The Role of Religion in Civil Society

On May 28-29, a major civil society summit was held in Ottawa in advance of the June 8-9 G7 in Charlevoix, Quebec. 

The summit—dubbed the C7—brought together representatives from all G7 member states and the European Union, along with representatives from civil society groups in Canada, to discuss ways to create a fairer, more sustainable and safer world.

As a sign of how important the summit was to the Canadian government, both the Prime Minister and the Minister of Development, Marie-Claude Bibeau, attended. 

They emphasized the importance of civil society when it comes to influencing and working with government—and helping it achieve its goals on the international stage.

In the outcome document, C7 organizers noted that CSOs “drive action, mobilize resources and implement programs, generate evidence and advocate for change,” as they “work directly with local communities both at home and abroad” to bring “a broader and more diverse set of voices and human experiences to conversations and processes.”

And yet, as credit-worthy as it was, the summit was not as broad or diverse as it could have been. It was missing one of the most important civil society voices: Organized religion.

Although a few faith-based NGOs were present, not one speaker, presenter or panelist came from a religious group, and the subject of religion didn’t come up once.

In a conversation after the summit, an organizer said the idea of including faith community leaders never came up in the planning. In retrospect, he acknowledged this was an oversight.

I have to agree. By not including anyone from the faith community, or discussing the role religion plays in civil society, the summit missed hearing from the largest and most influential CSOs in Canada. 

On any given weekend, an estimated four million Canadians from different faith groups participate in worship services.

But, so what? Canada is becoming more secular, after all. Attendance and affiliation in religious groups is dropping, and the influence of organized religion in society is waning. Why should it be included in a discussion about the role of civil society?

I can think of at least five reasons.

1. Organized religion is one of the major gateways to participation in civil society.

As authors Brian Clarke and Stuart Macdonald point out in their new book, Leaving Christianity: Changing Alliances in Canada since 1945, “churches have traditionally served as one of the chief entry points—if not the chief entry point—to civil society.”

How do they do that? Churches, and other faith groups, are places where many Canadians learn how to be civically engaged through things like speaking in public, leading meetings, being part of boards or committees, engaging people with differing viewpoints, giving to charity, raising awareness about justice issues, and doing service in the community.

Not only that; people who are more religiously involved tend to vote more, be active in local community organizations, and stay up with the news.

Of course, other groups also contribute to society’s social capital. But “churches have been one of the major gateways to participation in the rest of society,” they state, adding “for whatever reason, they are unique in the ways they empower people to become active members of Canadian society.”

2. The charitable sector depends on religious people.

One of the best predictors of whether someone gives to charity—any charity—is if they are religiously active, as research from Statistics Canada shows.

This was confirmed in 2017 by the pollster Angus Reid, which found that people who are religiously committed are over twice as likely as members of any other group to say they are “very involved” or “quite involved” in their communities.

Non-religious people, by contrast, are the most likely to say they are “not at all involved” in the community.

As well, the pollster found that religiously committed Canadians are almost twice as likely as any other group to say they “try to donate to whatever charities they can,” and give about three times more than the non-religious.

3. Organized religion is key to helping NGOs, and the government, reach their goals for international relief and development.

Research by David Lasby of Imagine Canada, the umbrella group for Canadian charities, confirms that religiosity is one of the main drivers behind whether someone donates for international causes.

In 2013, 21% of regular attenders at worship services gave to international causes, according to Lasby’s research. This compares to 8% of people who never attend.

One reason for why religious people give more is that people who attend worship services regularly are apt to hear about world needs during sermons, prayers, sharing time, education time and the bulletin. 

They also receive regular opportunities to donate through the collection plate.

When it comes to humanitarian emergencies, people of faith also can be counted on to give generously. Research shows that when the federal government announces a matching fund for a humanitarian disaster, between 40% to 50% of donations to those appeals comes through faith-based NGOs.

4. Religion plays a key role in development.

Duncan Green, Head of Research for Oxfam in Great Britain is a self-declared atheist. But he says that aid groups, and the governments that support them,need to pay more attention to the role of religion plays in eradicating global poverty.

Religion, he says, “is central to the lives of poor people in a way that governments, aid and NGOs are not. All the research shows that poor people trust religious organizations, turn to them in times of need,” such as disasters.

Religion is also important when it comes to development, and changing the structures that keep people in the developing world—including women and girls—from reaching their full potential.

“As we think harder about how change happens, religion keeps cropping up,” Green says, adding that religion plays a key role in social norms around things like the role and education of women. 

As a result, he says, it is easier for faith groups—which are already accepted and respected by poor people—to change behaviours of their adherents than it would be for “secular aid agencies.”

Religion is also important in fragile and dysfunctional states, he says, places where government services are absent.

His conclusion? “If we [aid groups] are serious about development, we need to understand much more about the diversity, divisions and debates within each church on things like women’s roles,” he says.

In other words, for the government and aid groups to achieve the ambitious goal of assisting women and girls, they will need help and input from organized religion.

5. The Halo Effect At Home

It’s not only development overseas that religion has an impact. It’s also true at home.

According to Cardus, a Canadian think-tank, places of worship provide almost $20 billion of social, spiritual and communal capital to Canadian towns and cities.

That amount is what it calls the Halo effect, a calculation of things like free meeting space for community groups, programs, community development and the magnet effect of drawing people into a neighbourhood.

According to Cardus, every dollar a place of worship spends creates about $4.77 of common good benefit—the halo effect—is generated.

Additional value was produced through things such as working with refugees, soup kitchens, helping the homeless, job training, programs to treat substance abuse, programs for children, youth and families, community garden plots, hosting concerts and other events, counselling, recreational activities (gyms and playing fields), operating nursery schools and day cares, and volunteering in the neighbourhood.

"The value of religious congregations to the wider community is somewhere in the order of four to five times of a congregation's annual operating budget,” says Milton Friesen, who is the Social Cities Program Director for Cardus.

“This is money that governments don’t need to spend.”

For example, if a congregation with an annual budget of $250,000 should close, Cardus estimates a city or town would need to come up with about $1.2 million every year to replace what was lost to the wider community.

The value of the halo effect across Canada is $1.6 billion in Vancouver, $2 billion in Edmonton, $2.2 billion in Calgary, $489 million in Saskatoon, $1.5 billion in Winnipeg, $6.7 billion in Toronto and $2.1 billion in Montreal.

For Friesen, the halo effects shows how places of worship “are important parts of the landscape,” and should not be “ignored when calculating the social capital of a community.”

Where to from here?

Of course, organized religion in Canada isn’t the same force it used to be. And its record isn’t unvarnished; it has had both a positive and a negative impact on society. But it still plays a key role.

So the next time government and civil society organizations meet to talk about ways they can work together, they may want to invite representatives from religious groups.

After all, efforts to make the world a fairer, safer and more sustainable place depend on it.

A shorter version of this column was originally published July 4, 2018 in The Hill Times.