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Bill: Amendment to the Religious Freedom Act and the Religious Discrimination Act
Details
Submitted by[?]: Nrljogadé Prta
Status[?]: passed
Votes: This bill is a resolution. It requires more yes votes than no votes. This bill will not pass any sooner than the deadline.
Voting deadline: November 4361
Description[?]:
| The Hanaja v. Nrlshehré case revealed a weakness in the Religious Freedom Act, a piece of legislation designed to protect adherents of all religions from discrimination and radical secularism. The Act left the definition of "religion" vague, and as a result was interpreted by local authorities as prohibiting atheist beliefs or failure to participate in religious rituals, which is an unconstitutional interpretation of an otherwise fully constitutional law. For that reason the Enlightenment Party shall amend the Religious Freedom Act and the Religious Discrimination Act in order to comply with the Supreme Court decision and the Constitution of the Federal Republic. Article 4 of the Religious Freedom Act ("There is no official state religion, but the government requires everyone to belong to a religion of some kind") and Article 8 of the Religious Discrimination Act ("The salaries and pensions of ministers of religions shall be regulated by the law, but shall be borne by the religious communities themselves") together constitute a system of religious taxation, allowing the government to collect fees from members of all religions in order to cover any denomination-related expenses such as funding institutions and foundations or paying ministers, while requiring all citizens to belong to any of the religious communities in Barmenistan. In order to prevent these two items of legislation from being used to discriminate against citizens on the basis of their personal religious belief and practice, the Religious Freedom Act is amended as follows: "An act to promote and protect the religious liberty of all Barmenian citizens regardless of denomination, and to foster an environment of religious pluralism and tolerance. All citizens are free to determine their own membership in any religious community they wish. Religious communities are not allowed to refuse membership to any individual for the purposes of this law, irrespective of the individual's personal religious believes and practices. The Secular Humanist Association of Barmenistan is officially recognized as a religious community for the purposes of this law". And the Religious Discrimination Act shall be amended as follows: "The Enlightenment Party campaigned on a platform of ending radical secularism and the discrimination against the faithful of the Federal Republic, and the voters have granted us their confidence. The popular mandate we have received requires us to continue our fight against religious discrimination and to restore confidence in the institutions of the Federal Republic for all its citizens. On the basis of tax regulations determined by the religious communities and within the limits set by Federal legislation, religious communities may either require Federal tax authorities to collect fees from the members on the basis of income tax assessment, or collect membership fees themselves. In order to provide for the collection of fees, the Federal government shall allow all citizens to determine which religious community shall be used for the purposes of this law. Membership in the religious community shall be stored in a Federal tax database. Members of a religious community may formally declare their wish to leave the community to Federal tax authorities, and state which community they wish to pay their religious taxes for. The Secular Humanist Association of Barmenistan is recognized as a religious community under the provisions of this law." |
Proposals
Debate
These messages have been posted to debate on this bill:
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| Vote | Seats | |
| yes |
Total Seats: 42 | |
| no | Total Seats: 0 | |
| abstain |
Total Seats: 33 |
| Random fact: Real-life quotations may be used in Particracy, but the real-life speaker or author should always be referenced in an OOC (out-of-character) note alongside the quotation. |
| Random quote: "Apparently, a democracy is a place where numerous elections are held at great cost without issues and with interchangeable candidates." - Gore Vidal |