Compare and Contrast - Research Paper Example

However, the American’s political analysts and scientist have been reluctant in carrying out studies on the religious organizations. This means that political science has shown some lack of interest to religious issues and the politicians have failed to merge their work to the theories of religion. The different religious interest groups have different operation whose characteristics are unique. It’s safe to claim that most religious interest groups have to some point, been involved to the politics in America.

This chapter focuses on the religious politics that raises concern for the religious interest groups. It also attempts to identify the various religious interest groups in the United States and their views of political issues. I will also discuss two types of religious interest groups and their goals at the national level. Evidence is derived from studying the various religious interest groups. The religious diversity in the United States has resulted to the diversity of goals and how their means of seeking them.

Religious traditions in U.S.A The religious tradition in the United States is manly Judeo-Christianity. It divides the entire religious community into six groups. They include, the Roman Catholics, black Protestants, evangelical Protestants, mainline Protestants, Jews and the Secular people. The biggest religious group in the United States is the Protestant community. The Evangelical Protestants view the Bible literally and have the mission of bringing people back to Christ. The Black Protestants have more liberal political views than the Evangelical Protestants.

Some groups in the religious tradition detach themselves from the secular or non-religious people in the society. However, majority of them obtain power from the political system of the nation. Most political scientists claim that the religious interest groups are to be held responsible for the absence of multiparty system in America. The religious interest groups organize ecumenical coalitions just like how political parties construct coalitions, in order to gain influence on various political issues in the Country (Wentz,67).

Types of religious interest groups The types of religious groups discussed in this chapter are the Christian and Muslim interest groups. The two interest groups have both similar and different understanding of the political matters. Christian Religious group The Christian coalition was formed to improve the agenda on preserving the traditional view of the political and social system in the United States as well as the traditional values of the Americans. In 1989, Pat Robertson established the Christian coalition after losing the presidential nomination in 1988.

The coalition mainly consisted of evangelical Protestants. The Christian coalition in America is composed of two million members and an additional of two thousand chapters in different fifty states. It influences the actions of political legislators in favor of traditional values of religion and family. It also supports school prayer and market capitalism. On the other hand, the Christian interest group in the United States opposes gun control, abortion and secular influence. The organization was very selective in supporting the political candidates.

It supported some and ignored others. However, the organization’s power of influence started to decline as membership dropped