However, there is a danger (a greater danger? maybe, maybe not) in the attitude that there is only ONE right way to live. I certainly don’t think that you are saying that there is only one right way to live, but this is certainly the attitude of many oppressive governments (like China’s … though they may be changing somewhat). Stopping bad things is one thing, stopping NEW things is something else altogether. Stopping bad things is one thing, stopping “negative” things (like criticism of governmental policies) is something else altogether. Now … who gets to define “bad”? Again, I agree with you that there are some things that are simply “bad” and that I would hope would be universally agreed upon as “bad.” I would include such things as racism, sexism, etc. But there are parts of the world that don’t view these as bad (racism seems to be less overt at the governmental level, but not so with sexism in some parts of the world). I would hope that religion is not where we seek the answers to what is right and what is wrong, but there are MANY (even here in the US) who believe that this is the ONLY POSSIBLE source for such answers. So, how do we proceed? I would argue that there are no easy answers.

However, there is a danger (a greater danger? maybe, maybe not) in the attitude that there is only ONE right way to live. I certainly don’t think that you are saying that there is only one right way to live, but this is certainly the attitude of many oppressive governments (like China’s … though they may be changing somewhat). Stopping bad things is one thing, stopping NEW things is something else altogether. Stopping bad things is one thing, stopping “negative” things (like criticism of governmental policies) is something else altogether. Now … who gets to define “bad”? Again, I agree with you that there are some things that are simply “bad” and that I would hope would be universally agreed upon as “bad.” I would include such things as racism, sexism, etc. But there are parts of the world that don’t view these as bad (racism seems to be less overt at the governmental level, but not so with sexism in some parts of the world). I would hope that religion is not where we seek the answers to what is right and what is wrong, but there are MANY (even here in the US) who believe that this is the ONLY POSSIBLE source for such answers. So, how do we proceed? I would argue that there are no easy answers.