State atheism

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State atheism is the official rejection of religion in all forms by a government in favor of atheism. The only country to officially ban religion was Albania under Enver Hoxha; however, numerous governments such as China and Communist Mongolia throughout history have actively (and, sometimes, violently) opposed religion, persecuting religious institutions, leaders and believers, to the same extent as Hoxha's Albania. The Soviet Union had a long history of state atheism,^[1] in which social success largely required individuals to proclaim atheism and stay away from churches; this attitude was especially militant under Stalin.^[2][3][4] The Soviet Union imposed atheism over wide areas of its influence, including places like central Asia.^[5]

Poland under communist rule promoted state atheism and suppressed religion.^[6]

State atheism should not be confused either with anti-clericalism – the effort to reduce the power of the clergy, especially in politics – or with state secularism in which a state decides to refrain from having an established religion or to take a neutral view toward religious matters. A state established religion within a political system implies preferential treatment of one tradition at the expense of others. Finally, state atheism should not be confused with selective persecution of some religious beliefs or their adherents in favor of some other, more dominant religion.

[edit] Persecution under Communist regimes

Communist states have defined fealty to the state in such a way that religion can be proscribed or suppressed.^[7] Because the religious faithful typically give their loyalty to a power above their state, such states have commonly treated this as a basis for suppression or prohibition of the faith. For example, the state would claim Jews were considered beholden to the State of Israel, Catholics to the Vatican City, Buddhists in Tibet to the Dalai Lama, and thereby attach the charge of sedition to certain religions.^[7]

[edit] Albania under Hoxha

Main article: Religion in Albania

The trend toward state atheism in Albania was taken to an extreme during the totalitarian regime, when religions, identified as imports foreign to Albanian culture, were banned altogether. This policy was mainly applied and felt within the borders of the present Albanian state, thus producing a nonreligious majority in the population.

The Agrarian Reform Law of August 1945 nationalized most property of religious institutions, including the estates of monasteries, orders, and dioceses. By May 1967, religious institutions had relinquished all 2,169 churches, mosques, cloisters, and shrines, many of which were converted into cultural centers for young people. Many Muslim imams and Orthodox priests renounced their "parasitic" past. More than 200 clerics of various faiths were imprisoned, while others were forced to seek work in either industry or agriculture. As the literary monthly "Nëndori" reported the event, the youth had thus "created the first Atheist nation in the world." From year 1967 to the end of the totalitarian regime, religious practices were banned and the country was proclaimed officially Atheist, marking an event that happened for the first time in world history. Albanians born during the regime were never taught religion, so they grew up to become either Atheists or Agnostics.

Old non-institutional Pagan practices in rural areas, which were seen as identifying with the national culture, were left intact. As a result the current Albanian state has also brought pagan festivals to life, like the lunar Spring festival (Albanian: Dita e Verës) held yearly on March 14th in the city of Elbasan, which is a national holiday.

[edit] Religion in the Soviet Union

Main article: Religion in the Soviet Union

USSR. 1922 issue of the Bezbozhnik (The Atheist) magazine. By 1934, 28% of Christian Orthodox churches, 42% of Muslim mosques and 52% of Jewish synagogues were shut down in the USSR.^[8]

Soviet policy toward religion was based on the ideology of Marxism-Leninism, which made atheism the official doctrine of the Soviet Union. As the founder of the Soviet state V. I. Lenin put it:

Religion is the opium of the people: this saying of Marx is the cornerstone of the entire ideology of Marxism about religion. All modern religions and churches, all and of every kind of religious organizations are always considered by Marxism as the organs of bourgeois reaction, used for the protection of the exploitation and the stupefaction of the working class.^[9]

Marxism-Leninism has consistently advocated the control, suppression, and, ultimately, the elimination of religious beliefs. In the 1920s and 1930s, such organizations as the League of the Militant Godless ridiculed all religions and harassed believers. Atheism was propagated through schools, communist organizations (such as the Young Pioneer Organization), and the media. Though Lenin originally introduced the Gregorian calendar to the Soviets subsequent efforts to re-organise the week for the purposes of improving worker productivity with the introduction of the Soviet revolutionary calendar had a side-effect that a "holiday will seldom fall on Sunday" ^[10]

The regime's efforts to eradicate religion in the Soviet Union, however, varied over the years with respect to particular religions, and were affected by higher state interests. Official policies and practices not only varied with time but also in their application from one nationality and one religion to another. Although all Soviet leaders had the same long-range goal of developing a cohesive Soviet people, they pursued different policies to achieve it. For the Soviet regime, the questions of nationality and religion were always closely linked. Not surprisingly, therefore, the attitude toward religion also varied from a total ban on some religions to official support of others.

[edit] The People's Republic of China

Main article: Religion in the People's Republic of China

The People's Republic of China was established in 1949 and for much of its early history maintained a hostile attitude toward religion which was seen as emblematic of feudalism and foreign colonialism. Houses of worship, including temples, mosques, and churches, were converted into non-religious buildings for secular use.

In the early years of the People's Republic, religious belief or practice was often discouraged because it was regarded by the government as backward and superstitious and because some Communist leaders, ranging from Vladimir Lenin to Mao Zedong, had been critical of religious institutions. During the Cultural Revolution, religion was condemned as feudalistic and thousands of religious buildings were looted and destroyed.

This attitude, however, relaxed considerably in the late 1970s, with the end of the Cultural Revolution. The 1978 Constitution of the People's Republic of China guarantees "freedom of religion" with a number of restrictions. Since the mid-1990s there has been a massive program to rebuild Buddhist and Taoist temples that were destroyed in the Cultural Revolution.

The Communist Party has said that religious belief and membership are incompatible. Party membership is a necessity for many high level careers and posts. That along with other official hostility makes statistical reporting on religious membership difficult. There are five recognized religions by the state: Buddhism, Taoism, Islam, Catholic Christianity, and Protestant Christianity.^[11]

Most people report no organized religious affiliation; however, people with a belief in folk traditions and non-religious spiritual beliefs, such as ancestor veneration and feng shui, along with informal ties to local temples and unofficial house churches number in the hundreds of millions. The United States Department of State, in its annual report on International Religious Freedom,^[12] gives possibly the most reliable statistics about organized religions. In 2007 it reported the following (citing the Government's 1997 report on Religious Freedom and 2005 White Paper on religion):^[13]

• Buddhists 8%, with more than 200,000 monks and nuns. This value is seen as extremely low because there are more than 16,000 Buddhist temples that do not maintain traditional congregations.
• Taoists, unknown as a percentage, there are more than 25,000 Taoist monks and nuns at more than 1,500 temples. Taoist belief is often intertwined with both Buddhism and traditional folk religions.
• Muslims, 1.5%, with more than 45,000 Imams. Other estimates are much higher.
• Protestant Christians, at least 1.5% with official churches. It was estimated that the percentage of Christians had reached 10% by the end of 2006, about 1.5% being Catholics.

It should be noted, however, that statistics relating to Buddhism and religious Taoism are to some degree incomparable with statistics for Islam and Christianity. This is due to the traditional Chinese belief system which blends Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism, so that a person who follows a traditional belief system would not necessarily identify him- or herself as either Buddhist or Taoist, despite attending Buddhist or Taoist places of worship.

[edit] External links

• Keston Institute: Resources for the Studies of Communist Countries and Religious Affairs

[edit] See also

• Antireligion
• Communist terrorism
• Society of the Godless
• Religious persecution
• Religion in Albania
• Religion in China
• Religion in the Soviet Union
• Religion in Poland

[edit] Notes

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