Third, liberals say that if political equals join together to produce the social contract,
then everyone's perspective will be represented - including the perspective of the
weakest, most unfortunate or least popular. Such a contract would govern a diverse
nation on principles that transcend differences; it would focus instead on shared
interests and common ideals. In that sense, liberals do assume that people feel a
very strong bond of community, and that this bond transcends race, family or
ethnicity. This is a political community, a group of people who are trying to live
together while recognizing and preserving their diversity.

Fourth, liberals simply disagree with their communitarian critics that circumstances
of birth determine who we are and what we can become.

Locke wrote a famous n Letter Concerning Toleration" - which was read by many of
the framers of the United States Constitution - and in it he argues that no
government should forcibly promote or prohibit religious beliefs and practices. "No
man can so far abandon the care of his own salvation as blindly to leave to the

choice of any other, whether did not establish an official church.       »^   ,,»   , J

>^ / ( ,1 '