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The United states is a liberal western democracy arising out of the
"Reformation" in which the power of the Christian church to compel obedience was
defeated. In its place are democratic values transferring power downward to the
people. Democracy values individual liberty, freedom of speech, freedom of
assembly, freedom of the press, freedom of religion, the separation of Church
and State. Therefore, it is fair to expect such constitutional rights (also
named liberal rights) be assimilated by resident religious organizations whether
Christian, Jewish, or Islamic.
Religious groups, however, are often a haven for authoritarians who
desire power upwards towards their God as the head of Church and State. It
is a power claim in conflict with Democratic values. This conflict was true
of the Mormon founder, Joseph Smith, who envisioned a theocracy, and is true
of Islam. Many fundamentalist Christians are willing to use government power
to impose religious belief by force of law as when Mormons and Catholics
organized Proposition 8 in California to deny civil marriage to same sex
couples.
The source of power and the use of power, either coercive or
persuasive, identify the organizational type more than any other single
attribute. Hence, the necessity of discussing coercion, force, pressure in a
religious context. The concept of religious coercion is defined on page ten
(10) of my paper,
The
Authoritarian Temptation.
The nature of true religious power and human freedom
is well described in the Declaration on Religious
Freedom: Dignitatis Humanae, Pope Paul VI, 1965:
“In all his activity a man is bound to
follow his conscience in order that he may come to God, the
end and purpose of life. It follows that he is not to be
forced to act in a manner contrary to his conscience. Nor …
is he to be restrained from acting in accordance with his
conscience … The reason is that the exercise of religion, of
its very nature, consist before all else in those internal,
voluntary and free acts whereby man sets the course of his
life directly toward God. No merely human power can either
command or prohibit acts of this kind. The social nature of
man, however, itself requires that he should give external
expression to his internal acts of religion: that he should
share with others in matters religious; that he should
profess his religion in community. Injury therefore is done
to the human person and to the very order established by God
for human life, if the free
exercise of religion is denied in society ... A since of
the dignity of the human person demand[s] … that men should
act on their own judgment, enjoying and making use of a
responsible freedom, not driven by coercion but motivated by
a sense of duty ... However, men cannot discharge these
obligations in a manner in keeping with their own nature
unless he enjoys immunity from external coercion as well as
psychological freedom"
Exit Statement at
Resignation
Authoritarian
Temptation (Sunstone speech)
LDS Women (Sunstone speech)
Mormon Way of Knowing (Son
Brent)
DNA Evidence (Former Bishop Simon
Southerton)
Rebuttal to Devine Love
(Paul Tascono)
Mormon Alliance (Web site)
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