ВЕРСКО МАЊИНСТВО: ВРСТЕ И РАЗЈАШЊЕЊА
Religious Minorities: Types and Classifications

Summary/Abstract: The author of the article, in order to represent and explain religious minorities, defines the following phenomena: religion, denomination, confessional belonging, mono-confessional mentality, religion of choice, religion of minorities, minority religions, minority religious communities, and protestantization of the Roma. It can be assumed that there are a number of misunderstandings concerning these definitions, that the key social actors have opposite opinions about them, and that these facts directly provoke situation in which there are privileges for ones while the others are deprived – the former are being favoured, the latter are being stigmatized. It is clear that religious minorities – whether in shape of minority religion, religious minority, group of believers, ethno-religious group or minority religious community –are indeed influenced by majority, that is, "official" national religion. And this shouldn't be the case since such practice is against the essence of religion as such and it damages democratic development of a state. It is obvious that certain religious minorities, especially of protestant origins – whether they are called sociological cult, sect or denomination – undertake inappropriate missionary activities, convert and take over majority believers, most often from "official" national religion.

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