State religion

A state religion (also called an official religion, established church or state church) is a religious group or creed officially accepted by the state.

The term state church is used in context with Christianity, and is sometimes used for a specific national branch of Christianity.

 Christian countries 
The following states recognize some form of Christianity as their state or official religion (by denomination):

 Roman Catholic 
Jurisdictions which recognize Roman Catholicism as their state or official religion:
 Costa Rica
 Malta
 Monaco
 El Salvador
 Liechtenstein
 Vatican City (Theocracy)
 Some cantons of Switzerland (state religion):
 Appenzell Innerrhoden (declared "religion of the people of Appenzell Innerrhoden")
 Aargau
 Basel-Country
 Bern
 Glarus
 Graubünden
 Nidwalden
 Schwyz
 Thurgau
 Uri

 Old Catholic 
Jurisdictions which recognize an Old Catholic church as their state religion:
 Some cantons of Switzerland (Christian Catholic Church):
 Aargau
 Basel-Country
 Bern

 Eastern Orthodox 
Jurisdictions which recognize one of the Eastern Orthodox Churches as their state religion:
 Greece (Greek Orthodox Church)

 Protestant 

 Anglican 
 England (Church of England) established by law; plus, unestablished, the world-wide Anglican Communion

 Lutheran 
 Denmark (Church of Denmark)
 Iceland (Church of Iceland)
 Finland (Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland)

 Presbyterian 
 Scotland (Church of Scotland) established by law
 Scotland assorted Free Presbyterian churches, unestablished.

 Reformed 
Jurisdictions which recognize a Reformed church as their state religion:
 Some cantons of Switzerland (Swiss Reformed Church):
 Aargau
 Basel-Country
 Bern
 Glarus
 Graubünden
 Schwyz
 Thurgau
 Uri
 Zürich

 Other Christian 
 Zambia
 Samoa
 Solomon Islands

 Islamic countries 
Countries which recognize Islam as their official religion:

 No sect specified 
 Afghanistan (State religion)
 Bahrain (State religion)
 Bangladesh (State religion)
 Egypt (State religion)
 Iraq (State religion)
 Jordan (State religion)
 Kuwait (State religion)
 Libya (State religion)
 Maldives (State religion)
 Morocco
 Oman (State religion)
 Pakistan (State religion)
 Qatar (State religion)
 Tunisia
 United Arab Emirates (Religion of the Emirates)
 Yemen

 Sunni Islam 

 Algeria (State religion)
 Brunei (Official religion)

 Malaysia (State religion)
 Mauritania (Official religion)
 Saudi Arabia (Religion of the kingdom)
 Somalia (State religion)

 Shi'a Islam 
 Iran (Theocracy)

 Buddhist countries 
Governments which recognize Buddhism as their official religion:
 Bhutan (Drukpa Kagyu school of Tibetan Buddhism)
 Cambodia (Theravada Buddhism)
 Kalmykia, a republic within the Russian Federation (Tibetan Buddhism - sole Buddhist entity in Europe)
 Tibet Government in Exile (Gelugpa school of Tibetan Buddhism)
 Sri Lanka (Theravada Buddhism)

 Others 
 Israel is defined in several of its laws as a Democratic Jewish state, but has no state or official religion, "Jewish" being treated as a nationality. In other countries the term "Jewish" means either adhering to the Jewish religion (Judaism), or a Jew by descent (inheritance) or both.

 Ancient state religions 
 Egypt and Sumer 
The concept of state religions was known as long ago as the empires of Egypt and Sumer, when every city state or people had its own god or gods.

 Persian empire 
Zoroastrianism was the state religion of the Sassanid dynasty which lasted from 226 until 651.

 Greek city-states 
Many of the Greek city-states also had a 'god' or 'goddess' associated with that city.

 Roman Religion and Christianity 
When in Rome, the office of Pontifex Maximus was reserved for the emperor, failure to worship him as a god was sometimes punished by death, as the Roman government sought to link emperor worship with loyalty to the Empire. Many Christians and Jews were persecuted, because it was against their beliefs to worship the emperor.

