宗教團體的宗教自由與國家管制問題──內湖保護區慈濟開發案的反思

Constitutional Protection of Religious Groups and the Related Control by the State: A Rethinking of Tzu Chi Land Dvelopment Plan in Neihu

憲法第十三條保障人民信仰宗教的自由，這意味著國家應謹守宗教中立的界限，不得隨意干涉宗教團體內部事務的運作，也不能以國家認可的價值來判定宗教是否是「好」的宗教。然而，在民主社會中，宗教團體往往掌握有大量的選票，而宗教團體為了擴展信徒人數、增加規模，不免會向政府要求購買土地、協辦活動……等，而產生了政治與宗教互動的情況。日前慈濟內湖土地開發案引發各界撻罰，當地居民與諸多公民團體要求慈濟停止土地開發行為，並公開其內部財政。本文藉本案為引，探討國家是否能因公益目的介入宗教團體內部的人事、財政、組織之自治；而若有介入的理由，其界線又該如何畫定。

§ 13 of the constitution protects freedom of religion, when it comes to regligious affairs, the state shall keep neutralitiy. In other words, the state shall neither judge whether a religion is good, nor interfere the autonomy in a religious group. However, in modern democratic society, the religious groups often get close to politic power for seeking possible resource to increase the scales of themselve. On the other hand, religious groups may hold the ballots from their disciples and it causes the politic groups to provide some bonus for exchange. Politc groups and religious groups therefore interact in many aspects.
Recently, the land development invested by Tzu Chi in Neihu had stired up a lot of issues. Local residents and many social movement groups fight against the development plan and Tzu Chi finally promised to give up the development plan and make their financial statements public. This article tries to analysis this case and examine if the state can interfere the finicial, personnel and organizational autonomy in religious groups when there exists some purpose for public wellfare.