Editing Freedom of religion (section)

===Christianity===
[[File:Worship-monument.jpg|left|thumb|Part of the [[Oscar Straus (politician)|Oscar Straus]] Memorial in Washington, D.C. honoring the right to worship]] 
Some Orthodox Christians, especially those living in democratic countries, support religious freedom for all, as evidenced by the position of the [[Ecumenical Patriarchate]]. Many Protestant Christian churches, including some [[Baptists]], [[Churches of Christ in Australia|Churches of Christ]], [[Seventh-day Adventist Church]] and [[Mainline (Protestant)|main line]] churches have a commitment to religious freedoms.{{citation needed|date=August 2023}} [[The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints]] also affirms religious freedom.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Articles of Faith|url=https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/eng/scriptures/pgp/a-of-f/1|access-date=2023-01-02|website=www.churchofjesuschrist.org|language=en|quote=We claim the privilege of worshiping Almighty God according to the dictates of our own conscience, and allow all men the same privilege, let them worship how, where, or what they may}}</ref>

However others, such as African scholar [[Makau Mutua]], have argued that Christian insistence on the propagation of their faith to native cultures as an element of religious freedom has resulted in a corresponding denial of religious freedom to native traditions and led to their destruction. As he states in the book produced by the Oslo Coalition on Freedom of Religion or Belief, "Imperial religions have necessarily violated individual conscience and the communal expressions of Africans and their communities by subverting African religions."<ref>Mutua, Makau. 2004. ''Facilitating Freedom of Religion or Belief, A Deskbook''. Oslo Coalition on Freedom of Religion or Belief.{{ISBN?}}{{page needed|date=April 2022}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |title=Religious human rights in global perspective: legal perspectives|volume=2|author1=J. D. Van der Vyver|author2=John Witte|publisher=Martinus Nijhoff Publishers|year=1996|isbn=9041101772|page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=XSnpr1ndq5kC&pg=PA418418 418]|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XSnpr1ndq5kC}}</ref>

In their book ''[[Breaking India]]'', [[Hindutva]] ideologue [[Rajiv Malhotra]]<ref>{{Cite news|date=October 30, 2018|title=Rajiv Malhotra, Swapan Dasgupta appointed as JNU honorary professors|work=Business Standard|url=https://www.business-standard.com/article/pti-stories/rajiv-malhotra-swapan-dasgupta-appointed-as-jnu-honorary-professors-118103000970_1.html|access-date=January 1, 2021}}</ref> and [[Aravindan Neelakandan]] discussed the "US Protestant Church" funding activities in India, with the book arguing that the funds collected were being used not so much for the purposes indicated to sponsors, but for indoctrination and conversion activities. They suggest that India is the prime target of a huge enterprise{{snd}} a "network" of organizations, individuals, and churches{{snd}} that, they argue, seem intensely devoted to the task of creating a separatist identity, history, and even religion for the vulnerable sections of India. They suggest that this nexus of players includes not only church groups, government bodies, and related organizations, but also private think tanks and academics.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.breakingindia.com/introduction/|title=Introduction|work=Breaking India}}</ref>

[[Joel Spring]] has written about the Christianization of the [[Roman Empire]]:

<blockquote>Christianity added new impetus to the expansion of empire. Increasing the arrogance of the imperial project, Christians insisted that the Gospels and the Church were the only valid sources of religious beliefs. Imperialists could claim that they were both civilizing the world and spreading the true religion. By the 5th century, Christianity was thought of as co-extensive with the ''Imperium romanum''. This meant that to be human, as opposed to being a natural slave, was to be "civilized" and Christian. Historian Anthony Pagden argues, "just as the ''civitas''; had now become coterminous with Christianity, so to be human{{snd}} to be, that is, one who was 'civil', and who was able to interpret correctly the law of nature{{snd}} one had now also to be Christian." After the fifteenth century, most Western colonialists rationalized the spread of empire with the belief that they were saving a barbaric and pagan world by spreading Christian civilization.<ref>{{cite book|title=Globalization and educational rights: an intercivilizational analysis|author=Joel H. Spring|publisher=Routledge|year=2001|isbn=978-0805838824|page=92|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3lobX1DC_i0C&pg=PA92}}{{Dead link|date=August 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref></blockquote>

