Prayers for Politicians Religion and the Public Sphere

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2020
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Bryn Mawr College. Department of Growth and Structure of Cities
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eng
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Abstract
Polarization and divisive politics have led to a distrust in American institutions and contributed to a decline in social capitol. For over a decade, the academic literature has ignored the topic of declining social capitol assuming that new forms of connection have replaced the old. Social media and digital technologies, however, are not a sufficient replacement for in-person forms of interaction. This study focuses on two cases of protestant religious institutions in a major American city and analyzes their power structures and communication methods using observations and thematic analysis. It finds that the church can be seen as a ‘nexus of community engagement' because it can help congregants to build social capitol and connect to community resources. That very social capital is also a pre-condition for the rational-critical discourses in the public sphere. Churches, as morally-interested institutions, will sometimes struggle with accessibility among individuals who do not share their moral convictions, but they can be successful at reducing the influence of power dynamics in discourse by democratizing their power structures. Churches will naturally vary in their acceptance of rational-critical discourse and in their levels of solidarity, as do the two case studies. This study explains the embattled relationship between social solidarity and the public sphere, providing useful insights for American citizens and civic leaders.
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