Does religion always help the poor? Variations in religion and social class in the west and societies in the global south

From Marx’s famous dictum that religion is “the opium of the people” to Weber’s recognition of the dignity reaped by the “religiously musical,” disagreement about both the prosocial and deleterious—even violent—effects of religious beliefs and practices has been a long discussion in social theory. The social scientific literature shows that religion is shaped by social structures—including economic and political structures—and also that, as an integral element of many cultures, it can shape those same structures in turn. This article discusses the dialectical relationship between religion and social structures to consider when and how religion has the capacity to alleviate poverty and where it might figure in inequality’s endurance or exacerbation. The range of the empirical cases considered here not only suggests the power of religion to address poverty, but also and importantly, the ways in which religion can be co-opted in sustaining the status quo for poor and politically subjugated groups. Taking a global view in case selection, this article shows that although differences in these processes do exist based on global location, there are many similarities that cross national and religious lines.