"The more I have worked in the field of international religious freedom, the more impressed I am by the wisdom of the founders of our republic."
Source/Credit: Dessert News
By Kelsey Dallas | November 29, 2017
[Excerpts]
In August, "The Book of Mormon" came to Salt Lake City for the second time in three years, bringing its irreverent depiction of Mormon missionaries to a theater just a few blocks from the worldwide headquarters of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
The show was "back by popular demand" in a city where many residents object to its message, a phenomenon that illustrates Americans' ability to stomach insults aimed at their faith, said Katrina Lantos Swett, president of the Lantos Foundation for Human Rights and Justice.
"Here you have a wildly successful dramatic production that clearly ridicules and defames the founding prophet of a significant faith community," she said. "And yet because of our robust religious freedom protections in the U.S., I don't think there are many if any LDS Church members who have thought it should be their right to shut down this production."
In many other places, the show could not have gone on. More than one-third of the world's countries criminalize blasphemy, or speaking ill of sacred things, according to a July 2017 report from the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom.
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It may seem counterintuitive to oppose the criminalization of blasphemy, since few people enjoy hearing faith groups mocked or God cursed, Lantos Swett said. Blasphemy laws could be seen as a restatement of the third biblical commandment: Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain.
"The more I have worked in the field of international religious freedom, the more impressed I am by the wisdom of the founders of our republic," Lantos Swett said, noting that, from the beginning, American leaders worked to separate church and state.
This separation wasn't common in the European context, and blasphemy laws are present throughout the world at least in part because British colonizers brought support for them to distant lands, Foreign Policy reported.
"In the European context, (blasphemy laws) don't usually translate into severe restrictions or oppression, but it is still a little shocking how much of an outlier the U.S. is with its staunch commitment to the separation of organized religion and the state," Lantos Swett said.
However, the current outcry against blasphemy laws should not be seen as an American invention. Government leaders from around the world recognize that these statutes interfere with human rights protections, Cassidy said.
"Religious freedom doesn't protect religious ideas. It protects people's right to their beliefs or no beliefs," she said. "The U.N. Special Rapporteur has repeatedly said that blasphemy laws are problematic and not justified."
Read original post here: Perspective: Are Americans unique in their approach to blasphemy?
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