Why do some religious authorities empathize with outsiders while others espouse xenophobia? This paper argues that church leaders are less likely to display empathy when their religious identity is dominant within the nation. While the overlap of church and nation reinforces antipathy towards outsiders, lower levels of dominance imbue religious networks with empathy. The author develops this argument through a comparison of Catholic discourse on Jews in the Low Countries at the onset of the Holocaust. The analysis reveals that Catholic leaders in the religiously mixed Netherlands were empathetic to Jews while their counterparts in homogeneously Catholic Belgium espoused antisemitism. Moreover, Belgian Catholics displayed less empathy towards Jews than Belgian seculars, while the opposite was true in the Netherlands. Subnational statistical analyses provide suggestive evidence that these different discourses had important consequences. While antisemitic mobilization in the Netherlands was much weaker in Catholic strongholds, this relationship was reversed in Belgium. Analyses of ethnic conflict and religious mediation across the globe confirm the importance of religious dominance outside of the Low Countries. This suggest that it is the interplay of nation and denomination -not something inherent to either of the two- that produces religious empathy and that we need to situate groups in their broader multi-cleavage contexts to further our understanding of intergroup relationships.

中文翻译：

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宗教统治和同理心

为什么有些宗教权威会同情外人，而另一些则支持仇外心理？本文认为，当教会领袖的宗教身份在国内占主导地位时，他们不太可能表现出同理心。虽然教会和国家的重叠加强了对局外人的反感，但较低水平的支配地位使宗教网络充满同情心。作者通过比较大屠杀开始时关于低地国家犹太人的天主教话语来发展这一论点。分析显示，宗教混杂的荷兰的天主教领袖对犹太人表示同情，而他们在同质天主教比利时的同行则支持反犹太主义。此外，比利时天主教徒对犹太人的同情心低于比利时世俗主义者，而荷兰则相反。地方统计分析提供了暗示性证据，表明这些不同的话语具有重要的影响。虽然荷兰的反犹太主义动员在天主教据点中要弱得多，但这种关系在比利时发生了逆转。对全球种族冲突和宗教调解的分析证实了低地国家以外宗教主导地位的重要性。这表明，正是民族和教派的相互作用——不是两者中任何一个固有的东西——产生了宗教同理心，我们需要将群体置于更广泛的多分裂背景中，以进一步理解群体间关系。这种关系在比利时发生了逆转。对全球种族冲突和宗教调解的分析证实了低地国家以外宗教主导地位的重要性。这表明，正是民族和教派的相互作用——不是两者中任何一个固有的东西——产生了宗教同理心，我们需要将群体置于更广泛的多分裂背景中，以进一步理解群体间关系。这种关系在比利时发生了逆转。对全球种族冲突和宗教调解的分析证实了低地国家以外宗教主导地位的重要性。这表明，正是民族和教派的相互作用——不是两者中任何一个固有的东西——产生了宗教同理心，我们需要将群体置于更广泛的多分裂背景中，以进一步理解群体间关系。