The Antisocial Strain of Sincere Religious Beliefs Is on the Rise – The New Republic

What does it mean to participate in society? In our neoliberal era, the social and political effects of which are even more starkly apparent in the pandemic, it is not at all clear. In her book Undoing the Demos: Neoliberalisms Stealth Revolution, Wendy Brown has shown how neoliberalism is not just an economic and political system but also a governing rationality unto itself, a sort of common sense. For many in the U.S. and around the world, the very notion of the public good has grown less thinkable. Under these conditions, Brown has recently explained, our freedom rests on being able to do what we want as individuals. On the far right, this libertarian ethic has combined with anti-democratic politics and policies to form what Brown calls authoritarian liberalism.

We find a paradigmatic example of authoritarian liberalism in the contemporary politics of sincerely held religious belief. As I wrote in these pages last year, sincere belief names a distinctly American way of being free and being religious: as an individual, unsystematically, and without regard for others. To remain unvaccinated, or to pack a sanctuary at the height of pre-vaccine infection surges, is a personal freedom. And when it is sincere and religious, it is worth protecting, regardless of who else might be harmed. Further, sincerely held religious beliefs insulate their holder from critique. They offer an opt-out not only from the demands of democratic participation but from the democratic process of deliberation, of giving reasons and making arguments. You can always say, when pushed, Dont question my faith.

And yet I want to suggest that sincerity could offer, perhaps unexpectedly, an ethic worth pursuing. Sincerity could beshould befundamentally social, not antisocial. As the anthropologist Webb Keane explained, when I speak sincerely, I am not only producing words that reveal my interior state but am producing them for you; I am making myself (as an inner self) available for you in the form of external, publicly available expressions. You cannot be sincere by yourself. You have to talk to other people. Today, sincerely held religious beliefs are increasingly deployed in service of the opposite function. Claimantsat least, white conservative Christian claimants whose religious beliefs are recognized as normatively religiousdo not have to do much to explain or defend their beliefs. They just hold them, sincerely. How might our politics look different if sincerity claims were an invitation to dialogue rather than a conversation-stopper? A chance to negotiate a resolution with one another in good faith?

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The Antisocial Strain of Sincere Religious Beliefs Is on the Rise - The New Republic