Tolerance in the Age of Ann Coulter

As we face more such battles in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere, we ought to bear our legacy of religious freedom in mind. In many parts of the Islamic world, of course, there is little distinction between secular and religious authority. Theocracy and tyranny have a tragic tendency to go hand in hand, and it is difficult to imagine that many mullahs will be moved by American homilies on the virtues of religious liberty.

But we should still try. As we know from our own past, history is full of surprising turns. What seemed unthinkable in one generation can become commonplace in the next. While it is naive to think that simply talking about freedom of conscience will change the world, it can do no harm, and may just do some good, for us to tell our own story -- how we, too, once lived in a world in which our civil rights were dictated by religious affiliation, and how we came to see that the causes of God and of country would be best served if they were connected but not chained to one another.

Benjamin Rush was not the only one to rejoice at the sight of the ecumenical parade in 1788. "Scarcely any who composed a part of the procession made more conspicuous figure than the clergy, who displayed a complete triumph over religious prejudices," another observer wrote of the day. "The Jew joined the Christian; the Episcopalian the Presbyterian . . . all walked arm in arm, exhibiting a proof of worldly affection, and testifying to their approbation of the new constitution."

As they bore witness to transcending the theocratic, so should we, in the hope that we might move just a bit closer to a world marked more by affection than by division.

jon.meacham@newsweek.com

Jon Meacham, the managing editor of Newsweek, is author of "American Gospel: God, the Founding Fathers, and the Making of a Nation" (Random House).