Mexico

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1: Articles 3, 5, 24, 27, and 130 of the Mexican Constitution of 1917 as originally enacted were anticlerical and restricted religious freedoms.

  • <ref name="lawreview.byu.edu">Soberanes Fernandez, Jose Luis, [http://lawreview.byu.edu/archives/2002/2/Sob12.pdf Mexico and the 1981 United Nations Declaration on the Elimination of All Forms of Intolerance and of Discrimination Based on Religion or Belief], pp. 437-438 nn. 7-8, BYU Law Review, June 2002</ref>


1: At first the anticlerical provisions were seldom enforced, but when President Plutarco Elías Calles took office in 1924, he enforced the provisions strictly.

  • <ref name="lawreview.byu.edu"/>


1: Calles’ Mexico has been characterized as an atheist state

  • <ref>Haas, Ernst B., [https://books.google.com/books?id=ldKJ_Re6p8AC&pg Nationalism, Liberalism, and Progress: The dismal fate of new nations], Cornell Univ. Press 2000</ref>


1: and his program as being one to eradicate religion in Mexico.

  • <ref>Cronon, E. David "American Catholics and Mexican Anticlericalism, 1933-1936,", pp. 205-208, Mississippi Valley Historical Review, XLV, Sept. 1948</ref>


1: All religions had their properties expropriated, and these became part of government wealth. There was an expulsion of foreign clergy and the seizure of Church properties.

  • <ref name="ilstu.edu">{{cite web |url=http://www.ilstu.edu/class/hist263/docs/1917const.html |title=Archived copy |accessdate=2007-03-03 |deadurl=yes |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20070303014932/http://www.ilstu.edu/class/hist263/docs/1917const.html |archivedate=2007-03-03 |df= }}</ref>


1: Article 27 prohibited any future acquisition of such property by the churches, and prohibited religious corporations and ministers from establishing or directing primary schools.

  • <ref name="ilstu.edu" />


1: This second prohibition was sometimes interpreted to mean that the Church could not give religious instruction to children within the churches on Sundays, seen as destroying the ability of Catholics to be educated in their own religion.

  • <ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.myheritage.es/FP/newsItem.php?s=114433561&newsID=68&sourceList=dir|title=THE DECLINE AND FALL OF THE MARTIN-DEL-CAMPOs Part II|publisher=[http://www.myheritage.es myheritage.es]}}</ref><!-- see also http://toolserver.org/~dcoetzee/duplicationdetector/compare.php?url1=http%3A%2F%2Fen.wikipedia.org%2Fw%2Findex.php%3Ftitle%3DState_atheism&url2=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.nairaland.com%2F723007%2Ftai-solarin-life-ideas-accomplishments%2F2&minwords=2&minchars=13 -->


1: The Constitution of 1917 also forbade the existence of monastic orders (article 5) and any religious activity outside of church buildings (now owned by the government), and mandated that such religious activity would be overseen by the government (article 24).

  • <ref name="ilstu.edu"/>


1: On June 14, 1926, President Calles enacted anticlerical legislation known formally as The Law Reforming the Penal Code and unofficially as the Calles Law.

  • <ref name="Joes, Anthony James p. 70">Joes, Anthony James [https://books.google.com/books?id=buHXFDFdeoQC&pg=PA70&dq=plutarco+calles+anticatholic&as_brr=3&sig=fnPEry3_KKxtgC6IdVhGGh8lMG8#PPA70,M1 Resisting Rebellion: The History And Politics of Counterinsurgency] p. 70, (2006 University Press of Kentucky) {{ISBN|0-8131-9170-X}}</ref>


1: His anti-Catholic actions included outlawing religious orders, depriving the Church of property rights and depriving the clergy of civil liberties, including their right to a trial by jury (in cases involving anti-clerical laws) and the right to vote.

  • <ref name="Joes, Anthony James p. 70"/><ref name="THE CRISTERO REBELLION - PART 1">Tuck, Jim [http://www.mexconnect.com/mex_/history/jtuck/jtcristero1.html THE CRISTERO REBELLION – PART 1] Mexico Connect 1996</ref>


1: Catholic antipathy towards Calles was enhanced because of his vocal atheism.

  • <ref name="books.google.com">{{cite book |title=Mexico's New Politics |author=David A. Shirk |year=2005 |publisher=[[Lynne Rienner Publishers]] |isbn=1-58826-270-7 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WOBRb0wKpocC&pg=PA58&lpg=PA58&dq }}</ref>


1: He was also a Freemason.

  • <ref>Denslow, William R. [https://books.google.com/books?id=dmPato81X9sC&pg=PA171&dq=plutarco+calles+freemason&sig=NsSB9-6KQUn50HmpBT8eh9nx3No 10,000 Famous Freemasons] p. 171 (2004 Kessinger Publishing){{ISBN|1-4179-7578-4}}</ref>


1: Regarding this period, recent President Vicente Fox stated, "After 1917, Mexico was led by anti-Catholic Freemasons who tried to evoke the anticlerical spirit of popular indigenous President Benito Juárez of the 1880s. But the military dictators of the 1920s were a more savage lot than Juarez."

