Freedom of religion

===United States===
{{See also|Freedom of religion in the United States}}
Most of the early colonies were generally not tolerant of dissident forms of worship, with Maryland being one of the exceptions. For example, [[Roger Williams (theologian)|Roger Williams]] found it necessary to found a new colony in [[Rhode Island]] to escape persecution in the theocratically dominated colony of Massachusetts. The [[Puritans]] of the [[Massachusetts Bay Colony]] were the most active of the New England persecutors of [[Quakers]], and the persecuting spirit was shared by [[Plymouth Colony]] and the colonies along the [[Connecticut river]].<ref name=PER/> In 1660, one of the most notable victims of the religious intolerance was English Quaker [[Mary Dyer]], who was hanged in Boston, Massachusetts for repeatedly defying a Puritan law banning Quakers from the colony.<ref name=PER>{{Cite book|last=Rogers|first=Horatio|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=L5_5yIgpa-YC&q=Among%2520the%2520most%2520pathetic%2520chapters%2520|title=Mary Dyer of Rhode Island: The Quaker Martyr That Was Hanged on Boston Common, June 1, 1660|date=April 2009|publisher=BiblioBazaar|isbn=978-1-103-80124-4|language=en|pages=1–2}}</ref> As one of the four executed Quakers known as the [[Boston martyrs]], the hanging of Dyer on the Boston gallows marked the beginning of the end of the Puritan [[theocracy]] and New England independence from English rule, and in 1661 [[Charles II of England|King Charles II]] explicitly forbade Massachusetts from executing anyone for professing Quakerism.<ref name=CHLS>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EzvHvEDPosQC&q=charles+1661+-+massachusetts+execution&pg=PR41|title=Puritans and Puritanism in Europe and America: a comprehensive encyclopedia|access-date=3 September 2011|isbn=978-1576076781|last1=Bremer|first1=Francis J.|last2=Webster|first2=Tom|year=2006|publisher=Bloomsbury Academic }}</ref> Anti-Catholic sentiment appeared in New England with the first Pilgrim and Puritan settlers.<ref>{{cite news|title=America's dark and not-very-distant history of hating Catholics|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/sep/12/america-history-of-hating-catholics|newspaper=The Guardian|date=14 June 2016}}</ref> In 1647, Massachusetts passed a law prohibiting any [[Society of Jesus|Jesuit Roman Catholic]] priests from entering territory under Puritan jurisdiction.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Pat|first1=Perrin|title=Crime and Punishment: The Colonial Period to the New Frontier|date=1 January 1970|publisher=Discovery Enterprises|page=24}}</ref> Any suspected person who could not clear himself was to be banished from the colony; a second offense carried a death penalty.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Mahoney|first1=Kathleen A.|title=Catholic Higher Education in Protestant America: The Jesuits and Harvard in the Age of the University|date=10 September 2003|publisher=Johns Hopkins University Press|page=47}}</ref> The Pilgrims of New England held radical Protestant disapproval of Christmas.<ref>{{cite book |last=Barnett |first=James Harwood |year=1984 |title=The American Christmas: A Study in National Culture |publisher=Ayer Publishing |isbn=0405076711 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-sRH9skUh6oC&q=Christmas+Puritan+New+England&pg=PA2 |page=3}}</ref> Christmas observance was outlawed in [[Boston]] in 1659.<ref>{{cite news |first= Rachel N. |last= Schnepper |title= Yuletide's Outlaws |url= https://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/15/opinion/the-puritan-war-on-christmas.html?hp&_r=0 |quote= From 1659 to 1681, anyone caught celebrating Christmas in the colony would be fined five shillings. ... |newspaper=[[The New York Times]] |date= 14 December 2012 |access-date= 15 December 2012 }}</ref> The ban by the Puritans was revoked in 1681 by an English appointed governor, however it was not until the mid-19th century that celebrating Christmas became common in the Boston region.<ref>{{cite book |last=Marling |first=Karal Ann |year=2000 |title=Merry Christmas!: Celebrating America's Greatest Holiday |publisher=Harvard University Press |isbn=0674003187 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EUc13_ourtYC&q=Christmas+Puritan+New+England&pg=PA44 |page=44}}</ref>

Freedom of religion was first applied as a principle of government in the founding of the colony of Maryland, founded by the Catholic [[Cecil Calvert, 2nd Baron Baltimore|Lord Baltimore]], in 1634.<ref name="Symbol of Enduring Freedom">{{Cite magazine|title=Symbol of Enduring Freedom|author=Zimmerman, Mark|magazine=Columbia Magazine|url=https://issuu.com/columbia-magazine/docs/columbiamar10en/1|access-date=2023-01-02|via=issuu|date=5 March 2010 |page=19|language=en}}</ref> Fifteen years later (1649), the [[Maryland Toleration Act]], drafted by Lord Baltimore, provided: "No person or persons...shall from henceforth be any waies troubled, molested or discountenanced for or in respect of his or her religion nor in the free exercise thereof." The Act allowed freedom of worship for all [[Trinitarianism|Trinitarian]] Christians in Maryland, but [[Capital punishment|sentenced to death]] anyone who denied the divinity of [[Jesus]]. The Maryland Toleration Act was repealed during the Cromwellian Era with the assistance of Protestant assemblymen and a new law barring Catholics from openly practicing their religion was passed.<ref>Brugger, Robert J. (1988). ''Maryland: A Middle Temperament''.  p. 21, Baltimore, Maryland: Johns Hopkins University Press. {{ISBN|080183399X}}.</ref> In 1657, the Catholic Lord Baltimore regained control after making a deal with the colony's Protestants, and in 1658 the Act was again passed by the colonial assembly. This time, it would last more than thirty years, until 1692<ref>{{Cite encyclopedia|last=Finkelman|first=Paul|title=Maryland Toleration Act (1649)|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YoI14vYA8r0C&q=maryland+toleration+act|encyclopedia=The Encyclopedia of American Civil Liberties|date=2006|publisher=Taylor & Francis|isbn=978-0-415-94342-0|language=en}}</ref> when, after Maryland's [[Protestant Revolution (Maryland)|Protestant Revolution of 1689]], freedom of religion was again rescinded.<ref name="Symbol of Enduring Freedom"/><ref name="roarke">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6ybHa6D24qQC&pg=PA78 |author=Roark, Elisabeth Louise|title=Artists of Colonial America|page=78 |isbn=978-0313320231|year=2003|publisher=Greenwood Publishing }} Retrieved 22 February 2010</ref> In addition, in 1704, an Act was passed "to prevent the growth of Popery in this Province", preventing Catholics from holding political office.<ref name="roarke" /> Full religious [[toleration]] would not be restored in Maryland until the [[American Revolution]], when Maryland's [[Charles Carroll of Carrollton]] signed the [[American Declaration of Independence]].

