State religion
[[Image:State Religions.png|right|thumb|300px|Nations with state religions:
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A
state religion (also called an
official religion,
established church or
state church) is a
religious body or
creed officially endorsed by the
state. The term
state church is associated with
Christianity, and is sometimes used to denote a specific national branch of Christianity. Closely related to state churches are what
sociologists call
ecclesiae, though the two are slightly different. State religions are examples of the official or government-sanctioned
establishment of religion, as distinct from
theocracy. It is also possible for a
national church to become established without being under state control.
The degree and nature of state backing for denomination or creed designated as a state religion can vary. It can range from mere endorsement and financial support, with freedom for other faiths to practice, to prohibiting any competing religious body from operating and to persecuting the followers of other sects. In Europe, competition between Catholic and Protestant denominations for state sponsorship in the 16th century evolved the principle
cuius regio eius religio ("states follow the religion of the ruler") embodied in the text of the
treaty that marked the
Peace of Augsburg,
1555. In
England the monarch imposed Protestantism, with himself taking the place of the Pope, while in
Scotland the
Church of Scotland became the established Kirk in opposition to the religion of the ruler.
In some cases, a state may have a set of state-sponsored religious denominations that it funds; such is the case in
Alsace-Moselle in
France, following the pattern in
Germany.
In some
communist states, notably the
People's Republic of China, the state sponsors religious organizations, and activities outside those state-sponsored religious organizations are met with various degrees of official disapproval. In these cases, state religions are widely seen as efforts by the state to prevent alternate sources of authority.
Sociology of state churches
Sociologists refer to mainstream non-state religions as
denominations. State religions tend to admit a larger variety of opinion within them than denominations. Denominations encountering major differences of opinion within themselves are likely to split; this option is not open for most state churches, so they tend to try to integrate differing opinions within themselves.
However, state churches have divided, with the dissidents losing the advantages of state support. The
Church of Scotland has split several times in the past for doctrinal reasons, including the meaning and acceptability of state support. Attempts by the monarch to impose
bishops on the Kirk led to the splitting off of the non-established
Scottish Episcopal Church. Its largest offshoots from a
later disruption were the
Free Church of Scotland and the
United Free Church of Scotland. These offshoots did lose the established status of their parent, but since 1929 the (partially) reunited Church of Scotland has considered itself to be a "
national church" rather than an established church, as it is entirely independent of state control in matters spiritual. Legally, it remains established.
Many sociologists now consider the effect of a state church as analogous to a chartered
monopoly in religion.
Where state religions exist, it is usually true the majority of residents are officially considered adherents; however, much of this support is little more than nominal; many members of the church rarely attend it. But the population's allegiance towards the state religion is often strong enough to prevent them from joining competing religious groups.
A denomination's status as official religion does not always imply that the jurisdiction prohibits the existence or operation of other sects or religious bodies. It all depends upon the government and the level of tolerance the citizens of that country have for each other. Some countries with official religions have laws that guarantee the freedom of worship, full liberty of conscience, and places of worship for all citizens; and implement those laws than other countries that do not have an official or established state religion.
Disestablishment is the process of divesting a church of its status as an organ of the state. In Britain there was a campaign by
Liberals,
dissenters and
nonconformists to disestablish the
Church of England in the late 19th century; it failed in
England, but demands for the measure persist to this day. The
Church of Ireland was disestablished in 1869 and the Church of England was disestablished in Wales in 1920, becoming the
Church in Wales rather than the Church
of Wales. Those who wish to continue with an established church take a position of
antidisestablishmentarianism.
The
First Amendment to the
US Constitution explicitly forbids the U.S.
federal government from enacting any law respecting a religious establishment, and thus forbids either designating an official church for the United States, or interfering with State and local official churches — which were common when the First Amendment was enacted. It did not prevent
state governments from establishing official churches.
Connecticut continued to do so until she replaced her colonial
Charter with the
Connecticut Constitution of 1818; Massachusetts did not disestablish its official church until 1833, more than forty years after the ratification of the First Amendment; and local official establishments of religion persisted even later.
