Part III | Expanded Analysis
Category G | Extrinsic Benefits
Topic 37 | Religious freedom facilitates social stability and even harmony
Religious freedom can facilitate social stability and even harmony. As Voltaire observes in Letters Concerning the English Nation (1733), “If one religion only were allowed in England, the Government would very possibly become arbitrary; if there were but two, the people would cut one another’s throats; but as there are such a multitude, they all live happy and in peace.”1018
Religion and political stability
The assumption throughout history was that political stability relied on religious conformity, and religious conformity relied on political/state support. The idea was that “an established homogeneous religion . . . could serve as a kind of social glue and ultimate motivation for loyalty and obedience to the regime.”1019 This philosophy undergirded the series of European religious wars that had devastating effects in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.
The rise of toleration
English philosopher John Locke rejected this conventional wisdom in A Letter Concerning Toleration, first published in 1689.1020 Locke put forth powerful arguments that state coercion in matters of religion is both unauthorized and ineffectual:
"[T]he care of souls is not committed to the civil magistrate, any more than to other men. . . . [I]t appears not that God has ever given any such authority to one man over another as to compel anyone to his religion. Nor can any such power be vested in the magistrate by the consent of the people, because no man can so far abandon the care of his own salvation as blindly to leave to the choice of any other, whether prince or subject, to prescribe to him what faith or worship he shall embrace.
. . . .
These considerations . . . seem unto me sufficient to conclude that all the power of civil government relates only to men’s civil interests, is confined to the care of the things of this world, and hath nothing to do with the world to come."1021
Locke contended that religious coercion by the state produces hypocritical demonstrations of devotion at best, since state “power consists only in outward force; but true and saving religion consists in the inward persuasion of the mind.”1022
He further asserted that state toleration and respect for “dissenters” or minority groups would not destabilize the state; rather, toleration of all beliefs would generate wider support for the state and, thereby, lead to greater state and social stability.
"Just and moderate governments are everywhere quiet, everywhere safe; but oppression raises ferments and makes men struggle to cast off an uneasy and tyrannical yoke. . . .
"[H]ow much greater will be the security of government where all good subjects, of whatsoever Church they be, without any distinction upon account of religion, enjoying the same favour of the prince and the same benefit of the laws, shall become the common support and guard of it, and where none will have any occasion to fear the severity of the laws but those that do injuries to their neighbours and offend against the civil peace?"1023
Forty-four years after Locke’s letter was published, Voltaire affirmed Locke’s propositions in his Letters Concerning the English Nation, describing his experiences living in (relatively) religiously pluralistic England from 1726 to 1729:
"Though the Episcopal and Presbyterian sects are the two prevailing ones in Great-Britain, yet all others are very welcome to come and settle in it, and live very sociably together, tho’ most of their preachers hate one another almost as cordially as a Jansenist damns a Jesuit.
. . . .
If one religion only were allowed in England, the government would very possibly become arbitrary; if there were two, the people would cut one another’s throats; but as there are such a multitude, they all live happy and in peace."1024
Universal Declaration of Human Rights
Some 260 years after Locke, the drafters of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) similarly affirmed his arguments that protecting the right to religious freedom facilitates social stability and harmony. The Declaration’s Preamble warns that “disregard and contempt for human rights have resulted in barbarous acts which have outraged the conscience of mankind”; and “it is essential, if man is not to be compelled to have recourse, as a last resort, to rebellion against tyranny and oppression, that human rights should be protected by the rule of law.”1025
The human rights referred to in the Preamble include, in Article 18, “the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion.”1026 Protection of this right helps each of us facilitate the Declaration’s charge in Article I that—having been born “free and equal in dignity and rights” and “endowed with reason and conscience”—we all “should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.”1027 Carrying out this charge, in the aggregate, fosters social stability and even harmony.1028
The effects of religious persecution
Modern-day researchers have affirmed Locke’s and the UDHR’s assertions that those who are subject to persecution, exclusion, or discrimination on the basis of religion, are likely to become critical or even subversive of existing political orders.