Rhode Island (1636), Connecticut (1636), New Jersey, and Pennsylvania (1682){{snd}} founded by Protestants Roger Williams, [[Thomas Hooker]], and William Penn, respectively{{snd}} combined the democratic form of government which had been developed by the Puritans and the Separatist [[Congregationalists]] in Massachusetts with religious freedom.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.histarch.illinois.edu/plymouth/ccflaw.html|title=Plymouth Colony Legal Structure|website=www.histarch.illinois.edu|access-date=2019-08-13}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://history.hanover.edu/texts/masslib.html|title=Liberties|website=history.hanover.edu|access-date=2019-08-13}}</ref><ref>M. Schmidt, ''Pilgerväter'', in ''Die Religion in Geschichte und Gegenwart'', 3. Auflage, Tübingen (Germany), Band V (1961), col. 384</ref><ref>M. Schmidt, ''Hooker, Thomas'', in ''Die Religion in Geschichte und Gegenwart'', 3. Auflage, Band III (1959), col. 449</ref> These colonies became sanctuaries for persecuted religious minorities. Catholics and later on Jews also had full citizenship and free exercise of their religions.<ref>Clifton E. Olmstead (1960), ''History of Religion in the United States'', Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, N.J., pp. 74–75, 99, 102–105, 113–115</ref><ref>Edwin S. Gaustad (1999), ''Liberty of Conscience: Roger Williams in America'', Judson Press, Valley Forge</ref><ref>Hans Fantel (1974), ''William Penn: Apostel of Dissent'', William Morrow & Co., New York, N.Y.</ref> Williams, Hooker, Penn, and their friends were firmly convinced that freedom of conscience was the will of God. Williams gave the most profound argument: As faith is the free work of the [[Holy Spirit]], it cannot be forced on a person. Therefore, strict [[separation of church and state]] has to be kept.<ref>Heinrich Bornkamm, ''Toleranz. In der Geschichte der Christenheit'', in ''Die Religion in Geschichte und Gegenwart'', 3. Auflage, Band VI (1962), col. 943</ref> Pennsylvania was the only colony that retained unlimited religious freedom until the foundation of the United States in 1776. It was the inseparable connection between democracy, religious freedom, and the other forms of freedom which became the political and legal basis of the new nation. In particular, [[Baptists]] and [[Presbyterians]] demanded the disestablishment of state churches{{snd}} [[Anglican]] and [[Congregationalist]]{{snd}} and the protection of religious freedom.<ref>[[Robert Middlekauff]] (2005), ''The Glorious Cause: The American Revolution, 1763–1789'', Revised and Expanded Edition, Oxford University Press, {{ISBN|978-0195315882}}, p. 635</ref>

Reiterating Maryland's and the other colonies' earlier colonial legislation, the [[Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom]], written in 1779 by [[Thomas Jefferson]], proclaimed:

<blockquote>[N]o man shall be compelled to frequent or support any religious worship, place, or ministry whatsoever, nor shall be enforced, restrained, molested, or burthened in his body or goods, nor shall otherwise suffer, on account of his religious opinions or belief; but that all men shall be free to profess, and by argument to maintain, their opinions in matters of religion, and that the same shall in no wise diminish, enlarge, or affect their civil capacities.</blockquote>

Those sentiments also found expression in the [[First Amendment to the United States Constitution|First Amendment]] of the national constitution, part of the United States' [[United States Bill of Rights|Bill of Rights]]: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof...". The acknowledgement of religious freedom as the first right protected in the Bill of Rights points toward the American founders' understanding of the importance of religion to human, social, and political flourishing. The First Amendment makes clear that it sought to protect "the free exercise" of religion, or what might be called "''free exercise equality."''<ref name=Farr2019>{{Cite web|title=What in the World is Religious Freedom?|url=https://religiousfreedominstitute.org/what-in-the-world-is-religious-freedom/|last=Farr|first=Thomas|date=1 November 2019|website=Religious Freedom Institute}}</ref>

The United States formally considers religious freedom in its foreign relations. The [[International Religious Freedom Act of 1998]] established the [[United States Commission on International Religious Freedom]] which investigates the records of over 200 other nations with respect to religious freedom, and makes recommendations to submit nations with egregious records to ongoing scrutiny and possible economic sanctions. Many human rights organizations have urged the United States to be still more vigorous in imposing sanctions on countries that do not permit or tolerate religious freedom.