Commentary

When “freedom from religion” became dangerous

When “freedom from religion” became dangerous

Kelly Thomas

It's no secret that religion has become a dirty word in the public sphere, particularly in politics. The "freedom of religion" portion of the First Amendment has increasingly come to mean that public expressions of faith are unwelcome, lest anyone feel offended.  It goes without saying that religious intolerance in the name of tolerance runs contrary to America's founding principles.  But in the age of religiously motivated terrorism, it has also become a national security liability.

A privatized role for religion is precisely the opposite of the robust relationship our Founding Fathers envisioned between Church and State. In his Federalist papers, James Madison openly encouraged vibrant, and even raucous, religious debate in the public square, noting that such dialogue is a necessity condition  liberty to flourish. George Washington's Farewell Address called for freedom of religious expression for all faiths, commenting that religion is one of the "indispensable supports" of the fledgling nation. The so-called Establishment Clause of the first Amendment in the U.S. Constitution was designed to preserve and protect this very freedom.

This is what a conservative looks like at Harvard
Commentary

This is what a conservative looks like at Harvard

Emily Hall

Before college, I had never really been challenged in my political beliefs. I grew up on the shoreline of Connecticut and went to Catholic school there for fourteen years. In that environment, most of the people I interacted with agreed with me morally and politically, at least on most of the issues that I knew and cared about.

All of that changed, however, when I started my freshman year of college at "The Kremlin on the Charles," as Harvard has become known. Many of the people that I met were disgusted with conservatism, had misconceptions of what I, as a conservative, might believe, or simply didn't think that a college-age woman might disagree with modern feminism and liberalism. I was often met with disbelief when I expressed conservative viewpoints.

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