In modern New Zealand, public interest, debate, or for that matter, consternation over matters religious is rare: religion, God, and ‘all that church stuff’ is not a pressing concern in the lives of most of its 4.4 million citizens. In one sense the widespread cultural disinterest in organized religion that typifies much of New Zealand history may be viewed as a positive thing. It can hardly be a cause for regret that it has, by and large, not witnessed the large-scale and bitter religious turmoil that has beset many nations.

New Zealand's largest religious affiliation is Christian, and within Christianity, the largest denominations are Anglicans, Roman Catholics and Presbyterians. Unspecified numbers of Pentecostals and Evangelicals are a rapidly growing sector within Christianity as well. The actual level of churchgoing is significantly less than the official census figures, with the latest International Social Survey Programme report (in 2009) recording that some 20 per cent indicated that they attended church service at least once a month. Notably, the ‘no religion’ sector has grown significantly in each six-yearly census period since the 1970s, and the latest census, in 2006, recorded that some 34 per cent of New Zealanders identified themselves in this way.

Against this all too brief thumbnail sketch we turn now to the legal landscape. The New Zealand Bill of Rights Act 1990 (‘NZBORA’) recently celebrated its twentieth anniversary. This chapter seeks to draw some lessons from the last two decades. Specifically, it considers how one significant right, the right of religious freedom, has fared in the early years of New Zealand's Bill of Rights era.