Religious uniformity

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Ten Protestant Martyrs, including Richard Woodman, were burnt to death in 1557 for not espousing the official state religion

Religious uniformity occurs when government is used to promote one state religion, denomination, or philosophy to the exclusion of all other religious beliefs.

History

Religious uniformity was common in many modern theocratic and atheistic governments around the world until fairly modern times. The modern concept of a separate

Rhode Island and Providence Plantations in 1636.[1][2]

In the United States, the

First Amendment to the Constitution (1791) prohibits the federal government from establishing or prohibiting a religion, and in 1947 the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that states cannot create established state churches in Everson v. Board of Education
.

See also

References

  1. (accessed July 11, 2009 on Google Books)
  2. ^ James Emanuel Ernst, Roger Williams, New England Firebrand (Macmillan Co., Rhode Island, 1932), pg. 246[2]