There is a dimension of the law of separation of the Churches and the State of December 9, 1905, therefore of secularism, which has never been sufficiently highlighted, to the point that one can wonder If it has really been seen. It is its spiritual dimension. This should however be obvious to reading the first two articles of the law: “The Republic ensures freedom of conscience. It guarantees the free exercise of cults under the only restrictions issued below in the interest of the order of public “(article 1); “The Republic does not recognize, not paying or subsidizing any worship” (article 2).
What type of freedom does the 1905 law do this? Not on any socio -political freedom: in an explicit and specific way, what is guaranteed there is indeed a freedom of spiritual order since the notion of “cult” refers to the tribute paid to a divinity by prayer, the sacrifice or offering. But, since then, we have generally seen in this law, and in secularism, that a political tool responsible for limiting the public influence of religion; Which is certainly fair, as soon as: “the Republic does not recognize, does not pay or subsidize any worship”; However, this statement of article 2 of the law “obscured” that of article 1, which does not aim to bring back the public influence of religion, but to “guarantee the free exercise of cults”, In other words to ensure the spiritual life of the citizen in law.
Are these two articles contradictory? On the contrary, they are complementary, and it is about this complementarity that something essential has escaped us, which should have taken us to the eyes: by guaranteeing a “free exercise of cults” while no longer recognizing these Cults as public powers, we released the cult of the power of the Churches. This is what should have read in the expression of “guarantee of the free exercise of cults”: the freedom recognized for personal spiritual life, which it is expressed in a religious cult or not; The emancipation of the freedom to believe or not to believe vis-à-vis any religious institution. The “free exercise of cults” is the exercise of a “free” cult, in other words of a cult whose choice is only a personal decision of each conscience; of a worship which can be without constraint that of a religion, but, just as much, of a cult where the spiritual life will express themselves outside the religious framework.
You have 58.43% of this article to read. The continuation is reserved for subscribers.