Religious Legislation Research Articles

The devil is in the local: provincial religious legislation in China, 2005–2012

Promulgated in the wake of the Regulations on Religious Affairs, the new set of 20 provincial regulations in China often adopt provisions in the central government statute, prescribing a more benign relationship between religion and the state, defining religious affairs narrowly to exclude internal administration issues of religious communities, stipulating protection of religious freedom before that of state authority, adopting a regulatory rather than administrative regime, removing the annual re-certification requirement of religious venues, increasing the institutional autonomy of religious communities in personnel matters and formation, and transferring the supervisory powers from state agencies to religious communities. At the same time, they also circumscribe the interventionist powers of the state, stipulating bureaucratic response time limits, publicising transparent procedures and specific norms for approving and disapproving religious activities, and not requiring religious communities to accept Party leadership. Despite their overall progressive direction, however, some benevolent central government regulations have not been incorporated by the new provincial regulations, notably those exempting religious communities from supporting state ideology, and those providing administrative appeal and judicial challenge for local government decisions on religious affairs.

Muslim Diaspora in the West: Negotiating Gender, Home and Belonging

Contents: Introduction, Haideh Moghissi Part I Women's Agency Within Intersection of Discourses: Culturalist approach of women's emancipation in the Netherlands, Halleh Ghorashi Globalization and women's leadership in the Muslim diaspora: an intersectional analysis, Fauzia Erfan Ahmed Emergence of a transnational Muslim feminist consciousness among women in the WENAAZ (Western Europe, North America, Australia & New Zealand) context, Cassandra Balchin. Part II Shifting Notions of Sexuality and Family in Diaspora: Multiculturalism and religious legislation in Sweden, Anne Sofie Roald Iranians in Britain, Vida Nassehi-Behnam Changing spousal relations in diaspora: Muslims in Canada, Haideh Moghissi Sexing diaspora: negotiating sexuality in shifting cultural landscape, Fataneh Farahani. Part III Reflections on Islamic Positionings of Youth in Diaspora: Styles of religious practice: Muslim youth cultures in Europe, Thijl Sunier The struggle to stay on the middle ground: the radicalization of Muslims in Sweden, David Thurfjell Young French women of Muslim descent: discriminatory social context and politicization, Sepideh Farkhondeh. Part IV Diasporic Space and Locating Space: Making homes in turbulent times: Moroccan-Dutch Muslims contesting dominant discourses of belonging, Marjo Buitelaar and Femke Stock Understanding Dutch Islam: exploring the relationship of Muslims with the state and the public sphere in the Netherlands, Martijn de Koning Between Iraq and a hard place: Iraqis in diaspora, Jacqueline Ismael and Shereen Ismael Conclusion, Halleh Ghorashi Index.

Breaking Down the Wall between Church and State: State Adoption of Religious Inclusion Legislation, 1995-2009

During the past twenty years, there has been a proliferation of significant, yet often overlooked, state-level legislative developments that challenge the notion of a limited role for government in the promotion or facilitation of religion and that seek to allow and protect greater religious expression in public institutions. For example, several states have passed laws that allow for religious displays or

The Last Bastion of Secularism? Government Religion Policy in Western Democracies, 1990 to 2008

Despite the decline in popularity of secularization theory—which predicts that religion's influence will decline in modern times—many argue that this prediction still applies to western democracies. This study tests this proposition with respect to government religion policy using eighty-one variables from the Religion and State Round 2 dataset covering the 1990 to 2008 period for twenty-seven western democracies. The results show that religious discrimination—limitations on the religious institutions and practices of minority religions—has increased significantly across a wide range of countries and types of religious discrimination. Religious legislation is present in all twenty-seven countries and levels of religious legislation remain stable. These findings are inconsistent with the predictions of secularization theory.

Separation of Religion and State in Stable Christian Democracies: Fact or Myth?

This study compares separation of religion and state (SRAS) as it is conceived in theory with its realization in practice in 40 stable Christian democracies between 1990 and 2008 based on data from the Religion and State Round 2 dataset. There is no agreement in the literature on how SRAS ought to be conceived. Many scholars argue that SRAS is a necessary condition for liberal democracies. The present study examines four models of SRAS found in the literature, and a non-SRAS model that addresses the appropriate role of religion in democracies: secularism-laicism, absolute SRAS, neutral political concern, exclusion of ideals, and acceptable support for religion. The study analyzes three factors: (a) whether the state supports one or some religions more than others; (b) the extent of religious legislation; and (c) restrictions on the religious practices and institutions of religious minorities. The analysis shows that depending on the definition of SRAS used, between zero and eight of the 40 countries practice SRAS. Based on this finding, I conclude that either SRAS is not a necessary condition for liberal democracy or many states commonly considered to be liberal democracies are not.

