Religion played a large role in the conquest of the Incas. At the same time, most of the conquistadors were in it for the money, not for religious salvation. Unfortunately, the use of religion, or political ideology to legitimate aggression against others is common throughout history and into the present. Most wars involve religion or ideology to mask the real goal which is the conquest of wealth. But the practice of fronting religion or ideology to legitimate conquest is not limited to nation-states alone. Individuals do the same thing, as do small businesses, institutions and large corporations. In fact it seems that almost all politics are the fronting of ideology or religion to rationalize the acquisition of power and wealth. Think of an incident in which an individual, institution or corporation has used or is using ideology or religion as an obvious smokescreen for justifying behavior that is clearly designed to enrich themselves. The incident or example can come from the past or the present. In 100 words or more, describe it. Who is using what ideology (religious or political) to justify what actions calculated to enrich and empower themselves at the expense of others. Cite a source of information from which we can learn more.
Due on Saturday, March 31, by 5 pm.
Hannah Gowaty
ReplyDeleteToday religion is talked about freely when talking about candidates for office. Candidates now go to great lengths to get the support of a religious affiliation. We started to see this more when Clinton went into office. The problem with this is the idea that most of these people are not religious, or not to the extent that they act religious.
Currently in the news Rick Santorum uses his religion to win votes. He uses his religious beliefs of prolife, anti birth control, and no same sex marriages to win votes. He considers himself a Roman Catholic, and is frequently thought of as one of the most influential evangelist.
This is all great and good, but in my opinion if you are that concerned about these problems become a priest. Underneath all of his religious ways he has an agenda to become president. I am sure that not all of his programs will completely fit the Catholic Church or even Christian’s beliefs. This is why I believe it is wrong to even bring up religious ideas during elections. We have more important things to worry about like people having jobs, or if as college students if we will ever pay off our HUGE loans. Rick Santorum is not the only candidate to use religion, but he is the most vocal and most heard about for religion.
Mitt Romney is also facing religious problems for his religion as a Mormon. Once again I point out does this matte if he is a good president. Or Obama four years ago was being ridiculed for being Muslim, which he denied. And the United States still found him fit to be a president. These few examples in the last five years should show how people today are still using religion, and theology to cover up more dramatic plans.
http://2012.candidate-comparison.org/?compare=Romney&vs=Santorum&on=Religion
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rick_Santorum
Many centuries ago there were not many religions that became known to face of mankind. The only religion that was a wide spread was Catholicism. Yes there were other religions but none was big as Catholicism. I am currently a Catholic born and raised and from learning about different time periods of history there is a 64% chance you might here about Europeans who came into a country or ventured on an island with Catholic missionaries who came to change the natives religions or sometimes kill them because they were not willing to change there religious beliefs. As a Catholic that is a bad reputation we created by forcing people to be catholic. At that time period they saw nothing wrong because in their minds they believe being Catholic was the most dominant religion. As a Catholic we are taught the Ten Commandments and Commandment number 5 states: Thou Shall Not Kill… We totally disregarded God’s rules and killed innocent brothers and sisters of Christ because they were not Catholic.
ReplyDeleteMany car salesmen stretch the truth about cars they are trying to sell. They do this so they can make their sales. This is the same for politicians, they tend to stretch the truth about themselves, what they will do for others, and what they hope to accomplish in order to get elected but once they are in, they do not show what they claimed. Car salesmen don’t necessarily care about the features of the car, or what the customer wants, they care about closing the deal and making their money. Politicians, weasel their way into office by exaggerating and making themselves seem better than they are in order to gain the love of the people. That doesn’t help anyone but themselves, in the end they aren’t looking out for what’s best for others, but for themselves. http://thinkinghard.com/politics/WhyPoliticiansHaveToLie.html
ReplyDeleteWhen it comes to religion, politicians tend to use the beliefs to their advantage such as pro-life versus pro-choice and same sex marriage controversy’s. whichever way they are swaying, they are only looking to get the votes of others to benefit themselves rather than making things better.
