Republicanism And Religion

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Republicanism And Religion

There have been a number of examples of this:

The founding of the Dutch Republic was in part due to the rejection of the dominance of the Catholic kings of Spain who opposed the Dutch Protestantism. After the independent republic was set up and in 1651 the Dutch Reformed Church was made the state religion.

In the United States the Founding Fathers largely rejected the Anglicanism of the British monarchy. The American Revolution was fueled by Puritanism and Congregationalism . After the republic was established several states made these faiths their official religion. For instance Congregationalism remained the official state religion of Connecticut until 1818. Eventually this practice was rejected and state religions were abolished.

One of the driving forces of Irish Republicanism has always been the divide between Catholic Ireland and its Anglican rulers.

In Iran the Shah was seen to have abandoned Islam and in the Iranian Revolution he was overthrown and a theocratic regime was installed to replace him.

The Communist republican movements in Russia, Vietnam, and elsewhere were fiercely anti-religious. On the other hand in these communist countries Marxist and/or Stalinist and/or Maoist (etc.) doctrines can be seen to be at least as determining as a ''state religion''.

Besides being anti-monarchial, the .

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