Ethics Finder

Religious Freedom

Freedom of religious belief and practice has come to be seen as a basic moral and political right. It features in the 1791 First Amendment of the US Constitution: “Congress shall make no law … prohibiting the free exercise [of religion]” and in the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights (Article 18): “Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance.” The background to these declaration was the experience of religious persecution as in that of the English non-conformists who emigrated to North America, and of the Jews who were persecuted by the Nazis. The prominence of the issue of religious freedom in the present period is again due to the feeling that religious belief and practice are threatened. Prominent in contemporary discussions is the treatment by the Chinese Government of the Muslim Uyghur peoples, and the claims of some Christians that anti-discrimination legislation is limiting their right to express and practice their moral beliefs about such matters as homosexuality. Religious freedom is sometimes thought to be more fundamental than some other liberties because of its centrality to believers understanding of themselves and of reality.

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