When Freedom Isn't Free...

In Britain, Compulsory Virtue Stifles Individual Liberty

Theodore Dalrymple [click to read] in City Journal gives us a look into what might be America's future. Acting on your own conscience might put you on the wrong side of the law.

Consider the story of the Wilkinsons, an Evangelical couple who operate a bed and breakfast. They refused to accomodate a homosexual couple because of their religious beliefs. In this case religious liberty was surpressed in the name of political virtue.

"Liberal reformers, who might once have wished to extend the realm of liberty, now wish to restrict it in the name of compulsory political virtue."

"The depressing, and perhaps sinister, aspect of the public commentary on the case is how largely it has ignored the question of freedom. For liberals, it seems, any trampling on freedom or individual conscience is now justified if it conduces to an end of which they approve. Thus liberalism turns into its opposite, illiberalism." -- Theodore Dalrymple