  • <ref>Fox, Vicente and Rob Allyn [https://books.google.com/books?id=bLDDf9vi-esC&dq Revolution of Hope] p. 17, Viking, 2007</ref>


1: Due to the strict enforcement of anti-clerical laws, people in strongly Catholic areas, especially the states of Jalisco, Zacatecas, Guanajuato, Colima and Michoacán, began to oppose him, and this opposition led to the Cristero War from 1926 to 1929, which was characterized by brutal atrocities on both sides. Some Cristeros applied terrorist tactics, while the Mexican government persecuted the clergy, killing suspected Cristeros and supporters and often retaliating against innocent individuals.

  • <ref>[http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/Plutarco_Elias_Calles.aspx Calles, Plutarco Elías] The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. 2001–05 Columbia University Press.</ref>


1: On May 28, 1926, Calles was awarded a medal of merit from the head of Mexico's Scottish rite of Freemasonry for his actions against the Catholics.

  • <ref>[http://www.storialibera.it/epoca_contemporanea/messico_1926-1929/articolo.php?id=508 The Cristeros: 20th century Mexico's Catholic uprising, from The Angelus, January 2002, Volume XXV, Number 1] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090903020244/http://www.storialibera.it/epoca_contemporanea/messico_1926-1929/articolo.php?id=508 |date=2009-09-03 }} by Olivier LELIBRE, [[The Angelus (magazine)|The Angelus]]</ref>


1: A truce was negotiated with the assistance of U.S. Ambassador Dwight Whitney Morrow.

  • <ref name="Blood Drenched Altars">Van Hove, Brian [http://www.ewtn.com/library/HOMELIBR/FR94204.TXT Blood Drenched Altars] 1996 EWTN</ref>


1: Calles, however, did not abide by the terms of the truce – in violation of its terms, he had approximately 500 Cristero leaders and 5,000 other Cristeros shot, frequently in their homes in front of their spouses and children.

  • <ref name="Blood Drenched Altars"/>


1: Particularly offensive to Catholics after the supposed truce was Calles' insistence on a complete state monopoly on education, suppressing all Catholic education and introducing "socialist" education in its place: "We must enter and take possession of the mind of childhood, the mind of youth.".

  • <ref name="Blood-Drenched Altars">Van Hove, Brian [http://www.ewtn.com/library/HOMELIBR/FR94204.TXT Blood-Drenched Altars] Faith & Reason 1994</ref>


1: The persecution continued as Calles maintained control under his Maximato and did not relent until 1940, when President Manuel Ávila Camacho, a believing Catholic, took office.

  • <ref name="Blood-Drenched Altars"/>


1: This attempt to indoctrinate the youth in atheism was begun in 1934 by amending Article 3 to the Mexican Constitution to eradicate religion by mandating "socialist education", which "in addition to removing all religious doctrine" would "combat fanaticism and prejudices", "build[ing] in the youth a rational and exact concept of the universe and of social life".

  • <ref name="lawreview.byu.edu"/>


1: In 1946 this "socialist education" was removed from the constitution and the document returned to the less egregious generalized secular education. The effects of the war on the Church were profound. Between 1926 and 1934 at least 40 priests were killed.

  • <ref name="Blood-Drenched Altars"/>


1: Where there were 4,500 priests operating within the country before the rebellion, in 1934 there were only 334 priests licensed by the government to serve fifteen million people, the rest having been eliminated by emigration, expulsion, and assassination.

  • <ref name="Blood-Drenched Altars"/> * <ref>Scheina, Robert L. [https://books.google.com/books?id=8aWQ_7oKJfkC&pg=PA33&lpg=PA33&dq=cristero+war+priests+killed&source=web&ots=YNDpLM2ukb&sig=YWccvtnJKnSpaI15bTHCOX3zoyc#PPA33,M1 Latin America's Wars: The Age of the Caudillo, 1791–1899] p. 33 (2003 Brassey's) {{ISBN|1-57488-452-2}}</ref>


1: By 1935, 17 states had no priest at all.

  • <ref>Ruiz, Ramón Eduardo [https://books.google.com/books?id=AfdjWl1xKpwC&pg=PA392&dq=Tom%C3%A1s+Garrido+Canabal&as_brr=3&sig=HkfPtdqMt3qrdcMuprgfjnfnq60 Triumphs and Tragedy: A History of the Mexican People] p.393 (1993 W. W. Norton & Company) {{ISBN|0-393-31066-3}}</ref>


Sources

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1: State promotion of atheism as a public norm first came to prominence in Revolutionary France (1789–1799).[1]

  1. The source does not support the text. Not even close.

2: Historian Gavin Hyman argues the "French Revolution made atheism officially respectable in France," He adds that the hostile reaction to the Revolution in Britain had the opposite effect.[2]

  1. The full quote is, "But if the French Revolution made atheism officially respectable in France, it appeared to have precisely the opposite effect in Britain." But being the operative word.
  2. Gavin Hyman is not a historian.

