Religion and Politics

Religion and politics are two ideologies which in the past could not share any platform because their perspectives were rather divergent. Certain religion followers used to abide to rituals and beliefs relevant to the Bible, the Quran or other holy books. Religious leaders marked politics as a dirty game; according to them, the players are not holy as well. Politics, on the other hand, is guided by the rule of power and wealth accumulation. The plight of the poor in the political perspective is not highly considered as it is in religion; political leaders are mostly guided by self-interest rather than the universal interest.

In the recent past, religion has shown a remarkable interest in politics and this has caused a substantial influence on politics (Thomas, 2010). Religion has come out to strongly condemn the inhumane acts of political leaders; these included corruption, poor democracy and racism. Thus, religion untied itself from the original rigidness of abiding to divine principles without being involved in political affairs. In the recent past, religion has been in a better position to mobilize big masses into accepting their criticism concerning politics. Religion embraces civilization and diverse cultures in the whole world.

This enables an interaction between politics and religion (Thomas, 2010). However, the relations between religion and politics have not been smooth because of the numerous terror attacks suspected to be religious. Christianity and Islamic followers are constantly involved in religious wars. This is believed to stem from the different political ideologies they both hold. The bombing of the Trade Center on September 11th is one of the best examples of religious attacks motivated by political interests (Mark, 2001). In conclusion, the future of politics in the face of religion is expected to assume a different dimension. Religious control may improve political affairs; however, on the other hand, such relations can increase terrorist attacks.