Working to promote freedom of conscience for every person, no matter who they are or where they live.

How Can We Forget the Past?

Seven Christians killed in Pakistan. For what? I would like to understand why these people were killed? Were they very courageous for the country? Were they threatening the one billion Muslim believers? Were they plotting to steal a nuclear bomb? Were they spying for the enemies of the country? No! They were Christians.

It is to the shame of the human race that we are so quick to forget the lessons of history. How can we forget. How can we forget the untold heartache and destruction wrought by religious intolerance in the past? How can we forget the number of casualties from religious wars and religious persecution? How could we ever return to such primitive, counterproductive means of suppression? Yet even now, the world is digesting another act on insane brutality, terror attacks in Washington and New York, perpetrated by those who have adopted a politico-religious viewpoint that refuses to recognize the right of those of other faiths to live in accordance with the dictates of their conscience. As we appear poised on the precipice of history, it is time for the world to count the cost of turning its back on the fundamental principles of religious freedom, tolerance and equality. It is not too late for men and women around the world to say “no” to intolerance and discrimination.

John Graz