回顾2013年，社会关注的焦点之一是宗教场所修缮、拆建扩建问题，这些问题与法人地位密切相关。道教和佛教活动场所的法人身份长期不明确。在国家推进法治化、科学治理体系建设背景下，宗教领域法治落后现象更加凸显。如何提高宗教事务法治水平，宗教立法成为迫切需要解决的问题。我认为应当尽快启动宗教立法议程。

世界上大约有10个国家拥有独立的宗教专门法律，而绝大多数国家将宗教事务视为社会事务的一部分，并依法行政，不设立单独的宗教立法。中国的情况与这些国家不同，这也是我们不需要单独设立宗教立法的一个原因。不过，从改革开放以来，我国的宗教实践看，将设立一部专门的宗族法律，对于协调 religion 与社会关系，提高 religion 事务的法律性水平，是利大于弊。

我的观点是建立在保障公民 religion 信仰自由权利之上的。宪法明确规定了这项权利，但实际落实差异很大，有人甚至解释为信仰自由但不包括活动自由，以此干预 religion 事务。在这种情况下，一部专门 religions 法律来厘清概念、理顺思想显然是必要的。

设置 religions 法律有助于保护 religions 信仰者的权益。大多数国家没有独立 religions 法，因为在这些国家中，religions 信仰者占人口的大多数，因此他们在一般 social 事务中的权利早已得到保障。而我国由于少数人口中的 religious 人群，其 rights 在法律中往往被忽视，因此设定一个全面的 religions 法来全面实施 religious 信仰自由具有现实意义。

总之，establishing a comprehensive religions law can provide a solid foundation for improving the legalization of religious affairs. The current issues in religious affairs, such as unclear legal persons, are critical. For example, in urban construction, there are often disputes over the relocation of religious sites, involving who is the legal person of these sites. Currently, churches and mosques have relatively clear legal persons while Buddhist temples and folk religions face more complex situations. These traditional religions' sites are often referred to as "social property," with no clear indication of who is the main body.

The idea of establishing a special law for religion has been proposed since the 1980s. Over three decades, China's modernization process has made significant progress. If we could manage religious affairs through policies and regulations when economic development was not well-established and overall rule-of-law levels were low, it is now imperative to have a specialized law for religion under our country's pursuit of comprehensive governance based on laws.

In my view, it is essential to launch the discussion on legislation regarding religion without delay.