Catholic Christianity, as opposed to Arianism and other heretical and schismatic groups, was declared to be the state religion of the Roman Empire on February 27, 380 by the decree De Fide Catolica of Emperor Theodosius I.

 Han Dynasty Confucianism and Sui Dynasty Buddhism 
In China, the Han Dynasty (206 BC—220 AD) advocated Confucianism as the de facto state religion, establishing tests based on Confucian texts as an entrance requirement into government service.

 Established churches and former state churches in Europe 
 Country  Church  Denomination  Disestablished Albania  none since independence Andorra  Roman Catholic Church  Catholic  ? Anhalt Evangelical Church of Anhalt Lutheran  1918 Armenia  Armenian Apostolic Church  Oriental Orthodox  1921 Austria  Roman Catholic Church  Catholic  1918 Baden Roman Catholic Church and the Evangelical Church of Baden Catholic and Lutheran  1918 Bavaria  Roman Catholic Church  Catholic  1918 Brunswick-Lüneburg Evangelical Church of Brunswick Lutheran  1918 Bulgaria  Bulgarian Orthodox Church  Eastern Orthodox  1946 Cyprus  Cypriot Orthodox Church Eastern Orthodox  1977 Czechoslovakia  Roman Catholic Church  Catholic  1948 Denmark  Church of Denmark Lutheran  no England  Church of England  Anglican  no Estonia  Church of Estonia Lutheran  1940 Finland  Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland Lutheran  1870/1919 France  Roman Catholic Church  Catholic  1905 Georgia  Georgian Orthodox Church  Eastern Orthodox  1921 Greece  Greek Orthodox Church Eastern Orthodox  no Hesse  Evangelical Church of Hesse and Nassau Lutheran  1918 Hungary  Roman Catholic Church  Catholic  1848 Iceland  Lutheran Evangelical Church Lutheran  no Ireland  Church of Ireland  Anglican  1869 Italy  Roman Catholic Church  Catholic  1984 Liechtenstein  Roman Catholic Church  Catholic  Lippe  Church of Lippe Reformed  1918 Lithuania  Roman Catholic Church  Catholic  1940 Lübeck  North Elbian Evangelical Church Lutheran  1918 Luxembourg  Roman Catholic Church  Catholic  Republic of Macedonia  Macedonian Orthodox Church Eastern Orthodox  1797 Malta  Roman Catholic Church  Catholic  no Mecklenburg Evangelical Church of Mecklenburg Lutheran  1918 Monaco  Roman Catholic Church  Catholic  ? Netherlands  Dutch Reformed Church Reformed  1795 Norway  Church of Norway Lutheran  2012 Oldenburg  Evangelical Church of Oldenburg Lutheran  1918 Paraguay  Roman Catholic Church  Catholic  1967 Poland  Roman Catholic Church  Catholic  1918 Portugal  Roman Catholic Church  Catholic  1976 Prussia  13 provincial churches  Lutheran  1918 Romania  Romanian Orthodox Church  Eastern Orthodox  1947 Russia  Russian Orthodox Church  Eastern Orthodox  1917 Thuringia  Evangelical Church in Thuringia Lutheran  1918 Saxony  Evangelical Church of Saxony Lutheran  1918 Schaumburg-Lippe Evangelical Church of Schaumburg-Lippe Lutheran  1918 Scotland  Church of Scotland  Presbyterian  no Serbia and Montenegro  Serbian Orthodox Church  Eastern Spain  Roman Catholic Church  Catholic  1978 Sweden  Church of Sweden  Lutheran  January 2000 Switzerland  none since the adoption of the Federal Constitution (1848) Turkey  Sunni Islam  Hanafi  1928 Waldeck Evangelical Church of the Hesse Electorate and Waldeck Lutheran  1918 Wales  Church in Wales Anglican  1920 Württemberg  Evangelical Church of Württemberg Lutheran  1918

In 1967, the Albanian government made atheism the "state religion". This designation remained in effect until 1991.

Finland's State Church was the Church of Sweden until 1809.

In France the Concordat of 1801 made the Roman Catholic, Calvinist and Lutheran churches state-sponsored religions, as well as Judaism.

