○  truth and tolerance in america  ○

fourth, and finally, we must respect the motives of those who exercise their right to disagree.

we sorely test our ability to live together if we readily question each other’s integrity. it may be harder to restrain our feelings when moral principles are at stake, for they go to the deepest wellsprings of our being. but the more our feelings diverge, the more deeply felt they are, the greater is our obligation to grant the sincerity and essential decency of our fellow citizens on the other side.

those who favor e.r.a [equal rights amendment] are not “antifamily” or “blasphemers.” and their purpose is not “an attack on the bible.” rather, we believe this is the best way to fix in our national firmament the ideal that not only all men, but all people are created equal. indeed, my mother, who strongly favors e.r.a., would be surprised to hear that she is anti-family. for my part, i think of the amendment’s opponents as wrong on the issue, but not as lacking in moral character

i could multiply the instances of name-calling, sometimes on both sides. dr. falwell is not a “warmonger.” and “liberal clergymen” are not, as the moral majority suggested in a recent letter, equivalent to “soviet sympathizers.” the critics of official prayer in public schools are not “pharisees”; many of them are both civil libertarians and believers, who think that families should pray more at home with their children, and attend church and synagogue more faithfully. and people are not sexist because they stand against abortion, and they are not murderers because they believe in free choice. nor does it help anyone’s cause to shout such epithets, or to try and shout a speaker down -- which is what happened last april when dr. falwell was hissed and heckled at harvard. so i am doubly grateful for your courtesy here this evening. that was not harvard’s finest hour, but i am happy to say that the loudest applause from the harvard audience came in defe

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