According to the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, “Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion,” including the right to change his religion or belief, and manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance.”
This statement was drafted in 1948, and six decades later, millions of people around the world still live in societies where they cannot freely practice their faith.
In Iran last week, a Christian pastor, Yosef Nadarkhani refused to officially renounce his faith in the predominantly Shiite Muslim country after being given a final chance to do so. Within a week, court officials will determine whether a death sentence issued against him in June will be carried out.
“I am resolute in my faith and Christianity and have no wish to recant,” Nadarkhani said in a statement through his lawyer.
Critics of Iran’s judicial system say Nadarkhani is being persecuted for being a Christian in a country that calls itself “The Islamic Republic.” Iran’s government, however, says the pastor is being brought to justice for “security related crimes.”
Also last week, officials in Kazakhstan (located next to Russia) approved a bill that will require religious organizations to register with the government for approval to operate.
Supporters say the law will help combat religious based terror groups, while critics call it an attempt to abolish entire minority faith communities.
Jerome Bennett, a resident of Indianapolis, is like many Americans who remain unaware of acts of religious persecution around the world, and are simply accustomed to the religious freedom they have in the United States.
“Yeah, I’m a member of a church,” said Bennett, a warehouse worker. “It’s a nice Baptist church; we got a good pastor and cool people.”
Despite positive words about his congregation, however, Bennett admits his attendance has been spotty. When asked about the last time he showed up for any church activities, he gave a sheepish smile.
“In a couple of months, I guess,” he said as he pulled his blue baseball cap further down over his forehead. “My hours are crazy, man.”
His girlfriend, who did not give her name, added with dry resignation, “It ain’t the hours. I’ve been telling him we need to go to church for months, whether it’s his or mine. We’ll make it happen one of these days.”
Some would say Bennett is among millions of people who might take their religious freedom in the United States for granted. Experts say that is never a good idea, because rights that are taken for granted could be eventually taken away.
“Freedom of religion is a fundamental individual freedom just like freedom of speech, or the right to peaceably assemble. It is a basic building block of our society,” said Arthur E. Farnsley II, associate director of the Center for Religion & American Culture, located on the campus of IUPUI. “Religious freedom is tightly tied to freedom of conscience, and without freedom of conscience you don’t really have freedom of choice.”
Farnsley noted that one of the first rights early leaders sought to protect in the U.S. Constitution was freedom of religion.
One frequently quoted section of the Constitution can be found in the First Amendment, and says “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.”
Indeed, an example of America’s early and longtime embrace of religious freedom can be found in the different beliefs of U.S. presidents, which have ranged from deist (Thomas Jefferson) and Unitarian (William Howard Taft), to Catholic (John F. Kennedy) and various protestant Christian denominations.
In 2000 Joe Lieberman became the first Jew nominated on a major national party ticket as the Democratic candidate for vice president, and almost won the job. Today, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (Mormon) is a front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination.
Such diversity of religious beliefs in national politics is rare, even in other developed countries of the Western world.
James McGrath, a professor of religion at Butler University, believes that religious movements have been able to grow in the U.S. since the Constitution mandates separation of church and state, keeping both from corrupting each other.
“That disentanglement of religion from state power is really one of the reasons why religion is alive and well in the U.S., compared to Europe where there are a lot of state endorsed churches and religion is on the decline,” McGrath.
McGrath noted that in recent years intolerance of certain faith groups has been expressed not by government, but by other religions, particularly conservative Christian movements against minority faiths.
Still, he believes the U.S. has a high standard of religious freedom that shouldn’t be taken for granted.
“I think there are people in our country who are sometimes unappreciative of religious freedom until somebody uses that freedom to criticize their tradition, then suddenly, they’re like ‘hang on, they shouldn’t be allowed to do that,'” McGrath said. “Freedom of religion needs to be celebrated, protected and reciprocated. It needs to be equal and it needs to include the rights of people who do not have a religion. Those are all essential elements.”
