Global Changes in Advancing Religious Freedom
W. Cole Durham, Jr.
Education Conference ·
June 06, 2009
Cole Durham, the director of the International Center for Law and Religion Studies at Brigham Young University's J. Reuben Clark Law School, spoke about global challenges in advancing religious
freedom. He shared a status report on religious freedom worldwide and
highlighted countries in which people lack the ability to publically
worship as they wish.
“Partly because of the war in Iraq, but
for many reasons, Christians are fleeing the Middle East,” he said. “It
is interesting to note that there is a great reluctance on the part of
other countries to accept refugees or those seeking asylum.”
Durham
described that there is a rebirth of fear around religious freedom in
Russia and other countries. In particular, the number of countries with
anti-conversion laws is increasing. In some predominantly Muslim
nations, for instance, conversion is equated with apostasy and is a
capital offense, he said.
Durham highlighted the importance of precedent set by international law and the rulings of international courts.
“The
European court is dealing with seven cases of religious employment,
including one involving a member of the Church,” he said. And the
Church found out about the case almost by accident. “These cases are
phenomenally significant for religious communities.”
Most
countries have non-discrimination laws, which is a good thing, Durham
said. “The problem is that people don’t think about what this means for
religious employers.”
It is unclear how the court’s decisions
could affect employment laws for churches, charities, church-owned
media outlets, and religious-based schools. Durham said that it could
become complicated for the Church, for instance, if the law dictated
temple worthiness could not be a precondition for employment.