The
Fourteenth Amendment to the
US Constitution, ratified in 1868, makes no mention of religious establishment, but forbids the states to "abridge the privileges or immunities" of U.S. citizens, or to "deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law." However, since
1947,
Everson v. Board of Education, the United States Supreme Court has held that this later provision
incorporates the First Amendment's Establishment Clause as applying to the States, and thereby presumably prohibits state and local religious establishments. The exact boundaries of this prohibition are still disputed, and are a frequent source of cases before the
US Supreme Court — especially as the court must now reconcile this post-1947 view with the original First Amendment clause that explicitly prohibits any restraint on the free exercise of religion.
All current U.S. State Constitutions include guarantees of religious liberty parallel to the First Amendment, but at least one (
North Carolina) also prohibits atheists from holding public office[
1].
The following states recognize some form of
Christianity as their official religion (by denomination):
Roman Catholic
Jurisdictions which recognize
Catholicism as their official religion:
*
Argentina*
Bolivia*
Costa Rica*
El Salvador*
Haiti*
Liechtenstein*
Malta*
Monaco*Some
cantons of
Switzerland*
Vatican CityEastern Orthodox
Jurisdictions which recognize one of the
Eastern Orthodox Churches as their official religion:
*
Cyprus*
GreeceLutheran
Jurisdictions which recognize a
Lutheran church as their official religion:
*
Denmark*
Iceland*
NorwayAnglican
Jurisdictions that recognise an
Anglican church as their state religion:
*
England -
Church of EnglandReformed
Jurisdictions which recognize a
Reformed church as their official religion:
*Some cantons of
SwitzerlandCountries which recognize
Islam as their official religion:
*
Afghanistan*
Algeria*
Bahrain*
Bangladesh*
Brunei*
Iran*
Iraq*
Jordan*
Kuwait*
Libya*
Maldives*
Mauritania*
Morocco*
Oman*
Pakistan*
Qatar*
Saudi Arabia*
Somalia*
Tunisia*
United Arab Emirates*
YemenSunni Islam
*
Algeria*
Malaysia*
Saudi Arabia (as state-sanctioned religion)
*
SomaliaShi'a Islam
*
Iran (as state-sanctioned religion)
Countries which recognize
Buddhism as their official religion:
*
Bhutan (
Drukpa Kagyu school of
Tibetan Buddhism)
*
Cambodia (
Theravada Buddhism)
*
Kalmykia, a republic within the
Russian Federation (
Tibetan Buddhism - sole Buddhist entity in Europe)
*
Sri Lanka*
Thailand (
Theravada Buddhism)
*
Tibet Government in Exile (
Gelugpa school of
Tibetan Buddhism)
Egypt and Sumer
The concept of state religions was known as long ago as the empires of
Egypt and
Sumer, when every city state or people had its own god or gods. Many of the early Sumerian rulers were priests of their patron city god. Some of the earliest semi-mythological kings may have passed into the pantheon, like
Dumuzid, and some later kings came to be viewed as divine soon after their reigns, like
Sargon the Great of
Akkad. One of the first rulers to be proclaimed a god during his actual reign was
Gudea of
Lagash, followed by some later kings of
Ur, such as
Shulgi. Often, the state religion was integral to the power base of the reigning government, such as in Egypt, where Pharaohs were often thought of as embodiments of the god Horus.
Zoroastrianism was the state religion of the
Sassanid dynasty which lasted from (226 - 651).
Greek city-states
Many of the Greek city-states also had a 'god' or 'goddess' associated with that city. This would not be the 'only god' of the city, but the one that received special honors. In ancient Greece the city of
Athens had
Athena,
Sparta had
Artemis,
Delos had
Apollo and Artemis, and
Olympia had
Zeus.
Roman Religion and Christianity
In Rome, the office of
Pontifex Maximus came to be reserved for the emperor, who was often declared a 'god' posthumously, or sometimes during his reign. Failure to worship the emperor as a god was at times punishable by death, as the Roman government sought to link emperor worship with loyalty to the Empire. Many Christians and Jews were subject to persecution, torture and death in the Roman Empire, because it was against their beliefs to worship the emperor.
