What role does religion play in promoting civil rights?

Answer 1

Here are some examples. In ancient Rome, a man could kill his slaves and his sons (Roman Patrias Potestas law). In ancient societies, kings could kill serfs at will. Women and children had no legislated rights. There are many other such examples. Western society, through the example of the Jewish Torah, changed all of the above.

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Answer 2

Religion has little or no role in promoting human rights. For example, the American slave owners frequently used The Bible in their attempts to justify slavery. The apartheit era in South Africa is another example of highly religious white people using religion to justify their dominant position.

Even throughout Christian history, religion has been used to subvert human rights. Pope Innocent III

(1198-1216) condemned the Magna Carta, which represented a small step towards enshrining human rights in law, because he believed it undermined the authority of kings and therefore, ultimately, of the pope. Kingship is the antithesis of democracy and therefore of human rights, and we find ancient societies in Egypt, Judah and elsewhere using religion to shore up the position of kings. Under Jewish religious law, a man was required to kill his son if the son ever struck him. Some Muslim-majority countries still use religion to subvert human rights.

It is only when democracy freed Western society from the control of religion, that civil rights began to be promoted and enforced.