Whereas arms, drug, human, organ, influence, etc. trade. are unhesitatingly condemned by the public and sanctioned by significant penalties of national and international legislation, religious trafficunder the guise of freedom of conscience and modern multiculturalism, is not only practiced without any restrictions, but also justified and defended as a legal right in democratic societies.

Michaela-Alexandra Tudor — puniversity professor Dr. specialist in media, politics and religion, at Université Paul Valéry Montpellier 3, France Media consultant: La Deutsche Welle, Le Nouveau Montpellier, Regards protestants, France 24, Le Canard Enchainé, TVRi, 20minutes, etc.

The impunity with which religious commerce is enjoyed today is part of the continuity of the controversy that began in the late 17th century between the followers of liberalism on its way to establishing itself in public opinion and the supporters of the dominant absolutist political Catholicism. In the context of this dispute, the rhetoric of liberalism gave rise to a number of offensive phrases and epithets – reactionaries, obscurants, theocrats, inquisitors, enemies of the Enlightenment And so on – to Catholic opponents. But what amused Catholics more than troubled them at the time—and remains fascinating in history—seems to be the moniker given to them by the “liberals” of “liberal religious peddlers.” For the Catholics, the true merchants of religion were those who began all their political stages by taking something from the heritage of religion. According to them, the religious trade consisted in liberal provisions on the suppression of parishes, the removal of nuns and monks from monasteries that had belonged to the church for several centuries, in the looting of churches and chapels, in the seizure of cultural institutions, including libraries, which they did not belong to the state, closing charitable societies, in short, occupying the exclusive sphere of religion.

Lack of religious, social and political consensus on noun religious trade was profitable later Service a religious movement that expanded in the area of ​​proselytism against the background of the economic crisis. A great illustration is The People’s Tribune, published in April 1932 in Los Angeles at La Esperanza, which warns readers. that “among us there are many buyers of honor and religion who persecute the unwary, taking advantage of the misery and hunger that the present crisis has brought them,” and where the reflective summary of the speech of the merchants of religion: “Poor Mexicans, you have found yourself without work, without bread, and without a home. We, who have never been able to fill our worship services with decent means, because everyone looks down on us and as apostates, want to take advantage of your suffering and hunger (…) For this… here we have this milk machine (.. .), which we are going to share among you, to reduce the troubles of your children and the cries of your hungry and needy body. We will give you milk every day, you will have daily food… only on condition… that you sell us the honor of your soul, the faith of your parents, your religion for a bottle of milk.”

The trade in religion, as well as its impunity, is fundamentally driven by the fact that the function of the trade in religion in the political sphere creates significant benefits for those in power. In democratic societies, no one is interested, at least for the time being, in questioning the trade in religion. On the contrary, political success is often seen in connection with the trade in religion. Of course, the most eloquent illustrations can be found in the field of large democracies, and at the highest level. Thus, during the widely publicized trip of President Joe Biden to the Middle East, a symbolic moment of trade in religion is the prayer of the American president with a rosary in his hands – after a meeting with the President of Palestine Mahmoud Abbas in Bethlehem on July 15.02.2022 – in the Basilica of the Nativity of the Lord and the Church of St. Catherine . Also during the 2022 presidential campaign, French President Emmanuel Macron addressed the merits of religious commerce, displaying a slogan in which the biblical text “Emmanuel, God is with us” (Matthew 1:23) becomes “Emmanuel Macron with you.”

In the current Romanian situation, the banality of religious trade exploits not only a cultural refusal or a general political inability to build a critical reflexivity of the relationship between religion and politics, but also a public opinion that is not very sensitive to the symbolic forms of this movement. So, for example, it is becoming common that the Prime Minister of Romania in October 2023, talking to representatives of cults about the moment of the current “great changes” taking place in Romania, discursively links the situation with wages in the field of cults with the request – “justified”, in his opinion – the cult of expanding the minimum wage in the economy. It is becoming commonplace that the vast majority of projects funded by the Department of Romanian Affairs (DRP) are directly related to religion, as if the Romanian diaspora has no other priorities and values ​​that would connect it to Romania. It is becoming common for political figures from all parties in Romania to regularly appear on television and radio broadcasts of the confessional media, and this presence increases during elections. And examples can be continued. Religious trafficking is a reality in which many other traffickers may be hiding. _

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