Abstract

SARRAZIN, Jean Paul  and  REDONDO, Saira Pilar. Civic Duties versus Religious Duties. Questioning the secular and pluralistic nature of the Colombian State through the jurisprudence related to the Jehovah’s Witnesses. Estud. Polit. [online]. 2023, n.68, pp.115-137.  Epub Dec 12, 2023. ISSN 0121-5167.  https://doi.org/10.17533/udea.espo.n68a05.

The objective of this article is to analyze the arguments by which the Constitutional Court of Colombia rules against members of the Jehovah’s Witnesses church, who refuse to carry out “civic duties” considering them as acts of “worship”. For the Court, that interpretation is inadmissible, pointing out the need to distinguish the religious and the civic spheres, and, at the same time, reaffirming the importance of participating in acts “of love and veneration for the country.” Through a qualitative methodology, the arguments put forward by the high court are analyzed in the light of recent theories from the social sciences on religion and secularization. It is concluded that the Court’s rulings, based on an apparently anodyne semantic question, reflect obsolete and highly debatable conceptions of religion and secularity, as well as unexpected limitations on religious freedom, and demonstrate the imposition of a State worldview. All this makes leads to question the secular and pluralist character of the Colombian State.

Keywords : Political Institutions; Constitutional Court; Religious Freedom; Secularism; Pluralism; Jehovah’s Witnesses.

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