The mediation of the distinction of “religion” and “politics” by the UK press on the occasion of Pope Benedict XVI’s state visit to the UK

One feature of modern political liberalism is its acceptance of the superiority of secular political reasoning over faith-based reasoning where matters of practical politics are concerned. The distinction religion/politics has become a defining feature of modern political liberalism. We examined how this distinction was mediated by the UK national press through a case study of its reporting of Pope Benedict XVI’s state visit to the UK in 2010. The case study evaluates the following four propositions: 1) “religion” is benign and relevant to “politics”; 2) “religion” is malign and relevant to “politics”; 3) “religion” is assumed to be irrelevant to “politics” but is dismissed positively; and 4) “religion” is regarded as irrelevant to “politics” but is dismissed negatively. We conclude there is a dominant shared assumption in the UK press supporting propositions two and three: that religion is a good thing when it conforms to a pre-existing narrative of political liberalism and a bad thing when it does not and that religion was judged in terms of its “political” values rather than in terms of its “religious” values.