“Heresy hunters are intolerant not only of unorthodox ideas; worse than that, they are intolerant of ideas -- of any ideas which are really alive and not empty cocoons.”

wow, that's an accurate depiction of the statist theocracy patrons looking to find any and all things they can call foul on Christians and a constitutionally limiting representative republic. Ahh yes, the empty cocoons of the intolerant progressives and neocons, unwilling to accept the history proven orthodoxy of freedom and liberty.

The closer you get to removing the "entitlements" from the parasites of the nation, the more vile and slanderous they become. Some idiot Congressman named Carson (D) is now saying the Tea Party wants to lynch blacks. These people are clinging to the last of their political careers with anything they can and they've gone beyond the ridiculous.

Anyone can use this quote to back their own challenge to the status quo, whether challenging long held religious beliefs or political campaign promises. What turns a government into a religion is simply when its actions are based upon 'promises' of a better world, rather than the management of the real world. I am convinced that our troubles are completely based in treating promises as the real thing.

This quote is from my grandfather who, I can assure you, was politically and socially progressive and religiously tolerant. In his later years, he adhered to the ecumenism and openness of the Unitarian Universalist church, of which he was a member.