In
311 AD the Emperor
Galerius, on his deathbed, declared religious freedom throughout the Roman Empire, especially focusing on the ending of anti-Christian persecution. By the
Edict of Milan of
313, his successor
Constantine the Great, who had switched his patron from
Apollo to
Christus, disestablished Roman paganism, and afterward he reorganised the Church, setting up the
Council of Nicea, although he was not actually baptised himself until later. Despite enjoying considerable popular support, Christianity was still not an "official" state religion in Rome, although it was in some neighboring states such as
Armenia and
Aksum.
Roman Religion (
Neoplatonic Hellenism) was restored for a time by
Julian the Apostate from 361 to 363. Julian does not appear to have reinstated the persecutions of the earlier
Roman emperors.
Christianity was declared to be the state religion of the
Roman Empire in
392 by decree of
Theodosius I.
Han Dynasty Confucianism and Sui Dynasty Buddhism
In China, the
Han Dynasty (206 BC -- 220 AD) advocated
Confucianism as the de facto state religion, establishing tests based on Confucian texts as an entrance requirement into government service. The Han emperors appreciated the societal order which is a central concept of Confucianism. Confucianism would continue as the state religion until the
Sui Dynasty (581 - 618 AD), when it was replaced by
Buddhism.
Neo-confucianism returned as the state religion sometime in the 10th century.
These states do not profess any state religion. Countries which officially decline to establish any religion include:
*
Australia*
Azerbaijan*
Canada*
Chile*
France*
India*
Japan*
Nepal*
New Zealand*
Philippines*
Romania*
Singapore*
South Africa*
South Korea*
Turkey*
United States of AmericaNote 1:In
1967, the Albanian government made
atheism the "state religion". This designation remained in effect until
1991.
Note 2:Finland's State Church was the
Church of Sweden until
1809. As an autonomous Grand Duchy under Russia 1809-1917, Finland retained the Lutheran State Church system, and a state church separate from Sweden, later named the
Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland, was established. It was detached from the state as a separate judicial entity when the new church law came to force in 1870. After Finland had gained independence in
1917, religious freedom was declared in the constitution of
1919 and a separate law on religious freedom in
1922. Through this arrangement, the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland lost its position as a state church but gained a constitutional status as a national church alongside with the
Finnish Orthodox Church, whose position however is not codified in the constitution.
Note 1:In several colonies, the establishment ceased to exist in practice at the
Revolution, about
1776; this is the date of legal abolition.
Note 2:The Congregational Church was the official established church of Massachusetts until 1833, but from 1780-1833 Massachusetts had a system which required every man to belong to a church, and permitted each church to tax its members, and did not require that it be a Congregational church.
Note 3:Until 1877 the New Hampshire Constitution required members of the State legislature to be of the Protestant religion.
Note 4:The North Carolina Constitution of 1776 disestablished the Anglican church, but until 1835 the NC Constitution allowed only protestants to hold public office. From 1835-1876 it allowed allowed only Christians (including Catholics) to hold public office. The current NC Constitution forbids only atheists from holding public office, and this provision is not enforced.
Note 5:Religious Tolerance for Catholics with an Established Church of England were policy in the former Spanish Colonies of East and West Florida while under British rule. East Florida was lost to Spain in 1781.
Note 6:Religious tolerance for Catholics with an established Church of England were policy in the former Spanish Colonies of East and West Florida while under British rule. East Florida was returned to Spain in 1783.
Note 7:in 1789 the Georgia Constitution was amended as follows:"Article IV. Section 10. No person within this state shall, upon any pretense, be deprived of the inestimable privilege of worshipping God in any manner agreeable to his own conscience, nor be compelled to attend any place of worship contrary to his own faith and judgment; nor shall he ever be obliged to pay tithes, taxes, or any other rate, for the building or repairing any place of worship, or for the maintenance of any minister or ministry, contrary to what he believes to be right, or hath voluntarily engaged. To do. No one religious society shall ever be established in this state, in preference to another; nor shall any person be denied the enjoyment of any civil right merely on account of his religious principles."
*
McConnell, Michael W. "Establishment and Disestablishment at the Founding, Part I: Establishment of Religion" William and Mary Law Review, Vol. 44, 2003 pp 2105+ for United States
*
Civil religion*
Political religion*
Separation of church and state
