In a recent piece for The Catholic Thing, Prof. Hadley Arkes criticizes the brand of religious freedom that requires the suspension of reason in the name of tolerance. He points to the late Harry Jaffa's jesting commentary on Moses's descent from Mt. Sinai as a good example of this modern mindset. Rather than equivocating between legitimate and illegitimate practices of religion -- in Christianity and Satanism, for example -- we should recognize that we are capable of respecting the dignity of every human person without being obliged to credit what they believe as good or true.

"The redoubtable, late Harry Jaffa, in an essay of many years ago, offered a commentary on this scene, pointed and in jest, but it suddenly springs out with an unsettling relevance to our own age.  'Imagine Moses,' he wrote, 'descending Sinai and finding the cult of the golden calf, and being told by Aaron that the people had just discovered their natural right to religious freedom.'"

"In the willingness to protect a large sphere of freedom for the religious, some of my friends have been willing to accept a dramatic receding from any willingness to make judgments on the teachings that define the character of religious sects."

"As Harry Jaffa put it, “the dictates of right reason [were thought to be] the voice of God no less than sacred scripture.” It was because, as he said, “religion in America acknowledged the authority of reason – of the laws of nature – no less than of revelation, that religion became the first of our political institutions.”

You can read the full article here.