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Contents: African traditional religion; Colonialism and Christianity; The rise of African nationalism; Religious pluralism in Africa.

The Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) attempts to shield Americans from the sort of choice Antigone had to make between the state's command and her faith's calling. In general, the RFRA statutes ensure that government cannot compel an individual to act against her faith unless a compelling government interest demands it, and the measure is narrowly tailored to serve those interests. But when Indiana Governor Mike Pence became the 20th governor to sign a state-level RFRA into law in March, legal tragedy degenerated into political farce as the statute became the latest staging ground in the ongoing national debate on gay rights. Gay-rights activists charged that the Indiana law amounted to a license to discriminate on religious pretexts. The American Civil Liberties Union, originally one of the key supporters of the federal RFRA, denounced the statute as a terrible and dangerous mistake, and Hillary Clinton, whose husband signed the original act into law in 1993, lamented on Twitter: Sad this new Indiana law can happen in America today. Adapted from the source document.

It is argued that Africans are naturally religious; therefore, the African state ought to integrate the religious dimension into its political ideology: the forces of nationalism & spirituality could be used to reconcile the power of imported religions -- primarily Islam & Christianity -- with animism. African states are also challenged to resolve the problem of church & state inherited from the colonial era. Cases of religious persecution are discussed, based on Amnesty International reports. The conclusion is that African states ought to strive for greater pluralism, grounding their policies in the principle of religious freedom which, it is argued, is foundational to the emancipation of the human spirit. Modified AA

Provides a forward to the book The Founders on God and Government in which the author argues that political historians have overlooked the ties between religion & politics in the founding of the United States. Adapted from the source document

Since the inception of the United States, religious freedom has been something that Americans have held with the highest reverence. In fact, it is no coincidence that the First Amendment of the Constitution begins "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof. . ." In our nation, with a plurality of faiths and opinions, it is almost inevitable that conflict would occur between the secular society and the faith of an individual. In America, such disputes are argued in the courts. Precedents are set and laws are interpreted not in the church sanctuary, but in the halls of legislative assemblies and courtrooms. The conflict is never settled, but the various arguments of conflicting parties evolve over time. The purpose of this research is to help inform the discourse of religious liberty by charting both legal arguments and public opinion in their evolution over time.