Realm Discriminates

People have asked me about expanding on an earlier entry so I thought I would. I wrote about how the Monarch of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland has to be a Protestant and how that constitutes a lack of freedom of religion for the whole UK. I stand-by that statement. It is the truth, but there are more countries (all in the Commonwealth of Nations) that have the same open religious discrimination. They are the 16 Commonwealth Realms. A Commonwealth Realm is part of the 53 country Commonwealth of Nations, but these 16 realms have Queen Elizabeth II as their own Queen. That means that Queen Elizabeth II is considered the Queen of the United Kingdom when she represents the UK at home or overseas, but that when she is working as head of one of the Commonwealth Realms she is considered the Queen of that country. An example is when Queen Elizabeth II is giving her Royal Ascent to an act of the Canadian Parliament she is called the Queen of Canada. The 16 Realms are: Antigua and Barbuda, Australia, the Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Canada, Grenada, Jamaica, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, the Solomon Islands, Tuvalu and of course the United Kingdom.

Each of the Commonwealth Realms has agreed to the lines of succession. So what is the requirement for the Queen/King of the United Kingdom is also the requirement for the Queen/King of Canada, Australia, etc. In 2013 the Succession to the Crown Act was passed in each of the Realms. While the Act gave females equality in the line of succession it continues to openly discriminate against any non-Protestant. That means that the Monarch of any of the Commonwealth Realms has to be a Protestant - thus each Realm is officially stating that Protestantism is the favorite and preferred religion in each of those countries and so Protestants (the followers of Protestantism) are the favorite and preferred people in each of those countries. Giving this preferred status to Protestants officially alienates every other religion and the followers of that religion in these countries. That doesn't mean that Catholics, Jews, etc are being rounded-up or burned at the stake anymore, but it does mean that there is an official "glass ceiling" that continues to exist for non-Protestant men and women to be the Head of State (ie the Monarch) of the UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, etc while Protestant men and, now, women can achieve that position. Some people think that the Monarch is merely a symbol and has no real powers yet he/she has to give their Royal Ascent to any bill that any of the Realm's parliaments wants to pass. That seems like a pretty big say in things and while it is usually only a point of "rubber stamping" the Monarch can chose not to sign the act. I am a Canadian citizen (which makes me a Commonwealth citizen) and do not approve of Canada having an official state religion. I think Canada being a Constitutional Monarchy with Queen Elizabeth II as its Head of State is a good thing, but the "position" should be open to Protestants and non-Protestants alike. If Protestant men and women now have equal status in the line of succession then why not Catholic or Jewish men and women?  Canada (and most of the other Realms) claim they are free and democratic societies with freedom of religion yet how can you be free when you openly and officially discriminate against anyone non-Protestants? You can't. This open discrimination has lead to violence and killings (in the 30 year Troubles in Northern Ireland with the British Government - ie Protestants -  and the Irish Protestants denying basic civil rights to the Irish Catholics) and also to centuries of distrust and open discrimination between the Canadian Government (ie Protestants) and the Roman Catholic Quebecois. You can not expect people of different religions to live and thrive among each other when their Government officially claims they are not worthy of leading their own country. They have become second-class citizens the same black people in the American South up until the 1960s or in Apartheid South Africa were. To truly be a free, democratic and open society the Head of State/ Monarch needs to be open to men and women of any religion.