Third Ecumenical Report on Religious Freedom Worldwide. A Christian Perspective on a Universal Human Right

For the third time (after 2013 and 2017), the German Bishops' Conference and the Council of the Protestant Church in Germany (EKD) are presenting an ‘Ecumenical Report on Religious Freedom Worldwide’. The 180-page document takes a ‘Christian Perspective on a Universal Human Right’ and describes the growing questioning, restriction and open disregard for religious freedom in many parts of the world. The report makes it clear that Christians are greatly affected by these developments, but that members of other religions also suffer discrimination and persecution. Religious freedom is not only under pressure in authoritarian-atheist and some Islamic countries. Elsewhere, too, there is a growing tendency towards greater cultural homogenisation at the expense of religious minorities.

The Ecumenical Report also pays particular attention to the secular states of the West. Here, it becomes clear that ‘progressive’ political and intellectual circles increasingly tend to see religious freedom as an obstacle on the path to social emancipation and therefore subordinate it to other civil liberties. At the other end of the political spectrum, right-wing populist movements are staging themselves as defenders of Christianity in order to marginalise other religions through client politics. In the face of all these tendencies of our time, the churches in Germany insist on the recognition and protection of religious freedom as a human right based on the dignity of each individual. The churches' Report describes the current challenges to religious freedom with regard to a range of topics (migration, gender equality, civil society, security, right-wing populism, and indigenous peoples) and includes twelve country reports.