian? Wasn't her name Angela Merckel or something like that? What kind of discussion was there in Germany about the role of faith in a politician's life?
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Post by moritz on Aug 4, 2008 16:42:49 GMT -8
Mo, would you support such a bill? I mean, don't we want to know our candidates as well as possible? And don't beliefs, even in subtle ways, affect the choices of person? (I sure hope so) I do think questions about religious beliefs can get out of hand, and be used inappropriately, but I think banning such things would be crazier still. How does it work in Germany? Wasn't your last president/chancellor?- sorry, gotta help me with my terms) an evangelical Christian? Wasn't her name Angela Merckel or something like that? What kind of discussion was there in Germany about the role of faith in a politician's life? I said in the other post: "However, I can understand that people want their presidents to believe what they (the people) believe." I hope that answers your question. I don't blame anybody, Christian or not, for wanting to know about a candidates beliefs. Not only religious beliefs. All kinds of beliefs. I wouldn't trust a scientologist candidate... As for the religious affilation of Chancellor Merkel*... I don't have the slightest idea. I'm pretty sure she's a Christian. I guess I would know if she was a Muslim or a Hindu. But as I said, religion doesn't play an important role in the campaign. Even though she supports the idea of adding a reference to God in the preamble of a possible future constitution of Europe**, there's no way she would ever refer to God when explaining a political decision she took. Saying something like "God told me to invade XY" is political suicide in Germany. She would be tared and feathered. Germany is secular in that sense. Okay, I googled her faith (  ). Even that didn't bring a quick answer. She's the daughter of a Protestant pastor and a protestant herself. Note that the term evangelical includes another cultural misunderstanding. "Evangelisch" is the German word for Protestant in general. It doesn't mean what Americans understand by evangelical. Whether she is practicing her religion is something I can't find in her official biography. * The Chancellor is the boss. We have a president too and he's officially the Number 1 in the State hierarchy. But he has no political power. The Chancellor is the commander-in-chief. Angela Merkel is still in office. ** the constitution of Germany starts with the words: "In awarness of it's responsibility before God and humanity, inspired to serve the peace in the world as an equal member within a united Europe, the people of Germany (...) gave themselves this constitution. |
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Post by Josh on Dec 29, 2008 14:17:31 GMT -8
Just rereading this, and I had a couple questions about Germany.
When was your current constitution written?
What does he do? How many "branches of government" do you have?
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Post by moritz on Dec 29, 2008 17:20:46 GMT -8
When was your current constitution written? In 1949. This constitution was written for West Germany. The funny thing is that until the present day the name of the constitution isn't "constitution" (although it is de facto a constitution), but Basic Constitutional Law of the Federal Republic of Germany. This is because in 1949 it was believed that the soviet zone of occupation would soon be reincorporated to the three Western zones of occupation. Until then, the constitution should have this provisional name. As we all know it took more than 40 years for Germany to reunite and so the provisional name stayed. The core of the constitution is the direct consequence of the Nazi experience. Hence the very first paragraph and main principle of the republic is "Human dignity is inviolable". With this the State guarantees its people that things like holocaust, state ordered murder, torture etc. may never again happen. What does he do? How many "branches of government" do you have? The president represents. That's his main job. He also has a variety of symbolic jobs like appointing secretaries (ministers??) or signing bills. But he is not the one to select the secretaries or take any part in the process of developing the bill. He is usually the State representative that everybody loves because he engages in charity, and tells the people what they want to hear without legislative or executive responsibility. As for the branches: Theres the executive, legislative and judicative which check and ballance each other. The executive is the administration. The chancellor is its headman (or in this case woman). The legislative consists of the parliament (Bundestag)* und the judicative of all the courts with Supreme Courts on top. The three top positions are: 1. President (officially a part of the executive but de facto without much executive power) 2. President of the parliament (Bundestag) 3. Chancellor (the inofficial number one) I guess that was more than you wanted to know...  *Germany, like the USA, consists of smaller federal states (sixteen states). Every federal state has its own parliament (Landtag). The headmen of each federal state, the Prime Ministers, gather in a congegation named Bundesrat which has a right to debate and approve or disprove of the laws the Bundestag wants to pass. Complicated business |
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Post by moritz on Mar 10, 2009 9:08:48 GMT -8
Back to the original topic: Here's a take on secularization from Rodney Stark and William S. Bainbridge: "At least since the Enlightenment, most Western intellectuals have anticipated the death of religion (...).
But, as one generation has followed another, religion has persisted.
(...) secularization is a process found in all religious economies; it is something that is always going on in all societies. While secularization progresses in some parts of a society, a countervailing intensification of religion goes on in other parts. Sometimes the pace of secularization speeds or slows, but the dominant religious organizations in any society are always becoming progressively more wordly, which is to say, more secularized. The result of this trend has never been the end of religion, but merely a shift in fortunes among religions as faiths that have become too wordly are supplanted by more vigorous and less wordly religions.
(...) The process of secularization is self-limiting and generates two countervailing processes. One of these is revival. Religious organizations that are eroded by secularization abandon a substantial market for less worldly religion, a demand that produces breakaway sect movements. Thus, out of secularization is born revival as protest groups form to restore vigorous otherworldliness to a conventional faith.
Secularization also stimulates religious innovation. Not only do worldly churches prompt new religious groups, which seek to revive faith, but secularization also prompts the formation of new religious traditions. New religions constantly appear in societies. Whether they make any headway depends on the vigor of conventional religious organizations. When new faiths that are better adapted to current market demand spring up, older faiths are eclipsed. Thus did Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, and other great world faiths wrest dominant market positions from older faiths." Stark, Rodney and Bainbridge, William. 1985. The Future of Religion: Secularization, Revival & Cult Formation. Berkeley: University of California Press. |
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). Even that didn't bring a quick answer. She's the daughter of a Protestant pastor and a protestant herself. Note that the term evangelical includes another cultural misunderstanding. "Evangelisch" is the German word for Protestant in general. It doesn't mean what Americans understand by evangelical. Whether she is practicing her religion is something I can't find in her official biography. 