In this day in age people sue over everything. One of the main reasons is because of religious discrimination. In Ohio, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission is suing a company, Convergys Customer Management Group, on behalf of a Hebrew Israelite man that was turned away from a job by the said company. It is said that while being interviewed for a job, the man stated that he could not work on Saturdays because he observed the Sabbath on this day. The interview was then terminated immediately after. The company will pay the man $15,000 for the “discrimination.” I don’t agree with what the company did but I also don’t agree that the man should be rewarded this amount of money. If I was being interviewed and I told the company that I didn’t couldn’t work Saturdays just for the simple fact that I didn’t want to, I would not have got the job either. The reason just happened to be because of the man’s religion. The Hebrew Israelite man is using his religion as a source to gain wealth by accusing the company of discriminating against him for his religion, when in reality, the company just needs an employee that can work on the weekends.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.shrm.org/LegalIssues/StateandLocalResources/Pages/OhioCompanySettlesReligious.aspx
UPMC is supposed to be a great company with "life changing medicine". However, the company of UPMC is very corrupt. UPMC would rather let their hard working nurses go on strike than give them more money. Nurses are there to help others. They are life changers and do a lot to help people become better in near-by UPMC institutions. However, the owners of UPMC would rather take money or benefits away from their nurses to give it to themselves. They sit in their offices not lifting a finger while the hard working people do everything. The nurses and aids in hospitals should get paid for doing their jobs. They barley get anything. Instead of the owners seeing the dedication, they take money away from them. Instead of giving the nurses raises, they take away their benefits or charge more for the benefits. The union's at UPMC constantly go on strike so they are able to get what they deserve as hard working people. UPMC owners sacrifice their employees to benefit themselves to the fullest.
ReplyDeleteThere are many instances in today’s world where people use religion or ideology to gain wealth and political stature. Initially, their propositions seem to be for the benefit of the individuals they are “marketing” to, but the ultimate goal is wealth/power. One example of this is politicians. Politicians, such as those running for President, try to persuade people to not only vote for them because of their political ideas and theological beliefs, but also to have them donate money to help their campaign. Another example is church leaders (Catholic ministers/priests for example). These individuals study to be able to preach their respective religious beliefs. At first glance, these religious leaders seem to be “in it” for the spreading of their religion, but they ultimately get paid for the work that they do. Each person that attends a Catholic ministry is expected (not necessarily required) to pay “dues” for the preaching that the priest does. Both politicians and ministers use their ideologies and religions to persuade/conjure up money from their followers for personal gain (power for politicians, income for ministers).
ReplyDeleteOliver Lewinson
ReplyDeleteThere are many institutions that use smokescreens to help save themselves from controversies. There is one such situation that happened at Duquesne University. There were 9 freshmen that played basketball with me there and there were a large number of us that transferred at the same time. The coach got rid of a lot of players at the same time but to get away from the pressure of the press, the Duquesne Athletic Department let out many articles. Instead of coming out and saying that a lot of players were transferring, they spread it out over a span of 4 months so as to not make themselves look bad.
www.goduquesne.com
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ReplyDeleteA significant theme throughout history is the usage of ideology or religion for justification of behavior that is obviously designed to benefit the individual, corporation, or institution. A modern day example of this takes place in many aspects of politics; however one that clearly stands out to me was the Obama campaign in 2008. In order to succeed in any competition, intelligent forms of persuasion must be utilized to prove a point. In 2008, Barack Obama used many negative aspects of the previous administration to create new ideas and goals to use in his campaign. His slogan "CHANGE" quickly expanded and signified all features of his campaign. Obama's charisma and ability to persuade citizens about his economic, social, and political changes were proven successful and he was voted into the position as the President of the United States. His campaign demonstrated an individual who was able to use his ideology and ideas to seem beneficial to the nation, which in turn was beneficial to him.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2008/11/05/how-he-did-it.html
The first thing that comes to mind when reading this is not religion, but politics. It happens often when people are running for office, be it president, or even a smaller position. They will pick a slogan or a goal, and they will run with that. Obama had his "Change" or "Yes We Can" campaign, and Ron Paul has his "Restore America" campaign. They are general ideas that will get a lot of people to follow them. Whether they fulfill their promises is not their main thought; winning is on their mind. This can be seen even in history, with a much more extreme example. Adolf Hitler sold the idea of the Aryan Race. It served somehow as a smokescreen to murder over 6,000,000 Jewish people and other groups of people as well. He was able to persuade people through power and promises of better lives, too. There is always a promise, or a vow to help fix something that helps make these smokescreens. A president can promise to fix the economy, end the war on terror, or many other things. He could even embellish his religion to gain followers as well.