In Hungary the constitutional laws of 1848 declared five established churches on equal status: the Roman Catholic, Calvinist, Lutheran, Eastern Orthodox and Unitarian Church. In 1868 the law was ratified again after the Ausgleich. In 1895 Judaism was also recognized as the sixth established church. In 1948 every distinction between the different denominations were abolished.

The Church in Wales was split from the Church of England in 1920 by Welsh Church Act 1914; at the same time becoming disestablished.

 Former state churches in British North America 
 Protestant colonies 
 Plymouth Colony was founded by Separatists.
 Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations was founded by Baptists.
 Province of Pennsylvania was founded by Quakers.

 Catholic colonies 
 When New France was transferred to Great Britain in 1763, the Roman Catholic Church remained under toleration, but Huguenots were allowed entrance where they had formerly been banned from settlement by Parisian authorities.
 Province of Maryland was founded by Irish Catholics in a state known as recusancy, but was stripped of this independence during the English Civil War by Roundheads—much as it was in the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland.
 Spanish Florida was ceded to the Great Britain in 1763, the British divided Florida into two colonies. Both East and West Florida continued a policy of toleration for the Catholic Residents.

 Colony  Denomination  Disestablished Connecticut  Congregational  1818 Georgia  Church of England  1789 Massachusetts Congregational  1780 New Brunswick  Church of England  New Hampshire Congregational  1790 Newfoundland  Church of England North Carolina Church of England  1776 Nova Scotia  Church of England  1850 Prince Edward Island  Church of England  South Carolina  Church of England  1790 Upper Canada  Church of England  1854 West Florida  Church of England  N/A East Florida  Church of England  N/A Virginia  Church of England  1786 West Indies  Church of England  1868

In several colonies, the establishment ceased to exist in practice at the Revolution, about 1776; this is the date of legal abolition.

in 1789 the Georgia Constitution was amended as follows:
"Article IV. Section 10. No person within this state shall, upon any pretense, be deprived of the inestimable privilege of worshipping God in any manner agreeable to his own conscience, nor be compelled to attend any place of worship contrary to his own faith and judgment; nor shall he ever be obliged to pay tithes, taxes, or any other rate, for the building or repairing any place of worship, or for the maintenance of any minister or ministry, contrary to what he believes to be right, or hath voluntarily engaged. To do. No one religious society shall ever be established in this state, in preference to another; nor shall any person be denied the enjoyment of any civil right merely on account of his religious principles."

From 1780 Massachusetts had a system which required every man to belong to a church, and permitted each church to tax its members, and did not require that it be a Congregational church. This was objected to, as in practice establishing the Congregational Church, and was abolished in 1833.

Until 1877 the New Hampshire Constitution required members of the State legislature to be of the Protestant religion.

The North Carolina Constitution of 1776 disestablished the Anglican church, but until 1835 the NC Constitution allowed only Protestants to hold public office. From 1835 to 1876 it allowed allowed only Christians (including Catholics) to hold public office. Article VI, Section 8 of the current NC Constitution forbids only atheists from holding public office. Such clauses were held by the United States Supreme Court to be unenforceable in the 1961 case of Torcaso v. Watkins, when the court ruled unanimously that such clauses constituted a religious test incompatible with First and Fourteenth Amendment protections.

Religious Tolerance for Catholics with an Established Church of England were policy in the former Spanish Colonies of East and West Florida while under British rule. East Florida was lost to Spain in 1781.

Religious tolerance for Catholics with an established Church of England were policy in the former Spanish Colonies of East and West Florida while under British rule. East Florida was returned to Spain in 1783.

 State of Deseret 
The State of Deseret was a provisional state of the United States, proposed in 1849 by Mormon settlers in Salt Lake City. The provisional state existed for slightly over two years.Struggle For Statehood Edward Leo Lyman, Utah History Encyclopedia

Related pages
 Secular state
 Theocracy
 Freedom of religion

References

 https://mysocialbliss.com/encyclopedia-of-religion-communication-and-media/ 

Other websites


Category:Religion