Religious Freedom Quotes
It is this verse that for some Muslims justifies terrorism against non-Muslims. See {584354} for a specific example. There are similar provisions in the Old Testament which a few extremely conservative Jews and Christians have used to advocate for blasphemy being a capital crime. Note that if an unbeliever repents and becomes a Muslim, he should be spared.
This is a very Jeffersonian type statement.
In the early stages of Islam, Muhammad had hoped to convert the Jews and others on the Arabian Peninsula. When they refused to be converted, he warred against them usually killing the men, and taking the women and children as slaves. The result was that non-believing tribes were “cleansed” from the Arabian Peninsula. The Muslims at the time preferred children as slaves. For then they could convert the children against their will. Adults in Islam must accept Islam in order to convert. Children are regarded as having no such maturity of decision making and therefore opposition to conversion may be ignored and they may be forced. Critics of Islam and those who argue that Islam is at odds with all other religions point to this quotation. They claim that it is the only religion whose founder and fundamental scriptures demand war against others for no other reason than that they believe in a different religion. The Catholic Church during the Crusades and the Inquisition had a similar philosophy as did Christian missionaries colonizing Africa later. One difference is that most Christians today repudiate the doctrine as against the true spirit and teachings of Christ and view it as historical error, while very few modern Muslims repudiate this quotation of the Prophet.
Later, as President in 1811, Madison vetoed a bill granting Federal land to build a Baptist church in the Mississippi territory.
Luther’s logic was that polygamy was sanctioned in the Old Testament and never specifically forbidden in the New Testament. This fact totally puzzled the American Mormons when the Protestants railed against the immorality of their plural marriages.
The phrase ‘This would be the best of all possible worlds, if there were no religion at all!!!’ is often quoted to imply that Adams was opposed to religion. This is a classic use of using quotations out of context for if one reads the entire quotation, Adams is stating that without religion the world would not be a particularly fit place. Some religionists then use the entire quotation to argue that Adams was a religious, Christian man who saw America as a Christian nation. That too is out of the context of the totality of his views—see {592753}.
Opponents of the strict separation of church and state use this quotation to support their view. However, Story herein describes public sentiment, not what was passed and ratified in the Constitution and Bill of Rights. See {614309} and {614310} for his statements from the same work that show that there was no question in his mind but that church and state are separated by the Constitution and the First Amendment.
At the time, anyone who differed with the Church on issues of philosophy, ethics or religion could be tortured and burned at the stake, and anyone who criticized the Monarchy could be tortured and hung or beheaded. The result was the concept of a secret society of which the Illuminati was one.
Those who claim that the founding fathers contemplated religion as a critical component of government often point to this article of the South Carolina Constitution. However, they ignore the almost simultaneous passage of the New York constitution as in {612166}. When the framers of the Constitution met in 1787 in Philadelphia the separation of church and state issue was not really resolved and awaited the Bill of Rights where the separatists won out.
While most of the Council of Trent was very conservative in that they were dealing with the threat of Reformation and the Protestants, this particular Cannon is profoundly liberal. Women, who had virtually no rights had often been “sent” to a convent by a father or guardian, the local priest or bishop, and in some cases even a husband. This established for the first time that women could not be forced to take vows—a major step in the evolution of the freedom of women in Western society.