Voices in the Political Wilderness – Women in the Sydney Anglican Diocese

The Sydney Anglican Diocese neither ordains women as parish rectors (priests) nor consecrates women as bishops. While appointment to these positions allows male clergy to lead a church parish or other church community, senior clergy may be voices in political discourse – for example, on topics such as abortion, euthanasia, religious tolerance legislation and marriage of same-sex couples. By preventing women from rising to positions from which they may contribute to such political debates, the Sydney Anglican Diocese’s bans on ordaining women as rectors or consecrating them as bishops may constrain women’s political speech. This article considers whether NSW anti-discrimination legislation, which supports the church subordination policies, may infringe the implied freedom of political discourse that the High Court of Australia has held exists under the Commonwealth Constitution.

The Life and Career of William Paulet (c.1475-1572), Lord Treasurer and First Marquis of Winchester

Paulet is a frustrating subject. There is not the evidential base for a meaningful biography. We have appointments to commissions, mention of Paulet doing this and that, but nothing with which to get below the surface. Although he lived to a great age (in harness), we do not know his date of birth; Professor Loades makes a good case for c.1475, thus making him 97 or so in 1572. Even the most conservative estimate would make him 86. A lawyer from an upper-gentry family, he did not attain significant government office until 1526, when he became joint Master of the King's Wards. He served Richard Fox and Thomas Wolsey, bishops of Winchester, and, like Thomas Cromwell, survived Wolsey's fall in 1529. For a couple of years he seems to have been considered the more significant of the two. He was especially prominent on unsuccessful missions to persuade Queen Catherine and Princess Mary to accept their diminished status following the Boleyn marriage. (I find it difficult to accept Loades's put-down of Mary's refusal to accept her bastardisation as ‘adolescent intransigence’.) Paulet famously survived the various changes of political and religious regimes, occupying offices in the royal household and becoming Lord Treasurer in 1550 (surrendering the Wards in 1554). Loades seems to be mistaken in suggesting that he voted against the introduction of the 1549 Prayer Book in the Lords, although he did record dissent from religious legislation in 1559. He accumulated, naturally, a considerable estate and built a magnificent house (according to ODNB the ‘largest in Britain’) on his inherited property at Basing. He rose through the peerage to the unusual and exalted rank of marquis in 1551, so promoted only a year after becoming an earl, presumably as reward for his key role in securing John Dudley's rule and thwarting the expectations of those who believed the fall of Protector Somerset would lead to a more conservative religious policy. For a time in Mary's reign, when the only duke (Norfolk) was still a minor, he was the premier peer of the realm. But, for all this, Loades can do little more than tell again the familiar political narrative, inserting Paulet's name where appropriate. The core of the book lies in two useful appendices, on land grants and forfeitures, and on offices, commissions and the like.

Religions, Constitutions, and the State: A Cross-National Study

This study examines whether 169 states follow three types of religion clauses in their constitutions. The presence of these clauses (based on an independent data collection) is compared to the religious discrimination and religious legislation variables from the Religion and State (RAS) dataset. The results show a lack of full observance of these constitutional clauses and that these clauses have at best a limited impact on government behavior. In multivariate analyses, clauses protecting religious freedom have no predictive value for levels of religious discrimination. The bivariate analysis shows that most states with such clauses engage in religious discrimination. States with constitutional separation of religion and state clauses have less religious legislation but all but one of them have at least some religious legislation. Clauses banning discrimination on the basis of religion or protecting equality regardless of religious identity have no effect on religious discrimination.

Voices in the Political Wilderness

The Sydney Anglican Diocese neither ordains women as parish rectors (priests) nor consecrates women as bishops. While appointment to these positions allows male clergy to lead a church parish or other church community, senior clergy may be voices in political discourse – for example, on topics such as abortion, euthanasia, religious tolerance legislation and marriage of same-sex couples. By preventing women from rising to positions from which they may contribute to such political debates, the Sydney Anglican Diocese’s bans on ordaining women as rectors or consecrating them as bishops may constrain women’s political speech. This article considers whether NSW anti-discrimination legislation, which supports the church subordination policies, may infringe the implied freedom of political discourse that the High Court of Australia has held exists under the Commonwealth Constitution.

