Religion and Citizenship as Lived Practice: Intersections of Faith, Gender, Participation and Belonging

Abstract

Religious faith is in many ways related to citizenship: it is a way into citizenship practice in that religious believers participate in organized faith communities and in the broader societies in which they live, and faith also provides guidance about what constitutes a good citizen.1 When religious faith prevents participation in and belonging to organized religious groups, or prevents participation and belonging in the wider society, it can also be a barrier to citizenship. Religious faith can be used to deny someone citizenship, as when Muslim women who wear face veils in public risk arrest in European countries like France and Belgium, or when lesbian women priests are denied employment in the Lutheran Church. Faith can also be used to enhance someone’s citizenship, as when state laws assign more rights and privileges to some religions than to others. In Europe, the privileging and accommodation of Christianity is especially visible to those of minority religious beliefs or none. As faithful citizens, the religious women in our study believe in and practise their own faith, and they believe in citizenship as an expression of, and practising of, a religiously informed ethic of care, love, tolerance and respect. In this chapter we demonstrate how lived religion and lived citizenship are deeply intertwined for the women in our study (see also Chapters 2 and 7).