Atheist Lib calls out his own on "Moral Cowardice"

[Murf76]

Wow. He's got next to nothing nice to say about Mitt Romney or Mormonism, but as he notes himself, that's Free Speech and he doesn't have to go into hiding for speaking his opinion.

The point, however, is that I can say all these things about Mormonism, and disparage Joseph Smith to my heart’s content, without fearing that I will be murdered for it. Secular liberals ignore this distinction at every opportunity and to everyone’s peril. Take a moment to reflect upon the existence of the musical The Book of Mormon. Now imagine the security precautions that would be required to stage a similar production about Islam. The project is unimaginable—not only in Beirut, Baghdad, or Jerusalem, but in New York City.

The freedom to think out loud on certain topics, without fear of being hounded into hiding or killed, has already been lost. And the only forces on earth that can recover it are strong, secular governments that will face down charges of blasphemy with scorn. No apologies necessary. Muslims must learn that if they make belligerent and fanatical claims upon the tolerance of free societies, they will meet the limits of that tolerance. And Governor Romney, though he is wrong about almost everything under the sun (including, very likely, the sun), is surely right to believe that it is time our government delivered this message without blinking.

cont...Sam Harris On the Freedom to Offend an Imaginary God - The Daily Beast

Read the whole thing. He runs down a partial list of this administration's failure to show any backbone on Free Speech regarding the current embassy crisis, and makes a fairly good distinction between various religious philosophies in terms of the threat they pose to civil liberties.

I'd be willing to bet that I agree with this guy on next to nothing on most days. But if ONE liberal can wrap his mind around the fact that we DON'T apologize for freedom because to do so actually threatens it, that's a hopeful sign.