New wine in old wineskins: An appraisal of religious legislation in China and the regulations on religious affairs of 2005

On 30 November 2004 premier Wen Jiabo signed Decree No. 426 of the State Council, Zongjiao shiwu tiaoli (Regulations on Religious Affairs, RRA), which took effect on 1 March 2005. The RRA, which to...

Rethinking Karaism: Between Judaism and Islam

Since the late nineteenth century, scholars have tried to explain Karaism in light of comparative scripturalist trends in the history of religion. These trends manifest a common desire to reinstate the revelational text (i.e., the Hebrew Bible, the Qur'an) as the sole basis for religious law and practice. They deny or considerably delimit, on the other hand, the role of “received tradition” (i.e., Jewish torah she-be‘al peh, Islamic Sunnah) as an independent or complementary source of religious authority and legislation. Consequently, the Karaites’ rejection of Jewish oral law as codified in the Mishnah and Talmud and their attempt to reinstate the Hebrew Bible (in its entirety) as the binding source for Jewish law and religious practice, have often been described as the Jewish variation on the theme of sola scriptura.1

Christians and the State in Early Twentieth Century Japan: from confrontation to collaboration and back again1

This article challenges the frequent assertion that there is a static relationship of inherent incompatibility between Christianity and Japanese culture. The alternative interpretation presented here is a dynamic, mutually influential relationship between churches, as the institutional bearers of Christian thought, and the state, as the institutional upholder of Japan's identity. To illuminate the oscillating relationship between Christians and the state in modern Japan, the article draws on historical evidence, particularly with reference to government attempts to pass religious legislation in the period between 1899 and 1933. At least two factors support the suggestion that confrontation between Christianity and Japanese culture is neither immutable, nor an inevitable outcome of something inherent in Christianity. The first is that representatives of other religions and indeed of the wider society joined with Christians in opposing legislative initiatives intended to allow the government to monitor and regulate religious behaviour. The second is that at times during the period examined, Christians and the state enjoyed a relationship of mutual benefit and support. 1I am grateful to Associate Professor Sandra Wilson of Murdoch University for organising the Fourth Murdoch Symposium on Modern Japanese History in November 2003 at which I received significant feedback on an earlier version of this paper, and to two anonymous reviewers whose comments have also helped shape this final version. I also acknowledge support from the University of Sydney Faculty of Arts School of Languages Research Incentive Scheme which assisted me in writing this paper.

The Metaphor of Talion

The Metaphor of Talion Betty Rojtman Translated by Johnathan Stavsky Literary theories have accustomed us to welcome the opaqueness of the sign. Poetic discourse, which for modern sensibility has become the focal point of the very question of language, emblematically maintains the "absolutely pure" ambiguity of its symbols and the autonomy of its signifying forms (Barthes 1987:71). Essentially untranslatable, the poetic text resists1 the menace of interpretation that attempts to track it down like quarry. It eludes our nets, to re-emerge as an untiring enigma. The Bible in the Jewish tradition is, conversely, a source of religious legislation, a code that governs human existence in all its details. It therefore calls for a univocal reading in order to guarantee uniform conduct. In this sense, it is thought to partake in the values of signification that semiotics has taught us to assign to the domain of prose and everyday language: readability, trans-parence, referentiality. This "transitive language is the one which seeks to transform reality immediately, not to double it: 'practical' utterances linked to acts, to techniques, to behavior, invocatory utterances linked to rites, since rites too are presumed to open nature" (Barthes 1972: 268; emphasis added). At the same time, the Bible is also a Text, a sacred and prophetic utterance. As such, it assumes the parameters of a literary work, thus operating in an evasive, sibylline, and infinitely plural way. This ambivalence justifies one's wondering about the status of the Bible in traditional Jewish exegesis, a unique source of inspirati praxis now Revelation, divided between the literality of daily life and poetic literariness.2 [End Page 1] That which has come to be known as the talion law, along with its two-thousand-year-old trail of passions and misconceptions, may serve as a touchstone for this analysis, inasmuch as it can serve as a focus for the question of the letter in the polemical context that can highlight the stakes involved 3: If men strive, and hurt a woman with child, so that her fruit depart from her, and yet no mischief follow: he shall be surely punished, according as the woman's husband will lay upon him; and he shall pay as the judges determine. And if any mischief follow, then thou shalt give life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burning for burning, wound for wound, stripe for stripe. (Exodus 21:22-25) The Hebrew exegetic tradition has been held by the West to be a hermeneutic of the letter. This view is based on the rhetorical and classical sense of literariness, which leads us away from poetic intransitivity and to the impoverishing univocality of prose: "the literal sense is that which holds to words taken by the letter, to words understood according to their usage in ordinary language: consequently, it is that which presents itself immediately to the minds of those who speak the language" (Fontanier 1968: 57; translation J.S.). Here Fontanier confounds the literal sense of a word with its immediate legibility. According to this logic, the "Pharisee" literality clings strictly to a narrow primary meaning, which "kills" both the openness of language and the freedom of thought: an implicit osmosis necessarily sets in between the hermeneutic practice and its governing ideology, and the quarrel of language, where the "literal" and the "figurative" lock horns, [End Page 2] echoes a more general opposition between two types of societies and two different attitudes towards the juridical system and penal codes. "Eye for eye, tooth for tooth": this verse is understood as a declaration of principle whose rigor encapsulates both the tautness of the letter and the inexorability of the law. Literal interpretation, such as is attributed to the Hebrew tradition of reading, would draw a parity equation that plays on both the meanings of the words and objects in the world; it postulates an equivalence of the signifier and the signified (the word "eye" signifies one's eye) and an equivalence of eyes that allows one to substitute the eye of the culprit for that of the victim. Unreceptive to allegory, the Pharisee who takes the text "at the letter" can be...

