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In this chapter, I examine how religion can serve as an ideology that has the capacity to bridge people of the same faith who hold divergent political stances. Building on Williams’ work (1996), I propose that religion operates as an ideology when it diagnoses the source of social conflicts, proposes solutions, and justifies action. Yet religious ideological appeals are not always effective at bridging political divides. Thus the key question of this study is: under what social conditions are religiously-based ideological appeals effective at winning people’s support for social and political movements? To address this, I examine the relationship of religious leaders to Latin American movements that aimed to nonviolently overthrow authoritarian states. In particular, I analyze the conditions that led some religious elites to become pro-revolution while others sided with the incumbent regime. Using comparative historical methods, I analyze the different political stances of the Catholic Church hierarchy in the 1970s–1980s in Chile (where the church opposed the dictatorship), Argentina (where the church was largely supportive of the regime), and El Salvador (where the church hierarchy was divided). I argue that ideological appeals for religious leaders’ support are most effective when the religious institution receives no financial or political benefits from the regime and when leaders have relational ties to the aggrieved. Two factors had mixed effects on the decision to remain loyal to the state or not; these include the presence of an armed radical flank, and the state’s use of indiscriminate repression.

The goal of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is to ensure that organisations embrace social responsibility and cultivate activities that provide positive impact on the environment, society, consumers, employees, communities and all other members of the public sphere. Therefore, it is highly important to enhance and augment the teaching of CSR across various disciplines in higher learning institutions. Since 2006, most organisations in Malaysia have been highly encouraged to carry out their Social Responsibility activities, with the government providing support for CSR policies through its tax reduction incentives. Various CSR awards and acknowledgement of the awards provide high value and positive reputation to the organisations that implement CSR-related activities. As a result there is an increasing awareness among businesses to focus beyond compliance with laws in order to respond to the dynamic economic, societal and environmental changes.