What is the story of religious pluralism in America? Over time, and not without occasionally serious conflict, the wider American society comes to accept minority religious groups it initially finds quite threatening: Quakers, Catholics, Mormons, and others. These groups insist on their legal rights and, eventually, America lives up to its commitments to religious freedom and civic equality. A more tolerant, peaceful society results, a real achievement in a world in which brutal religious persecution still exists.
That is the conventional story, and it is told very well in a new documentary, "Free Exercise: America's Story of Religious Liberty," which I review at the Law & Liberty site. But, to my mind, there is another explanation as well. Religious peace has resulted from moderation on both sides. The wider society becomes more accepting of religious difference, but minority religions themselves often transform in ways that make them more like everybody else.
Take Catholics, for example. Catholics were once deeply threatening to mainstream America, not least because the Catholic Church opposed America's liberal commitments, including religious freedom, as dangerous heresies. But the Church's position on "Americanism" changed over time, and largely as a result of American influence. As I write in my review:
