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Political Tolerance of Religions
In a free society people must be allowed to follow
whatever religion they like as long as long as it does not become a
means of antisocial or antinational activities. The government
should not officially endorse any religious belief as the ultimate
truth. Yet this does not mean that political leaders cannot
demonstrate any religious activity or show any concern for the
majority religion of their land.
In Western countries secularism, or a free
society, does not prevent political leaders from extolling or
espousing their majority religion of Christianity, but only that
they should not use it as a political plank. It is part of their
personal lives, which they can demonstrate in public, but it should
not be used to create religious favoritism by law or policy.
A secular based society has not prevented Western
countries from supporting or defending their religious groups in
their international policy. Western countries commonly defend
Christian groups on an international basis. For example, when Russia
recently tried to ban the Mormons, a unique American form of
Christianity that they regarded as a cult, the American government
issued a protest. Yet the government of Hindu majority India has not
similarly defended overseas Hindu groups from such charges, like the
cases against the Hare Krishna movement (ISKON), a Hindu movement in
the United States, which has been the object of attack by American
religious groups as a cult.
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