Freedom of Religion

I believe in the 11th Article of Faith of our church:

We claim the privilege of worshiping Almighty God according to the dictates of our own conscience, and allow all men the same privilege, let them worship how, where, or what they may.

This seems like a pretty basic concept, one that even witches understand. However, this understanding has been curiously absent from a lot of churches, to the point where “Christian” bookstores offer books about why one or another church is wrong (this, next to the section on how to ordain yourself and start your own church), or offering seminars on how to “save” people who are members of other denominations. Now here’s a radical thought– maybe the idea that freedom of religion includes tolerance is catching on:

Freedom of religion is not just to practice the religion of your own, but the freedom and decency to respect someone else’s desire.

This from William B. Helmreich,  a professor of the sociology of religion, in an NYT story on “Christmas Jews”, or Jews who volunteer to work on Christmas so that their Christian counterparts can take the day off. The article highlights reciprocity and tolerance of other faiths as necessary attributes of society. If only that would catch on more widely! Sadly, my experience has been that some of the people who claim most loudly to be Christian are the same people who are rigorously intolerant of other people’s faith. Jesus had somewhat to say about that.