美国经典英文演讲100篇:Truth and Tolerance in America(4)
The danger is as great now as when the founders of the nation first saw it. In 1789, their fear was of factional strife among dozens of denominations. Today there are hundreds — and perhaps even thousands of faiths — and millions of Americans who are outside any fold. Pluralism obviously does not and cannot mean that all of them are right; but it does mean that there are areas where government cannot and should not decide what it is wrong to believe, to think, to read, and to do. As Professor Larry Tribe, one of the nation's leading constitutional scholars has written, “Law in a non-theocratic state cannot measure religious truth, nor can the state impose it."
The real transgression occurs when religion wants government to tell citizens how to live uniquely personal parts of their lives. The failure of Prohibition proves the futility of such an attempt when a majority or even a substantial minority happens to disagree. Some questions may be inherently individual ones, or people may be sharply divided about whether they are. In such cases, like Prohibition and abortion, the proper role of religion is to appeal to the conscience of the individual, not the coercive power of the state.
开国元勋们在1789年担心多个教派之间的派系冲突，现在仍然有这种危险。今天，美国有几百个也许是几千个宗教派别，还有几百万人不属于任何教派。多元论显然不能也不可能意味着他们都是正确的，但它确实意味着在某些领域政府不能也不应该决定人们该信仰什么，思考什么，阅读什么及做什么。正如美国杰出的宪法学家拉里•特赖布教授所写的那样：“在非神权政治国家，法律不能度量宗教信仰，国家也不能把宗教强加于公民身上。”
当宗教想让政府告诉公民如何过不受外界干扰的生活时，就会违反这种思想。但多数人甚至是少数人不同意国家的干涉时，该禁令就无法实施。这就证明了这种企图是毫无意义的。俗话讲，物以类聚，人以群分。公民个体有与生俱来的品性，在这种情况下，如禁止堕胎，宗教的恰当角色是唤醒人们的良心，而不是让政府行使强制力量。
1. strife n. 冲突,争斗
She was faint with strife and dejected.
她被争吵弄得精疲力竭，情绪低落。
2. scholar n. 学者
A genuine scholar does not make a parade of his knowledge.
真正的学者不会夸示他的知识。
3. occur v. 发生
Oxidation cannot occur without reduction.
没有还原反应就没有氧化反应。
5. citizen n. 市民
Every citizen should be obedient to the law.
每个公民都应当是遵守法律的。
6. abortion n. 堕胎
He took a lot of flak for his stand against abortion.
他因坚持反对堕胎而饱受责难。
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