Religious Tolerance......

Being from a land that supposedly embraces freedom, embraces many cultures, customs and religions, one would assume that tolerance would be a critical vein that threads through our every day lives; but unfortunately that is not always the case. Many forget that this country was sought, conquered and established based on the desire for religious freedom and the tolerance of other's to practice as they see fit. Christians have staked their flag on the mountain, claiming this a Christian nation and the atheists have taken that flag, stomped on it, and declared it's their religious right to do so. Who is right? Aren't we all? Shouldn't we welcome new culture, religion, and beliefs into this great nation? Doing so would just broaden our offerings, enhance our freedoms and teach us all a new view, a new understanding, and a new way to bring those freedoms to the forefront.

I believe that we all need to learn to be tolerant of one another's religious beliefs along with the lack their of. Children need to be taught to be tolerant of many religious creeds, sects, beliefs, customs and practices. Rather than pushing the banning of teaching of religions of school, I believe that there should be a mandatory teaching about the world's religions beliefs and customs within a regular curriculum. An academic understanding of the world's largest religions would not only give the children of this nation a wealth of knowledge and history, it will more importantly teach children to understand their neighbor and tolerate their choices due to actually having knowledge in what the religion is and about rather than speculation and fearing the unknown.

Once we learn to practice our given freedoms, which wold be to practice tolerance, only then will be truly able to practice our religious choices in spiritual peace.

This is my original article created for Helium.com