Context of religious freedom

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.

· One group member commented that she is interested in religious freedom, because religious freedom is related to sociology, culture, prejudices, and government power.

• It is difficult to untangle religious freedom from the web of other human factors. For example, one group member has spent time with people in Palestine and Israel and feels the conflict doesn’t originate primarily from religious differences, but rather from political issues that are perpetuated by the media. For instance, the media may say that only one side is to blame and presents a very skewed picture of what is actually taking place.

• The problem is quite complex. The matter of restriction cannot simply be relegated to religion. Many other factors such as political, military, and economic agendas carry influence.

Question: In discussing religious freedom and looking at the Atlas of Global Christianity, how do we account for the fact that some regions with great religious freedom show very weak religious growth or even decline (e.g., Sweden), while areas with considerable religious restriction seem to show increased religiosity (e.g., China)? Speaking of Christianity, is it better for the church to have persecution?

• Suffering is helpful in faith.

• In North Korea, people recognize that living as a Christian is extremely demanding. It requires commitment in the face of opposition. In the United States, on the other hand, belief or unbelief has few social consequences. It seems the strength of a person’s faith (and the vitality of a religious community) might be correlated to the level of suffering a person is willing to endure.

• It’s hard to say whether it is “better” for Christians to experience persecution. Historically the number of Christians hasn’t steadily risen, but rather ebbed and flowed. It seems that the flow generally occurs in areas where persecution is present but I’m not sure that reflects a better situation. The Chinese church has grown while being persecuted; the US church is shrinking while enjoying a state of relative freedom. But does that mean that the situation is better for the church in China?

• Maybe a little persecution is good whereas too much persecution can be devastating.

Question: How can religious majority and minority groups work together? In South Korea, we don’t have a lot of points of contact between Christianity and Buddhism. One member, who has participated in interreligious dialogues, felt the time was spent on achieving harmony between religious groups, but this member was not convinced such dialogues were aiming for the right goal, nor certain that these meetings were the best means for achieving religious ends.

Daryl Ireland, discussion moderator

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