Religious exclusivism is often more idealized than the notion of being an inclusive and co-operative community. Countries, communities, and cultures like to believe they benefit from being independent and self-servant working entities. However, I propose: A country who single-handedly advances receives more recognition and glory for doing so, but, it takes more effort, time, resources, and often results with plateauing than any actual bettering, be it in government and society, or technology. Simply that, religious pluralism could be beneficial in our politics and how we run our country; a religious leniency in recognition to other beliefs.
At the beginning of my research, my intention was to analyze the effects of pluralism in America and if its effects were negative or positive on the community. I was interested in seeing and pointing out the results of restrictions within politics on marginalized communities, as well as providing my own argument as to why we should be more accommodating to the repressed. I am still interested in that information, and fully support the idea that America should be inclusive to the non-represented religions - however - my research has simply narrowed into if pluralism is an effective strategy in politics. Being that, originally it was going to be the effects on repressing the already repressed.
I continuously refer to pluralism, yet I think a more fitting term would be civil religion. My purpose may have turned towards arguing if a civil religion in politics would be effective. But, in my research and website, I use pluralism and civil religion interchangeably because I believe they go hand-in-hand.
On my journey of research, I have read many articles and arguments from religious figures. The information and perspective religious individuals provided was eye-opening - for more often than expected, they supported some form of secularism in politics. Compared to the beginning of my search, my opinion has become more mixed. Both sides of the argument provide compelling pros and cons, and what was once a very clear solution in my mind has definitely become more obscured.
ENDING THOUGHTS ON JOURNEY ***
"If the staircase [to heaven] is real, it explains the persistent undercurrent of dissatisfaction in modern life.” (TED) Humanity wants to advance and I believe this is achieved through being inclusive - actually practicing pluralism - and including not only different faiths but cultures; changing to include different practices of life easier into society. (i.e. prayer rugs, offering kosher food options, just generally being tolerant of other people)
The reason I am doing this research is to learn about the effects and opinions surrounding religious pluralism and to hopefully form a intuitive and working conclusion about pluralism and civil religion in culture.
