It was many years ago, in a warm and sunny day, the opposition leader emerged from the plane, getting ready to present a new vision for an oppressed nation. He was greeted by crowds welcoming him back home from exile, driven out by a president who silenced all his opponents by proclaiming them enemies of the nation. Unbeknowngst to him, his return to his beloved homeland will be his last day. A gunman took the life of this man and snuffed the voice that dared to speak against a regime that has become corrupt, against leaders that has enriched themselves instead of lifting the people from poverty.

     What would prevent this American Nation from being overrun by corrupt leaders who will kill those who oppose them? The founding fathers of the American nation wanted to create a nation where this would not happen. They came from nations that have an established religion, and those not of the established religion are treated as second class citizens. They came from nations where a person can be harmed for questioning its leaders. Therefore, the founding fathers formed a nation where freedom of speech, religion, assembly, etc. are honored. These freedoms guaranteed that nobody will be persecuted for expressing their conscience. Nobody will be persecuted for opposing the policies of the government. Nobody will be persecuted for worshipping in a way that is different from the majority.

     Today these freedoms have been reinterpreted to support the interests of some over the interests of others. The freedom of speech is under attack by those who want to silence opposition to their lifestyle, in the guise of promoting their civil rights. The freedom of religion has been used by those who want to remove vestiges of the presence of the divine in public life, in the guise of maintaining the separation of church and state.

     Why am I expressing these observations? To remind us that this country is built on the sacredness of conscience, that everyone is free to hold to their ideas of right and wrong and free to express it. This foundation can both be good and bad. It opens the way for prophetic voices that could freely confront evil in society. It allows voices to confront evils like American slavery and abortion on demand, which destroys human beings in different ways. On the other hand, the sacredness of conscience also means that those evils can be freely defended in the name of progress and women's rights, public goods for many people. What do we do with this ambivalent nature of freedom- that it serves both good and bad? It is a hard question and despite its dangers, it is a principle that we need to defend for the sake of our own freedom. This calls for charity towards those who disagree wih us, even to the point of defending their right to speak their conscience.