  Many countries embroiled in non-religious civil conflicts have experienced a
dramatic increase in religious competition in recent years. This study examines
whether increasing competition between religions affects violence in
non-religious or secular conflicts. The study focuses on Colombia, a deeply
Catholic country that has suffered one of the world's longest-running internal
conflicts and, in the last few decades, has witnessed an intense increase in
religious competition between the Catholic Church and new non-Catholic
churches. The estimation of a dynamic treatment effect model shows that
establishing the first non-Catholic church in a municipality substantially
increases the probability of conflict-related violence. The effect is larger
for violence by guerrilla groups, and is concentrated on municipalities where
the establishment of the first non-Catholic church leads to more intense
religious competition. Further analysis suggests that the increase in guerrilla
violence is associated with an expectation among guerrilla groups that their
membership will decline as a consequence of more intense competition with
religious groups for followers.
