Healthy competition between majority and minority religions?

Editor’s note: The following post arises from small group reflections from The Rise of Global Christianity, 1910–2010, taught by Dr. Todd Johnson at Boston University in the Fall of 2010. Lead by doctoral students, the small groups discussed lectures given by Christian scholars in various disciplines, including significant changes that have occurred in global Christianity over the past 100 years.

Reflecting upon Dr. Brian Grim’s lecture on religious freedom, the members of our group were struck most by several things. From a theological perspective, the statistics illustrate an interesting interplay between society and government (Sam). Edward noted that pressures from the outside make religions reassess pressure on the government. Additionally, Amy was intrigued by the apparent correlation between religious freedom and other “goods”, and the challenges to freedom involved. The concept of “reasonable restriction of religious freedom” left blurry boundaries. Who and how can we make the boundary of “reasonable restriction”? (Gun) Our group also discussed the philosophical and sociological aspects of the question of religious freedom (Sam). It was interesting to see how many countries restrict religion, and the consequence it had via social hostility. The social hostilities are caused not only by inter-religious interactions but also between religious and non-religious individuals (Earl).

There are many benefits of religious freedom for both majority and minority religions. In theory, religious freedom will help both the majority and the minority to cooperate for fostering socio-economic progress, which refers to co-existing (Gun). However, pressures are always felt by the minority. Therefore, the amount of religious freedom looks difference depending on its stance (Sam).

Our group mused the question of whether it is possible to have healthy competition between majority and minority religions. We had varying responses. Earl felt the word “competition” was not comfortable, and Amy remarked that the idea of a marketplace for religions was unhealthy. However, the strong religion will invigorate itself by contrast to other religions, therefore you can have “vigorous co-existence” (Sam).

Gun Cheol Kim, discussion moderator