Religious censorship

Censorship by religion is a form of censorship where freedom of expression is controlled or limited using religious authority or on the basis of the teachings of the religion. This form of censorship has a long history and is practiced in many societies and by many religions. Well known examples include the censorship by the Vatican of Galileo's support for heliocentric theory and of Salman Rushdie's novel The Satanic Verses by the Iranian leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.

Religious censorship is defined as the act of suppressing views that are contrary of those of an organized religion. It is usually performed on the grounds of blasphemy, heresy, sacrilege, impiety - the censored work being viewed as obscene, challenging a dogma, or violating a religious taboo. Defending against these charges is often difficult as many religions permit only the religious authorities (clergy) to interpret doctrine and the interpretation is usually dogmatic. The Catholic church banned hundreds of writings, and maintained the Index Librorum Prohibitorum (index of prohibited books), most of which were writings that the church had deemed dangerous, until 1965.

Other types of book on the Index Librorum Prohibitorum include works by Desiderius Erasmus, a Catholic scholar who pointed out that the Comma Johanneum was probably forged, Nicolaus Copernicus who argued for a Heliocentric orbit of the earth in De revolutionibus orbium coelestium, and the sex manual The Perfect Marriage which argues for positions other than the missionary position.

Other books were so successfully suppressed that they were thought lost until the chance rediscovery in the 20th century of some parts of the New Testament apocrypha. The Gospel of Thomas is prominent amongst these as being regarded as most dangerous by the church - it contains alleged logia (sayings) of Jesus that contradict the teachings of the church, and instead support gnosticism.

Similar methodology has been carried out under Islamic theocracies, such as the fatwa (religious judgment) against the Satanic Verses (a novel), ordering that the author be executed for blasphemy.

Examples

• Depiction of the human form in art (Islam, Judaism)
• Fig-leaf campaign to cover nudity in art (Roman Catholic Church)
• Scientific theories
  • Darwinian evolution (Roman Catholic Church)
• Literature
  • Works by Taslima Nasrin (Islam)
  • The Da Vinci Code (banned by the government of Iran and attacked by several religious organizations, especially the Roman Catholic Church.)
  • Banning of the Harry Potter Series is urged by Christian Conservatives.
• Censorship of pornography is supported and advocated by conservative religious leaders and organizations (see Anti-pornography movement).
• The Profit is a feature film written and directed by Peter N. Alexander in 2001. Little seen, worldwide distribution of the film was prohibited by an American court order, the result of a lawsuit by the Church of Scientology although the filmmaker claims that the film is not about Scientology.
• The Power and the Glory: The Cult of Manalo was banned by the Philippine sect Iglesia ni Cristo from being published in the Philippines.
• In the Bible
  • Sorcery books worth 50,000 silver were burned by Paul's converts at Ephesus.(Acts 19:19)

See also

• Aniconism
• Freedom of speech versus blasphemy
• Iconoclasm

Notes

• Scientology

External links

• Articles about censorship by religion in the field of music on Freemuse.org - the world's largest database on music censorship