Part II | Outline
Category B | Principles
Topic 9 | Religious identity
For many people, their religious identity is as foundational and constitutive of their personal identity as other components of identity—such as race, nationality, sexual orientation, or gender—can be to an individual’s sense of identity. Religious identity should be recognized and respected along with other identities.
- Human dignity and identity. Human dignity, the foundation of all human rights including the right to freedom of religion, encompasses human agency and the right to choose aspects of one’s identity. Identity can, therefore, be complex, comprised of predetermined identities like race and chosen identities like religion. Respect for the complexity of identity, which may include religious identity, is a key component of respecting human dignity.
Identity-centric worldviews. We live in an era when many people view themselves primarily through the lens of dimensions of identity that make them distinctive and different, including race, sex, sexual orientation, and gender identity.
- Positive outcomes. An increased focus on distinctive identities has led to positive outcomes, such as increased awareness of discrimination and the implementation of antidiscrimination laws and policies.
- Negative outcomes. A primary focus on distinct identities can foster societies in which we divide and separate ourselves from each other. It can also lead to the creation of hierarchies of value or deservedness, or even victim class status, on the basis of distinct identities. “Identity politics,” employed by those on the political right and left, invoke a worldview and language of discrimination and victimization by those regarded as “other.”
Religious identity as a dimension of religious freedom. When engaging with those who have an identity-centric worldview, it can be helpful to define religious freedom in terms of three interrelated dimensions: religious belief, religious practice, and religious identity.
- Right to belief. The right to belief is absolute, not subject to limitation. Some opponents of religious freedom falsely treat belief as the only dimension of religious freedom, erroneously reducing it to a privately exercised right.
- Right to practice. The right to religious practice constitutes the right to “manifest [one’s] religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance”—“either alone or in community with others and in public or private.” Unlike the right to belief or religious identity, the right to manifest, practice, or act on belief is subject to some limitations.
- Right to identity. Religious identity may be shaped by an inherited faith, a personal choice to adopt a faith, or both. The other dimensions of religious freedom—the right to belief and practice—give shape and substance to one’s religious identity. The right to have and maintain a religious identity is a concomitant right that flows naturally from these two other rights.
Secular misconceptions of faith and religious identity. In framing religious freedom in terms of belief, practice, and identity, it is important to recognize and address secular misconceptions of these elements, which may lead individuals and groups to devalue religious freedom.
- Religious identity as a mere preference. The secular world may see religious belief, practice, and identity as merely a personal preference, an intractable obstacle, or a pastime—“something that can be adopted and discarded at will.” Explaining and exemplifying the “marrow-deep,” life-defining significance of religious identity can help overcome this misperception.
- Religious identity as a threat. Secularists may also consider religious belief, practice, and identity to be ill-informed, uneducated, superstitious, dangerous, and directly opposed to reason and reality. This view may prompt the conclusion that people and communities of faith interfere with achieving secular societal ideals like nondiscrimination. This view, however, overlooks or discounts the positive influence of religious faith and identity worldwide, including in historical nondiscrimination movements.
- Religious identity as a mere preference. The secular world may see religious belief, practice, and identity as merely a personal preference, an intractable obstacle, or a pastime—“something that can be adopted and discarded at will.” Explaining and exemplifying the “marrow-deep,” life-defining significance of religious identity can help overcome this misperception.
- Religious identity and nondiscrimination. Nondiscrimination is a major concern for those with identity-centric worldviews at both ends of the political spectrum. Critics of religion and religious freedom may need to be reminded that religion is a primary source of identity worthy of protection against discrimination, just like sexual orientation, gender, or race.
- Cautions. Engaging in discussions based on religious identity may lead to, or at least not help overcome, some of the negative consequences of identity politics. In addition, an identity-centric approach may be less effective with those who acknowledge identity claims of religious minorities but discount claims from adherents of religions that aren’t considered disadvantaged.