Religion in liberal and republican public spheres: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints of the United States and the Gulen movement of Turkey

This study examines the variety of strategies and approaches used by religious groups to organize, express and position themselves in a polity. I compare the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) in the United States and the Gulen movement (GM) in Turkey as examples of modernist conservative movements. In spite of being strikingly similar in their strong fellowship ties, emphasis on conservative social values, and religious doctrine concerning political neutrality, these two religious entities employ very different political strategies to promote their goals and collective interests. The Mormons act as an assertive interest group in the pluralist "liberal" American public sphere by utilizing the already existing autonomous civil space in the United States. In contrast, the Gulen movement has been rather cautious and indirect in presenting itself in the "republican" Turkish public sphere. The movement affiliates employ a strategy of building coalitions with other social groups in order to expand the available civil space vis-a-vis the strong state in Turkey. The main thesis of the study is that the political context in both countries offers the most complete explanation of this puzzle compared to other alternatives: demographics, religious doctrine, or organizational factors. A combination of longitudinal and cross-national comparative method is used to evaluate the impact of different political contexts on the two groups' public activism along the three polity domains---the state, political society and civil society.