nach oben

Erschienen in:

04.04.2023 | ORIGINAL PAPER

Did Religious Freedom Exacerbate COVID-19? A Global Analysis

verfasst von: Nilay Saiya, Stuti Manchanda, Rahmat Wadidi

Erschienen in: Journal of Religion and Health | Ausgabe 4/2023

Einloggen, um Zugang zu erhalten

Abstract

Did countries that became more repressive of religion during the COVID-19 pandemic, experience more COVID-19 cases and associated fatalities than countries that did not restrict religious freedom? As the pandemic raged across the world, many houses of worship defied governmental orders against public worship, leading many pundits, policy makers, and critics of religion to express concern that churches, mosques, synagogues, and other houses of worship would become incubators of COVID-19. In this view, religious freedom was seen as an obstacle to combatting the virus. In this article, we evaluate this proposition. We find that countries that maintained their levels of religious freedom throughout the pandemic were not more likely to witness higher rates of COVID-19 cases and deaths from COVID-19. The results are robust to a number of different model specifications.

Nur mit Berechtigung zugänglich

Alon, I., & Chase, G. (2005). Religious freedom and economic prosperity. Cato Journal, 25(2), 399–406.

Androutsopoulos, G. (2021). The right of religious freedom in light of the Coronavirus pandemic: The Greek case. Laws, 10(1), 14. https://doi.org/10.3390/laws10010014CrossRef

Ashwanden, C. (2020). How ‘superspreading’ events drive most COVID-19 spread. Scientific American. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-superspreading-events-drive-most-covid-19-spread1/.

Begović, N. (2020). Restrictions on religions due to the COVID-19 pandemic: Responses of religious communities in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Journal of Law, Religion and State, 8(2–3), 228–250. https://doi.org/10.1163/22124810-2020007CrossRef

Berkmann, B. J. (2020). The COVID-19 crisis and religious freedom: The interaction between state and church norms in Germany, especially in Bavaria. Journal of Law, Religion and State, 8(2–3), 179–200. https://doi.org/10.1163/22124810-2020013CrossRef

Brannon, V. C. (2020) “UPDATE: banning religious assemblies to stop the spread of COVID-19,” Congressional Research Service, 1–5. https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/LSB/LSB10450.

Chang, S., Pierson, E., Pang, W. K., Gerardin, J., Redbird, B., Gruskey, D., & Leskovec, J. (2021). Mobility network models of COVID-19 explain inequities and inform reopening. Nature, 589(7840), 82–87. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-020-2923-3CrossRefPubMed

DeFranza, D., Lindow, M., Harrison, K., Mishra, A., & Mishra, H. (2020). Religion and reactance to COVID-19 mitigation guidelines. American Psychologist. https://doi.org/10.1037/amp0000717CrossRefPubMed

Du Plessis, G. A. (2020). COVID-19 and limitations to the international right to freedom of religion or belief. Journal of Church and State. https://doi.org/10.1093/jcs/csaa082CrossRef

Farr, T. F. (2008). World of faith and freedom: Why international religious liberty is vital to American national security. Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195179958.001.0001CrossRef

Freedom House. (2020). An annual study of political rights and civil liberties. Freedom House. https://freedomhouse.org/sites/default/files/2020-02/FIW_2020_REPORT_BOOKLET_Final.pdf.

Grace Community Church. (2021). Facing COVID-19 without fear: a statement from John MacArthur and the pastoral staff of Grace Community Church. https://www.gracechurch.org/news/posts/2254.

Grim, B. J. (2008a). God’s economy: Religious freedom and socio-economic wellbeing. In P. Marshall (Ed.), Religious freedom in the world (pp. 42–47). Rowman & Littlefield.

Grim, B. J. (2008b). Religious freedom: Good for what ails us? The Review of Faith & International Affairs, 6(2), 3–7. https://doi.org/10.1080/15570274.2008.9523330CrossRef

Grim, B. J., & Grim, M. E. (2019). Belief, behavior, and belonging: How faith is indispensable in preventing and recovering from substance abuse. Journal of Religion and Health, 58, 1713–1750. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10943-019-00876-wCrossRefPubMedPubMedCentral

Grim, B. J., & Finke, R. (2011). The price of freedom denied: Religious persecution and conflict in the 21st century. Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511762345CrossRef

Grim, B. J., Clark, G., & Snyder, R. E. (2014). Is religious freedom good for business?: A conceptual and empirical analysis. Interdisciplinary Journal of Research on Religion, 10, 1–19.

