Re-Politicizing Religion: The Mobilization of the Spanish Anti-Rights Field Against Progressive Moral Policies (1978-2024)

The paper analyzes the cycle of protest (1978-present) of the Spanish field of Catholic-inspired secular organizations of neoconservative ideology (CISO-N) against progressive moral policies in the areas of family; life and death; gender and sexuality; and religious freedoms. To do so, it relies on a historical-comparative and relational approach, focusing on the evolving interplay between (1) cultural and political opportunity structures; (2) the network structure and dynamics of the CISO-N multi-organizational field, and its ‘extended anti-rights field,’ composed of religious (the Spanish Episcopal Conference) and political organizations (VOX and the ultra-Catholic paramilitary organization El Yunque); and, (3) their tactical-discursive triangulation. Our research is based on a 8-year qualitative study comprising in-depth interviews (n=20), participant observations (n=5), and netnography (2022-present). Data show that CISO-Ns are far from being mere “translators” and “transmission belts” of the ecclesiastical message, or “at the service” of conservative political parties, supplying vocabulary, arguments, votes, and even activists. On the contrary, CISO-Ns lead a complex strategy of ‘re-politicization of religion’ following a logic of their own, and in stark opposition to the ‘politicization of the private sphere’ led by the feminist, LGTBI+, and secularist movements.