When privilege no longer depends on it, religious identity markers fade.

Evidence

To support his argument, Lloyd brings in some comparison with the Republic of Ireland to the South. He observes that there, with the Republic’s liberalization of cultural policy centered around Catholicism, religion gradually lost its function as a critical marker of ethnic or national identity, while in the North, seeking “a Protestant state for a Protestant people,” the loyalists employed the religious differential for highlighting their distinction in order to maintain supremacy and privileges. — Nadim N. Rouhana and Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian, When Politics Are Sacralized, 199

Categorization

• XREF: Directly relevant to the reader’s threat-decay question: once the religious marker no longer preserves privilege (Republic liberalized), the marker loses its identity-defining force — solidarity tied to the marker decays when the material stake dissolves. — connects to: Community-based common identities may last where national identity priming fades. — Rachel Hartman et al., Interventions to Reduce Partisan…, 42; Religious markers fade when not needed to secure supremacy in a settler context; Collective identities erode rather than vanish, losing their former social and explanatory stability.
• QUESTION: The Republic’s case suggests identity markers decay when privilege is removed — does this parallel what happens when manufactured external enemies dissolve, or is decoupling here driven by new national project rather than threat removal?

Broader Connections

• Religious markers fade when not needed to secure supremacy in a settler context #corroborates (1.00)
• Community-based common identities may last where national identity priming fades. #corroborates (0.72) — Rachel Hartman et al., Interventions to Reduce Partisan…, 42
• Collective identities erode rather than vanish, losing their former social and explanatory stability. #qualifies (0.70)