Hall, R. (2020). “‘Satan will not stop us’: some Christian pastors plan showdown with coronavirus this Easter.” The Independent. https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/easter-church-coronavirusmegachurch-pastors-donald-trump-a9460246.html.

Hancocks, P. & Seo, Y. (2020). How novel Coronavirus spread through the Shincheonji religious group in South Korea. CNN. https://www.cnn.com/2020/02/26/asia/shincheonji-south-korea-hnk-intl/index.html.

Hale, T., Angrist, N., Goldzmidt, R., Kira, B., Petherick, A., Phillips, T., Webster, S., Cameron-Blake, E., Hallas, L., Majumdar, S., & Tatlow, H. (2021). A global panel database of pandemic policies (Oxford COVID-19 government response tracker). Nature Human Behaviour. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-021-01079-8CrossRefPubMed

Haynes, J. (2021). Donald Trump, the Christian right and COVID-19: The politics of religious freedom. Laws, 10(1), 1–6. https://doi.org/10.3390/laws10010006CrossRef

Henne, P. S., Saiya, N., & Hand, A. W. (2020). Weapon of the strong: Government support for religion and majoritarian terrorism. Journal of Conflict Resolution, 64(10), 1943–1967. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022002720916854

Hill, T. D., Gonzalez, K., & Burdette, A. M. (2020). The blood of Christ compels them: state religiosity and state population mobility during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Journal of Religion and Health, 59(5), 2229–2242. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10943-020-01058-9CrossRefPubMedPubMedCentral

Ho, K. M. A., Baggaley, R. F., Stone, T. C., Hogan, A., Kabir, Y., Johnson, C., Merrifield, R., & Lovat, L. B. (2022). Face mask acceptability for communal religious worship during the COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom: Results from the CONFESS study. Journal of Religion and Health. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10943-022-01641-2CrossRefPubMedPubMedCentral

Inboden, W. (2012). Religious freedom and national security. Policy Review 175, 55–68. https://www.hoover.org/research/religious-freedom-and-national-security.

Jaja, I. F., Anyanwu, M. U., & Jaja, C.-J.I. (2020). Social distancing: How religion, culture and burial ceremony undermine the effort to curb COVID-19 in South Africa. Emerging Microbes & Infections, 9(1), 1077–1079. https://doi.org/10.1080/22221751.2020.1769501CrossRef

Johnston, E. F., Eagle, D. E., Headley, J., & Holleman, A. (2021). Pastoral ministry in unsettled times: A qualitative study of the experiences of clergy during the COVID-19 pandemic. Review of Religious Research. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13644-021-00465-yCrossRefPubMedPubMedCentral

Jones, D. G. (2022). Religious concerns about COVID-19 vaccines: From abortion to religious freedom. Journal of Religion and Health, 61, 2233–2252. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10943-022-01557-xCrossRefPubMedPubMedCentral

Lebni, J. Y., Ziapour, A., Mehedi, N., & Irandoost, S. F. (2021). The role of clerics in confronting the COVID-19 crisis in Iran. Journal of Religion and Health, 60(4), 2387–2394.CrossRef

Lee, S., & Oh, S. (2021). Religion and public conflict in the post-COVID era: The case of Protestant churches in South Korea. Religions, 12(10), 851. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel12100851CrossRef

Madera, A. (2021). The implications of the COVID-19 pandemic on religious exercise: Preliminary remarks. Laws. https://doi.org/10.3390/laws10020044CrossRef

Marshall, M. & Elzinga-Marshall, G. (2018). State_fragility index and matrix 1995–2018. Centre for Systemic Peace. https://fragilestatesindex.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/951181805-Fragile-States-Index-Annual-Report-2018.pdf.

Marshall, M. & Gurr, T. R. (2020). POLITY™ IV PROJECT political regime characteristics and transitions, 1800–2015 dataset users’ manual. Centre for Systemic Peace. https://www.systemicpeace.org/inscr/p4manualv2016.pdf.

