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being allowed to freely practice your religion and the right to use the police power of the govt., social intimidation, economic pressure, etc to force everyone to follow your sect's rules. The US was formally founded on the legal principle of freedom of religion, freedom of speech, everyone endowed with inalienable human rights, but when, after 200 years, steps were taken to create a society where these ideas had a practical applilcation and were not just an abstract and unpractced principle, by, among other things, outlawiwng the enforcement of a racial caste system, by allowing adults to talk, read, write about and practice sex without govt. approval, by allowing women to make medical decisons about their own bodies, etc. the right got up in arms and has stayed that way. Anyone who is not a commited religious zealot should understand and act politically on the knowledge that the right will never consider itself free from persecution until it can dictate how everyone will live; they will never be satisfied with less and compromise will acomplish nothing to solve the problem. Hopefully the Terry Schiavo fiasco has demonstrated this to people. If it didn't I don't know what it will take.
