Kraig Beyerlein is an Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology and the Director of the Center for the Study of Religion and Society at the University of Notre Dame. In this Chapel Talk, Prof. Beyerlein will help us answer the question: how does the public respond when progressive faith communities invoke their right to religious freedom, such as the right to provide aid to migrants?
Newspaper stories, social media posts, and statements from elected officials generally give the impression that religious freedom in the United States is exclusive to conservative groups. These groups have indeed rallied a great deal around the cause of religious liberty, including so companies can deny covering contraceptive methods or employers can refuse hiring LGBTQ+ people.
Despite the lack of attention, faith-based progressive groups also mobilize for religious freedom. Among the notable examples in the last decade are humanitarian aid volunteers in the U.S. Southwest desert who invoked religious and spiritual beliefs to fight criminal charges for their life-saving efforts. Based on the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA), the jury and judge ruled in the volunteers’ favor.
But what does the court of public opinion say? How many Americans agree that arresting people whose religious and spiritual beliefs compel them to provide humanitarian assistance to undocumented immigrants is a violation of religious freedom? And what explains variation in the populace’s response? Does conventional wisdom hold with conservative and progressive individuals objecting and supporting, respectively, or do surprising patterns emerge?
To answer these and related questions, this talk draws on nationally representative survey data collected February 13-16, 2000, weeks after a critical legal decision about RFRA and humanitarian aid provision along the México-U.S. border. Findings are embedded in broader discussions about the role of religion in public life and current threats to religious freedom from the Trump administration, especially regarding immigrant rights.