ReplyDeleteOops, forgot my place to learn more about this. This is a GREAT article that shows some of the top political smokescreens this past year. Very interesting read; i'd recommend it to anyone.
Deletehttp://www.deathandtaxesmag.com/171612/top-political-smokescreens-of-2011/
There were two articles that I found very interesting how religion was used. My first description is:
ReplyDeleteToday, a lot of religious ideas and concepts are being used by individuals to enrich themselves, mainly with money and wealth. The example of this article is Pat Robertson, a TC Evangelist, that is using the Christian religion. When dealing with a conservation administration, he praises and harnesses religious rationale to justify their actions. One action is that he invested $8 million in gold mines trying to get $1 billion in return. Even though it has nothing to do with Christ, he was there with money. No one could understand where he was getting the money. But on his TV network, he would ask and get money from viewers in the name of the Lord but the money never seemed to be used to further the work of the Lord. These people are wrapping their actions in some tortured rendering of the Doctrine of Christ to justify their behavior. An example of this is Robert Tilton, another TC Evangelist. He is using the Christian ministry as a method of enriching himself and getting money while doing ungodly acts in order to build his $2.6 million home. Overall, many TV Evangelists are the main example of this. They are all personally wealthy although they did not start out this way; they became wealthy through their ministries. They are claiming that their wealth is the blessing of the Lord but they have not done any actual work outside working the money out of the people of God in their ministries. They are even claiming that they are models for the wealth-generation.
Work Cited:
Jones, Frank A. "Hiding Behind Religion to Promote Other Views." Gibb's Magazine.com. Gibb's Magazine. Web. 26 Mar. 2012. .
And my second article description is:
In this case, a mother is using her son in order to become more of the religious group. The group wants to be known for the process of resurrection. A Baltimore religious group known as One Mind Ministries killed a 16-month-old boy by not allowing him any food or water. They refused to give him this because he would not say “Amen” at meals. Once he was dead, they prayed over his body and expected for him to resurrect. They went as far as packing his body in a suitcase with mothballs for a year. By basing her beliefs on this group, she wanted her son to be the one that was resurrected but all they did was starve an infant. They stated that he had a demonic spirit and needed to be cleansed through fasting and being denied water. They said that the infant was not resurrected because someone among them was not a true believer. They were using their religion to justify their criminal behavior because they wanted to be known as resurrecting and saving the boy.
Work Cited:
Cline, Austin. "Using Religion to Justify Criminal Behavior." About.com Agnosticism / Atheism. About.com, 13 Apr. 2009. Web. 26 Mar. 2012. <>.http://atheism.about.com/b/2009/04/13/
using-religion-to-justify-criminal-behavior.htm
Religion has been used as a reason for people to take control of land and riches throughout history. We only need to look at the life of Kong Henry the Eight. He used religion to get control his "loyal subjects". His Cardinals would give him advice on an issue and he was expected to follow that advice. King Henry wanted to divorce his wife Kathrine but the pope refused to allow him to, so he broke off from the catholic religion and started his own religion, which favored divorce. He proceeded to divorce his wife and marry Anne Boleyn. He then used his religion to take over other kingdoms and gold and riches, to buy off his closest staff to cover his indiscretions. In the end all the evil he performed under the name of his religion could not buy him the happiness he wanted.
ReplyDeleteThere are many instances in today’s world where people use religion or ideology to gain wealth and political stature. One example can be large companies such as Wal-Mart and Target, and department stores. From Thanksgiving through the Christmas season, these stores sing songs of “great savings” and “holiday specials” to lure shoppers in.
