- 24 Feb 2012 22:36
#13904592
Religious institutions will always be on the side of the powers-that-be, no matter how repressive. They have to be for the simple reason of self-preservation. The Vatican did not oppose the Nazis even when the inhumanity of it became clear. Buddhists in Japan (whose highest goal is supposed to be the preservation of life) actively supported Japanese militarism and even funded Kamikaze airplanes.
A fascist regime may use existing religious organizations to justify its rule if these organizations can be made to comply with the aims of the regime. Alternately, fascist regimes will proclaim their own ideology, materialist or not. One way or another, it doesn’t make any difference whatsoever. Anyways, atheists can be more ardent believers than Catholics; and as the ultimate arbitrator, the Communist Party plays a role equivalent to that of the Vatican.
There are of course examples in which the Church or other religious organizations were instrumental in overthrowing unpopular regimes: the previous pope (who was Polish for a very good reason) was instrumental in the downfall of communism. Doing so, he served the interests of the dominant imperial power at the time. At the same time, the Vatican showed much less vigor when it came to bringing down rightwing dictatorships in Latin America.
The Vatican has been at odds with successive Chinese regimes ever since the Jesuit fathers first set their feet in China in the early 16th century because, unlike the Christian nations of Europe, the Chinese never accepted foreign-dominated religious groups to operate on its territory. To the Chinese everything is political: even a bible-study group or a literary study group may lead to the overthrow of the regime. Therefore it needs to be brought under the control of the regime. Having said that, I think Chinese rulers today would very much love to have some sort of religion to inculcate moral behavior on a population that is increasingly motivated by materialistic goals only. I think Confucianism is unlike to be sufficient as a regime-supporting ideology in modern times. And what is left of communism is not much more than a farce or hollowed out ideology.