Reforming England's Blasphemy Law to Protect the Individual

Using a framework of legal analysis proposed by Robert Post, this article examines the novel possibility of a reform in England's current criminal law of blasphemy. As previous attempts to include faiths other than Christianity faltered politically and theoretically, the article proposes a reform of the law to protect individual citizens and not religious groups. Different from incitement to racial or religious hatred legislation, this new offense would rest on what Joel Feinberg calls 'vicarious harm', the harm done directly to a person by deliberately wounding her sense of the sacred. The essay takes as given the propositions that equality before the law is desirable, a clear and ordered criminal offense is better than a vague criminal offense, and, as given specifically by the circumstances in England, a reverence for the transcendent sacred is privileged above other forms of reverence.

Этнический национализм и государственное строительство (review)

Этнический национализм и государственное строительство (review)

Freedom of Religion in Post-Soviet Russia

The religious situation in Russia has changed greatly following the collapse of communism in 1991. Although the process was more difficult and contradictory than expected in the early 1990s, Russia has made considerable progress on its way to religious freedom. Now, people can openly profess their faith. To evaluate the degree of religious freedom in contemporary Russia, it is necessary to examine legal acts such as the Constitution arui laws on religion, and how they are implemented, the dynamics of the denominational structure of the population, and the status of different denominations in society. During the 1990s, there were crucial changes in such spheres as the principles of church-state relations, religious legislation, and the role of religion in the social, political, and cultural life of the country. Religion is recovering its place in society lost during the Soviet period, and can play a significant role in overcoming the social crisis and contribute to building a civil society. The growing interest in religion can be reconciled with freedom, pluralism, and tolerance.

Christian Accounts of the Religious Legislation of Theodosius I.

Christian Accounts of the Religious Legislation of Theodosius I.

Une loi de Numa: Ne supra genua tollito

King Numa Pompilius has left behind him an important religious legislation. He wanted, most particularly, to procurare the lightnings, which, in Rome, were sent by Jupiter alone, and to handle them by magic. One of his laws concerned the man struck by lightning, who wasn’t to be buried in the usual ritual way. What meaning is to be given to this forbidding Ne supra genua tollito ?

Reforming anti‐discrimination legislation: Fair enough?

Despite years of anti religious and political discrimination legislation, Catholics in Northern Ireland still suffer substantially higher levels of unemployment than Protestants. The Government's proposals to strengthen the existing legislation, while welcome, are a disappointment to those statutory bodies which are responsible for eliminating other forms of discrimination.

Puritans in Politics: The Religious Legislation of the Long Parliament. By George Yule. Courtenay Library of Reformation Classics 13. Sutton Courtenay: Sutton Courtney Press, 1984. 412 pp. $80.00.

Puritans in Politics: The Religious Legislation of the Long Parliament. By George Yule. Courtenay Library of Reformation Classics 13. Sutton Courtenay: Sutton Courtney Press, 1984. 412 pp. $80.00. - Volume 56 Issue 1