Gotta Be Right

It goes way back, this need to have things our way. As infants, we are self-centered as much from survival instincts as from our narcissistic tendencies. One of the first steps in child development is our ability to distinguish ourselves from the rest of the world, to deal with the others around us as separate from us.
But there are grown-ups today (see, I'm giving them the benefit of the doubt) who still act as though the world revolved around them. Charming people, some of 'em, with a self-assurance and confidence that is quite alluring. They can be found in the arts, running businesses and especially in politics. (In fact I suspect that's part of the job description for politicians.)
These are the people (you know who you are!) who are never wrong. And when they are, it is someone else's fault. If fact, they react to being found wrong by doubling down and becoming wrong at the top of their lungs! The trouble is not with these charming people, but the collateral damage they leave in their wake: the abused, confused, misused folk who feel vaguely guilty and ashamed just for being in the path of such forces of nature! And that doesn't even take into consideration those who respond by taking on the mistaken doctrines of their abusers: the woman who defends her alcoholic abusive husband, the young person molested by an adult they still idolize, the soldier who, even after several tours of duty and traumatic experiences, tries to justify the mistaken military policy that put so many in harm's way.
The important step is to embrace our own errors, to admit that I might be wrong, you might be right. Sure, there are certain beliefs in everyone's life which end up as non-negotiable. But even there, can we accept that someone else can see things differently without being personally threatened by it, by needing to either convert them or eradicate them just so such a difference is no longer a dissonance in our world?
Of course, that's just my view. I could be wrong.

The Proper Beliefs

There has been a lot of ink spilt over Freedom of Religion, especially in the wake of the recent decision on contraception. What, you don't know it? Well, see the White House decided that contraception (that's birth-control  medication to you) would be made available under health insurance policies to all women, even those who worked at Roman Catholic organizations. But after the cardinals frowned upon this, the White House revised this, and said that the health insurance policies for the employees at such places would simply offer this as an option. This way, it would be up to each individual female employee to take advantage of this part of the health insurance policy. Most Roman Catholic officials were willing to accept the compromise, although bishops still frowned.
Then some politicians, especially those for whom President Obama could do nothing good, grabbed hold of this and lo and behold! the whole thing was really about Freedom of Religion. Not about an individual's right to get the medical help necessary, y'see, but a nefarious plot against all Christianity in general and the Roman Catholic church in particular. The United States Circus, uh, Congress even held a side show with clowns and such; a hearing on women's issues where only men spoke and one woman who tried to testify was not only refused but later publicly maligned and pilloried by still another clown.
The thing that has been missing in all this is that there are already laws on the books regarding certain limits: the banning of polygamy for Mormons, the required use of transfusions for Jehovah's Witnesses, the restriction of faith healing with many conservative groups. Or say some person believes all illness is caused by demonic possession, and denies someone the medical care they need, well that can be charged as murder, not Freedom of Religion.
When Thomas Jefferson wrote about the separation of church and state to those Baptists over in Danbury, he wasn't trying to abrogate the role of ethics in civil discourse, nor  to excuse people of faith from being accountable to the society around them. We also draw consciously or otherwise on our beliefs in whatever we do as individuals. But let us not claim discrimination because others will not accept our particular perspective on our particular beliefs. To paraphrase somebody or other, I may not agree with your views, but I will defend to the death your right to be a heretic!