Religious Freedom Page: Site Index


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Religious Freedom Around the World

The Nation Profiles constitutes one of the core featurs of The Religious Movements Page. From this segment you can access detailed information about more than two hundred countries. Each nation profile offers the following information: (1) religious composition, (2) status of religious freedom, (3) a print bibliography, (4) direct links to reports by major organizations that monitor human rights and religious freedom, (5) religious freedom resources, which presents an array of reports, news articles and analyses, and (6) key demographic freatures of the country.

This segment is a subcategory of the Nation Profiles offering links to scholarly reports, news items and analysis of the status of religious freedom for each country. You may access the intenational index here, or go the Nation Profile for the country you are interested in and click on "Religious Freedom Resources" in the table of contents.

Universal Principles is a compansion segment to Sacred Texts. While most of the materials we have included under Sacred Texts imply a universal quality, materials presented here are explicit statements of universal rights. Some documents have an official universal status, such as the United Nation's Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948). Other documents such as Pope Paul VI's Dignitatis Humanae proclimation (1965) have official status only among members of the Roman Caholic Church. It is, nevertheless, an important because of his recognized status a leader of Roman Catholicism. Other documents have little or no official status at all. They are included because they address the spirit of universal human rights and religious freedom. Suggestions for other texts you think would be appropriate for this segment are welcome.

The concept "sacred text" calls attention to the fact that through the ages a few documents have had monumental and enduring significance to our understanding of the human rights and, especially, religious freedom. We offer here the full texts of many of these documents. Suggestions for other texts you think would be appropriate for this segment are welcome. We also invite you to explore the segment of this site on "Universal Principles."

Religious Freedom in the U.S.

The full text of the Constitution of the United States is available here. Materials accessible in this segment focus on the religion clauses of the First Amendment. See the segment on "Court Decisions" for summaries and the full texts of Supreme Court decisions dealing with religion.

Comprehensive coverage of Supreme Court decisions dealing with the religion clauses of the First Amendent. For each case we present a synopses that includes the: (1) facts in the case, (2) decision, (3) majority opinion, and (4) significance. The full text of all decisions is accessible; many more recent decisions include an audio synoposis of arguments before the court. This segment is currently being expanded to include religion cases before the Court that are not First Amendment related. Also also under development are key religion cases that have not been before the Supreme Court.

A comprehensive list of religious freedom and human rights organizations. Both U.S. and international organizaitons are included. For each we offer a brief synoposis of the organization's focus along with links to their web page. In some instances we offer brief comment on the content of the web site.

The content of this segment generally focuses on a single subject that has captured wide public attention. Such topics are almost by definition controversial. Our goal is to package a significant body of resources to assist readers in exploring the topic in some depth. Always, we strive to present materials that cover both (all) sides of the controversy. Our current issue is President George W. Bush's proposal to provide government financial assistance for "faith-based" social service initiatives.