Tolerance squeezing out conviction

Instead of allowing greater freedom to express religious belief in the public sphere, the impact of a tyranny of tolerance religion is to confine religion to the private, subjective realm of the mind.

But belief and practice are inseparable. Freedom to believe must surely be accompanied by the freedom to speak so long as no threat is posed to social cohesion and the well-being of others.

However, it may often be the case that those whose ways of life are guided by the search for meaning and solemn obligation to live dutifully may clash with the values of the secular state.

For example, if the search for ultimate truth leads to an individual believing that same sex marriage is wrong, she or he may face accusations of hate speech and homophobia.

Yet it is in just such circumstances that the religious believer may demand the freedom to express in public his or her religiously inspired views about human sexuality.

It is not hard to see that if those actions are met with the coercive force of the state, broader rights of freedom of association and freedom of expression are bound to be put at risk.