Response to: Religious legitimacy or legitimately religious?

December 3, 2007

Mr. Shrinsky asks the question, are religous leaders more powerful? It really depends on the society. In some societies, religion of the country is more important than nationalism, however in others nationalism is more important than the main religion of that country. Leaders use the local beliefs of the people to gain power and some leaders chose to take religious beliefs and incoroporate those beliefs into the government and how that leader rules. Leaders use legitamacy and there is not one correct answer to whether religious leaders become more powerful. In our times now,leaders still do use religious beliefs in their campaign because they believe that religion is a big part of many people's lives and many people rely on their religious beliefs. Sometimes completing your religous duties (as a leader might show in his campaign) is considering a very honorable thing in our society. However, many believe that religion shouldn't be incorporated into the government. Religious leaders (like the Pope) do hold a lot of power over the people associated with his religion, but not necessarily more power than the government. In conclusion, there is not one correct answer to the question, are religious leaders more powerful than a non-religious government?