ReplyDeleteIn reality, the savings are not as great as seen from the surface. These stores use Christmas to up their sales and better their pocket, not their customers. Christmas season should not justify a store to raise prices, and then offer twenty-five percent off, at the expense of the customers.
So many examples, so much corruption, so little text space…
ReplyDeleteIn 2007, the irrigation pumps that supply the Central Valley in California were turned off, based on a decision made by a federal judge to uphold the Endangered Species Act on behalf of a fish called the Delta Smelt. Crops died, and farmers lost their jobs. The local economy was all but destroyed.
In March 2010, the House of Representatives was getting ready to vote on The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (Obamacare). All indications were that the vote would be very close, and the Obama administration was fearful that it would not be passed. Two representatives from districts in California, Jim Costa (20th Congressional District) and Dennis Cardoza (18th Congressional District) were still listed as ‘undecided’ as to how they would vote. They were both known to be conservative Democrats and they were receiving pressure from their constituents to vote against Obamacare. The vote was to take place on March 21st, 2010.
On March 16th, 2010, the Department of the Interior announced that more water would be allowed to be pumped into the valley, which just so happened to be located in Districts 18 and 20. These types of announcements aren‘t usually released until the 22nd of the month, but the Department of the Interior released the announcement early, because it received communications from Senator Barbara Boxer, Senator Diane Feinstein, Costa and Cardoza urging an early release. On March 21st, Obamacare was passed by a vote of 219 to 212, with both Costa and Cardoza, voting for it.
This is a perfect example of how government can use ideology to justify its actions and then use the reversal, or enforcement of those actions to increase its power, or advance an agenda. Nixon established the EPA in 1970. Since then, the number of regulations it has imposed has become outrageous. Concern for the environment has become a smokescreen and an excuse to take land, or its use, from individuals and to add it to the coffers of government. In the above example, government puts the use of the land off limits to its citizens by cutting off its water supply, and then makes a deal to turn the water back on if local politicians agree to support their healthcare agenda. The story of the endangered fish suddenly became insignificant.
http://articles.latimes.com/2007/oct/21/opinion/op-slack21
http://news.investors.com/article/527775/201003181859/buying-votes-with-water.htm
Throughout history there was always some story about a church that takes the offering givin by the people and it being used for some type of financial gain. In this instance It is said that the German church has a hidden wealth and financial scandals. In the article that I found they say that More than €131,000 ($158,000) were hidden in various places in the rooms of the Catholic priest. Frerk estimates the cash assets of the church's legal entities at about €50 billion. They also say that the priest have many different secret assets as well. The same types of events happen in the christian church but im unsure about the amount of money being used for financial gain.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,700513,00.html
Someone that I thought of that used ideology is Jim Jones. He was the leader of Peoples Temple and had made “Jonestown” in 1978. Jonestown was located in Guyana and was told to be sanctuary for his people to go for a better life. Once he convinced his hundreds of members to move to Jonestown he started brain washing them. He started out talking to them all about normal things but it quickly turned in to lectures about enemies, revolution, and Soviet alliances. Temple members were forced to live in small huts and were fed very little food, basically enough to live on. Contact with home was very little and hard to reach because Jones made it so the only communication was through radio. Punishment for people that tried to escape was administered. In the end they caught on to Jonestown and when investigators got there he started making his security start shooting. He also made people drink cyanide to conclude in a mass killing of 909 people.
ReplyDeleteHow about the whole solar gate scandal? The company Solyndra has had the economic backing of the Obama administration for some time now. After receiving 535 million dollars from the federal government it now has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Solyndra is green company that produced solar panels. This company had its praises sung by Obama, yet proper investigations were not taken before investing the tax payer’s money into a failing corporation. The people that were in charge of this company where all mass supporters of the Obama administration in the previous election, they did this by donations and endorsing the now president. This scandal was a way for Obama to keep these people happy and on his side. Obama was able to give 535 Million dollars to this company. The money that was loaned to this company where is it now? No one is able to trace this money that was lent to the now belly up company. Each member of the company has taken their fair share of the loan until the loan was absolved.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.economicpolicyjournal.com/2011/09/solar-gate-scandal-and-connection-to.html