The State of International Religious Freedom.

AuthorSempa, Francis P.

The State of International Religious Freedom

By Robert George, Professor of Jurisprudence, Princeton University

Text: https://www.fpri.org/articles/2014/11/state-international-religious-freedom-and-why-it-matters

Princeton professor Robert George recently delivered the Templeton Lecture on Religion and World Affairs at the Foreign Policy Research Institute in Philadelphia. George provided an overview of the state of religious freedom around the world and an explanation of why this matters to U.S. foreign policy.

Religious freedom, he said, is at the core of who we are as human beings; it is "central to human personhood." He cited studies that show that countries that protect religious liberty tend to be more stable and secure, while nations that restrict or trample on religious freedom tend to be breeding grounds for war, poverty, and terror.

George noted that 75 percent of the world's people (more than five billion humans) live in countries that significantly restrict religious freedom. He called North Korea and China secular tyrannies that are hostile to religion. Iran, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, and Pakistan are "religious tyrannies." Russia, he said, was a hybrid of secular and religious tyranny.

He...

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