Last week the Obama administration refused to cave in to public pressure to label Westboro Baptist Church a hate group.  More than 367-thousand petitions had asked the White House to make such a designation against the group that has gained notoriety by picketing military funerals.

As you might expect, reaction was swift, and in many cases negative, as people accused the White House of cowardice and of supporting hate speech.  Well, the White House was right on this one.

I remember not so many years ago I had to fill out some government paperwork, and it asked me if I was affiliated with any of a whole list of groups that were on the attorney general’s list of subservice organizations.  And a few years before that, many Americans were snared by the House Un-American Activities Committee because of who their friends were.  There was, believe it or not, a government list of groups that were “approved” and those that were not.

Sure, there are groups out there that are intolerant and promote hatred.  But do we want the government to keep an approved list of organizations?  Do we want the government to be telling us which groups are ok to belong to, and which ones aren’t? Do we want the government to decide which ideas are ok and which one’s are questionable?

Look at it this way:  think of all of the religious denominations, political groups and advertising messages in Middle Tennessee.  They can’t all be telling the truth, which means most of them are espousing beliefs and ideas that are wrong, or at least questionable.  So, do we let the government take a stand and tell us which ones meet some arbitrary level of acceptability?  Not a good idea.

So here’s a better way:  following in the footsteps of John Milton and John Stuart Mill, let all ideas circulate, because good ideas will drive out bad ideas, and the truth will prevail.  It’s called the “free and open marketplace of ideas,” and is just one more example of how the government needs to leave us alone and let us make our own decisions.