3: A campaign of dechristianization happened which included removal and destruction of religious objects from places of worship and the transformation of churches into "Temples of the Goddess of Reason", culminating in a celebration of Reason in Notre Dame Cathedral.[3]

  1. Supported by the source, but it's trivia in pursuit of WP:SYNTH.

4: One of the leaders of the Terror was Maximilien Robespierre; he did believe in a Supreme Being and he strongly opposed atheism. He accused the dechristianizers "under pretense of destroying superstition ... [of making] a kind of religion of atheism itself."[4]

  1. Supported by the source, but still not on topic. I.e., WP:SYNTH.

5: According to French historian Michel Vovelle, the Cult of Reason first appeared during the trial of Marie Antoinette, but took off after the execution of Antoinette.[5]

  1. A book by two fringe authors does not a reliable source make. I.e., Pyramids and Freemasons are off topic.

6: The Cult of Reason was founded by Jacques Hébert and his followers. The Cult of Reason was the first official state sponsored, civic, and atheistic religion of the French Republic from October 1793 until March 1794. The Cult of Reason became popular among intellectuals and sans culottes alike. From mid-1793 the Jacobin-dominated French Convention gave tacit approval to the Cult of Reason. On 6 October 1793, the National Convention replaced the Gregorian calendar for the French Republican Calendar for France. Together with Pierre Gaspard Chaumette, Joseph Fouché, in the Nièvre department, Fouché ransacked churches, sent their valuables to the treasury, and ordered the words "Death is an eternal sleep" to be inscribed over the gates to cemeteries.[6]

  1. The second sentence is not supported by the source.
  2. Michael Davies (Catholic writer) is not a reliable source on the topic. I.e., The balance, factual or not, is irrelevant.

7: On 10 November 1793, the Festival of Reason was held in the Notre-Dame de Paris, a newly converted Temple of Reason.[7]

  1. Supported, but off topic. Trivia in pursuit of WP:SYNTH, again.

8: Historian Gavin Flood says, "During the French Revolution in 1793 the Gothic Cathedral of Notre Dame de Paris was rededicated to the Cult of Reason, an atheistic doctrine intended to replace Christianity."[8]

  1. The quote is accurate, but is the first sentence of a chapter entitled, "Religion and rationality." I.e., The source does not cover "State atheism."
  2. The source contains exactly two mentions of the "French Revolution", both are on the page cited. I.e., The source does not cover the "French Revolution."
  3. Gavin Flood is, also, not a historian.

9: The Cult of Reason vanished quickly, after its chief exponents, Jacques Hébert and his followers were guillotined on 24 March 1794.[9][7]

  1. Supported, but off topic. a.k.a., Trivia in pursuit of WP:SYNTH.
Sources

  1. ^ Latreille, A. (2003), "French Revolution", in Marthaler, Berard L; et al. (eds.), New Catholic Encyclopedia, vol. 5, Catholic University of America (2nd ed.), Detroit: Gale, pp. 972–973, ISBN 0787640093
  2. ^ Hyman, Gavin (2010). A Short History of Atheism. London: I.B. Tauris & Company. p. 9. ISBN 9780857730350.
  3. ^ Neely, Sylvia (2008). A Concise History of the French Revolution. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield. pp. 198–99. ISBN 9780742534117.
  4. ^ Frey, Linda; Frey, Marsha (2004). The French Revolution. Westport, Conn: Greenwood Press. p. 32. ISBN 9780313321931.
  5. ^ Hancock, Graham; Bauval, Robert (2011). The Master Game: Unmasking the Secret Rulers of the World. New York: Red Wheel Weiser. p. 451. ISBN 9781934708644.
  6. ^ Davies, Michael (1997). For Altar and Throne: The Rising in the Vendee. Saint Paul: Remnant Press. p. 63. ISBN 9781890740009.
  7. ^ a b Llewellyn, J; Thompson, S. (2015). "The Cult of the Supreme Being". Alpha History. Retrieved 19 December 2017.
  8. ^ Flood, Gavin (2012). The Importance of Religion: Meaning and Action in Our Strange World. Chichester, West Sussex, UK: Wiley-Blackwell. p. 130. ISBN 9781405189712.
  9. ^ Lawlor, M. (2003), "Reason, Cult of Goddess of", in Marthaler, Berard L; et al. (eds.), New Catholic Encyclopedia, vol. 11, Catholic University of America (2nd ed.), Detroit: Gale, pp. 945–946, ISBN 0787640158

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