Martínez-Torrón, J. (2021). COVID-19 and religious freedom: Some comparative perspectives. Laws, 10(2), 1–16. https://doi.org/10.3390/laws10020039CrossRef

Mazurkiewicz, P. (2021). Religious freedom in the time of the pandemic. Religions, 12(2), 103. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel12020103CrossRef

Movsesian, M. L. (2022). Law, religion, and the COVID-19 crisis. Journal of Law and Religion, 37(1), 9–24. https://doi.org/10.1017/jlr.2021.82CrossRef

Perry, S. L., Whitehead, A. L., & Grubbs, J. B. (2020). Culture wars and COVID-19 conduct: Christian nationalism, religiosity, and Americans’ behavior during the Coronavirus pandemic. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 59(3), 405–416. https://doi.org/10.1111/jssr.12677CrossRef

Pankowski, D., & Wytrychiewicz-Pankowska, K. (2023a). Turning to religion during COVID-19 (Part I): A systematic review, meta-analysis and meta-regression of studies on the relationship between religious coping and mental health throughout COVID-19. Journal of Religion and Health, 62(1), 510–543. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10943-022-01703-5CrossRefPubMedPubMedCentral

Pankowski, D., & Wytrychiewicz-Pankowska, K. (2023b). Turning to religion during COVID-19 (Part II): A systematic review, meta-analysis and meta-regression of studies on the relationship between religious coping and mental health throughout COVID-19. Journal of Religion and Health, 62(1), 544–584. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10943-022-01720-4CrossRefPubMedPubMedCentral

Phuong, N. T. (2020). Religion, law, state, and COVID-19 in Vietnam. Journal of Law, Religion and State, 1, 1–14. https://doi.org/10.1163/22124810-2020010CrossRef

Quadri, S. A. (2020). COVID-19 and religious congregations: Implications for spread of novel pathogens. International Journal of Infectious Diseases, 96, 219–221. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijid.2020.05.007CrossRefPubMedPubMedCentral

Saiya, N. (2014). Explaining religious violence across countries: An institutional perspective. In K. R. D. Dulk and E. Oldmixon (Eds.), Mediating religion and government: Political institutions and the policy process (pp.209–240). Palgrave.

Saiya, N. (2015a). Religion, democracy, and terrorism. Perspectives on Terrorism, 9(6), 51–59.

Saiya, N. (2015b). The religious freedom peace. The International Journal of Human Rights, 19(3), 369–382. https://doi.org/10.1080/13642987.2015.1032268CrossRef

Saiya, N. (2017a). Religious freedom, the arab spring and U.S. Middle East Policy. International Politics, 54(1), 43–53. https://doi.org/10.1057/s41311-017-0021-4

Saiya, N. (2017b). Blasphemy and terrorism in the muslim world. Terrorism and Political Violence, 29(6), 1087–1105. https://doi.org/10.1080/09546553.2015.1115759.CrossRef

Saiya, N. (2018). Weapon of peace: How religious liberty combats terrorism. Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108565127CrossRef

Saiya, N. (2019a). Pluralism and peace in South Asia. Review of Faith & International Affairs,, 17(4), 12–22. https://doi.org/10.1080/15570274.2019.1681779

Saiya, N. (2019b). Religion, state and terrorism: A global analysis. Terrorism and Political Violence, 31(2), 204–223. https://doi.org/10.1080/09546553.2016.1211525CrossRef

Saiya, N. (2020). Confronting apocalyptic terrorism: lessons from France and Japan. Studies in Conflict & Terrorism, 43(9), 375–395. https://doi.org/10.1080/1057610X.2018.1499694

Saiya, N. (2021). Why freedom defeats terrorism. Journal of Democracy, 32(2), 105–115.

Saiya, N., & Fidler, J. (2018). Taking god seriously: The struggle against extremism. Middle East Policy, 25(1), 80–95. https://doi.org/10.1111/mepo.12326CrossRef

Saiya, N. & Hand, A. (2022). Democracy’s ambivalent effect on terrorism. Journal of Conflict Resolution. https://doi.org/10.1177/00220027221143967

Saiya, N., & Manchanda S. (2020a). Do burqa bans make us safer? Veil restrictions and terrorism in Europe. Journal of European Public Policy, 27(12), 1781–1800. https://doi.org/10.1080/13501763.2019.1681494

Saiya, N., & Manchanda S. (2020b). Anti-conversion laws and violent christian persecution in the States of India: A quantitative analysis. Ethnicities, 20(3), 587–607. https://doi.org/10.1177/1468796819885396

Saiya, N., & Scime, A. (2015). Explaining religious terrorism: A data-mined analysis. Conflict Management and Peace Science 32(5), 487–512.CrossRef

Saiya, N., & Scime, A. (2019). Comparing classification trees to discern patterns of terrorism. Social Science Quarterly, 100(4), 1420–1444. https://doi.org/10.1111/ssqu.12629CrossRef

Sánchez-Camacho, J., & Martínez, J. (2021). The preference for cooperation over the vindication of religious freedom: The response of the Spanish Catholic Church to the COVID-19 crisis. Political Theology, 14(5), 429–441. https://doi.org/10.1080/1756073X.2021.1938839CrossRef

Schipani, A., Cotterill, J., & Munshi, N. (2020). Churches defy Coronavirus restrictions in Brazil and Africa. Financial Times. https://www.ft.com/content/7c3a17c6-f130-4659-972f-0fe9ebc7102b.