For example, historian Philip Jenkins has documented a pattern of many persecuted minorities who become embittered, anti-social, and receptive to religious violence as a remedy.1029 Sociologists Brian J. Grim and Roger Finke, in their study of religious restrictions in 143 countries, found that both social and government efforts to curtail religious freedom correlate with increased violent religious conflict.1030 This correlation remained even when controlled for political, economic, and other demographic influences.1031 Grim and Finke also noted the negative cycle of retaliation created by social and government restrictions on religion1032: Social and government restrictions on, or mistreatment of, religion leads religious groups to defend themselves or retaliate. This leads society and government to impose additional restrictions on, or otherwise mistreat, religious groups, in perpetuation of the cycle.
Echoing Locke, a trio of law and religion scholars have noted that “religious communities are most likely to support democracy and least likely to take up the gun or form dictatorships, when governments allow them freedom to worship, practice, and express their faith freely and when religious communities in turn renounce their claims to permanent office or positions of policy-making authority.”1033
Conclusion: A response to increasing religious pluralism
Religious pluralism is increasing throughout the world—and nearly everywhere in the world.1034 Therefore, religious freedom, and nondiscriminatory treatment of people on the basis of religion, will be an even more important source of social stability going forward.
In the words of John Locke, religious freedom in the face of increased religious pluralism will be our best chance to ensure society remains “everywhere quiet, everywhere safe.”1035
References
1018. VOLTAIRE, LETTERS CONCERNING THE ENGLISH NATION 30 (Letter VI. On the Presbyterians.) (Oxford Univ. Press, Nicholas Cronk ed., 1999) (1733), https://www.google.com/books/edition/Letters_Concerning_the_English_Nation/E6z1uvRf8psC?hl=en&gbpv=0. Toolkit Topic 37 (Religious freedom facilitates social stability and even harmony) was drafted with contributions by Juliette Green, 2023 ICLRS Summer Fellow.
1019. W. Cole Durham, Jr., Perspectives on Religious Liberty: A Comparative Framework, in RELIGIOUS HUMAN RIGHTS IN GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE: LEGAL PERSPECTIVES 1, 7 (Johan D. van der Vyver & John Witte Jr. eds, 1996).
1020. JOHN LOCKE, A LETTER CONCERNING TOLERATION 41–42 (William Popple trans., 1689), https://www.google.com/books/edition/A_Letter_Concerning_Toleration_Written_b/L9jYMVtd7vsC?hl=en&gbpv=0.
1021. Id. at 9–11 (spellings and capitalization modernized).
1022. Id. at 10 (spellings and capitalization modernized).
1023. Id. at 41–42 (spellings and capitalization modernized).
1024. VOLTAIRE, supra, at 30.
1025. G.A. Res. 217 A (III), Universal Declaration of Human Rights, at pmbl. (Dec. 10, 1948), https://www.un.org/en/about-us/universal-declaration-of-human-rights.
1026. Id.
1027. Id. art. 1.
1028. See Dennis R. Hoover, In Search of Religious Freedom and Social Harmony, INSTITUTE FOR GLOBAL ENGAGEMENT (June 14, 2023), https://globalengage.org/portico/in-search-of-religious-freedom-and-social-harmony (asserting that harmony necessitates better religious freedom laws and “it also requires voluntary social norms and practices for living constructively and cooperatively with deep religious diversity”); Dennis R. Hoover, Can We Have Religious Freedom and Social Harmony?, 21 THE REVIEW OF FAITH & INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS 25 (2023), https://doi.org/10.1080/15570274.2023.2179725.
1029. Philip Jenkins, The Politics of Persecuted Religious Minorities, in RELIGION AND SECURITY: THE NEW NEXUS IN INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS 25 (Robert A. Seiple & Dennis R. Hoover eds., 2004).
1030. BRIAN J. GRIM & ROGER FINKE, THE PRICE OF FREEDOM DENIED: RELIGIOUS PERSECUTION AND CONFLICT IN THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY 210–13 (2011).
1031. Id. at 212.
1032. Id. at 61–86.
1033. MONICA DUFFY TOFT, DANIEL PHILPOTT & TIMOTHY SAMUEL SHAH, GOD'S CENTURY: RESURGENT RELIGION AND GLOBAL POLITICS 18 (2011).
1034. See, e.g., Xiaobiao Lin, Qinghe Chen, Luyao Wei, Yugi Lu, Yu chen & Zhichao He, Exploring the Trend in Religious Diversity: Based on the Geographical Perspective, 17(7) PLOS ONE (2022), https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0271343.
1035. LOCKE, supra, at 41.