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Protect the State. Protect the Religion. an Analytical Approach to The Protect the State. Protect the Religion. An Analytical Approach to the Political Use of Religion in Denmark and The United States of America. Line Kristensen Master in English Torben Ditlevsen Aalborg University Master’s Thesis May 31st, 2018 . Kristensen 2 Table of Content 1. INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................................................. 3 2. THEORY ............................................................................................................................................................... 5 2.1 MAX WEBER ...................................................................................................................................................... 5 2.2. PETER BERGER .................................................................................................................................................. 5 2.3. THREE LEVELS OF SECULARISATION .................................................................................................................. 8 2.4. LARRY SHINER’S SIX TYPES OF SECULARISATION ............................................................................................ 10 2.5. WOODHEAD AND DAVIE .................................................................................................................................. 12 2.6. STEVE BRUCE ................................................................................................................................................. 14 2.7. RATIONAL CHOICE THEORY (RCT) .................................................................................................................. 16 2.8. INDIVIDUALISATION THEORY (IT) .................................................................................................................... 18 2.9. THIS MASTER’S THESIS VIEW ON SECULARISATION THEORY ............................................................................. 19 3. THE RELIGIOUS LANDSCAPES OF DENMARK AND THE UNITED STATES ........................................ 20 3.1. DENMARK ....................................................................................................................................................... 20 3.1.1. The Constitution ...................................................................................................................................... 20 3.1.2. Statistics on the National Church of Denmark.......................................................................................... 22 3.1.3. The Danish National Church ................................................................................................................... 24 3.1.4. Christianity in Denmark .......................................................................................................................... 25 3.1.5. Phil Zuckerman – Denmark: a society without God ................................................................................. 29 3.2. THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA .................................................................................................................. 33 3.2.1. The law ................................................................................................................................................... 33 3.2.2. Statistics on religion in the United States ................................................................................................ 35 3.2.3. Religion in the United States in general .................................................................................................. 36 3.2.4. Religion and Politics in the United States . .............................................................................................. 40 4. CIVIL RELIGION............................................................................................................................................... 41 4.1. DANISH CIVIL RELIGION .................................................................................................................................. 43 4.2. AMERICAN CIVIL RELIGION ............................................................................................................................. 44 4.3. TRANSNATIONAL CIVIL RELIGION .................................................................................................................... 46 5. ANALYSIS ........................................................................................................................................................... 47 5.1. DANISH SPEECHES AND STATEMENTS .............................................................................................................. 47 5.1.1. “Hold Religionen Indendørs” by Anders Fogh Rasmussen....................................................................... 47 5.1.2. The Prime Minister’s New Year’s Speech 2018 – Lars Løkke Rasmussen. ................................................ 49 5.1.3. Kristian Thulesen Dahls åbningstale ved DF-årsmøde, 16 September 2017 .............................................. 50 5.1.4. Landsmødetale by Stig Grenov, 14 October 2017 ..................................................................................... 52 5.2. AMERICAN SPEECHES AND STATEMENTS .......................................................................................................... 54 5.2.1. The Pledge of Allegiance ......................................................................................................................... 54 5.2.2. The Oath of Office ................................................................................................................................... 55 5.2.3. John F. Kennedy’s Inaugural Address, 1961 ............................................................................................ 55 5.2.4. Donald Trump’s Inaugural Address, 2017 ............................................................................................... 57 5.2.5. National Security Speech by Donald Trump, 13th June 2016 ..................................................................... 58 5.2.6. Statement by the President on the Passing of Reverend Billy Graham – By Donald Trump, 21st February 2018 ................................................................................................................................................................. 60 5.2.7. Remarks by President Trump at the 66th Annual National Prayer Breakfast............................................. 61 5.2.8. Three speeches by President George W. Bush .......................................................................................... 62 6. DISCUSSION ....................................................................................................................................................... 64 7. CONCLUSION .................................................................................................................................................... 68 8. ABSTRACT ......................................................................................................................................................... 71 WORKS CITED ...................................................................................................................................................... 73 Kristensen 3 1. Introduction Is Denmark secular? Is the United States.? The short answer to both questions is no. Both countries have rich religious histories that have shaped each country into what it is today, and religion is still present. Religion in Denmark and the U.S. is on different terms and is received and accepted socially, politically and privately in different manners in each country. As this introduction is written, the Christian holidays, Store Bededag, Kristi Himmelfart and Pinsen have recently passed in Denmark. It is straightforward, if Denmark were a secular country, there would not be religious, national holidays. As the case is in the U.S. But the lack of religious holidays does not make the U.S. secular either – more parameters have to be met, and they are not entirely done so by either country. In 1967, Peter L. Berger said that modernisation would result in a decline of religion. He said that modern society would become secular by default and that religion would not survive in a modern context. In 1999, Berger said that the world was as furiously religious as ever and even more so in some places. Almost twenty years after his latter statement, it seems to be true that there has been a religious increase and not decline in many places around the world. Religion is a topic often debated around the world today because of the increase of fundamental understandings of religions such as Islam and Christianity. Nations such as America welcome mainstream understandings of religions, while nations such as Denmark are more reluctant to accept public religion, which is why Denmark is frequently perceived as a secular country and America as a very religious country. Secularisation theorists traditionally looked at European countries, when defending their theories about the decline of religion in modern countries, which supported Berger's first statement. Today in 2018, one can look at countries such as Denmark, Sweden or England and believe that Berger was right in his first statement. However, as secularisation theory eventually also did, if one looks at religion in America, religion is seemingly everywhere, which supports Berger's latter statement.
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