Schnabel, L. & Schieman, S. (2021). Religion protected mental health but constrained crisis response during crucial early days of the COVID‐19 pandemic. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 530–543. https://doi.org/10.1111/jssr.12720.

Shah, R. (2018). Christianity among the marginalized: empowering poor women in India. In Hertzke, A. D., & Shah, T. S., Christianity and freedom vol. II: contemporary perspectives (pp. 107–132). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781316408643.

Smidt, C. (Ed.). (2003). Religion as social capital: Producing the common good. Baylor University Press.

Toft, M. D., Philpott, D., & Shah, T. S. (2011). God’s century: resurgent religion and global politics. New York City, NY: W. W. Norton and Company.

Transparency International. (2020). Corruption perceptions index. https://www.transparency.org/en/cpi/2020/index/nzl.

Varieties of Democracy. (2022). Home. https://www.v-dem.net.

World Bank. (2021). GDP (current US$). https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.MKTP.CD.

Whitehead, A. L., & Perry, S. L. (2020). How culture wars delay herd immunity: Christian nationalism and anti-vaccine attitudes. Socius, 6, 2378023120977727. https://doi.org/10.1177/2378023120977727CrossRef

Woodward, A. (2020). “‘A phantom plague’: America’s Bible Belt played down the pandemic and even cashed in. Now dozens of Pastors are dead.” The Independent. https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/bible-belt-us-coronavirus-pandemic-pastors-church-a9481226.html.

World Health Organization (WHO). (2021). https://www.who.int/about/policies/publishing/open-access.

Titel: Did Religious Freedom Exacerbate COVID-19? A Global Analysis
verfasst von: Nilay Saiya
Stuti Manchanda
Rahmat Wadidi
Publikationsdatum: 04.04.2023
Verlag: Springer US
Erschienen in: Journal of Religion and Health / Ausgabe 4/2023
Print ISSN: 0022-4197
Elektronische ISSN: 1573-6571
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10943-023-01810-x

The Role of Religion and Spirituality to Cope with COVID-19 Infections Among People of Lower Socioeconomic Status in Pakistan: An Exploratory Qualitative Study

ORIGINAL PAPER

Laudato si and the Role of the Church in Promoting Environmental Awareness Toward a Better Health-Related Quality of Life

Original Paper

Dyadic Peer Support to Improve Diet and Physical Activity Among African American Church Members: An Exploratory Study

ORIGINAL PAPER

An Examination of Culturally Relevant Health Messages in African-American Churches

Original Paper

Correction: Religion, Islam, and Compliance with COVID-19 Best Practices

Correction

Seeking New Meaning in the Shadow of the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Qualitative Research of Spiritual Issues and Experiences among Students in Turkish Society

Original Paper

Springer Medizin

Did Religious Freedom Exacerbate COVID-19? A Global Analysis

Abstract

Weitere Artikel der Ausgabe 4/2023

The Role of Religion and Spirituality to Cope with COVID-19 Infections Among People of Lower Socioeconomic Status in Pakistan: An Exploratory Qualitative Study

Laudato si and the Role of the Church in Promoting Environmental Awareness Toward a Better Health-Related Quality of Life

Dyadic Peer Support to Improve Diet and Physical Activity Among African American Church Members: An Exploratory Study

An Examination of Culturally Relevant Health Messages in African-American Churches

Correction: Religion, Islam, and Compliance with COVID-19 Best Practices

Seeking New Meaning in the Shadow of the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Qualitative Research of Spiritual Issues and Experiences among Students in Turkish Society

Springer Medizin

Abstract

Bitte loggen Sie sich ein, um Zugang zu diesem Inhalt zu erhalten

The Role of Religion and Spirituality to Cope with COVID-19 Infections Among People of Lower Socioeconomic Status in Pakistan: An Exploratory Qualitative Study

Laudato si and the Role of the Church in Promoting Environmental Awareness Toward a Better Health-Related Quality of Life

Dyadic Peer Support to Improve Diet and Physical Activity Among African American Church Members: An Exploratory Study

An Examination of Culturally Relevant Health Messages in African-American Churches

Correction: Religion, Islam, and Compliance with COVID-19 Best Practices

Seeking New Meaning in the Shadow of the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Qualitative Research of Spiritual Issues and Experiences among Students in Turkish Society