<== Site of the Week for 2009-11-16 ==>

What is 'defamation of religion'?

This is an interesting international development: Earlier this year, the United Nation's Commission on Human Rights passed a resolution against the defamation of religion.

A very interesting conglomeration of groups have come out opposed to the resolution questioning: What is 'defamation of religion'?

Religious groups have always balked at outside criticism of their beliefs. However, as I read and gain a better understanding of the Western tradition, I've come to appreciate the extent to which self-examination has played a critical role in the evolution of Christianity.

Jesus Christ was critical of corruption in the religious hierachy of his day. The Christian tradtiion has a long history of people trying to find the right balance between faith and reason.

My observation is that the Western Christian tradition is at its best when it allows open criticism, but devolves into barbaric behavior on occasions when leaders try to silence criticism.

I was surprised recently to learn that the Byzantine Empire that ruled in Constantanople for a millennia experimented with various degrees of secularism.

The Scholastic Tradition, the Renaissance and Enlightenment all included intriguing debates about the nature of knowledge, faith, doubt and certainty.

Contrary to images promoted by the media, there has been substantially more open debate about truth, religion and faith throughout the entirety of western culture and different people have had different opinions of where open debate stops and blasphemy begins.

The founders of the United States extended the conversation by clarifying the interplay of the state, religion and society in a variety of Constitutional efforts. The American experiment allowed for the freedom of religion. That freedom does not include an expectation that one can go through life without ever having beliefs questioned.

The process of questioning beliefs has become an integral part of the Western tradition. This idea has become so ingrained in our approach to life that I suspect the UN Resolution caught a large number of people by surprise.

In various articles a group called Open Doors has argued that the UN Human Rights Council faltered in its resolution against the defamation of religion because the resolution protects the message and not the individual. By concentrating on the message, not the individual, the UN resolution provides cover for anti-blasphemy laws that are often used for the persecution of individuals of minority beliefs.

The issue also treads on culture war issues. The resolution against the defamation of religion focuses attention on the group as opposed to attention on the individual. As such, support for the resolution tends to follow left/right lines with left leaning states like China supporting the resolution. Those states with a right of center tradition, like the United States, opposed the resolution.