Madison's implicit assumption, and that of the entire tradition of religious toleration until the last few decades, however, was that religious diversity and
conflict would involve competing sects that differ on some important questions of doctrine and practice but nonetheless share in common a basic Judeo - Christian orientation that is also, in very
broad terms, our society's implicit
civil religion.
The adoption of mass protest over armed
conflict is to be welcomed after decades of vicious
civil wars, often perpetrated by small groups of armed men with no
broad - based political agenda and little desire to shape one.