Last week, after being offered a Bible several times in McCullough Plaza, discussing burning Qurans in my Religion in American Culture class and following the media coverage about the debated Islamic Center two blocks from Ground Zero in New York City, I was reminded that freedom of religion carries a hefty price. Nine years ago, our country was violently reminded that national security can be compromised and our long-standing comfortable status quo can be subjected to radical attacks. Many are curious if America has recovered from the falling of The World Trade Centers and the thousands of lives lost that day.

There is no stronger and destructive emotion than fear. The recent outpour of fear about religious intentions is not the result of bigots but, rather, well-meaning worriers. History proves it so. Even so, I have a feeling that when the Founding Fathers wrote about freedom of religion they weren’t messing with us. Considering the fact that America was created due, in part, to the idea of religious freedom, it’s dumb-founding to think that we are still conversing in terms of religious freedom and discrimination against minority religions.