WHAT WOULD YOU SAY: Doesn’t Religious Freedom Protect Violent Extremism?
Defend religious freedom in the public square these days and odds are you will, sooner than later, be told that protecting religious freedom and freedom of speech under the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution is just a mask for encouraging political violence and extremism.
Does religious freedom lead to political violence? (Screenshot from YouTube).
A familiar illustration of this fallacy is being told that tolerating religious conscientious objectors leads America’s enemies to think our military has gone soft and thus encourages aggression.
Another is that peaceful pro-life demonstrators at a Planned Parenthood clinic have led a handful of anti-abortion activists over the years to stoop to violent protests.
The Colson Center’s Brook McIntire offers in the latest installment of the superb “What Would You Say” video series three solid reasons why equating religious freedom as an enabler of political violence and extremism makes no sense whatever: