Illuminating the Arts-Policy Nexus 

Forced worship stinks in God's nostrils

-Roger Williams, founder of Rhode Island, to Maj. John Mason and Gov. Thomas Prence, 22 June 1670

There can be no compulsions in matters of religion

-Quran 2:256

Nothing but free argument, raillery and even ridicule will preserve the purity of religion

-Thomas Jefferson, “Notes on Religion,” 1776

So much blood has been shed by the Church because of an omission from the Gospel: “Ye shall be indifferent as to what your neighbor’s religion is.” Not merely tolerant of it, but indifferent to it. Divinity is claimed for many religions; but no religion is great enough or divine enough to add that new law to its code.

-Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain), a Biography

Proposed U.S. flag amendment to Constitution offends key tenet of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam

• Pacific News Service, AlterNet, Arizona Daily Star, June 2003: Flag Amendment Violates Ten Commandments, Not Just Free Speech

The British colonies in America: Early cases of repression in the land of religious freedom:

• Massachusetts law banishing Quakers on pain of death (1658)
• Mary Dyer, Quaker woman hanged in Boston for her religious beliefs (1660)

The British colonies in America: The birth of religious freedom:

• Roger Williams: The Bloudy Tenent of Persecution (1644)
• Roger Williams: Charter of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations (1663)
• Roger Williams: Letter to Gov. Prence: “Forced worship stinks in God’s nostrils” (1670)
• William Penn and the Quakers: Pennsylvania Charter of Privileges (1701) - note that despite major advances for that time, religious freedom was still limited to monotheists, and government offices to Christians.

USA: Thoughts of the founders:

• Thomas Jefferson on religion
• Benjamin Franklin on religion

Europe:

• The trial of William Penn (1670)
• Voltaire on Quakers, Anglicans, Presbyterians, and Unitarians in England (1734): Sept premières Lettres Philosophiques (English translation)

Basic documents on the separation of church and state:

• James Madison: Memorial and Remonstrance (1785)
• Thomas Jefferson: Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom (1786)
• Leonard Levy on the origins of the First Amendment establishment clause (1789)
• Treaty of Tripoli (1797): Article 11 ratified unanimously by U.S. Senate says "the Government of the United States of America is not, in any way, founded on the Christian religion"
• James Madison: Detached Memoranda (post-1817)
• Supreme Court decisions on religion and the First Amendment (1943, 1947, 1962)
• John F. Kennedy: Address to the Greater Houston Ministerial Association (1960)

Buddhism and human rights:

• King Asoka of India: Rock and Pillar Edicts (262-232 BCE)
• Robert Traer: Buddhist affirmations of human rights

Judeo-Christianity and human rights:

Biblical passages supporting human rights

• Protecting the vulnerable—the alien, the orphan, the debtor, the slave, domesticated and wild animals: the tradition of Sabbath, Sabbatical, and Jubilee
• Placing love of God’s fellow-creatures ahead of love of money and power: Genuine worship vs. idolatry
• The meaning of the Kingdom of God: There is a higher moral standard that the ones devised by human kings or leaders
• Nations are “chosen” only to the extent that they heed a covenant of ethical behavior: Nations and nationalism
• Jesus on violence

Challenging what is inhumane in the Bible

• Thomas Paine: excerpts from The Age of Reason (1795)
• Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain): Letters From the Earth, especially Letters X and XI (1909)

John Brown: Address to the court, before being hanged at Harper’s Ferry (1859)

Daoism and human rights:

• The way that does not force or coerce: Dao De Jing

Links:

• Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance
• U.S. court decisions: Religious Freedom Page
• Americans United for Separation of Church and State

Global Democracy and Human Rights Home

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