Freedom of Religion is Freedom to Offend

People who support using the government to prevent the building of the Cordoba House, also known as the Ground Zero Mosque, speak as if all of Islam now is some special category where the freedom to peacefully gather and worship on one's own property is now qualified by sensitivity to mainstream America. As if freedom of religion is merely the freedom to choose between the little white church on the green grassy hill and the megachurch in the suburbs. Freedom of religion is not just for the wholesome, the familiar, and the unoffensive. Freedom of religion is for the ones who feel called to be different. It's for the peculiar people. It's for the ones who think everyone else is going to hell. It's for the ones who go door to door asking people how they know they're not going to hell. It's for the ones who won't entrust broader society with the education of their children, and who teach their kids at home or in private schools where they assign them weird science books with unorthodox slants on natural history. It's for the girls who insist on wearing long skirts and maybe even bonnets in public. And it's for the girls who want to wear veils too. It's not just for people who want to burn candles or refrain from burning candles; it's also for the ones who want to grow long black beards and bow down and touch their faces to the ground. Freedom of religion is not for the followers of familiar and unoffensive paths. Those people have social nostalgia on their side. Freedom of religion is for the weird, the awkward, and the offensive. If the freedom of religion you believe in is to make any sense, then you have to be willing to be offended. And if you're unwilling to be offended by a religious practice that violates no one's rights, then you don't deserve to be called a patriot, or even an American.