====Catholicism====
Prior to Vatican Council II, the Catholic Church persecuted other religions. European Catholics, especially during the [[Inquisition]] and [[Crusades]] in the middle ages, killed Jews, Muslims, pagans, and Christians of different denominations and destroyed non-Christian and non-Catholic Christian religious art, books, and places of worship.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/08026a.htm |title=Catholic Encyclopedia: Inquisition |publisher=Newadvent.org |access-date=2012-07-23}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://bulfinch.englishatheist.org/mm/inquisition/Chapter7.htm |title=A History of the Inquisition In The Middle Ages. By Henry Charles Lea. Volume 1 |publisher=Bulfinch.englishatheist.org |access-date=2012-07-23}}</ref><ref name="OHC">Riley-Smith, Jonathan. ''The Oxford History of the Crusades'' New York: Oxford University Press, 1999. {{ISBN|0-19-285364-3}}.{{page needed|date=July 2022}}</ref> In the colonial era of the United States, American Catholics forced [[Native Americans in the United States|Native Americans]] to convert to Catholicism and destroyed their religious art and places of worship.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Yun|first=Tom|url=https://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/canadian-archbishop-says-comments-made-by-trudeau-on-church-s-role-in-residential-schools-unfair-1.5458553|title = Canadian archbishop says Trudeau comments on Church's role in residential schools 'unfair'|date = 6 June 2021|work=CTV News}}</ref> In 1864, [[Pope Pius IX]] had written a document called the ''[[Syllabus of Errors]],''which - made up of phrases and paraphrases from earlier papal documents, along with index references to them, and presented as a list of "condemned propositions" - condemned belief in universal religious freedom, claiming that non-Catholics do not have the right to practice their own religions and types of worship.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ewtn.com/library/PAPALDOC/P9SYLL.HTM|title=The Syllabus|author=Pope Pius IX|publisher=[[EWTN]]|author-link=Pope Pius IX|access-date=26 August 2013|archive-date=2 January 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180102165127/http://www.ewtn.com/library/PAPALDOC/P9SYLL.HTM|url-status=dead}}, [http://www.ewtn.com/ Global Catholic Network]</ref> In 1892, the church agreed with [[Thomas Aquinas]] on his policy of religious tolerance.<ref>{{cite book|editor1-last=Novak|editor1-first=Michael |editor2-last= Brailsford|editor2-first=William|editor3-last=Heesters|editor3-first=Cornelis|title=A Free Society Reader: Principles for the New Millennium|publisher=Lexington Books|location=New York|year=2000|isbn=0-7391-0143-9}}</ref> In 2000, [[Pope John Paul II]] apologized on behalf of the church for its past sins, making special mention of religious persecution.<ref>[https://www.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/en/homilies/2000/documents/hf_jp-ii_hom_20000312_pardon.html Vatican.Va, 3-12-00 Day of Pardon Homily by Pope John Paul II]</ref>

According to the [[Vatican II]] document on religious freedom, ''[[Dignitatis Humanae]]'', "the human person has a right to religious freedom", which is described as "immunity from coercion in civil society".<ref name=autogenerated1>{{cite web |url=https://www.vatican.va/archive/hist_councils/ii_vatican_council/documents/vat-ii_decl_19651207_dignitatis-humanae_en.html |title=Declaration on religious freedom – ''Dignitatis humanae'' |publisher=Vatican.va |access-date=3 September 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120211202206/https://www.vatican.va/archive/hist_councils/ii_vatican_council/documents/vat-ii_decl_19651207_dignitatis-humanae_en.html |archive-date=11 February 2012}}</ref> This principle of religious freedom "leaves untouched traditional Catholic doctrine on the moral duty of men and societies toward the true religion."<ref name=autogenerated1 /> In addition, this right "is to be recognized in the constitutional law whereby society is governed and thus it is to become a civil right."<ref name=autogenerated1 /> According to ''Dignitatis Humanae'' and the [[Catechism of the Catholic Church]], every religion has the right to exist and to be publicly and privately practiced (including the right to be spread and to make converts), no religion must be denied the right to worship according to its own beliefs and practices, every person and group has the right to be religious or nonreligious and to change from one to the other, no person or group must be forced to be good but their right to conscience must be respected, every person and group has the right to its own culture and art, no religion must be used for sin nor any sin committed in the name of God or religion, and every religion and adherent must be treated as humanely as every other group and person in the world (especially when one religion is predominate or given special civil recognition).<ref>[http://www.scborromeo.org/ccc/p3s2c1a1.htm#2104 Catechism of the Catholic Church 2104-2109]</ref>  The catechism explains that, as the one true religion founded by the one true God, the Catholic Church has the right and duty to protect every individual's individual right to religious liberty.<ref>[http://www.scborromeo.org/ccc/p3s2c1a1.htm#2105 Catechism of the Catholic Church 2105]</ref> While the church believes idolatry is a sin,<ref>[http://www.scborromeo.org/ccc/p3s2c1a1.htm#2112 Catechism of the Catholic Church 2112]</ref> the church does not believe idolatry should be made illegal, since the criminalization of all or even most sins is the sin of coercion.<ref>[http://www.scborromeo.org/ccc/p3s2c1a1.htm#2104 Catechism of the Catholic Church 2104]</ref> Regarding the church's past sins, the catechism condemns [[Jewish deicide]]<ref>[http://www.scborromeo.org/ccc/p122a4p2.htm Catechism of the Catholic Church 597]</ref> and makes reference to ecclesiastical torture and capital punishment.<ref>[http://www.scborromeo.org/ccc/para/2267.htm Catechism of the Catholic Church 2267]</ref><ref>[http://www.scborromeo.org/ccc/para/2298.htm Catechism of the Catholic Church 2298]</ref>