With God on Our Side

Chapter 6 Ideas, Faith, and Commitment: Religious Ideas in Social Movements

1 Introduction

For many activists, ideological elements are among the most important defining features of social movements. Their moral commitments and ideas about how to improve their societies are central to their activist identities and goals. Religious ideas, in particular, can inspire people to act, guide the forms their action takes, offer images of the change they seek, and sustain commitment in the face of difficulties and sacrifices. This was made vividly clear to me while researching religion’s roles in revolutionary social movements in Central America during the 1980s. In both Nicaragua and El Salvador, progressive Catholicism provided opposition social ...