Religious sacralization of politics produces tyranny no differently than secular ideology

Evidence

Its decades-long record of placing severe restrictions on personal and political freedoms of its citizens, denial of the basic rights of members of religious minorities, and use of repressive and often brutal measures against all forms of dissent and organized political opposition bears testimony to the fact that religionization of politics – if it leads to an instrumental use of religion to sacralize politics and claim divine provenance for a modern state – can lead to the arbitrary use of power, corruption, intolerance, and tyranny just as easily as secular authoritarian ideologies. — Nadim N. Rouhana and Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian, When Politics Are Sacralized, 1752

Categorization

• DEEPTHINKING: Directly challenges the assumption that sacralized authority sanctifies or constrains state violence — the author’s strong claim is that divine legitimation adds no protective layer, and the mechanism is the instrumental use of religion itself.
• ADDENDUM: Complements ‘On Sacrifice: The Real Kind, with Corpses’ by showing sacralized authority justifying state violence parallels the sacrificial stabilization of hierarchy — though opposite in direction from sacrificial legitimacy.
• XREF: connects to: Secular ideologies have caused genocides comparable to religious ones; Separating chosenness from Messianic hope produced secular political fanaticism; It is the secularization of messianism, not messianism itself, that makes it dangerous — Nadim N. Rouhana and Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian, When Politics Are Sacralized:…, 350 (+3 more)

Broader Connections

• Secular ideologies have caused genocides comparable to religious ones #corroborates (0.85)
• Separating chosenness from Messianic hope produced secular political fanaticism #qualifies (0.80)