PEACE OR WAR? RELIGION IN THE DEBATE BEFORE THE IRAQ WAR A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate School of the University of Notre Dame in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy by Christopher A. Morrissey Mary Ellen Konieczny, Director Graduate Program in Sociology Notre Dame, Indiana February 2012 ©Copyright 2012 Christopher A. Morrissey PEACE OR WAR? RELIGION IN THE DEBATE BEFORE THE IRAQ WAR Abstract by Christopher A. Morrissey In this dissertation, I analyze religious actors debating the decision to go to war in Iraq in 2003 as well as the religious cultural dimensions of the larger public discussion. I argue that one cannot adequately explain the country’s entry into the war without understanding the role of public Christianity in the argument for it. Furthermore, by analyzing elite religious advocacy both opposed and in favor of the conflict, I theorize the sets of identity relations and cultural repertoires that explain whether religious advocates will support or criticize state-sponsored violence. I find that the varying identity relations between religion, nation, and state largely predict religious advocates’ positions on the war. Given these basic religious positions, I then explicate the constellation of symbolic codes that inform and sustain the basic positions of religious advocates vis-à-vis war. These include the nature and constitution of political order, the nature of evil, the role of peace—particularly as it relates to the political order, the proper object of Christian love, and the value and practicality of nonviolence in the Christopher A. Morrissey world. Additionally, I analyze patterns of discourse that differentiated between war supporters and war opponents—war supporters used less secular discourse than war opponents. I find that the social and political context primarily explains the particularly religious tenor of these actors. Advocates’ sense of identity and their expertise influenced how they participated in the debate. Finally, I find the social sources of these distinct positions. Significant social contact with victims of structural violence tended to lead advocates to positions against the war. The dissertation concludes with a consideration of the direct contributions of this dissertation to academic understandings of religion, politics, war, and peace as well as its contributions to knowledge about public religion’s relations to the politics of war and peace in America and our understanding of the relations between religion and violence. This dissertation is dedicated to Javaughn, without whom little would be possible. ii CONTENTS Figures ................................................................................................................................. vi Tables ................................................................................................................................. vii Acknowledgments............................................................................................................. viii Chapter 1: God and the United States of America ............................................................. 1 Religion Matters: Deciding to Go to War ................................................................ 6 On Popular Support for the War ............................................................................. 7 Understanding How the War Happened .............................................................. 18 Theoretical Concerns of this Dissertation ............................................................. 27 Religion’s Ambivalence with Respect to War and Peace.......................... 28 Religion and Violence. ................................................................... 30 Religion and peace. ....................................................................... 34 Mixed Religious and Secular Discourse in Political Engagement .............. 40 On the Social Origins of Counter-Hegemonic Ideas ................................. 47 Structure of the Dissertation ................................................................................ 57 On Analyzing a Contentious Issue ......................................................................... 60 Chapter 2: The Importance of Discourse in Interpreting Threats to America .................. 63 9/11 as Discursive Context for Understanding the Debate Over Iraq .................. 65 America at the Turn of the Third Millenium ......................................................... 73 Encoding and Narrating Erstwhile Chaos: the War on Terror .............................. 78 Dominant Yet Contested ....................................................................................... 90 Discourse and the War on Terror ......................................................................... 99 The War on Terror Seeks New Targets: the Turn toward Iraq ........................... 102 Conclusion ........................................................................................................... 109 Chapter 3: The Battle is Joined: Religious Advocacy on Iraq .......................................... 111 The Discursive Contours of the Debate .............................................................. 114 Direct Discussions with the Presidential Administration.................................... 123 Lobbying .............................................................................................................. 133 The United States Congress. ................................................................... 133 The United Nations. ................................................................................ 137 Public Sphere Debate .......................................................................................... 143 iii Joint Public Letters in the Fall of 2002 .................................................... 144 Individual Statements from Religious Advocates. .................................. 148 Religious Voices in War Advertisements ................................................ 165 Protest Mobilization ........................................................................................... 171 American Religion Goes International ................................................................ 176 The Religious Leaders’ Plan ..................................................................... 179 Going to Rome and Beseeching the Pope .............................................. 184 Conclusion ........................................................................................................... 186 Chapter 4: Competing Religious Moral Orders in the Debate over the Iraq War .......... 188 A Two-part Religious Identity Model .................................................................. 192 Religious Identity vis-à-vis the Nation and State ................................................ 196 Religion and Nation ................................................................................. 196 Religion and the State ............................................................................. 206 Deference to the State’s Authority. ............................................ 208 Asserting Religious Authority ...................................................... 215 Elements of a Moral Order ................................................................................. 217 Political Order ......................................................................................... 218 Evil 227 Love 233 Alternatives to War: Nonviolence and/or pacifism ................................ 235 Conclusion ........................................................................................................... 237 Chapter 5: Understanding Variation in Religious and Secular Discourse in the Iraq Debate ................................................................................................................... 239 Using Religious and Secular Repertoires ............................................................ 243 Supporters’ Use of Principally Religious Discourse ................................ 244 Opponents’ Mix of Religious and Secular Discursive Repertoires .......... 248 Following Religious Cues from the President ..................................................... 253 Winning versus Losing the Debate ..................................................................... 263 On Losing and Tactical Flexibility ............................................................ 263 On Winning the Debate and Not Changing Tactics ................................ 270 Identity and Contributions .................................................................................. 274 We Add a Moral Perspective—War Opponents ..................................... 275 Affirming Moral Realism—War Supporters ............................................ 280 Identity and theology, the Sacred and Profane .................................................. 282 Information and Contributions ........................................................................... 287 Information from the Field and War Opposition .................................... 288 Information from the Pews—War Supporters ....................................... 291 Conclusion ........................................................................................................... 294 Chapter 6: Intimate Knowledge of Victims: Empathy and its Consequences for Representation and Narration .............................................................................